I saw a post on Twitter that was thought provoking. In the last 24 hours, the 3 greatest football minds of the 2000s have retired or lost their jobs — Bellicheck, Saban and Carroll.
Wow. That’s a lot of institutional knowledge.
Historically, being a college football coach was a much easier/better job than the NFL. The NFL was all about football. One watched 20 hours of tape a day (Monday snd Tuesday) so as to devise a game plan against your opponent to take advantage of tendencies your team could exploit. Then you implemented that game plan Wednesday - Friday. Then travel and play. It’s was the ultimate grind.
In college it was much simpler. You implemented your game plan with a lot less research and played to ones strength because the talent delta is so large in college. Plus you had to recruit. Now, you are CONSTANTLY recruiting. Both high schoolers, kids at other programs and your own kids. This is a 24/7 job nowadays. So you have 50-60% of the on-field things as an NFL coach PLUS another full-time job recruiting.
Historically, the NFL was a more difficult job, I don’t think that’s the case anymore.