My guess Kelley knows his value. He has been a hot prospect the last couple of years.
He does not have the track record to warrant more than what we are willing to pay at this time. But if he wins in a couple of years and we are not on the same level with other programs he will most likely leave, leaving us in the same situation.
I do not see us paying in the 3 million area. We are not hiring that level of a coach with Grobe, Kelley or Johnson. But if we should happen to start winning the only one that might stay realistic about his pay is Gill.
Pelini is all about Pelini, he wants the big bucks and he has been around two of the highest paid for awhile now.
Grobe has a pretty good compensation package already. He will be expensive.
I have no idea what Johnson makes.
Gill and Pelini will be the most reasonable at this time. But do we want to hire a coach because he is cheaper than another. I want the best coach we can afford. If we are selecting a coach just becasue his current market value is less than our planned cap, are we really doing all we can to win.
I don't know if Gill or Pelini are the Tressel, I certainly don't know if Kelley or Grobe or Johnson are, but my gut tells me the last three have proven they can do the job at a major/sub major program. Big time companies do not hire first timers to run their ogranizations. I feel that Nebraska football is a big business operation. I would tend to follow the their strategy.
If I had my druthers it would be Reicth or Rodriquez, but we know we can not afford their price tags. So you drop to the next level. That is the way business looks at it. I think we have to think that way to get to where we want to be.
As stated before, we have taken a chance twice on unproven college head coaches. Can we truly afford to do it again?