[NU Sports] Tiller on the way out at Purdue?

[Mike Nolan]

> The issue of pay affect RETENTION of assistant coaches, not recruitment.  The
> facts are that RW had the same problem.  He was able to recruit talented
> assistants because they had the opportunity to use this job to display their
> talents on the BT stage and if successful, move on to better paying jobs.  PF
> will be able to do the same thing.  RW wanted to change assistant pay so that
> he could keep the good people he was able to attract.  Once the new AD is in
> place, I'm sure PF will resume that work.

Let's face it, Northwestern is not a 'destination' job for ambitious 
and talented assistant coaches.  It wasn't under Barnett or Walker, and 
isn't likely to become one under Fitz.  (Neither are our academic 'peers' 
in Division 1, like Stanford or Duke.)  

Having a new AD isn't going to change that, and I really doubt that's 
affecting Fitz's search for replacement assistants much, unless that's 
a directive from NU administration (which would be short-sighted but what 
else is new?)

I'm not really sure there even is such a thing as a destination job
any more.  Notre Dame has had several complete staff revisions due to
firing of the head coach, as has Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, etc.  Stay
tuned for what will happen in the next few years at Penn State and FSU
(or at USC if Carroll ever gets lured back to the NFL.)

Going a bit further back there were multiple complete staff turnovers at 
Texas, Oklahoma and USC before things settled down a bit with their current 
head coaches, and all of those schools have had some turnover among assistant
coaches in the past few years, despite their success.

How many Michigan assistants will be back in 2008?  1 or 2 at most, and 2-3
years ago I think most people would have called it a 'destination' job
for those coaches who don't aspire to be a head coach.  And for coaches
who aspire to be a head coach, there's very little that will keep them
around once the right school comes calling.

Yes, the pay is a bit better at the 'name' schools, largely because of 
ancillary income sources such as summer coaching clinics.  Of course it
helps that they've got more money in general to work with.  (100K+ times 
the cost of a season ticket at Michigan generates a lot of cash.)
--
Mike Nolan