Kind of makes you think this played out like where both dudes were told that both dudes were offered and the first one to say yes is in.
Yeah, I think the problem is that you want to keep Pope (but you don't think Pope is an OC) and you need to keep them both happy. If you replace Halzle with a 900k coordinator and lose Pope and the continuity, are you better off? IDK, but I don't blame Heupel too much for doing it.
Is Pope really so valuable? It seems like we’ve had the drops ever since he took over. I suppose he’s a good recruiter, but there were rumors from some pretty credible people that the WR room despised him last year. And in the era of NIL, are we willing to pay a premium for a recruiter? And Matthews it sounds like is getting top dollar, but doesn’t seem to be a WR1. Staley is probably going to want to be paid at least equal to Matthews, I would think. You would think being this great recruiter would offset the need for the constant negotiating a bit. I don’t know, even if the answer is yes, Pope is so valuable, unless he’s average over one first round pick every class, I don’t see how keeping him is more important than having a competent OC. And why give an OC a raise at the same time you elevate an assistant to a partial coordinator role? Congrats on doing such a great job, we’re giving you more money and taking some of your responsibilities away so a guy that’s never handled them can have a turn. I realize a lot of these titles are symbolic and Heupel is really doing all of these jobs himself, but still.
99% of the time, co-coordinator handles are just resume builders, they don't do much more. It's seen as justifying a raise. The receivers that left hated Pope but what did they do at their new schools? It might have been sour grapes from getting told to leave. Staley's parents have told him NFL money is better than NIL money, so we probably have one more year of him. Matthews is definitely rough as a receiver but he wasn't really one until he got here.
99% of the time, co-coordinator handles are just resume builders, they don't do much more. It's seen as justifying a raise. The receivers that left hated Pope but what did they do at their new schools? It might have been sour grapes from getting told to leave. Staley's parents have told him NFL money is better than NIL money, so we probably have one more year of him. Matthews is definitely rough as a receiver but he wasn't really one until he got here.
