Why Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg has college basketball's best job, compares well to Kentucky's Mark Stoops
On3’s Andy Staples has often said that Kentucky’s Mark Stoops has the best job in college football. Now, in the midst of March Madness, he has deemed Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg as college basketball’s equivalent.
Staples shared that answer during a mailbag episode of his show on Thursday. First, he began by looking at Stoops’ circumstances again as a baseline. With that the Wildcats pay him for the results, albeit great for the standards at Kentucky, that he produces, he maintains that Stoops has it better than anyone else in the sport.
“Mark Stoops? Let’s be clear – the best job in college football,” Staples stated. “Like, all this talk we’ve had about John Calipari in the last week and studying his contract? While I was studying his contract, I grabbed Mark Stoops’ contract for comparisons sake, for trying to see a lot of different things. Mark Stoops has an incredible deal and we don’t even know if they’ve done anything more. I assume they have, and are going to announce that, since he almost got the Texas A&M job.”
“If he goes even higher, gets even more guaranteed, or gets more years on his deal? He’s signed through 2031. They would owe him a fortune if they were to move on from him,” said Staples. “He’s not going anywhere and I don’t think they feel like he has got to win 10 games a year. So it is a phenomenal job.”
Then, as Staples continued, he assessed that the similar basketball job needed to be a gig in the Big Ten or SEC where you could have marginal to decent success and still get respect for it. In that case, he looked at two other jobs, one in each conference, even though he didn’t settle on either one.
“Is there a basketball analogue?” Staples asked. “It has got to be a Big Ten or SEC school. The SEC schools in basketball? I feel like all of them have a little too much of a hair trigger.”
“We’re talking about a job where, if you made the tournament every year or maybe two out of every three, three out of every four years? You could keep it forever and they keep giving you raises to keep you from going somewhere else,” explained Staples. “I don’t think Georgia is that job. I think, if Georgia started consistently making the NCAA Tournament, they would then demand to go deeper into the NCAA Tournament. Most SEC programs are like that so they’re going to have a little more of a hair trigger. I was thinking maybe Penn State but then you had Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame? I think, I don’t know if they’re willing to pay to keep.”
So, in the end, Staples ultimately landed on Hoiberg over in Lincoln as the coach whose job best fits this bill. He’s coming off his first tournament appearance with the ‘Huskers and the program’s first in a decade. Now, if the hometown coach continues to meet that mark or more, he’d reach heights that basketball at Nebraska has never experienced.
Add that to his other circumstances and Staples feels confident that it’s Hoiberg who has college basketball’s best job.
“Here’s the job I’m thinking and we’ll see how it shakes out because this is the first time this guy has made the tournament at this school – Fred Hoiberg at Nebraska,” Staples said. “Just made the NCAA Tournament, they did not win. They lost to Texas A&M in the first round but this was year four. I suspect, if you can make the NCAA Tournament at Nebraska in two out of every three, three out of every four years? And then maybe, one out of those every three or four, you win a game or two in the tournament? I think you could coach their forever.”
“I think that if, say he goes to the tournament again next year and, this time, they win a game? They’re going to give him a nice raise. Goes to the tournament the next year, lose in the first round? It’s okay. That first tournament will be the first tournament win in school history. So, I think that he could keep getting paid if he wants to,” said Staples. “Now, it’s one of those things. If you’re really good at Nebraska, some people are going to try and throw a bunch of money at you to try to go somewhere else. Fred Hoiberg is an interesting case because, obviously, he played in the NBA for a long time. He has got money. He has been an NBA head coach – he has got money.”
This is all up to interpretation of what you might think makes a specific job as great as it is. Still, to Staples, the best basketball comparison to the ease of the football job in Lexington is the one in Lincoln.
“I do think that’s one of those jobs that you could have a Mark Stoops at Kentucky-type career and be very happy, very stable, very well-paid,” Staples said. “I think it’s Nebraska. I’m pretty sure.”