The college football landscape has changed quite drastically over the last five or so years, and there are no signs of stagnation on that front. Things are only going to continue to get wackier, with players entering the transfer portal with a staggering degree of regularity because of their desire for more money and more opportunities both on and off the field, conference affiliations constantly in flux and making absolutely zero geographic sense, and perhaps flying under the radar in comparison to some of the other unforeseen consequences, coaches fleeing the college game because their job description has changed so dramatically, becoming increasingly volatile by the week.
“The most difficult job in all team sports is being head football coach at a major university,” agent Lee Steinberg told Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. “Think about how they have to recruit 17-year-old talent, project where they're going to be. There is NIL to deal with. … You have to deal with administration, alums, the press. There are whole levels of complication a pro coach doesn't have to deal with.”
So what does this mean for the NFL?
“A trend that has emerged this winter: many college coaches are tired of the transfer portal, the NIL money and the new NCAA world – and prefer to work in the NFL,” ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter tweeted on Thursday morning. “Many college coaches already have left; many more want to.”
There is a long and growing list of nearly three dozen coaches who coached at the college level last season who have jumped to the NFL for the 2024 season, Jim Harbaugh brought multiple assistants from Michigan with him to the Los Angeles Chargers organization, serving the same role they did in Ann Arbor. Often though at least during this cycle, college coaches have fled the college game for positions in the NFL that represent downgrades in terms of title. Most notably, Jeff Hafley left a head coaching job at Boston College to become the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers, where he'll be making roughly the same amount of money. In fact, the only coach thus far who has come to the NFL from college who has gotten a “better” job was Kliff Kingsbury, who served as a Senior Analyst at USC last year before being hired by the Washington Commanders as their offensive coordinator.
If you read the article written by Dodd for CBS Sports, you'll see a common sentiment: the job description of a head coach at a college football program is no longer just “coaching football.”
“I think the decision is, ‘Do I want to coach [in the NFL] or do I want to be a CEO in a volatile company?'” UAB head football coach and former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer told Dodd. “These [college jobs] are volatile CEO roles, and you don't get to coach. I love to coach. I love being in the offensive line drill. I love being in the film room. I don't get to do a lot of it. I'm a CEO in a volatile situation.”
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