Job Jumpers

By: Eli Kaberon

December 8, 2006:
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez turned down Alabama on Friday, telling his players that he’ll be back for his sixth season with the Mountaineers. Rodriguez will receive a two-year contract extension through the 2014 season from West Virginia… While other details of the deal were not immediately released, a source with knowledge of the negotiation said that Rodriguez took approximately $1.75 million per year to remain in Morgantown.
- ESPN.COM

November 19, 2007:
Lloyd Carr retired Monday after 13 years as Michigan’s coach, following a season defined by a startling loss to Appalachian State and yet another defeat by Ohio State… The departure by the 62-year-old Carr opens a job at the nation’s winningest football program.
- Associated Press

December 16, 2007:
Michigan has hired West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez as its next football coach following a search that featured two other top prospects deciding to stay put… Rodriguez’s West Virginia contract, which ran through the 2013 season, had a $4 million buyout clause if he left before next September.
- Associated Press

In most of the world, a contract between a worker and their employer has some meaning. If a legal clerk has a one-year contract with a law firm, it is expected that the clerk will stay at that company for the full year before moving on to their next stop or extending their contract. The firm will pay the employee a full salary for the 365 days, and the worker will go to the office every day and perform the duties laid out in the agreement.

Unfortunately for fans of college football and basketball, the coaching profession does not operate like most. For college coaches, a contract is just a regular sheet of paper, and loyalty is just a word; neither have much meaning. Coaches switch jobs all the time, because they are always thinking about their personal bank accounts, and it is unfair to players and fans of schools all over the country.

Rodriguez’s jump from being the head Mountaineer to the Wolverines - just a year after he signed an extension at WVU - is just the latest in a long line of coaches changing schools despite being inked to long-term deals at their original locale. Some of these are understandable, with coaches either moving up from a mid-major school to a top-of-the-line program, or going back to a school that they played at or coached at previously. But many are motivated by nothing more than green bills and making themselves look better, which really shouldn’t matter in the world of coaching.

It’s something I call job-jumping. Coaches go from job to job, not really caring about the players, the recruits, the fans or the school in general. All that matters to them is them. Once they have some success at one school, they go looking for a job at a different school that will pay a higher salary. It happens every April in basketball, and every December for football, and it seems that the same coaches are always rumored to be moving. Why? Because they have no sense of loyalty.

Some may say that Rodriguez going from Morgantown to Ann Arbor is a step up, so it doesn’t really count as job-jumping. But is that really the case? Michigan went 8-4 this season under Lloyd Carr, including the embarrassing opening day loss to Appalachian State and another end-of-the-year defeat at the hands of rival Ohio State. Their three top players - quarterback Chad Henne, running back Mike Hart and offensive tackle Jake Long - are all seniors, about to play their last college game. And the school is in the Big Ten, which is annually one of the toughest conferences in America.

West Virginia, on the other hand, went 10-2 in 2007 (though the Mountaineers had an embarrassing defeat of their own, a 13-9 loss to Pitt that would have put them in the national title game). Many of their top players, including quarterback Pat White, running back Steve Slaton and reserve rusher Noel Devine - search for him on YouTube if you want to see how exciting he can be - are expected to be back in 2008. And winning the Big East continues to be the easiest way for a school to get to a BCS bowl, even if it has become more competitive lately.

Add to that the fact that Rodriguez was born and raised in West Virginia, graduated from and played at the university, and had a contract that ran for the next six seasons, and it’s pretty clear to me that he jumped jobs unfairly. How can he go into the living rooms of top recruits all around the country and talk about giving 110% and having accountability when he leaves a job a half-decade before his contract expires, and abandons all the players he recruited to play for the Mountaineers?

The sad thing is, the NCAA doesn’t have any rules to regulate job-jumping. If a player doesn’t like a school or they see a spot on a bigger, more prestigious roster, they have to sit out a one-year transfer period. If a recruit signs a National Letter of Intent, then he/she is stuck at that school, even if the coach that brought them in decides to leave before the athlete even steps foot on campus. But coaches are allowed to come and go at their leisure, with no penalty to them or the school that hires them.

Job jumping isn’t only for football though; basketball coaches do it all the time as well. While working at West Virginia, Rodriguez shared a campus with one of the most famous job-jumpers in college hoops - a man who turned his back on a place that gave him a much-needed second chance.

Bob Huggins gained fame and success at the University of Cincinnati, but after an arrest for Driving Under the Influence in 2004, he was forced to resign. After sitting out the 2005-06 season, Huggins was given another chance on the sidelines by Kansas State University, who gave him a five-year contract. His first season was an average one, with the Wildcats seeing some highs and lows. One of the highs was the future, with two top recruits signing and, more importantly, Coach Huggins. One of those guys - forward Michael Beasley - is currently averaging 25 points and 15 rebounds a game for the ‘Cats, and is an early candidate for National Player of the Year.

Unfortunately, Huggins isn’t around to see it. He took the head-coaching job at West Virginia after just one season at KSU, leaving Beasley and the rest of the team (plus all the Wildcat fans) left to wonder why they even bothered hiring Bob Huggins in the first place. Huggins, a WVU alum, claimed the appeal to go back home was too strong. Sure Bob - that and the hefty pay raise that was waiting for him when he became the head coach of the Mountaineers.

Just as with the basketball coach at the school he left behind, only time will tell if Rich Rodriguez’s move from West Virginia to Michigan is a smart one for him, personally. If he ends up winning countless Big Ten and National Championships, he’ll look great - and most people won’t care how he jilted his former employer in favor of going to Ann Arbor. But if the Wolverines struggle next season, and the squad he abandoned at WVU goes on to win it all (or even just outperform Michigan) Rodriguez will look like a fool who chased money and hurt his career. Job-jumping is a dangerous career move - one that doesn’t always turn out as expected.

Either way, he’s lost the respect and love of the school he left; the fans and players who watched him turn a program around, and took his word for it - or, more accurately, his signature - that he’d be there for years to come. And that’s what’s sad; that, and the fact that it’s a story we’ve seen before and will see again, over and over, until the NCAA does something about it.

Eli Kaberon is a 2005 graduate of Evanston Township High School and currently is attending Columbia College in the loop, majoring in print journalism. A life-long fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, Eli also works as a seat vendor at Wrigley Field and has sold hot dogs to everyone ranging from Bears tight end Greg Olsen to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Eli can be reached at ekaberon@yahoo.com.

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