Acme Packing Company
We’ll get into the college football games this week a little later in this article, but first, I wanted to bring up something that will probably impact the Green Bay Packers this offseason. A LOT of college football head coaches are getting fired.
Already, there are eight openings in the top four conferences of college football. These jobs pay very well. For perspective, even Virginia Tech, a mid-level ACC team, has approved $30 million per year in additional spending over the next three seasons on the football team. I would be surprised if they didn’t spend around $10 million per year on their next head coach. Mind you, first-time head coaches in the NFL make around $3-4 million per season.
I was told on good authority that Matt LaFleur’s first contract with the Packers was under $5 million per year. It’s been reported that Brian Callahan, the first coach fired in the NFL in 2025, made around $3 million per season in his buyout (NFL buyouts are typically in full). NFL coaching salaries are not publicly disclosed in the same way as NFL player salaries, because of the salary cap and the NFLPA’s league-wide updates, or college football coaching salaries, because they are matters of public record since most major programs are part of the public school system.
Remember, new Packers president and CEO Ed Policy didn’t extend either Matt LaFleur or general manager Brian Gutekunst this offseason. In the case of at least LaFleur, his camp would be dumb to not use the exploding market in college football as leverage.
This wouldn’t be the first time that the Packers have had a coach flirt with the college world. Remember, Mike McCarthy was floated as a name that could be interested in the Texas Longhorns opening back in 2013. Mid-season the next year, McCarthy signed a multi-year extension with the team. This is just how the business is done.
This is your warning to not be stressed out when a rumor pops up in November about LaFleur being on some team’s “hot list.” He’s a young, successful coach who was in college football as recently as 2014. Because of the volume of jobs that are going to be open, without the pipeline of talent providing new rising talents at the college level, schools are not going to be afraid of being told no several times when they pursue candidates this year. Every booster thinks he’s going to pay for the big fish, so no stone is going to be left unturned by search committees.
Make no mistake, though: LaFleur is probably going to get PAID this offseason and ensure multi-year job security.
Beyond the jobs that are already...
