The Hottest New Recruit in College Football Sits Behind a Desk
Sept. 14, 2024 Wall Street Journal
The most significant move of the college football offseason wasn’t a big-name coaching hire or a star quarterback transferring to another school. It was a contract given to a largely unknown member of Alabama’s support staff who doesn’t devise any schemes, doesn’t call any plays and has no direct role in what actually happens during games.
Courtney Morgan, the Crimson Tide’s general manager, signed a three-year extension in August that will pay him an average annual salary of $825,000, more than some of the program’s on-field assistants. The deal is unprecedented for somebody in Morgan’s position—mainly because, until recently, Morgan’s position barely even existed.
Alabama’s investment in Morgan sent a shock wave across the sport and raised eyebrows among many fans who had no idea who Morgan was, why he was so valuable and what a general manager even does. It is also the clearest sign yet of where college football is headed—and it’s somewhere that looks suspiciously like pro football.
In the past couple of years, dozens of programs have hired a GM to oversee the construction of their rosters, a task that once belonged primarily to the head coach. In most cases, it was the first time the school had ever used that title.
The GM’s duties include scouting and evaluating players both inside and outside their organizations, scouring the open market to attract the best free agents and managing an increasingly complicated payroll. In other words: a lot of what their counterparts in the NFL do.
“The administrators in the room don’t want to hear it,” Ohio State GM Mark Pantoni said, “but the professionalization of the sport is pretty much here.”
Ohio State players following a 56-0 victory over Western Michigan. Photo: barbara j. perenic//Reuters
Maintaining a roster in college football used to be straightforward. A coach would know exactly how many of his players were departing, so he would simply go out and recruit a comparable number of high-schoolers to replace them.
That model now seems downright quaint. Relaxed transfer rules mean every player in the country can become a free agent every year, resulting in more roster churn than ever before.
Perhaps more important, players can now be paid for endorsements, a development that has completely upended the very concept of recruiting. No longer can a coach walk into a player’s living room and charm his way to a commitment. It’s now about how much money a school’s donors can offer.
In this new paradigm, programs have come to recognize that relying on coaches alone isn’t enough and have begun assembling full-scale front offices at a scale never before seen in the college game.
“Everybody’s going to the NFL model,” said Duke GM John Garrett, who previously spent 19 years as a coach and scout in the NFL. “And rightly so, because it’s no longer amateur sports.”
Duke wide receiver Eli Pancol celebrates on the sideline after scoring a touchdown against Northwestern. Photo: Matt Marton/Associated Press
The idea of having an employee dedicated to personnel isn’t entirely new to college football. Nick Saban, arguably the greatest coach of all time, began popularizing the concept nearly two decades ago.
After a failed stint with the Miami Dolphins, Saban returned to the college game at Alabama in 2007 determined to bring some of what he had learned to Tuscaloosa. His experience in the NFL led to the realization that college teams were lagging behind in how they went about constructing their rosters.
Saban concluded that he could gain a significant advantage by creating an NFL-style personnel department and supplying it with meaningful resources. Considering the six national championships Saban won with the Crimson Tide, it’s safe to say the experiment worked.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the country quickly caught on, resulting in the rise of a position known as “director of player personnel” to help manage recruiting efforts. The job was smaller then and far less renowned, often consisting of a lowly employee in a dingy office watching video of prospects for 12 hours a day.
But as the college football landscape evolved, so did the importance of the front office. In 2016, Arizona made Matt Dudek the first official GM in college football. Iowa GM Tyler Barnes said that at the time, he “was not a fan of the title, just because of how different college football was at that point.” He doesn’t feel that way anymore—and the title has spread like wildfire.
“The more this job becomes exactly like an NFL GM job, that’s where you see the shift in the name,” said North Carolina GM Patrick Suddes, who served as Saban’s associate director of football operations from 2007-2013.
The number of jobs like the one Suddes occupies has grown exponentially. In 2018, he helped create a symposium at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn., for personnel and recruiting staffers across college football. About 100 people showed up. By last year, that number grew to over 300. This year, attendance climbed to more than 700 people.
While the scope of the job differs at each program, some schools have elevated the position to the point where the GM is effectively the second-most important person behind the head coach. Suddes went as far as to predict that at some point in the future, the GM could become responsible for hiring the head coach, as is standard in the NFL.
“I handle everything,” West Virginia GM Drew Fabianich said, “but the coaching.”
The assignment for GMs is about to become even more complex, as schools prepare for a new system that involves paying players directly. Pantoni said he spent this past offseason consulting with NFL salary cap experts to prepare for what’s to come.
At that point, college football programs will have to lean on their front offices even more. In some places, it’s already happening.
Last January, Alabama hired Kalen DeBoer for the seemingly impossible task of replacing Saban. DeBoer had just brought Washington to the national championship game with a roster Courtney Morgan helped build as the Huskies’ GM.
When DeBoer stepped off the plane in Tuscaloosa, Morgan—the man who would become the highest-paid GM in college football—was right behind him.
Sept. 14, 2024 Wall Street Journal
The most significant move of the college football offseason wasn’t a big-name coaching hire or a star quarterback transferring to another school. It was a contract given to a largely unknown member of Alabama’s support staff who doesn’t devise any schemes, doesn’t call any plays and has no direct role in what actually happens during games.
Courtney Morgan, the Crimson Tide’s general manager, signed a three-year extension in August that will pay him an average annual salary of $825,000, more than some of the program’s on-field assistants. The deal is unprecedented for somebody in Morgan’s position—mainly because, until recently, Morgan’s position barely even existed.
Alabama’s investment in Morgan sent a shock wave across the sport and raised eyebrows among many fans who had no idea who Morgan was, why he was so valuable and what a general manager even does. It is also the clearest sign yet of where college football is headed—and it’s somewhere that looks suspiciously like pro football.
In the past couple of years, dozens of programs have hired a GM to oversee the construction of their rosters, a task that once belonged primarily to the head coach. In most cases, it was the first time the school had ever used that title.
The GM’s duties include scouting and evaluating players both inside and outside their organizations, scouring the open market to attract the best free agents and managing an increasingly complicated payroll. In other words: a lot of what their counterparts in the NFL do.
“The administrators in the room don’t want to hear it,” Ohio State GM Mark Pantoni said, “but the professionalization of the sport is pretty much here.”
Ohio State players following a 56-0 victory over Western Michigan. Photo: barbara j. perenic//Reuters
Maintaining a roster in college football used to be straightforward. A coach would know exactly how many of his players were departing, so he would simply go out and recruit a comparable number of high-schoolers to replace them.
That model now seems downright quaint. Relaxed transfer rules mean every player in the country can become a free agent every year, resulting in more roster churn than ever before.
Perhaps more important, players can now be paid for endorsements, a development that has completely upended the very concept of recruiting. No longer can a coach walk into a player’s living room and charm his way to a commitment. It’s now about how much money a school’s donors can offer.
In this new paradigm, programs have come to recognize that relying on coaches alone isn’t enough and have begun assembling full-scale front offices at a scale never before seen in the college game.
“Everybody’s going to the NFL model,” said Duke GM John Garrett, who previously spent 19 years as a coach and scout in the NFL. “And rightly so, because it’s no longer amateur sports.”
Duke wide receiver Eli Pancol celebrates on the sideline after scoring a touchdown against Northwestern. Photo: Matt Marton/Associated Press
The idea of having an employee dedicated to personnel isn’t entirely new to college football. Nick Saban, arguably the greatest coach of all time, began popularizing the concept nearly two decades ago.
After a failed stint with the Miami Dolphins, Saban returned to the college game at Alabama in 2007 determined to bring some of what he had learned to Tuscaloosa. His experience in the NFL led to the realization that college teams were lagging behind in how they went about constructing their rosters.
Saban concluded that he could gain a significant advantage by creating an NFL-style personnel department and supplying it with meaningful resources. Considering the six national championships Saban won with the Crimson Tide, it’s safe to say the experiment worked.
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the country quickly caught on, resulting in the rise of a position known as “director of player personnel” to help manage recruiting efforts. The job was smaller then and far less renowned, often consisting of a lowly employee in a dingy office watching video of prospects for 12 hours a day.
But as the college football landscape evolved, so did the importance of the front office. In 2016, Arizona made Matt Dudek the first official GM in college football. Iowa GM Tyler Barnes said that at the time, he “was not a fan of the title, just because of how different college football was at that point.” He doesn’t feel that way anymore—and the title has spread like wildfire.
“The more this job becomes exactly like an NFL GM job, that’s where you see the shift in the name,” said North Carolina GM Patrick Suddes, who served as Saban’s associate director of football operations from 2007-2013.
The number of jobs like the one Suddes occupies has grown exponentially. In 2018, he helped create a symposium at a hotel in Nashville, Tenn., for personnel and recruiting staffers across college football. About 100 people showed up. By last year, that number grew to over 300. This year, attendance climbed to more than 700 people.
While the scope of the job differs at each program, some schools have elevated the position to the point where the GM is effectively the second-most important person behind the head coach. Suddes went as far as to predict that at some point in the future, the GM could become responsible for hiring the head coach, as is standard in the NFL.
“I handle everything,” West Virginia GM Drew Fabianich said, “but the coaching.”
The assignment for GMs is about to become even more complex, as schools prepare for a new system that involves paying players directly. Pantoni said he spent this past offseason consulting with NFL salary cap experts to prepare for what’s to come.
At that point, college football programs will have to lean on their front offices even more. In some places, it’s already happening.
Last January, Alabama hired Kalen DeBoer for the seemingly impossible task of replacing Saban. DeBoer had just brought Washington to the national championship game with a roster Courtney Morgan helped build as the Huskies’ GM.
When DeBoer stepped off the plane in Tuscaloosa, Morgan—the man who would become the highest-paid GM in college football—was right behind him.
