The only person I see in this scenario would be Pat Fitzgerald. Now that his Northwestern case has been finalized, he'll have a few decent offers out there and probably doesn't want to wait another year. I can't think of anyone else that Iowa could be tied too that's big enough of a name that would have mutual interest with. Plus his son plays here too.
Not the worst thought, but I don't see it. Fitz would be a hire that you hope keeps you at 9-4 and 8-5; not someone you push Kirk out for. Plus, more importantly, I don't think Fitz would have anything to do with any conversation that he sensed might result in Kirk getting pushed out before he was ready.
If this ends up being the case, will KF accept a lower buyout? Because otherwise he would be owed in the neighborhood of $25 million. And unlike Penn State, there would not be any offset (they ended up owing Franklin "only" $9 million). Seems like a lot for Iowa to raise.
Chuckling
I'd be fine with that and there is a lot of good things about that hire. He would be a fool not to take it. Cannot imagine Fitz gets a better job opportunity than Iowa. That said, he would not be the ilk of coach that would require me, as the AD, to force KF out the door when he does not want to. With respect, Fitz is a lateral hire, at best. But, if KF is ready to hang them up, Fitz is a very good replacement.
I totally agree that hiring Fitz wouldn't be a hire to get Hawk fans excited. I think Lester has done enough for fans to at least not hate his hiring. DeBoer would be a home run in my mind.
So yeah if this is true why on Gods green earth would Iowa fire him? If Wisky is in no hurry to dump their shit show of a disaster hire then why would we do that? So no KF is gonna retire when he's good and ready. Maybe that's sooner then later but unless the bottom were to fall out for some reason Iowa can't fire him to shell out that kind of $ to replace him. Beth is a proactive AD she's shown us that. But not to this extent.
That's not what happened in my case, I can't speak for anyone else here. For me it was two in-person conversations the weekend of the Oregon game and a text conversation with someone I trust big time, who's also never told me anything that wasn't true. This person is also definitely in a position to know first hand rather than through a rumor mill.
Almost all coaching contracts have a duty-to-mitigate clause which stipulates that the employee has to make a good-faith effort to find a job of a comparable level to receive the buyout, and the biuyout is offset by the salary they receive at the new job. It's why penn State is getting away from Franklin for only $10 million. He couldn't just offer to go coach Iowa City West for $20K. If Kirk got asked to retire would he really go out looking for a job and mess with all that at his age?
Well, you sure got everybody's attention and riled up with your earlier post, Fry. Well done!
