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Given that people were a little up in arms of Buster Faulkner's name being mentioned for multiple jobs this offseason I wanted to point out two things that I know to be true. One is that Brent Key doesn't want to have the Dabo Swinney staff of dudes who stay at the party too long and turn down upward movement. Eventually, if Buster does well he will be a head coach somewhere or running an offense for a top 15 program. That isn't Kentucky by the way, no offense the Wildcats, but this isn't hoops. They are overpaying for Stoops and for Liam Coen to be their OC above the market value for their program.
Buster as I've said has passed on many different opportunities and interests like Notre Dame. I spelled that out clearly, but he wants to be in this area right now while his son is finishing school and he has something cooking that can get him a better job than a mid to lower-tier SEC gig. There were plenty of other programs interested in him as well that were never mentioned and some of those talks were probably more significant than Notre Dame. That is the nature of the business. Key wants guys who other people see as being desirable. That is how you build up your program. He wants his guys to succeed, take other jobs, and move up in the coaching ranks, whether that is becoming a coordinator in the pros or at a factory or a head coaching job, or just assistants moving up to coordinator jobs.
The second thing is Key has seen how that works under GOL and Saban and throughout the industry. If you want to build a winner that is what you have to do, replace talented people with other talented people and your success will attract people driven to be successful. It is that way in a lot of successful business structures. Key isn't looking to have a staff of Alan Arkin and Jack Lemmon's characters from Glengarry Glenn Ross. You want people who are hungry, some who are starving and willing to absolutely grind. Key is extremely demanding because he expects people to work as hard as he did for GOL and Saban. That grind will lead to turnover as well for those unwilling to do the work..
The reality is I am not going to tell you about something unless there is real smoke. Pretty much every assistant coming back off the 2023 staff got offered a job elsewhere this offseason by someone aiming to poach them. When the right opportunity comes along people will leave like Jason Semore did last February to go to Marshall as the DC. Guys could still leave over the next month theoretically because jobs are going to open as people move around, especially after the second signing period and as the NFL jobs fill up.
Most coaches I know are not planning to have a fully set staff including off-the-field hires until pretty close to spring ball.
Key has a list of guys at every position ready to roll. He has analysts coming in who can step in and coach if necessary and he plans to build this thing out and so far his methodical plan is working. His track record with hires is pretty solid other than some guys he retained from the previous guy and he is keenly aware of the needs of his program and hellbent on winning in a way that even people like Paul Johnson didn't get. Like PJ liked to win, but at the end of the day, he wasn't firing his mom or Mike Sewak to win a game. Key won't fire his mom, but he will do just about anything short of that to figure this out and turn it around to be a consistent winner. He let go of people who were/are personal friends of his because it wasn't working. That is something a lot of us don't have the stomach or stones to do.
I think folks need to change their mindsets about how they view all of this and understand Key is indeed hunting big game and he still is hunting smaller game at the same time. He has a plan A, B, C, D, E and F. He didn't quite land all the big fish/fowl he wanted but he landed some quality fish/fowl.
This isn't a poverty program, but it isn't a destination job yet either. It was at one point one of the better places to coach 25 years ago and Key's goal is to get back there only to top that plateau his mentor reached on the Flats.
Change is the greatest constant in this business. Errin Joe had three jobs and three apartments in three different states the span of like nine months with the poor guy paying for all of them. That is my favorite illustration of being in that world. He was far from the only football staffer in that situation across the country.
The bottom line is the program is Key's vision and you have to let him execute that vision and expect he won't be flatfooted hiring stiffs if someone leaves.
Given that people were a little up in arms of Buster Faulkner's name being mentioned for multiple jobs this offseason I wanted to point out two things that I know to be true. One is that Brent Key doesn't want to have the Dabo Swinney staff of dudes who stay at the party too long and turn down upward movement. Eventually, if Buster does well he will be a head coach somewhere or running an offense for a top 15 program. That isn't Kentucky by the way, no offense the Wildcats, but this isn't hoops. They are overpaying for Stoops and for Liam Coen to be their OC above the market value for their program.
Buster as I've said has passed on many different opportunities and interests like Notre Dame. I spelled that out clearly, but he wants to be in this area right now while his son is finishing school and he has something cooking that can get him a better job than a mid to lower-tier SEC gig. There were plenty of other programs interested in him as well that were never mentioned and some of those talks were probably more significant than Notre Dame. That is the nature of the business. Key wants guys who other people see as being desirable. That is how you build up your program. He wants his guys to succeed, take other jobs, and move up in the coaching ranks, whether that is becoming a coordinator in the pros or at a factory or a head coaching job, or just assistants moving up to coordinator jobs.
The second thing is Key has seen how that works under GOL and Saban and throughout the industry. If you want to build a winner that is what you have to do, replace talented people with other talented people and your success will attract people driven to be successful. It is that way in a lot of successful business structures. Key isn't looking to have a staff of Alan Arkin and Jack Lemmon's characters from Glengarry Glenn Ross. You want people who are hungry, some who are starving and willing to absolutely grind. Key is extremely demanding because he expects people to work as hard as he did for GOL and Saban. That grind will lead to turnover as well for those unwilling to do the work..
The reality is I am not going to tell you about something unless there is real smoke. Pretty much every assistant coming back off the 2023 staff got offered a job elsewhere this offseason by someone aiming to poach them. When the right opportunity comes along people will leave like Jason Semore did last February to go to Marshall as the DC. Guys could still leave over the next month theoretically because jobs are going to open as people move around, especially after the second signing period and as the NFL jobs fill up.
Most coaches I know are not planning to have a fully set staff including off-the-field hires until pretty close to spring ball.
Key has a list of guys at every position ready to roll. He has analysts coming in who can step in and coach if necessary and he plans to build this thing out and so far his methodical plan is working. His track record with hires is pretty solid other than some guys he retained from the previous guy and he is keenly aware of the needs of his program and hellbent on winning in a way that even people like Paul Johnson didn't get. Like PJ liked to win, but at the end of the day, he wasn't firing his mom or Mike Sewak to win a game. Key won't fire his mom, but he will do just about anything short of that to figure this out and turn it around to be a consistent winner. He let go of people who were/are personal friends of his because it wasn't working. That is something a lot of us don't have the stomach or stones to do.
I think folks need to change their mindsets about how they view all of this and understand Key is indeed hunting big game and he still is hunting smaller game at the same time. He has a plan A, B, C, D, E and F. He didn't quite land all the big fish/fowl he wanted but he landed some quality fish/fowl.
This isn't a poverty program, but it isn't a destination job yet either. It was at one point one of the better places to coach 25 years ago and Key's goal is to get back there only to top that plateau his mentor reached on the Flats.
Change is the greatest constant in this business. Errin Joe had three jobs and three apartments in three different states the span of like nine months with the poor guy paying for all of them. That is my favorite illustration of being in that world. He was far from the only football staffer in that situation across the country.
The bottom line is the program is Key's vision and you have to let him execute that vision and expect he won't be flatfooted hiring stiffs if someone leaves.
