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| I'll be a reference for you, Houston! |
Houston Nutt is interviewing for the open head coach position South Florida. Okay Ole Miss fans, it's time to cheer for Houston Nutt. Why? Because if South Florida hires him Vaught-Hemingway Stadium gets expanded faster. Presumably, because most coaching contract buyouts are structured this way, if Nutt gets hired by South Florida, Ole Miss would no longer be forced to send Nutt checks on that $6 million contract. If that's the case then it will be the biggest early Christmas present Ole Miss has ever received. Go Nutt!
UPDATE: There is a pervasive thought that Nutt's buyout is guaranteed whether he gets a new job in coaching or not. That is highly unusual, but if it's true then "wow". I'm trying to confirm one way or the other.
UPDATE 2: Nutt's first contract, which expired December 31, 2012, did contain the mitigation clause to which I was referring above. It's linked here. See the final paragraph of page 6. The language you see in that final paragraph of page 6 is the mitigation language common to coaching contracts, and for that matter, contracts of any nature where large sums of money are involved. That's why I'll be surprised if the new contract doesn't contain the same or similar language. Of course, this is not the contract that was terminated as Nutt parlayed the success in his first two years into multiple extensions. It's possible that the extensions were added as an addendum to the existing contract. I have not seen a copy of the extensions, but it is very possible that the paragraph on page 6 is still controlling. Also, the UMAA contract, where the really big money comes from, is separate from this contract. I haven't seen it either, but it's likely that the terms mirror one another except for the money involved. All of this will probably be of no consequence because South Florida hiring Nutt is highly unlikely, in my opinion. I hope I'm wrong about that last part.
UPDATE 3: I was able to confirm through the University attorney's office that the $6 million was a negotiated buyout through Nutt's separate contract with UMAA, which over rode the buyout terms in the state contract linked above. Furthermore, I'm informed that other coaching contracts in the SEC contain similar such buyout provisions, which lower the price of the entire contract in the case of a buyout, but which erase the effects of the minimization clauses as contained on page 6 of the state contract. In a nutshell, this means job or no job, Nutt gets the entirety of his buyout. So much for that early Christmas present.