Mike Sanford Offensive Coordinator For Louisville
Like fire and brimstone on the Louisville sideline? Mike Sanford brings it. He will be the next offensive coordinator for University of Louisville football. Urban Meyer hired Sanford as his offensive coordinator at Utah in 2003. That year, the Utes won the Mountain West Conference Championship and the Liberty Bowl. The next year, the Utes repeated as conference champs and finished the season 12-0, including a win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. Sanford’s offense averaged 45.3 points a game. The bad news: five losing seasons the last five at resource-challenged UNLV.
About the Author: Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, as well as a public affairs consultant and a UofL grad and longtime fan.
Is this a joke?
No joke He’s a great coordinator. UNLV just did provide him with any resources.
Sanford will have several good returning offensive weapons to work with next year and the promise of more on the way. I expect that he will view every returning offensive players as equal when they line it up for spring ball and the compertition should be fierce.
I just researched what UNLV was paying Sanford to partially evaluate his remarks about lack of committment by UNLV to the football program. His contract had been extended with a pay increase to $425,000 a year (salary plus appearance fees, etc. meaning the whole package). Sort of backs up his claim, especially if you look at the other salaries in the Mountain West and WAC.
I should have added that two teams in UNLV’s conference who finished BEHIND UNLV were paying their coached $750,000 and $825,000. Hmmmmmm.
It wasn’t so much about his pay anyway, as commitment to the program and facilities. I got the impression he was at least as concerned about his budget as he was about his salary.
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. If the coach is being paid half what other coaches in the same conference are being paid it’s a sure thing that it carries over to other parts of the budget. Half the salary almost assures half the recruiting budget, half the facilities budget, half the everything else too.
The guy is a good OC but is not a head coach, just like Kragthorpe and Ron Cooper were good position coachs but were not head coach material. He will do fine as our OC.
Any coach will sound better than Kragthorpe! I’m thinkin what Wilkie01 is thinkin’….better OC than head coach and I like the sound of a spread offense.