Jeff Hafley surprised a lot of people when he resigned as head coach at Boston College to become defensive coordinator of the Packers. But in today’s college football, the reality is that there are only a couple dozen elite programs where the top job is a better job than being an NFL coordinator.
Hafley noted that with the advent of the transfer portal and players getting paid for their names, images and likenesses, the No. 1 job of a head coach is really something more like what an NFL general manager does: Signing free agents and evaluating player personnel.
That’s frustrating for coaches because they don’t know if their school is going to be able to provide the kind of NIL money that will attract and keep top players. If you’re a player at a school like Boston College and you play well enough that a Michigan or Ohio State or Alabama or Georgia wants you, you’re probably going to transfer to one of those top-notch programs because those programs can offer you a lot more NIL money, and a better opportunity to showcase yourself playing at the highest level for NFL scouts.
Hafley got tired of spending his time trying to get Boston College donors to set up NIL funds for top players, when he’d rather be coaching football, which is what he’ll do as Packers defensive coordinator.
“Now that I’m the ‘general manger’ and you’re trying to manage ‘the cap’ and you don’t really know what the cap is and now you’re fundraising,” Hafley told Adam Breneman of CBS Sports Network. “I mean I want to coach football. I want to coach more defense than I did last year and now it’s just prioritizing again. I got to coach again. I miss coaching DBs, but how am I going to do that and that’s what I need to figure out.”
Boston College is in the ACC, which was a “Power 5" conference and is now a “Power 4" conference with the dissolution of the Pac-12. But the reality is there’s now only a “Power 2" in college football of the Big Ten and SEC. Which means Boston College isn’t going to be able to compete with SEC and Big Ten schools for the best players in the transfer portal.
So don’t be surprised if more college head coaches leave for NFL coordinator jobs. In today’s college football, there’s a relatively small number of prestige programs, and a much larger number of programs whose head coaches know they’re fighting a losing battle with NIL and the transfer portal.