As Florida Football and Basketball can attest to, coaches leaving for pros isn't new
Once upon a time, both Florida Football and Florida Basketball had national title winning coaches depart for the professional ranks. Gators fans didn't want to see either leave, but understood the natural progression for one's career that both Steve Spurrier and Billy Donovan took.
Another national title coach is looking at potentially jumping ship to the pros and this is apparently a shock to those who haven't paid attention.
Florida Gators Coaching Carousel
Dan Hurley has won back-to-back national titles in men's basketball with the UConn Huskies. According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN is being heavily pursued by the Los Angeles Lakers to become their next head coach.
This prompted some peculiar commentary from another ESPN personality, Paul Hembekides.
Jim Harbaugh and Danny Hurley -- fresh off national titles -- jetting to the pros within months of each other is a sad commentary on the state of college athletics.
— Paul Hembekides (Hembo) (@PaulHembo) June 6, 2024
Soooooo, Jim Harbaugh and Hurley are the first college coaches to jet to the pros?
Um, Steve Spurrier and Billy Donovan say hi.
Do players have more power than they ever have before? Of course and it has created more headaches for coaches than they have had to deal with in the past.
But both Spurrier and Donovan won a national title with the Gators in their respective sport before the transfer portal and before NIL. Both were still drawn in by the allure and the money of being a professional coach.
And they aren't even unique with the journey they took. Barry Switzer, Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Lou Holtz, Dennis Erickson, Rick Patino, Lon Kruger, Brad Stevens, Bobby Petrino, Butch Davis, and even Harbaugh himself are all notable college coaches who left their program to go coach in the pros.
Was college athletics in a sad state then who are we just going to ignore that this is how things have always been?
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