There are two major factors here that I find disturbing; one on the administration’s side and one on Doeren’s side.
First, on the administration’s side: I was rather surprised to learn while reading one of the articles about Doeren’s flirtations with Tennessee, etc., that his total compensation appears to be below average for the ACC (actually in the bottom quarter of the league.) Trying to be a ‘top half of the league’ football school in a Power 5 conference just can’t be done on the cheap – period! I thought, with the departure of Lee Foulup, State had come to the realization that trying to do such things was just not possible. Frau Yow had struck me as understanding this – now, I’m not so sure. I think we got DD at a reasonable rate (given his very short history as a Head Coach), but I also think that this season gives us some reasonable evidence that he can translate his skills to the ACC level. I’m not saying that we can (or should) compensate him at the top-3-of-the-league-level yet, but I think we should at least bring him above the league average. Anything less, in my opinion, is just sort of a slap in the face. Hey, he may tank in the future, but sometimes you got to “invest” upfront to get the big payoff.
Now, on Doeren’s side: His performance to date ACC-record-wise has not been stellar until this year and we have every reason to think there might be some drop off next year. Indeed, his overall record is just above .500, as I recall BUT we have seen marked improvement considering the hot mess he started with. I guess my issue is that he seems to think he’s proved he’s some sort of miracle worker and I’m not ready to go there yet. A bit of patience on his part might be warranted. Indeed, he might find that the fans at Tennessee (or other “big time” school) might be considerably less patient than we have been.
Finally, I don’t know what’s been offered to this point. Maybe Debbie Y’s offer has been reasonably generous given the big picture and DD is just trying to maximize his compensation by threatening to leave. Or maybe he’s unhappy here and only a ridiculous (and probably unwarranted) offer might buy his loyalty until another SEC team comes calling. I just don’t know. I just HOPE that we don’t lose a good (if not proven great) coach by continuing to do things on the cheap. If State is not interested in paying the price of admission, then they should not expect to be admitted to the “big-time-football” club.
