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Is it time to move on from Jim Grobe?

I don't need to read it. Where have you been, camping on Pluto?
 
Yes.

He's far and away the best coach we've ever had. He took our program to previously unthinkable heights. He's indirectly responsible for the stadium upgrade, and directly responsible for some of the best sports moments I've ever been a part of. He's been a great ambassador for Wake Forest, and most players will tell you that he shapes boys into men, values education, and fosters character.

But he is loyal to a fault. The game of recent years has passed him by. It will always be a challenge to recruit to Wake Forest; the pipeline he has/had with Pahokee and Florida in general has been pretty great. I think the model is there for future coaches who can recruit 2/3 star, high-motor, medium talent guys and coach them up to be all-ACC type guys. For one reason or another, the fire does not seem to be there anymore.

I love coach Grobe and everything he's given to this school, but this year is a year too many of subpar performances.

I know Wellman seems to have lost sight of the importance of accountability, favoring instead some sort of stilted pride and loyalty. He may, in that sense, be falling victim to his own success, much like Grobe. Wake is a small school in a high major conference, and our set of challenges is unique and complex. Time to put a fresh face on our marquee programs and get us back to where we all know we can be.
 
How much do you think Grobe is still owed- around $7 million? Don't think he leaves and don't think Wake will buy him out.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
How much do you think Grobe is still owed- around $7 million? Don't think he leaves and don't think Wake will buy him out.
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I don't think anyone outside of the athletic department has any idea what the buyout is. I have a hard time believing we have a huge buyout with only 3 left on a 10 year contract.
 
I have no idea what the buyout would be but he still has four years left on his deal right? At 2+ million a year he's owed at least 8 million just on his contract. If the actual base salary is something closer to 1.5 million (which I think is the number without the performance bonuses) then that's still 6 million.

Grobe doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would just hang around if he sees the writing on the wall to resign. He would probably accept a buy out if offered.

ETA: That's right, three years left it was 2007 he got the deal. So that's somewhere in the 4.5-6 million range.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I have no idea what the buyout would be but he still has four years left on his deal right? At 2+ million a year he's owed at least 8 million just on his contract.
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That's not the way buyouts work necessarily from what I understand reading about various buyouts over the years. Some contracts are written such that you fire a coach and you've got to pay him the full value of the contract owed, but often buyouts are for a value lesser than what the coach would have earned if he had stayed employed. And that value often goes down each year as the contract gets shorter. They also often have clauses that spread the payment out over time and/or change the buyout if the coach gets a new job. I don't recall reading about any contracts where the coach got both his full pay for the rest of the contract AND a buyout fee.

Here's some info about buyouts:
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2520/schools-pay-out-31-million-to-fired-coaches
 
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Five straight losing seasons and he throws out a quote like this to ESPN: “I don’t think it’s a program thing, it’s just the way Wake Forest is always going to be,”

Definitely time for him to go.
 
TownieDeac said:
Yes.

He's far and away the best coach we've ever had. He took our program to previously unthinkable heights. He's indirectly responsible for the stadium upgrade, and directly responsible for some of the best sports moments I've ever been a part of. He's been a great ambassador for Wake Forest, and most players will tell you that he shapes boys into men, values education, and fosters character.

But he is loyal to a fault. The game of recent years has passed him by. It will always be a challenge to recruit to Wake Forest; the pipeline he has/had with Pahokee and Florida in general has been pretty great. I think the model is there for future coaches who can recruit 2/3 star, high-motor, medium talent guys and coach them up to be all-ACC type guys. For one reason or another, the fire does not seem to be there anymore.

I love coach Grobe and everything he's given to this school, but this year is a year too many of subpar performances.

I know Wellman seems to have lost sight of the importance of accountability, favoring instead some sort of stilted pride and loyalty. He may, in that sense, be falling victim to his own success, much like Grobe. Wake is a small school in a high major conference, and our set of challenges is unique and complex. Time to put a fresh face on our marquee programs and get us back to where we all know we can be.
Click to expand...

This thread will drop straight to the bottom, but only because this post nails what probably 90% of the fan base thinks.
 
What should happen won't happen and that is for Ron Wellman to bring Jim Grobe into his office, show him the our pathetic offensive rankings from the past several seasons and tell him either Lobo goes or the whole staff goes. I love Grobe and I hate it, but that's the point it's at for me. We've had different offenses, different players, different offensive position coaches, but the one constant in our offensive suckitude is the guy that is the OC.
 
RacerDeac said:
That's not the way buyouts work necessarily from what I understand reading about various buyouts over the years. Some contracts are written such that you fire a coach and you've got to pay him the full value of the contract owed, but often buyouts are for a value lesser than what the coach would have earned if he had stayed employed. And that value often goes down each year as the contract gets shorter. They also often have clauses that spread the payment out over time and/or change the buyout if the coach gets a new job. I don't recall reading about any contracts where the coach got both his full pay for the rest of the contract AND a buyout fee.

Here's some info about buyouts:
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2520/schools-pay-out-31-million-to-fired-coaches
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I know the difference between the two (that's a great ESPN article btw), I was just combining two thoughts. The first was "I have no idea what the buyout would be (if he didn't get just get paid out the rest of the contract if fired)" and the second was "he still has four years (actually three) so if he's making 2+ million a year and there's no buyout, we would owe him 6 million.
 
Don't see WF buying out Jim Grobe. On the list of WF athletic department priorities, turning a profit is first, and everything else is on the next page. Unless someone outside the athletic department is willing to stroke a 7 figure check (whatever the buyout amount is at this point, its not less than 1/3 of the remaining amount to be paid on Grobe's contract, which is about $7 million), WF is not about to pay Grobe, and some new coach next year, when WF can simply keep Grobe and continue to make a nice profit. The only way WF has a new football coach in 2014 would be if Grobe decides that he wants to walk away.
 
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liveanddiedeac said:
What should happen won't happen and that is for Ron Wellman to bring Jim Grobe into his office, show him the our pathetic offensive rankings from the past several seasons and tell him either Lobo goes or the whole staff goes. I love Grobe and I hate it, but that's the point it's at for me. We've had different offenses, different players, different offensive position coaches, but the one constant in our offensive suckitude is the guy that is the OC.
Click to expand...

I've heard from a couple of guys close to the program that Wellman and Grobe had serious talks last year about staff changes and there was significant resistance from Grobe. No idea if it's the absolute truth or not of course.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I've heard from a couple of guys close to the program that Wellman and Grobe had serious talks last year about staff changes and there was significant resistance from Grobe. No idea if it's the absolute truth or not of course.
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Would not surprise me a bit. Loyal to a fault.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I've heard from a couple of guys close to the program that Wellman and Grobe had serious talks last year about staff changes and there was significant resistance from Grobe. No idea if it's the absolute truth or not of course.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, given the primarily cosmetic changes in the coaching staff prior to this year. Seemed pretty half-assed at the time. Maybe it was to satisfy Wellman at least something was being done...
 
Grobe's about the same age as Cutcliffe and look what's going on at dook.

It's just that dook has the better coordinators- sitting in the stands at the game saturday with my son and when Noel went down with the ankle injury I said to him to watch for the bomb on the next play. BOOM! TD dook!:mad:

Good offensive coordinator over there and their defensive coordinator has them pitching 4th Q shut-outs all season long.
 
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