Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

JSC 76 said:

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Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

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Or are you just grateful for the opportunity you were given out of all the tens of thousands of football coaches out there and take the $50 million you have been paid and invested over the years and see if you are good at something else? Maybe start a business? Holmoe found great success and fulfillment as an AD at his religious alma mater. Or start a family with the freedom to really spend time with your kids or just go fishing.

Don't feel sorry for the guys getting multi-million dollar payments for "failing," feel sorry for the single working moms facing rising grocery prices that now have their SNAP benefits gone and health insurance premiums doubling.

JSC 76 said:

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Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

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Fired HC with a massive buyout is easily one of the best jobs in the world, next to career backup QB

JSC 76 said:

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Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

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life is like a box of chocolate. Who knows?

Some will find fault of their own
Some will find fault with the environment/institution
Most will probably find fault with both
Egomaniacs blame it on anyone else but themselves

I dont know Wilcox enough to know where he falls.



All i know is that over the years, the most successful people I hired have a combination of grit and self awareness. Even if they do not have a specific set of skills, the grit enables them to fail, get up, fail again, and get better. Some people are maniacal and their job is all consuming. OTOH, Self awareness usually comes with humility. It gives you the unique ability to analyze what goes wrong, seek out counsel. If I see people with those 2 skills, i hire them on the stop and 9.5 times out of 10 it works out

JSC 76 said:

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Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

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Wilcox has been failing as a head coach for 9 years, while becoming rather wealthy in the process. I suspect he is immune to failure at this point. If he's honest with himself, he knows that he is just not head coach material.

Wilcox' failure has, as pointed out above, been rewarded with millions of dollars so clearly he has succeeded in at least a financial sense. Another failure at Cal, Marv Levy, went on to fail spectacularly in 4 Super Bowls on his way to the pro football Hall of Fame. Context is everything.

JSC 76 said:

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Of course this is applicable to Wilcox...but it also applies to all the other big-time high-paid P4 head coaches who are now out of work.

There are undoubtedly guys coaching Pop Warner and high school who are just not good. Don't know much about football and have bad people and communication skills.

But if you're good at that level and rise through the ranks and find yourself with a multi-million dollar payday.....what happens when you get fired, repeatedly? Do you suddenly start to doubt that maybe you're just not good at being a football coach? That's got to be a real existential crisis.

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Don't know why I'm late to this because I really like watching coaches and I have first hand info on this. Our highschool football coach, and my golf coach (same man), was an abject failure at Sacred Heart. He had a horrendous record and was there for about 6-8 years. At one point we had lost 22 straight games and even had 0-10 Never Again t-shirts made up. We delivered, we won 2 games each of my junior and senior years. He left to raise his family in Petaluma and 31 years later they named the field after him because he had such great success as the football coach.
You may have heard of his assistant those first few years at SH (during the 22 game losing streak), Mike Holmgren. He considered ending his newly started coaching career after all those losses because he didn't think he was making an impact. It's easy for me to look back now and know that I saw those two guys work very hard to come up with great game plans to offset our immense talent and facilities gaps. They were diligient in looking over off season conditioning. But at the time I thought they sucked just like we did. I will say since Ellison was my golf coach and I hung out with the football team I got to know both men very well. They were always tremendous people even as the losses mounted. They never belittled my classmates. (although Ellison didn't make me feel so great about choosing golf over football. I was one of the biggest guys in school).
I'm having lunch with Ellison in a month.