Brohm Watch 2019: College Football News Ranks Jeff Brohm #1 For Florida State

Because it wouldn’t be November if we didn’t have a “Jeff Brohm to X” saga. In 2017 it was Tennessee. Last year it was Louisville. Now that Florida State has fired Willie Taggart after less than two seasons on the job College Football News thinks that the Seminoles should come after Brohm:

1. Jeff Brohm, Purdue head coach

Don’t get hung up on the down season. Injuries have ravaged his team, and yet the offense keeps on producing. You want the offense to work right away with a mediocre group of offensive linemen in place? Boom.

You want a high-powered passing game? You want the guy who took a Purdue program from absolutely nothing to a bowl game in one year? You want the guy who took what Taggart set in motion at WKU to a whole other level, going 22-5 with two conference titles before taking off for Purdue? Boom.

Brohm turned down Louisville last year to go back to Purdue, but there’s some thought that he might be destined to go Kliff Kingsbury and be a pro coach before he’d take another college job. But Florida State is different.

Get this guy in the right situation – he’d be perfect for Tennessee – and he’s going to blossom into a national title-caliber head man.

First of all, I have no idea why Tennessee is mentioned here unless they are recylcing the same article from two years ago. Then again, the quality of College Football News has dropped significantly in recent years. Second, Taggart really didn’t set THAT much in motion at Western Kentucky, as he went 16-20 from 2010-12 at Western Kentucky before Bobby Petrino took over. Taggart had a single good season at South Florida, but somehow cashed it in to a massive payday. He is 56-62 in 10 seasons as a head coach, so that is hardly setting the world on fire.

Third, it would take a TON of money to get Brohm loose now, on top of what they are already paying Taggart. Florida State is somehow paying THREE buyouts at one time:

Before Taggart joined Florida State last year, he had spent one year as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks, following a successful run at South Florida. When the Seminoles hired Taggart away from Oregon, they agreed to pay out his $3 million buyout to end his contract with the Ducks. Florida State also agreed to pay out an additional $1.3 million that Oregon still owed South Florida when they hired him away from that school in 2016.

So, in the end, Florida State will have paid over $20 million, across three buyouts, so that Taggart could go 9-12 with them in 21 games.

And you thought Darrell Hazell stole money! At least he “coached” 42 games at Purdue.

This is is all just to get rid of the old coach. Much like a European soccer transfer fee, they would also have to buy out Jeff Brohm:

The buyout doesn’t change. If Brohm leaves Purdue after the 2019 season for another coaching position, he would owe the school $3.75 million ($3.3 million in liquidated damages, $450,000 in an expense reimbursement to terminate his contract at Western Kentucky. The expense reimbursement declines $150,000 each year through 2021).

That is before anything they would have to pay Brohm to coach there, and he is set to earn more than $31 million more from Purdue over the next six seasons to give you an idea of what Florida State would have to offer. There is also the hilarity of them technically paying FIVE buyouts (South Florida, Oregon, and Florida State for Taggart, Purdue and Western Kentucky for Brohm).

Overall, I think there is about a 0.0000002% chance (and that is high) of Brohm actually leaving for Florida State now, but because of College Football News, we’re on Brohm Watch yet again.