This is one of the reasons FSU supposedly made such a quick move (relative to when he was hired) on Taggart. It was impacting ticket sales and support so much (the loss of revenue estimates per game were kinda shocking to me) that it was costing so much in loss revenue/support dollars to keep him that it was better to bite the bullet and pay the buyout to can him.
And this, in my mind, is absolutely preposterous and indicative of the arms race we're in. Give me a break - it's better to pay $18 mil to a guy to get rid of him than keep him around?
THIS is what GT has to compete against; do you recall that we were so cash-strapped in 09 that we had to take a bus down to Tally to play FSU?
TStan is (hopefully) doing everything he can to raise money for the AA ... but when the school president goes, "Man ... I sure don't like that Willie guy ... and we're losing fan support ... and the number-crunchers just told me we need to write him a check for 18 mil ... OK, let's do it ..." that's a pretty big statement about how important football is to their university culture and life. Yeah, yeah, I get that boosters probably helped out a lot with that 18 million dollar check. How many boosters do we have who can collectively pool together a buyout package like that, minus Dewberry?
I fear some very dark days are ahead of us, regardless of who the AD is or who the coach is. As I and others have repeated ad nauseum, the biggest culture change we need is in the GT admin. Has anyone got any info on the new pres? Is he more into paella and futbol than football? Has he even been to a game this year?
I'm actually glad I got out of coaching. Full disclosure: I am a national championship winning head coach at the FBS level, but I saw where this was going* and retired in 14. The landscape has changed so much in just five years! It was already a game of the "haves" versus the "have-nots" and it will just get worse, particularly if they don't put some sharp rules down on paying players. You think it costs $200k to get a quality D-lineman now? Watch the arms race take off when recruiting visits turn into this:
Kirby: "Hey, Sackamus Maximus. You're the consensus #1 defensive end in the country. I want you to be a dawg."
Maximus: "Auburn said they'd put my picture on the Auburn school paper, $100,000 an issue. There's 12 issues a year. That's $1 million dollars."
Kirby: "It's actually 1.2 million. But we'll put your picture on every beer mug at The Dawg Stank bar down the road. Each picture is $100, and they have 5 million mugs. That's FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!"
Maximus: "NICE!!! Hey, my phone's blowing up. Collins at GT just texted me. They'll put my face on calculus book covers, total package of $5,000."
Kirby: "Hahahaha! You in?"
Maximus: "Where do I put my paw print?"
* I was forced to retire when EA had to stop making NCAA football due to likeness infringement. I actually won multiple national titles, often with 3* or less type of talent.
