Is a Power 5 Assistant Job Better Than Being a MAC Head Coach?

Pete Lembo left his job as Ball State head coach, to become an assistant at Maryland. He’s the second MAC head coach to leave for a Power 5 assistant job in two years. While Dan Enos has raised his profile as Arkansas offensive coordinator (Georgia wanted him), Lembo is joining Maryland, as a position coach.

Whatever the reasons for Lembo’s departure, that’s still a blow to MAC prestige. We have not quite met the threshold for a media trend piece – a third coach would have to do this – but, it’s worth looking at the dynamics in play. If you’re an ambitious mid-40s coach who wants to be running a major program in a few years, you may be better off being an assistant at a bigger school.

MAC coaches get paid poorly. Western Michigan made P.J. Fleck the highest-paid coach in the MAC, earning $800,000 per year. He ranked 80th nationally. Frank Solich is the second highest at $562,000. The latter would not have cracked the Top 50 for FBS assistant coaches. Moving from MAC head coach to Power 5 assistant is a lateral move or better.

MAC coaching is a thankless task. MAC head coaches endure all the pressure, hard work, and scrutiny of being a head coach. At many spots, they have virtually none of the resources to be successful. Looking at the bottom line, it’s not clear these schools should field football teams. Ten of the 12 MAC programs get more than 2/3 of their AD funding from direct student subsidy. Toledo, least dependent, still receives 57.3 percent of funding ($12.9m) from the university. Enjoy diminishing your resume by taking paycheck losses every year to make ends meet.

MAC coaches have little mobility. Coaches have gone from the MAC to success at major programs, but seldom directly. Nick Saban coached at Toledo for a year, before returning to the NFL as a coordinator and being hired at Michigan State. Urban Meyer went to Utah before landing the Florida job. Both Brian Kelly and Butch Jones made stops at Cincinnati before ending up at Notre Dame and Tennessee. Brady Hoke went to SDSU before getting a sniff at Michigan.

If coaches do go directly from the MAC to the Power 5, it’s to less desirable spots such as Purdue, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and Iowa State. More money. Similar uphill battle. Coordinators took over at Georgia and USC this off-season.

Gary Pinkel is an exception, though he left a far better program at Missouri than the one he was offered.

Enos got Central Michigan bowl eligible three years in a row. He left a sound enough foundation that a career-long NFL Special Teams coordinator walked in and went 7-5 with three P5 losses in 2015. That may be a more impressive feat than coaching a potent offense at Arkansas.

But, you now know Dan Enos’ name, he will be getting paid more, and he probably will be in line for better head coaching jobs in coming years. Importing Arkansas’ offense is an easier sell than the guy who won 7 games at Central Michigan.

MAC head coaches leaving to become prized assistants may not become a trend, because prized assistants aren’t leaving to become MAC head coaches.