CFB Newsletter: A Duty to Mitigate
This week in buyout negotiations, and in Split Zone Duo.
Sam Pittman is out at Arkansas. But on his way out, he saved the Razorbacks some money.
His buyout was tied to his record from the 2021 season onward. If his winning percentage was below .500, he would receive 50 percent of his remaining contract in the buyout. If it was higher than .500, he would receive 75 percent. Pittman’s record turned out to be just slightly above .500, at 29-27. So, Pittman and Arkansas negotiated to drop that percentage to 62.5 on the condition that Arkansas drop the “duty to mitigate” clause, which only gives the coach on his way out the money on the condition that he look for other work.
With that out of the way, Pittman doesn’t have to do anything. He can just take his buyout money and enjoy retirement. Do you think he’s a lake house or a beach house guy?
Arkansas now has some extra money on hand for the next chapter of Hogs football, which currently has Bobby Petrino at the helm. Is that a long-term solution? Luckily, we have a few podcast episodes for you to help you figure all that out. Here’s one little snippet from Alex on the latest episode to hit subscribers’ feeds:
A lot of people in college football, especially in the plugged-in reporter or agent community, might be inclined to frame Bobby Petrino as a kind of “ah, shucks, we all make mistakes” figure. But Petrino didn’t just make a small mistake. He had a relationship with a subordinate, lied about it, and absolutely humiliated Arkansas’s program on a national stage. There’s a reason relationships like that are considered inappropriate and wrong. The fact that Petrino is getting another go-around at this is objectively insane. That’s not to say he can never work in college football again or even be a head coach again. But at Arkansas? Coming back to Arkansas is legitimately wild.
I don’t want to hear the “don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house” defense. If I had done what Petrino did, would I expect to come right back to Split Zone Duo and sit behind the mic again? At minimum, I’d have to go get another podcast. And even if 20 years passed, you wouldn’t just say, “welcome back.”
Lots more on the Arkansas job. Where? See below.
Here’s what the SZD crew dropped into your podcast feeds this week:
You guessed it: our latest episode of The Job is about the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Godfrey joined Richard on a subscriber-only episode to talk about the 8 tiers of midseason firings. They range from “they should have fired them long ago” to “they probably shouldn’t have hired him in the first place.” The most illuminating part of this conversation is when Godfrey says this situation could put Arkansas in a situation to make a John Calipari-type move.
This week’s Tasting Menu episode is live and it features something no one expected this season: Alex being sort of positive about his undefeated Maryland Terps?
Kevin Clark joined the crew for the Main Course presented by Modelo to talk about Miami vs. Florida State, the hatred amongst the three big Florida schools, and Mario Cristobal clock management. You can also watch the segment over at our YouTube channel. It’s worth the watch just to see Richard’s reaction when Kevin says that development is overrated in college football.
SZD social fun of the week
We’re dropping a new social series featuring friend of the show Kofie Yeboah! It’s about which college football players would have been elite players in the old NCAA Football series, but didn’t get their chance because of the game’s hiatus. This week’s would-be video game legends are Justin Fields and Chase Young at Ohio State:
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You should see a new video from this series pop up in your social feeds this Saturday.
Richard went to the Oregon-Penn State game, and witnessed something special in the White Out. The game itself, on the other hand, wasn’t as joyous for Nittany Lions fans. He wrote about James Franklin’s continuous struggles in big games over at CBS Sports.
Alex reviewed the new Chad Powers show for Slate and it’s … good?
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the games, and we’ll see you Sunday.