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We soon could be seeing more visors, headsets, whistles and clipboards.
There is a push underway to see college football staffs move from 10 full-time assistants to … however many a school wants.
More is better, right?
The move to busting staffs would cause big-name schools with superior budgets to bring in more talented coaches to enhance their already more talented players. In sum: The rich get richer in a sport whose competitive imbalance already is more out of whack than any team sport in America.
Schools already have been finding ways to augment staffs within the current constructs. Alabama's Nick Saban has famously hired myriad analysts to bolster his staff over the years, often bringing in high-profile "analysts" like Mike Locksley, Butch Jones, Todd Grantham and Derek Dooley, among others.
“Now, there's part-time coaches everywhere,” said a Big Ten offensive coordinator. “And there's no limit on how many you can add. There's no limit on what you can pay. You're supposed to limit how much they coach, although nobody does that. They still coach.”
Soon, skirting the rules will no longer be needed.
“Just from my experience at Alabama, I will tell you Coach Saban is gonna be like a kid in a candy store,” said a Power Five assistant. “I don't know what they're thinking with this move, to be very honest. If you think there's a separation between the haves and have-nots now, just watch.”
That’s why there is some opposition to expanded staffs.
“Well, I disagree just because it benefits the elite,” said a Big Ten head coach. “Teams that can pay for it have five billion coaches. To me, I'm actually for more rules. I'm for more rules overall. … Even with this portal, it's opened up a can of worms. You're able to tamper. There are no rules. There needs to be rules on what you can do. But I don't know how or when that's gonna happen.”
And bigger isn’t necessarily better.
“I am and always will be a less is more guy,” said a SEC head coach. “I don't want a staff that has tons of people and whatnot. I think you get too many messages going. I think if you look at the best NFL teams, two of the best programs are the Patriots and the Steelers. If you look at their coaching staffs, they probably have the smallest coaching staffs in the NFL.”
The move to unlimited staffs could happen soon. And, when it occurs—which seems to be a given—expect college staffs to look similar to NFL staffs.
“There are different ways to set it up,” said the SEC head coach. “You hire guys who do nothing but recruit, you hire guys where every position has a couple coaches, I don't know. It's something that we will continue to look at and see what's best for us. But I'm not gonna have some giant staff. I don't want too many cooks in the kitchen.”
Expanded staffs could feature coordinators who just coordinate and don’t coach a position. Also: Two assistants per position.
“I think that's probably going to be the model people are gonna go to,” said the Power Five assistant. “And the reality now is, if you can pay a guy to coach and that guy does not have to go on the road recruiting. I think some of the more experienced coaches who have been trying to jump to the NFL to get away from that part of it are going to be able to stay in college coaching.”
Added a FCS head coach: “I think it's all going toward a pro model. If you have a full scouting department that goes on the road and schools can afford it, that's what they're gonna do. If they don't have a limit, they'll have a scouting/recruiting coach for every position. The haves will keep getting it and the have-nots won't. There'll be a bigger separation than there is right now. I think that's where it's headed.”
It’s all another move toward what appears to be an eventual divorce between Power Five and Group of Five schools … and probably even a fissure among like-minded and liked-budgeted Power Five schools that results in a spun-off self-governing collection of perhaps 40 or so schools.
“You got the top 25 programs in the country that have got more money than they know what to do with,” said a C-USA assistant. “They already have an advantage, and now you're going to give them even a greater advantage because they're going to be able to hire X number of coaches.”
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