Please explain why PJ would want the SMU job?

[locostang]

Seriously. Who the hell are we all kidding? Please explain why you think he would want this gig. Is NAVY going to be complete crap next year maybe and he sees the writing on the wall? I just don't see why you would leave NAVY with a comparable pay package to come to a currently way weaker program that has low upside from his point of view even if he turns the program around. It would be similar to his situation at NAVY?

We have had 1 winning season in the last 20 years.

[Scoops]

I can think of about 1.5 million rea$on$ off the top of my head.

[Statler]

1.5 is chump change...Follow the money...the GT people say they can't match 2 million. Folks I would think it goest to 2.2 to 2.5 IF Navy is paying 1.8.

[locostang]

He makes currently makes $1.5mil plus free house and other perks at NAVY already. You are back to $0.0 reasons, please try again.

[Statler]

He makes currently makes $1.5mil plus free house and other perks at NAVY already. You are back to $0.0 reasons, please try again.

see above...2 to 2.5 million

[locostang]

He could be lured by the thought of seeing so much hot [deleted] on a daily basis here in Big D. This is the only legitimate reason.

[huskerpony]

1) The ability to recruit.

2) The ability to go to a bowl better than the Poinsetta, and if he ran the table one year, a BCS bowl.

3) Dallas is way better than Maryland. (I just spent last year living in Baltimore and it was absolutely miserable--although Annapolis isn't too bad, if you like the east coast.)

4) $$$$. Even though the base salary we offer will only be slightly higher, the potential for endorsement deals, etc. would be much greater at SMU if he was actually successful here. Remember that when they say Nick Saban gets $4 mil or $8 mil or whatever insane salary he gets, that includes endorsements, TV money, etc. Bill Callahan's 1.75 mil contract included only $800,000 in salary from the university. TV market is huge in Dallas--if we were ever to become a decent team again.

5) The east coast has no interest in college football...(let me clarify that as northeast.) My year in Maryland was the year that the Terps were ranked. Couldn't ever get sound for the Nebraska game at the bar because there would be about 4 people there to watch the Maryland game. The Navy alums are fanatic, but the interest is limited to them. Look at the Boston College coach leaving last year for a worse team in the same conference--said he left because he didn't like coaching in a town where the fan base cared more about the Patriots and the Red Sox than they did about their college team. (I believe he went to NC St? which I think was second to last in the ACC that year, but the fans show up to the games.)

6) He is friends with the athletic director and we have really decent facilities for a terrible program.

7) We are the only school other than Nebraska with enough interest in turning their program around that had fans tracking airplanes!

We are the only school with a purple hippo.


....Not saying he wouldn't have taken an offer if he had been the pick at Nebraska or was an option at Michigan, but between SMU, Duke, and GT, we have a decent chance for him.

[westexSMU]

Besides the money, Coach Johnson is a confident person who knows he can WIN anywhere and enjoys a challenge. Certainly, SMU is a challenge but Johnson is no [deleted]. If he agrees to come here, he will be successful no question. So why not come here and further prove what a great coach he is. If SMU will pay him what he wants, why not ???

[locostang]

Put yourself in his shoes. SMU is too much of a risk for him in my opinion. I would try like hell to get the GTech job if I am so confident in my abilities. If GTech just wasn't going to happen, I would just sit tight at NAVY. Ask Navy for more money, win bowl game , beat Notre Dame again, jump into a legitimate school next year.

[huskerpony]

Put yourself in his shoes. SMU is too much of a risk for him in my opinion. I would try like hell to get the GTech job if I am so confident in my abilities. If GTech just wasn't going to happen, I would just sit tight at NAVY. Ask Navy for more money, win bowl game , beat Notre Dame again, jump into a legitimate school next year.

GT fans were shocked by the $2mil figure. They may not want to pay that much. So, it may be about money. However, they have over-inflated expectations at their school, considering that they haven't ever really done much except be moderately consistant. They just did to Chan Gailey what Nebraska did to Frank Solich, in my opinion. Relatively successful coach got ran out for ridiculous reasons. (Nebraska ended up with their fourth choice after that--and that was the 4th choice of the people who were willing to even talk to us after firing a 9-3 coach. No one wanted it at that point but Pelini, and the AD wanted to abolish anyone associated with the Osborne years.)

So, the next coach at GT could have very unrealistic expectations placed on them, and they supposedly fired CG for not being "flashy enough for Atlanta sports fans." They probably asked him to run something other than the triple option or keep Tenuta or had some other ridiculous stipulation.

......Still wouldn't be shocked if he took it though. Especially if they can match our offer.

[locostang]

Money does talk. I just think that his stock is sky high right now, and SMU would be a plan B or C option for him. There are still other big time schools without head coaches right now, and I think more changes will happen in the near future.

I can be convinced to take the SMU job, but no one has convinced me yet.

[locostang]

We would have to pay him over $2million.

[Pony Soup]

Answer comes from his wife, Susan:

“He was real comfortable at Georgia Southern. He was winning and we were all enjoying life. So why leave? I don’t think it was actually until he heard a few people tell him he couldn’t win at Navy that he changed his mind."

Think anyone has told him SMU is a lost cause?

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

We are the only school with a purple hippo.

We are also the only school with a "death cat" as the unofficial mascot.

[ThadFilms]

Please explain why PJ would want the SMU job?

Because he is a locostang.







... and ...

We are the only school with a purple hippo.

We are also the only school with a "death cat" as the unofficial mascot.

As long as Oscar doesn't turn into the lead singer of some crappy teenage-girl-lovin'-rock band called Death Cat for Cutie then we are all good.