It’s a question no one has asked or had any reason to ask. But it’s a question that is now being asked because it’s January 28, football is a million years away, and recruiting screaming is nearing peak levels, all of which drive me to the dark place of talking about whether or not Houston Nutt has overachieved or underachieved since being relieved of his coaching duties.
Yesterday, the highly informative Bill Connelly, who has yet to post something that isn’t worth reading, detailed which college football coaches overachieve and underachieve the most. In his post, Connelly listed all coaches who have coached at least 3 of the last 10 years and the difference between their number of wins and second-order wins (a fancy way of saying HOW DID YOU NOT WIN THAT GAME – or, more calmly, games they should’ve won).
In one of the least shocking revelations since God separated the light from the darkness, Houston Nutt was found to be a chronic underachiever. The numbers indicate Nutt was good for at least half a loss that should not have happened per season in his last seven years of coaching.
Yet Another Brief Aside: Do not worry though, fellow underachievers. Despite this underachieving, Nutt did get Ole Miss to back-to-back Cotton Bowls for the first time in – how many years? All together now – FIFTY!!!
So even if you do half-ass it, things can still work out well at times. You’ll just need luck and someone else doing all the hard work before you get there.
While Nutt is no longer actively destroying football programs, he is out and about in the college football world, occasionally popping up on people’s radars (except mine; he is ALWAYS beeping on my radar). Which, now six paragraphs later, brings us to the initial question of has he overachieved or underachieved since the final sad whistle of 2011.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK (with little to no math!).
First, the overachievement, which occurred after a final two years of 6-18 (1-15) at Ole Miss, leaving the program in charred ruins:
- Received $4.35 million as part of a buyout settlement from Ole Miss in which he got money and Ole Miss didn’t have to watch him lose 14 straight SEC games
- Got his money before new tax codes went into place in 2013 (“Giggity, Obama.”)
- Nearly became the wide receivers coach for the Dallas Cowboys
- Hired by CBS as an analyst for their CBS Sports Network (the one that you can never find when someone on Twitter says, “Awesome finish between (X) and (X). One minute left on CBS Sports Network.”)
- Most likely paid six figures for jabbering with Ron Zook
- Got to go on TV dressed like this
- Didn’t he also have a satellite radio show? With like Jack Arute?
- Pretty sure he did (so even MORE MONEY in his account)
- Found his name mildly batted around for the UAB, Middle Tennessee State, and UConn jobs
- Lived in New Mexico
- Now apparently lives in Dallas
- Maybe has two houses
- Was seriously considered for the Tulsa job (allegedly making it to the search firm stage!)
- Told everyone he’d take the SMU job if offered, which wasn’t immediately followed by SMU issuing a statement saying, “NO CHANCE”
- Received moderate consideration for the UNLV job before being passed over for a high school coach
- Apparently still employed by CBS Sports Network
- Assuming a pyramid scheme hasn’t gotten the best of him (a big assumption, I know), remains a millionaire
And finally, the underachievement:
- Didn’t get the full $6 million he was owed by Ole Miss
- Lost the Cowboys wide receivers job to Derek Dooley
- No longer represented by Jimmy Sexton
According to the tale of the tape, YEAH HOUSTON HAS DONE JUST FINE FOR HIMSELF AND THEN SOME.
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