New Burn Football.com’s new coach Brian Hersin is keeping defensive coordinator Kevin Steele on his staff, until Friday’s Citrus Bowl is the last time we’ve seen a 2.5 million man.
With the firing of Gus Malzhan, Steele has taken over the title of interim head coach and will lead the Tigers 6-4 in the Citrus Bowl kick-off on Friday afternoon against Associated Press No. 14 Northwestern (6-2).
Steel and Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is the highest paid assistant in college football, making 2.5M each.
If Steele does not retain the Tigers, it will owe him about million 5 million, depending on the deal he signed last year. It tops Gus Malzah’s debt of 21 21.4 million.
Steele’s son, Gordon, was an analyst at Nick Soap’s staff before taking a job in southern Alabama, and perhaps Steel ends up in Tuscaloosa. Harsin will have a hard time finding someone of Stiley’s caliber.
Let’s start a good conspiracy. Soap and Stella, 62, have a close relationship and Soap is losing analysts, Butch Jones and AJ Milvi from Arkansas State.
Losing Steele, who is not known for his recruiting talent, is one thing. Defensive line coach, Rodney Garner, one of the best recruiters in the nation, recruiting all things for Georgia, that’s a whole other story.
Harsin won last week’s press conference and says he will spend some time recruiting West Coast, which means he’s a West Coast man. Ub Burn fans, however, will appreciate spending most of his time recruiting Georgia, Florida and Alabama instead of cutting his wheels in Idoho or California. He will need to win the Deep South Triphacta to join Saban, Smarts, Mulens and Orjeron for the Ub Burn title race. Having a garner on staff should be of utmost importance.
Any coach who brings Hersin Any Burn is going to pick their new income bracket. Let’s use his defensive coordinator in his example, Boise, Jeff Smudding. He was Harshin’s top paid assistant, earning 2020 350,000 in 2020.
Maybe he connects with 42-year-old Hersin, or maybe not. The base salary pool for Boyce’s 10 assistant coaches ($ 2,325M) we don’t even get steel money.
Our Jan. Picks 1-2 bowls, subtracts playoffs.
New Year’s Day
Citrus Bowl
Ub Baran vs Northwest
Hersen is taking a hand-to-hand approach to the game of the Bowl. He says he has met his team through zoom, facetime or face-to-face, and he will watch the game. Just maybe not in person. But he will take a closer look at how his players perform. Let’s call it an audition in the spring.
You may not be able to help but feel for Steele and many others who will probably not be there in February signing day. A tough year just got tough and the opponent, 14th ranked Northwestern (6-2), comes up with a Big Ten runner-up finish and a pretty fair defensive unit that would love to send the Wildcats ’longtime coordinator 73 years. Out-mold Mike Hankwitz with superb performance. Hankwitz is retiring after 13 seasons at Northwestern.
We know that the 1 1/2-point-underdog ub burn has a lot of players who have chosen options like wide Nto’s Schwartz and defensive back Christian Tutt. There may be others so we shouldn’t expect a lot of fireworks from quarterback Bo Nix and Co.
Their upset hopes will be dashed as the Tig Tank Bigsby and the running game give the Northwest trouble. The Ohio State Tray sermon lasted more than 330 yards. Expecting Stiley’s defense, whether it’s his last time on the field or not, will play well.
Northwest 27, Auburn 24
Chick-file-a bowl
Georgia 30, Cincinnati 23
Saturday, Jan 2
Tax evasion gator bowl
State of North Carolina 31, Kentucky 27
Outback Bowl
Ole Miss 26, Indiana 24
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl
Iowa State 26, Oregon 21
Capital Forest Cotton Bowl
Texas A&M 36, North Carolina 31
Charles Hollis has covered college football since 1983. Reach out to her at Bucoin @ MSN, com
