The Football Brainiacs

Image via Daily Emerald (Ryan Kang)

I just wanted to take a minute and offer a couple alternatives to those out there so quick to throw cold water on the possibility of Scott Frost being a legitimate candidate for the Sooners.

Point No. 1 – If you’re heard Frost’s name mentioned as a potential candidate, you’ve almost assuredly heard the following. (1) Frost is currently paid just $400k by Oregon. (2) “There’s no way he’d ever come to OU because Oregon would just match whatever Stoops would offer.”

Here’s my counter to those two statements. He’s paid $400k now for a reason. It’s not like the powers that be at Oregon are unaware he’s one of the top up-and-coming assistant coaches in the country. If they wanted to be paying him more, they easily could be.

That said, if you wanted to make the argument that he’s only been their OC/primary play caller for a couple years and his current salary is pretty much in line with that level of experience, I’d certainly be willing to hear you out.

However, this is a little out of date but not so much as it negates the point I’m attempting to make. Take a look at what Oregon is currently paying their football staff. I’ll wait. Okay, you back? Not exactly top of the market, right?

And, yeah, win or lose Monday night they’re probably all due for some kind of a pay bump. But will the Oregon brass double the assistants’ salaries across the board and give Mark Helfrich a healthy raise as well?

Nobody needs to be reminded of Oregon’s Phil Knight/Nike money. So obviously they could match whatever OU would potentially offer Frost. But would they?

Based on what they’re paying right now, evidence might suggest otherwise.

Point No. 2 – Who’s to say what Oregon has built in Eugene hasn’t instilled a sense of confidence that their “system” is capable of sustaining the loss of their offensive coordinator?

When Mike Belotti left, they promoted from within. When Chip Kelly left, again, they promoted from within. Both instances they went with, at least on paper, an “unproven” candidate, but presumably because of the confidence in the system, they were comfortable with an internal hire. And obviously those were both much more high profile hires being that it involved the head coach position.

So if someone wants to come after one of their assistants and, in their view, overpay them, there seems to be a fairly decent track record in place to at least argue, on some level, they’d consider letting that person go. A plug-and-play type of confidence in their “system” if you will with regards to their coaching staff.

Point No. 3 – This one is pretty simple and, fortunately, I even have a visual aid.

https://twitter.com/DaveSittler/status/553942783430778881

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I’m not going to sit here and tell you Scott Frost is going to be OU’s next offensive coordinator. I’m simply offering an alternative line of thinking for those who seem to be so quick to dismiss the idea of it even being a possibility.