Report: Phil Knight ready to pony up big for next Oregon coach
Nike co-founder and Oregon booster Phil Knight wants the Ducks football program win a title that he’s ready to pay a fortune for their next head coach
The rapid decline of the Oregon Ducks football team has been staggering to say the least. Just two years ago, head coach Mark Helfrich led the Ducks to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game behind the efforts of one Marcus Mariota. They again fell short of a title, though, and have since continued to fall. Oregon went 9-4 in 2015 and entered Week 10 of the 2016 campaign at a dismal 3-5.
Nike co-founder and Oregon donor Phil Knight is done with the falling short and the recent decline, though. And he’s ready to put his money where his mouth is.
According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, Knight wants to see a winner for the Oregon Ducks so badly that he’s willing to put forth an absurd amount of money for their next head coach. How much dough are we talking? Rovell says that Knight is willing to throw north of $10 million per year for the coach he believes can win a title at Oregon:
There's talk heating up in Oregon that Phil Knight is ready to throw insane $10M+ a year money at a football coach. He's 78, wants a title.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 5, 2016
To put into perspective just how ridiculous that amount of money is, the highest-paid college football coach is currently Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. The Wolverines head coach’s annual salary is just barely over $9 million. So unless Knight is looking for Bear Bryant to come back from the afterlife and coach Oregon, that figure is ridiculous.
Of course, Knight is no stranger to pouring obscene amounts of funds into Oregon athletics. In November 2015, he donated near $20 million toward a new sports complex for the Ducks. Throwing money at Oregon is basically a secondary motor function for him at this point. So if he desperately wants to see a winner in Eugene, it’s believable that he’d be ready to pony up.
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However, you do have to wonder just who would be worth that money. Could they coerce someone from a big-time SEC program? Would they pay Les Miles that kind of money? Or, heaven forbid, would that be enough to get Chip Kelly to leave the NFL ranks? We don’t know the answer to any of this. But it does seem as if Knight is done with Helfrich and is willing to pay whatever it takes to climb out of their current rut immediately.