6 College Football Coaching Buyouts You Won’t Believe

The easy answer for every college football fanbase whenever they hit a roadblock is to fire the coach. Unfortunately, the wacky world of coaching buyouts makes it almost impossible for some schools to part with a disappointing coach, as they will come into massive sums of money should they start to slip up and get axed before the scheduled end of their contracts.

These six college football coaches might be struggling on the field, but their respective universities might be stuck with them due to how insane their buyouts are.

6. Dana Holgorsen, Houston ($13.2 Million)

Holgorsen has the highest Group of Five buyout in the country, as he stunningly chose to leave West Virginia to run Houston into the ground. His offensive style and personality management alienated elite players like quarterback D'Eriq King, who transferred to Miami as the Cougars slumped to 4-8 in the first year of the post-Major Applewhite era. Holgorsen better recapture that Morgantown magic, or the Cougars might need to bite the bullet and start looking for a new coach.

5. Will Muschamp, South Carolina ($13.4 Million)

Muschamp's buyout was originally slated to be $19.2 million this year, but he renegotiated his deal and cut that figure down significantly. What has he done to deserve this deal? He nearly ran Florida into the ground after going 28-21 and orchestrating some of the most unwatchable offenses of all time, and has a 26-25 record in Columbia despite a solid recruiting track record. Steve Spurrier was provably better in nearly every facet, and it'll cost the Gamecocks a pretty penny to can Muschamp and search for the next Spurrier.

4. Neal Brown, West Virginia ($16.2 Million)

Brown, who created an explosive offense at Troy that befuddled the Sun Belt, was tabbed as the guy to replace Holgorsen with the Mountaineers. Needless to say, he has flopped so far. Austin Kendall looked nothing like he did at Oklahoma, and Brown's popgun offense failed to scare Big 12 defenses. Brown is owed his full salary if fired, and is scheduled to account for $16.2 million on the WVU books over the next five seasons. Considering they regressed to 5-7 in Year 1 despite a high-profile transfer quarterback, Brown needs to turn things around fast.

3. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech ($20.3 Million)

Of all the coaches on this list, Collins is the least likely to get fired soon, as the Yellow Jackets gave him a seven-year contract as he works to transition the team away from Paul Johnson's triple-option and towards a wide-open spread attack. The Temple head coach might seem like a lock to keep his job for the foreseeable future, but there is no telling if the Jackets will get sick of being trounced by Georgia every year and reactively can him a few years into his restoration project. If they do decide to get rid of Collins after 2020, he has five years of salary left to recoup, which could force Georgia Tech to stay patient with him for the long haul.

2. Jeff Brohm, Purdue ($27.6 Million)

Brohm's agent needs to start working for the UN if he was able to get Purdue to agree on a contract that gives Brohm a $27 million buyout topped only by Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, and Jimbo Fisher. For their massive financial investment in Brohm, Purdue has seen all the optimism from a seven-win debut season fizzle out, as they won six games in 2018 and just four in 2019. For the absurd amount of money they're paying him, losing to Nevada and Illinois while only beating Northwestern by two simply isn't good enough.

1. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M ($60.6 Million)

Fisher won at Florida State, and he's won at Texas A&M. That doesn't change the fact that his contract, a 10-year, $75 million contract, has a buyout that is more than double that of every college coach except Saban and Swinney. With that kind of money on the table, championships have to be a reasonable expectation. Fisher has gone 17-9 in two seasons at College Station, failing both times at winning 10 or more games. Playing against Alabama, LSU, and Auburn in the SEC West is difficult, but a $75 million man should be able to do more than tread water.