Latest Chuck Long update isn't pretty
Published: 6/29/2009 1:07 PM
Last Modified: 6/29/2009 1:07 PM
On the field, there is nothing better than college football. Off if, with the BCS and recruiting circuses and coaches' sniping, it can be nonsensical. Consider what's happening with Chuck Long, who left the Oklahoma staff in 2005 to take over at San Diego State, only to be fired after three poor seasons with the Aztecs.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Long remains under contract for another 2 1/2 years, hauling off with an annual $715,900.
How must Brady Hoke feel? He's the guy SDSU hired to replace Long, and he's making $675,000.
Meantime, Long's contract, according to the Union-Tribune's Brent Schrotenboer, requires him "to keep office hours on campus and do 'projects.'"
The guy was fired. He should be coordinating somebody's offense, if not coaching quarterbacks, somewhere else. I would imagine the only "projects" Long might be interested in involve making life miserable for the SDSU administration that canned him.
Which, in a sense, is exactly what's happening.
Schrotenboer reports, "SDSU has hired an outside consultant to help figure out how to part ways with (Long)."
So the school is paying a consultant to figure out how to stop paying a coach who no longer coaches. And all the while, according to Schrotenboer, "SDSU and other California State University schools are considering having employees take two unpaid furlough days off per month to address a $584 million budget deficit for 2009-10. The cuts would affect SDSU athletics, which is preparing to make a 7 percent cut (around $427,000) from its allocation of the state general fund. SDSU might have to cut an additional 7 percent beyond that."
That's one bitter spoonful of PR, even if SDSU is dipping into private funds and the pockets of boosters to handle the mess.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
