We didn't exactly go budget in the salary. We are bringing him in for $3M a year, so he is starting around a top 25 salary at 36 years old. They think pretty highly of him.
I think that is fair. Right now, Napier can do no won't, but he hasn't coached a game. I feel the same way about every new coach we hire.
While the traditional circus leadig up to the hiring of a new coach is kind of fun, I'm impressed with Scott Sterling's ability to strike quickly and bring home his pick before we've even figured out where the planes are. Great job by Stickling being prepared and getting the work done.
Agree with the post but had to laugh at how you spelled his name wrong twice and in completely different ways.
I’ll go on record and say I like the hire scott sterling was a world class goalie! To this day when one of my kids takes a ball to the face, we yell Scott Sterling!
Or, "Scared money made me do it." Lol... j/k. All kidding aside, I don't know enough about this young coach to even give my opinion of this hire... and therein lies the problem. But if Scott Stricklin wants him then so do I... Some people over at the rant love this hire, especially the Auburn fans. So, I am cautiously optimistic that he is the right man for the job. Go Gators!
Yeah for sure. You do in fact never know. On the sliding scale, at least Napier has had years of on the field experience, highest level of exposure to the GOAT, recruited in the area, and won his conference as a coach. There simply is no brand recognition (yet) with Goldie. Pearl, Calipari, Barnes, even Buzz Williams. In time I hope that happens but being a West Coast guy, I speak with relative certainty that a lot of the recruits and current players don't know who he is or recognize his name. In success this will change, but first order of business, get him verified on Twitter because even they don't know who he is.
Yep. Seeing the Auburn fans give him praise on tRant is comforting. Unless you can poach a championship-caliber coach it's all risk anyway.
I actually sought out some of their WCC games because I suspected that he would be on the list (my mid-major list was him, North Texas' coach (McCasland), and Colorado State's coach (Medved)). I watched them lose a game to Gonzaga and came away impressed despite the loss. They seemed to have a good plan on every offensive possession and were good in the half court defensively. Their struggle was with the obvious talent gap against one of the most talented teams in the country. The WCC is an interesting conference because the top 3 programs are basically high major programs at this point while everybody else is a tiny program trying to compete with those programs. It would be like if Kentucky, Florida, and LSU decided to leave the SEC in basketball and joined the Sun Belt. USF competing with those top 3 programs is a pretty big accomplishment and is a big step up (even though they lost their games to St. Mary's and Gonzaga).
But if you want to bag a trophy you have to use trophy bait. I am quite sure AKA agrees with me...at least in the "Fishing" thread.