Sounds like Elko and his agent screwed up, they could've gotten another $500,000 per year if they would've kept saying no, cause A & M just kept upping their offer.
Without a doubt they did. They could have kept telling A&M ND matched up to at least $2.25 I bet before they had to worry about them blinking. In the auto auction biz theats what we refer to as lost money when two guys are on the same care and one jumps off and the other guy gets the car at that price instead of what he was prepared to pay. That's why the classic car auctions have a barker on each buyer trying to find out what the max is and then they convey it to the auctioneer and other barker through speech codes and hand signals. They don't leave money unfound.
I think they should just promote Lea for continuity. Replacing two good coaches on that side of the ball and bringing in another new scheme (3rd in 3 years) is asking for Tillery and Coney to leave for sure, and even Tranquill to change his mind.
I think any outside hire is asking for trouble.
100. Promote Lea and do give Elston the Co- title and a bump to keep him happy. A buddy of mine who's very close to the inner workings at ND told me he expected Elston to take a Cincy/WKU/High paying MAC type job when he got the associate HC job title. Like it was a set up to make that happen. If Elston has a prob with it, bring in Dave Cohen from Wake to replace him on the DL. Adding Wake's LB coach, Brad Sherrod is a no brainer also. Duke grad, very good player, was Sam Houston's DC when they were #1 FCS, the rest of his coaching career was in the ACC footprint - UMass to the Carolinas and he played in NC too. Great demo hire.
Then you can hang on to Elko's 4 - 2.5 - 4.5 Rover scheme.
jimmy lake
don't know if this is accurate but :WASHINGTON HUSKIES
Salary: $375,000
He makes $650k base now. Pete makes $875k base.
Pretty sure Ol' Crus loves that guy, but Lake was most recently seen negging ND to Kyler Gordon. Would he even come?
Love that staff. UDub's my back-up school.
He’s currently a co-DC though. A Lea/Lake combo at DC would likely entail Elston looking for greener pastures. Fair enough. Whose scheme do they run? Does ND have the pieces for a Washington style 3-4?
I actually think ND could switch over with what they have on and incoming but staying with the Rover-D is best because of continuity. You could hire Pete K and Jimmy Lake both and they would have a down year on the re-boot when I don't think it's needed.
NO ONE thinks Lea is incapable. I think his time is now. I love this system because you can target guys for the system that traditional schemes aren't fighting for you as much. JOK and JGH were easy flips at the end of a cycle because they didn't have Top 10 offers... because they didn't fit those program's parameters.
Last thing I'll say about the UDub guys. They have spent their entire careers in the west, They aren't national recruiters typically. I'm not saying they couldn't but Lake is from Spokane and has played/coached college either in FCS NW, Boise or Washington. Pete K is a SoCal guy who went to the NW to play/coach and hasn't left.
I like the Lea and rob Wake again route better.
I would love for Pete K to get an interview or at least the honor of being publicly considered. He grew up an ND fan in Trojan country like a good Catholic should. I'm sure he'd be honored but pretty sure he's happy though as his total package is @ $1M.
