Some of us were popping off pretty loudly when Pope was at UVU that Holmoe needed to engineer a retirement for Coach Rose and hire Pope before UK or somebody else backed a dumpster full of cash up to his house and took him away forever. GREAT job by Holmoe getting Pope before it was too late.
However, people are starting to wonder, “Can we keep him?” Well, Pope loves BYU. A couple of his daughters are students. They have lived in Provo/Orem for 13 years (BYU Asst-UVU HC-BYU HC), so they have strong roots in the community. He’s a multi-millionaire but still seems to care about other things more than the money. So, can we keep him? Answer below:
We will find out how much Pope loves BYU when when Calipari retires and UK offers Pope something similar to the $8.5m that Coach Cal makes now. Woof.
Dude, I hope you are right. He is so bubbly gooey infectious. earlier I said, “Pope is a real good home game coach but needed to learn a few things to be a good road coach” and then Kansas happened. It was like a Creme Brulee complete with a fire on top. That Kansas whippin on KSU tonight makes me appreciate the win even more.
I have one reservation: Bronco-Virginia-5 Mil. did not see that one coming. We are on the same page.
One more thing…Pope wants to coach Chandler, Davis, Adams along with Saunders Hall Foos Baker and the rest of the gang. What a fun ride!
Q: What do Chandler, Adams, and Davis all have in common?
A: LEGIT pure athleticism to match elite B12 players.
I’m not talking about basketball skill alone. I’m talking about size, strength, length, speed, and quickness
This year we are getting it done with only a few guys with the sheer, raw strength and athleticism to match the best in the B12 (Saunders, Hall, Fouss). Waterman and Jaxson could join that group if they got serious in the weight room. Both could 100% use another year at BYU but ima doubting the come back. Anyway, the three newcomers are the real deal—I’m talking just raw physical ability. Add Baker, who reminds me of a much stronger SJ, and Pope will have a nucleus of talent that can—dare I say—take the court with the best of the B12 and compete head to head on sheer athleticism. That matters and I bet Pope is stoked to see it develop.
On his current trajectory, Pope is a top 5 choice for UK whenever Calipari retires. Former team captain, won a Natty, had a good NBA career, loves his Alma Mater, building a super strong resume at UVU and BYU, is a great recruiter (with restrictions), and likely even better recruiter with no HC or academic requirements. So change “and UK offers Pope” to “if UK offers Pope.”
The question is really whether UK or any other top program offers Pope a long term, guaranteed contract in the neighborhood of $5m-$8m, and if they do, does he stay at BYU for something more like $1m-$2m.
I can totally understand why it’s like it is. If BYU started paying coaches like other schools do there would be a major uproar from the rest of the employees in sports related positions, as well as every employee at the school. I personally know people who work for major public universities and make way more than any BYU professor could think of. The coaches at those schools are some of the highest paid public employees in the state.
The church and BYU have to keep things in check. Remember we are a religious institution whose primary focus is to help people realize their potential as children of a loving Heavenly Father. We aren’t in the business of paying people exorbitant amounts of money that frequently corrupts and causes them to change their focus. I could say more but I think everyone gets the drift… except maybe the Hopper, haha.
I find it hilarious that people actually think the Brethren of a 120 billion dollar corporation don’t understand business. Here’s the think about BYU. It’s a very affordable university with a great educational system and structure that people around the world applaud. If the pay for all employees of the university goes up significantly, then so does the cost of attending BYU. And, as you said, there is a mission for BYU that is Church related. IF Pope decides he can serve elsewhere for more money, that is his choice. He won’t end up in hell for it.
Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! I actually agree with everything you said.
The only tweak I would make is that as long as members of the Church are willing to teach/work at BYU for usually, significantly less money than in the “lone and dreary world” then the current system including low tuition works. I’ve seen it many times.
I only suggested that when Coach Cal retires—which is likely a few years out—Pope would be a candidate. He’s already on their radar. In fact he’s lighting up a lot of radar screens.
One big $ screen is Oregon. Altman was on the hot seat just a week ago, with rumors the Ducks were interested in Pope on the $6-$8m range. However, the Ducks have made a nice run in the Pac2 tourney (still laughing about the “Conference of Champions” having 2 teams), and with the W over Zona tonight Altman’s seat got a lot cooler. So he likely stays. He’s a good coach anyway.
Someone will always offer Pope more money. I know he really loves BYU AND Provo. I just hope BYU will offer him enough, whatever that is.
I do not know how it is other states, but in Utah. The local government pays less the private sector, (usually in the ballpark of 5-10% less, in some cases like Technology it is up around 10-15%) the return for employees working for a government entity is that the employment is stable and usually has a retirement package.
Based on that, I think BYU employees probably fall in the same group as the State employees, is that the work is stable (less likely to get laid off) and there is a good retirement package that the church offers.
I have some friends that work at BYU and they love it, the environment is good, they enjoy working for the church. I have other friends that see the nepotism (sorry Jim) and self-righteousness going on at BYU and they left, because the path to succeed is cut short by “who people know”.
My one friend who has been a bishop, Stake President, Mission President once told me that working for the church can either strengthen your testimony or destroy it. Even at the church, “Politics” is a big deal to handle.
My question is this:
For those think BYU should not pay big $$ for their coaches, are you willing to accept “mediocre” teams and performances?
You can’t complain about ARod being horrible OC, if you believe BYU should not pay the coaches better. Maybe ARod is the best they can get for that salary. Who knows?
It is a quandary, I know, I like the mission of the Church and BYU. But we as fans expect us to be like it was with Edwards and Arnold as coaches. that time has passed and very few coaches ever stay a long time at one place unless the $$$ is there.
Just keep going and it will turn over to where the government pays more, has better benefits, has a retirement, etc. The private sector can’t keep up here in California. We had guys leaving for government jobs all the time.
Why do you think this state is in such an economic mess right now?
Enjoy the ride while it lasts Utah, the horizon is bleak.
In Utah, we would never get to the point of California. For one, the GOP Runs the state and 2 we have a balanced budget amendment in our constitution. as well as the fact that we are a right to work state.
Most blue blood programs–especially the state schools–use donor money instead of tax money to pay the best coaches. To me that’s no different than BYU paying a basketball coach $5m a year for a top notch program because the $ comes from donors and not from the general BYU pot. Meaning it would have NO impact on tuition, tithing (ironically, it would increase tithing, since the coach would be paying hundreds of thousands more in tithing), funds for chemistry, whatever. In fact, if the chemistry department wants to lure a famous scientist away from some job for $5m a year and gets the money from science department donors, why should I care? BYU gets better at chemistry and nobody pays more money except for some rich dude who chose to do it. I laugh at the notion that paying coaches money that comes from donors to do what it takes to make BYU athletics relevant on the national scale is somehow amoral or damaging to the university as a whole. To say it’s immoral to pay a basketball coach $5m a year because it “looks bad” seems pretty self-righteous to me. Nothing–NOTHING–gets BYU more positive notoriety outside of Utah more than a great football or basketball team.
No one was complaining about the millions the Osmonds were making while they were responsible for tens of thousands of baptisms because they stood out as members of the Church. Donnie wanted to go in a mission but President Kimball said he could not because if security and told him he’s doing plenty of missionary work singing. None of it is blood money. It’s just common for people to judge rich people differently than the average worker.
Blaming Callies for the meteoric rise in property values too? I’m telling you we are teetering on the edge of financial ruin in this country and it feels like everyone is screaming along at breakneck speed toward a cliff edge.
I think most of the people moving there are conservative as well. People are fleeing the politics more than anything else. Our state highways are being converted into bicycle lanes and they can’t fix potholes or landslides on the highway. It makes no sense.