You know the situation is bad when the fans are practically pushing their coaches out of the team to leave. Such is the case with both Mike Norvell and Billy Napier, who, with each passing day, face more and more scrutiny for tarnishing the legacy of their respective teams. Mike Novell, the HC for FSU,  had a good 2023 season when the team had a 13-0 record before losing out to the Georgia Bulldogs but this year is a whole another state of the Seminoles. The team, who had the sympathies of the entire football community last year for not being given a CFP spot, is now standing at a 1-4 record.

As for Billy Napier, the less said, the better. Napier has lost more games in his past 2 seasons than he has won, with his record standing at 13-16 at the moment. In a bizarre turn of events, Billy Napier announced that he won’t be leaving anytime soon, adding more to the dismay of the fans. While both these coaches battle it out to survive the inferno around their careers, the offensive coordinator of the Purdue Boilermakers was given the boot, inducing the question of why aren’t the head coaches of these renowned programs being cut immediately. Well, the reason might just be their hefty buyouts, which combined comes to around a staggering number of $93 million.

First off, let’s take a look at Mike Norvell’s current existing contract. After Nick Saban retired as the HC for the Alabama Crimson Tide this year, there was a lot of turmoil over who’s going to take his job. Before the answer was found in the Huskies’ Kalen DeBoer, several other coaches like Mike Norvell were seen to be teasing with the role. This prompted the Seminoles’ program to give him an 8-year extension worth more than $84 million pre-incentives. As such, if he were to be fired this season, Norvell would be paid around a buyout amount of $65 million or over 85% of his base salary and supplemental pay for the rest of the term, which doesn’t end before 31st December 2031.

As for the controversial king of the Florida Gators, terminating his contract would cause enough of a hole in the program’s wallet. Billy Napier signed a 7-year contract with a guaranteed payout of over $50 million in 2021. Billy Napier receives a raise of $100,000 each year, and he stays on as the HC. Immediately releasing him would extract a hefty buyout amount of $27.7 million or 85% of his remaining contract amount.

Firing either of the two coaches at the moment would not be wise since the buyout would severely impact the teams’ finances. With that being said, let’s take a look at how easy it was for the Purdue Boilermakers to release their offensive coordinator, Graham Harrell after a bad game.

The Purdue Boilermakers immediately release their OC

The Purdue Boilermakers played against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on 28th September and lost disastrously by a score of 10-28. This defeat marked their 3rd loss out of the 4 games they’ve played.

The HC Ryan Walters decided that the offensive style of the team needed a drastic makeover, and he began his plans by firing Graham Harrell, who hadn’t been doing a good job as the offensive coordinator.

Speaking about Harrell’s termination in a news release, Walters said, “Decisions like this are never easy. After evaluating our start to the season, I felt that it was best for our team to make a change now. We are appreciative of Graham’s contributions to our program and wish him the best going forward.”

Thus, Harrell’s release sheds light on the irony of how easily a non-head coach gets fired for a bad start to the season, whereas the leaders of the team get to stay on and make a load of mistakes before their exit is even considered by the programs.