Part II of The Chad Chronicles:
As you would expect the woman that overheard the coach’s wife told her husband he mentioned it the other boosters, but they all agreed that they hadn’t seen any sign of distress yet, and thought she might have just misspoke. They agreed that they would be more aware of their interaction with the staff going forward and start to pay closer attention to what the staff is telling them vs others.
Going into the spring/summer there a recruit out of DFW who's uncle a big SMU graduate/fan was and brought him to SMU camps/games since he was in HS. If I remember correctly, he was a high 3 star or a low 4 star. Y'all remember this is SMU and not Clemson recruiting, this was a big fish for SMU.
With that being said one day late in the summer the uncle ran into one of the boosters and the booster asked if he was coming to the cookout at the end of the summer with X recruit. (Side note- yes Chad copied Dabo on a lot of his recruiting tactics such as Elite Junior Day, End of Summer BBQ, etc.) They were planning on going, but the staff reached out to them and told them they shouldn't come. When asked why they said that, they said it would be a waste of time and resources for them to keep recruiting him... The prospect had at least a dozen P5 offers and SMU thought they weren't seriously in the conversation.
That frustrated the booster and even the uncle because the kid wanted to stay close to the DFW area and even reiterated it to the staff. Yet SMU stopped recruiting him and he ended up signing with a nearby P5 program. That was eye opening once word got out to the boosters…
So, Chad ends up going 5-7 in year 2 and like what SMU had seen in the spring there was a nice leap in talent/progress on the field from 2-10 the year before. They had beaten Tom Herman and #11 Houston and there also seemed to be an uptick in recruiting from the year before and beating out some P5 schools for a handful of recruits (more on this later). Toward the end of the year there was rumors that started swirling that Chad was a candidate for Baylor...
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I’m going to take a short side bar to give y’all a recap on what I told y’all back a few years ago (I’ll attach the links to the thread at the bottom) when Chad was getting courted by Baylor after the Briles Rape Scandal.
In 2016 when Chad started entertaining offers from Baylor and even Texas Tech..
Tech met with Chad’s representatives’ a few times before sticking with Kliff.
Things got serious with Baylor after the whole Briles rape scandal and Baylor was looking for a coach to give a chunk of cash too, and to stick around for a while and weather the media shvt storm that was going to happen. I posted all the info a while back and below is what I said back in 2016.
“I know there has been threads about him going to Baylor. Here's some info for y'all.
Announcement tomorrow that he's heading to Baylor, with the press conference set for Monday afternoon in Waco.”
“$24.5 Million for 5 years with a opt out clause if Texas A&M head coaching gig opens.
Bringing the whole Offensive staff with him.”
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During this 10-14 day window the SMU offensive coaches were telling the recruits they were gone, they were headed to Baylor. The contract/negotiations were close to being finalized and they essentially started recruiting their offensive commits to Baylor.
The defensive staff was pretty much in the dark for this whole thing… They obviously were hearing the rumors, but Morris was essentially telling the coaching staff he wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t going take the job. They continued to do their job like nothing was going on...
Behind the scenes Chad and Co. were hand picking a few kids from the commitment list and telling them to get ready for the switch, they were moving on from SMU.
That came to a screeching halt when Morris got greedy..
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"Chad overplayed his hand on demands according to a few sources. That turned BU officials off a bit and at the same time, Fedora expressed interest. Baylor could try for Fedora then fall back to Morris."
Okay, so here's what happened with Morris. He realized he had Baylor by the balls and tried to squeeze out as much from Baylor as he could. They offered him a average salary of $4.9 Million a year with a opt out if the Texas A&M job opened and the opt out would be half of his remaining salary. Morris countered and said he wanted $5.5 Million annual salary with the opt out being nothing.
This is when Baylor got a little irritated about being taken advantage of. After that they started interviewing other names (Fedora, Fleck, Montgomery, Dykes) They realized that Fedora wasn't going to happen, most people believe Purdue will get Fleck and Dykes is a long shot. They're hesitant to bring back Montgomery because he was the OC at Baylor 2 years ago and believe that people will still associate him with rape scandals. So, Baylor realized they weren't going to pay an arm and a leg and that's when they and Morris decided to part ways. The price was such a big deal that Morris never formally interviewed for the HC position at Baylor.
Also, to keep it in perspective how bad it is at Baylor, they have 50 Scholarship players as of now for next year. 40 of those will be upperclassman and 10 will be underclassman.... So, in 2 years Baylor might be one of the worst college football teams in the country. So, you see why Morris wanted that much money to make it worthwhile and be well off if the Baylor job became a fiasco. Just thought I'd share.
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While Baylor was interviewing other Candidates, Morris and his agent were talking to SMU about what it would take for Morris to not even consider Baylor as an option. Morris's 3 requirements were: 1) a $500,000 raise 2) additional $$$ for staff raises 3) a firm start date in writing for the Indoor Practice Facility/Op Center. It's been a big deal at SMU that they haven't had this type of facility and Morris wants a firm start date by Summertime. SMU has agreed to all these terms and you won't see Morris the announcement for his raise/extension until he knows the IPF has a firm start date for construction.
Chad signed the contract extension that Winter and there was an agreed start date for the IPF.
After NSD another bit of news slipped out... The one that seemed to break the camels back for SMU.
After the Baylor contract negotiation fiasco 2 members of the offensive staff started to encourage them to sign elsewhere because “we aren’t going to be here when you graduate” and "We're leaving as soon as possible" Those kids were some of the best recruits on commitment list and they proceeded to sign elsewhere after decommitting in December.
One of those kids’ (Who decommitted and signed elsewhere) mothers grew up in Highland Park (Neighborhood in which SMU is in Dallas) and this information again got back to the football supporters.
A few weeks before spring ball started SMU had a meeting with Chad to bring up all the stuff they had heard over the past year and essentially it was a heated discussion where both parties got everything off their chest. At the end of the meeting both were done with each other and they added a $0 buyout for Chad, as long as he continued to coach like he wanted to be here for the remainder of the year. SMU officials and Chad literally had almost no interaction the last 8 months he was on campus.
From what i've been told everything about him saying he wasn't going to be here long, to telling the X recruit we aren't going to waste our time recruiting you, then telling recruits to look elsewhere and not sign with SMU he never denied..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part (I) https://clemson.forums.rivals.com/threads/the-chad-chronicles-part-i.192024/
**** Instead of 3 parts, I'm going to expand The Chad Chronicles to 4 parts. 3rd part will be about his last year at SMU and the 4th part will be the "Post Chad Era" at SMU.******
As you would expect the woman that overheard the coach’s wife told her husband he mentioned it the other boosters, but they all agreed that they hadn’t seen any sign of distress yet, and thought she might have just misspoke. They agreed that they would be more aware of their interaction with the staff going forward and start to pay closer attention to what the staff is telling them vs others.
Going into the spring/summer there a recruit out of DFW who's uncle a big SMU graduate/fan was and brought him to SMU camps/games since he was in HS. If I remember correctly, he was a high 3 star or a low 4 star. Y'all remember this is SMU and not Clemson recruiting, this was a big fish for SMU.
With that being said one day late in the summer the uncle ran into one of the boosters and the booster asked if he was coming to the cookout at the end of the summer with X recruit. (Side note- yes Chad copied Dabo on a lot of his recruiting tactics such as Elite Junior Day, End of Summer BBQ, etc.) They were planning on going, but the staff reached out to them and told them they shouldn't come. When asked why they said that, they said it would be a waste of time and resources for them to keep recruiting him... The prospect had at least a dozen P5 offers and SMU thought they weren't seriously in the conversation.
That frustrated the booster and even the uncle because the kid wanted to stay close to the DFW area and even reiterated it to the staff. Yet SMU stopped recruiting him and he ended up signing with a nearby P5 program. That was eye opening once word got out to the boosters…
So, Chad ends up going 5-7 in year 2 and like what SMU had seen in the spring there was a nice leap in talent/progress on the field from 2-10 the year before. They had beaten Tom Herman and #11 Houston and there also seemed to be an uptick in recruiting from the year before and beating out some P5 schools for a handful of recruits (more on this later). Toward the end of the year there was rumors that started swirling that Chad was a candidate for Baylor...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m going to take a short side bar to give y’all a recap on what I told y’all back a few years ago (I’ll attach the links to the thread at the bottom) when Chad was getting courted by Baylor after the Briles Rape Scandal.
In 2016 when Chad started entertaining offers from Baylor and even Texas Tech..
Tech met with Chad’s representatives’ a few times before sticking with Kliff.
Things got serious with Baylor after the whole Briles rape scandal and Baylor was looking for a coach to give a chunk of cash too, and to stick around for a while and weather the media shvt storm that was going to happen. I posted all the info a while back and below is what I said back in 2016.
“I know there has been threads about him going to Baylor. Here's some info for y'all.
Announcement tomorrow that he's heading to Baylor, with the press conference set for Monday afternoon in Waco.”
“$24.5 Million for 5 years with a opt out clause if Texas A&M head coaching gig opens.
Bringing the whole Offensive staff with him.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During this 10-14 day window the SMU offensive coaches were telling the recruits they were gone, they were headed to Baylor. The contract/negotiations were close to being finalized and they essentially started recruiting their offensive commits to Baylor.
The defensive staff was pretty much in the dark for this whole thing… They obviously were hearing the rumors, but Morris was essentially telling the coaching staff he wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t going take the job. They continued to do their job like nothing was going on...
Behind the scenes Chad and Co. were hand picking a few kids from the commitment list and telling them to get ready for the switch, they were moving on from SMU.
That came to a screeching halt when Morris got greedy..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Chad overplayed his hand on demands according to a few sources. That turned BU officials off a bit and at the same time, Fedora expressed interest. Baylor could try for Fedora then fall back to Morris."
Okay, so here's what happened with Morris. He realized he had Baylor by the balls and tried to squeeze out as much from Baylor as he could. They offered him a average salary of $4.9 Million a year with a opt out if the Texas A&M job opened and the opt out would be half of his remaining salary. Morris countered and said he wanted $5.5 Million annual salary with the opt out being nothing.
This is when Baylor got a little irritated about being taken advantage of. After that they started interviewing other names (Fedora, Fleck, Montgomery, Dykes) They realized that Fedora wasn't going to happen, most people believe Purdue will get Fleck and Dykes is a long shot. They're hesitant to bring back Montgomery because he was the OC at Baylor 2 years ago and believe that people will still associate him with rape scandals. So, Baylor realized they weren't going to pay an arm and a leg and that's when they and Morris decided to part ways. The price was such a big deal that Morris never formally interviewed for the HC position at Baylor.
Also, to keep it in perspective how bad it is at Baylor, they have 50 Scholarship players as of now for next year. 40 of those will be upperclassman and 10 will be underclassman.... So, in 2 years Baylor might be one of the worst college football teams in the country. So, you see why Morris wanted that much money to make it worthwhile and be well off if the Baylor job became a fiasco. Just thought I'd share.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While Baylor was interviewing other Candidates, Morris and his agent were talking to SMU about what it would take for Morris to not even consider Baylor as an option. Morris's 3 requirements were: 1) a $500,000 raise 2) additional $$$ for staff raises 3) a firm start date in writing for the Indoor Practice Facility/Op Center. It's been a big deal at SMU that they haven't had this type of facility and Morris wants a firm start date by Summertime. SMU has agreed to all these terms and you won't see Morris the announcement for his raise/extension until he knows the IPF has a firm start date for construction.
Chad signed the contract extension that Winter and there was an agreed start date for the IPF.
After NSD another bit of news slipped out... The one that seemed to break the camels back for SMU.
After the Baylor contract negotiation fiasco 2 members of the offensive staff started to encourage them to sign elsewhere because “we aren’t going to be here when you graduate” and "We're leaving as soon as possible" Those kids were some of the best recruits on commitment list and they proceeded to sign elsewhere after decommitting in December.
One of those kids’ (Who decommitted and signed elsewhere) mothers grew up in Highland Park (Neighborhood in which SMU is in Dallas) and this information again got back to the football supporters.
A few weeks before spring ball started SMU had a meeting with Chad to bring up all the stuff they had heard over the past year and essentially it was a heated discussion where both parties got everything off their chest. At the end of the meeting both were done with each other and they added a $0 buyout for Chad, as long as he continued to coach like he wanted to be here for the remainder of the year. SMU officials and Chad literally had almost no interaction the last 8 months he was on campus.
From what i've been told everything about him saying he wasn't going to be here long, to telling the X recruit we aren't going to waste our time recruiting you, then telling recruits to look elsewhere and not sign with SMU he never denied..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part (I) https://clemson.forums.rivals.com/threads/the-chad-chronicles-part-i.192024/
**** Instead of 3 parts, I'm going to expand The Chad Chronicles to 4 parts. 3rd part will be about his last year at SMU and the 4th part will be the "Post Chad Era" at SMU.******
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