Randy Edsall’s contract is basically a prop bets sheet
The bar is pretty low, folks.
A lot of contracts for college football head coaches have pretty similar elements — like bonus incentives, for instance. Bonus incentives are essentially benchmarks a head coach has to reach to earn certain bonuses. They’re usually things like winning a bowl game, conference title, or national championship.
On Oct. 3, USA Today released head coaches’ contract information, and found that UConn’s Randy Edsall has some, uh, interesting incentives. To be frank, Edsall’s incentives aren’t your typical ones like listed above. In fact, they’re so underwhelmingly easy to achieve that it’s pretty comical.
Edsall gets an extra $2,000 for:
- Scoring first on offense
- Leading at halftime
Defensively, he gets $2,000 for leading a game in:
- Points per possession
- Turnover Margin
- Sacks
Connecticut and coach Randy Edsall got creative with incentives for his coaching contract. Coaches salary database: https://t.co/GagJGG3hrP pic.twitter.com/D05NnBVJJV
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) October 3, 2018
This is basically a prop bet sheet, if we’re being honest here. Can you imagine if Alabama talked to Nick Saban about receiving incentives like this?
As far as if Edsall has earned any of these incentives just yet, well, UConn is 1-3 with one win over Rhode Island so there’s an extra $10k for that win! Also during that game, he got an extra $2,000 for his team scoring first, and leading at halftime and in total offense. His salary is just over $1 million, which isn’t cheap, but that extra $16,000 certainly isn’t bad to have, although you’d think it’s be more than that, right?
As for some of those season incentives, well, his team is currently dead last in scoring defense, allowing 53 points per game, and the offense is only at 21.6 points per game.
Oh yeah, and this is Randy Edsall we’re talking about. No, I’m trying to make a personal case against the guy, but it’s just funny to see a coach like this receive special incentives like this.
Edsall has a combined 4-13 record at UConn so far, and was fired from Maryland after going 22-34 over five seasons. We’re also witnessing an Edsall-UConn Experiment Part Two — Edsall was at UConn from 2000-10. He produced two nine-win seasons during his time there before accepting the Maryland job.
Look, I understand the desire for head coaches to achieve bonuses, but the bar is pretty dang low with these. Thank you, UConn for somehow making bonus incentives humorous.