The University of Oregon football team isn’t doing too well this year. The Ducks lost to the USC Trojans over the weekend in a 45-20 blowout, and now sit at 3-6 on the season.
When a college football program isn’t doing well, most of the blame goes on the head coach. So in the case of the Oregon Ducks, most of the blame is being directed towards head coach Mark Helfrich, now in his fourth season as the head coach in Eugene.
After the Ducks’ loss to the Trojans, Oregon’s biggest alum came out and made a dig of sorts at Helfrich and his job status.
There's talk heating up in Oregon that Phil Knight is ready to throw insane $10M+ a year money at a football coach. He's 78, wants a title.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 5, 2016
That’s right, Phil Knight is willing to pay a head coach $10 million plus. For reference, Jim Harbaugh is the highest paid coach in the country according to USA Today, and he gets paid a little more than $9 million.
Less than a day after Knight’s comments came out, Helfrich was asked about what he thought of them. His response?
I asked Mark Helfrich what he thought about @darrenrovell's tweet that Phil Knight wants to pay a new HC $10 million. Here's his response: pic.twitter.com/I2FkSyFFPt
— Kristen Rodgers (@KristenERodgers) November 7, 2016
“That’s the nature of the profession and it would be cool if it was that easy,” Helfrich said. “I take it it wasn’t me that was getting the $10 million.”
If it was that easy, I’d probably be a head coach instead of writing this article.
Helfrich currently gets paid $3.8 million a year to lead the Ducks. Before taking over as head coach, he was the team’s offensive coordinator from 2009 to 2012. The farthest the Ducks made it under Helfrich was an Alamo Bowl victory in his first year in 2014, and a loss to Ohio State in the College Football National Championship Game in 2015.
