I can't blame CS for the total predicament we found ourselves in. You can blame Huff, the players, the staff, ESPN, Congress, the Supreme Court, whoever you choose. I do think some reasonable planning could have helped, however. You are the AD, you know weeks ahead of time that Huff is leaving. You have a new coach ready to go. You pick an assistant and tell him that he will be interim coach for the bowl game, but only if he can talk enough players into sticking around. He make sure you have a chance to address the team immediately before or after Huff leaves. You let it be known that entering the portal, and leaving school, is taking a chance that some else will give you a scholarship or any NIL. You insist that Marshall will not take you back. You have enough NIL lined up for next year that your new coach (or your NIL people) can start making offers, but only if they play in the bowl game. You tell trainers and other people in contact with players what's up. You know some of the best players will leave, like they always do in today's free market.
While you cannot pay the players that stay directly, you can put in place an NIL deal where all they need to do is show up in a photo promoting some product or service and get some money. I am not sure how the money from the bowl is handled, whether through the Sunbelt or directly. I am sure we must be giving up some funds. I am not sure if all of the above is possible or even legal.
So, I would think it is within possibility that we saw this coming and just figured we'd bale out if and when needed.
This is a PR nightmare and I do realize that after a few days, most people around the country won't know or care about it. There is a perception that sometimes when teams start losing, that the coach has lost the players. In this case, the school lost the players.
When someone like Cole Pennigton leaves, with a chance at a bowl game to show what he can do and get an NIL or just an offer from another school, something is wrong more than Huff leaving.
I would like to hear from the AD or some spokesperson more than just how great Coach Gobson is going to be and how Huff wanted to leave. Tell us what the school, the department did to try to keep the players. Or, as I suspect, they may have just decided to let them leave and give Gibson an open locker room. If that was the strategy, I can live with that. But not the current perception that Huff stole the players like the Grinch at Christmas.
While you cannot pay the players that stay directly, you can put in place an NIL deal where all they need to do is show up in a photo promoting some product or service and get some money. I am not sure how the money from the bowl is handled, whether through the Sunbelt or directly. I am sure we must be giving up some funds. I am not sure if all of the above is possible or even legal.
So, I would think it is within possibility that we saw this coming and just figured we'd bale out if and when needed.
This is a PR nightmare and I do realize that after a few days, most people around the country won't know or care about it. There is a perception that sometimes when teams start losing, that the coach has lost the players. In this case, the school lost the players.
When someone like Cole Pennigton leaves, with a chance at a bowl game to show what he can do and get an NIL or just an offer from another school, something is wrong more than Huff leaving.
I would like to hear from the AD or some spokesperson more than just how great Coach Gobson is going to be and how Huff wanted to leave. Tell us what the school, the department did to try to keep the players. Or, as I suspect, they may have just decided to let them leave and give Gibson an open locker room. If that was the strategy, I can live with that. But not the current perception that Huff stole the players like the Grinch at Christmas.
