[unclechuck]

Not sure I understand this comment. One would think that if Oregon paid 1.7 to keep him they had to believe he was a hot commodity. Or maybe they went to the Peter McGowan school of negotiations and paid him twice what anyone else was willing to offer.

[quote author=Hulk01 link=topic=18384.msg218527#msg218527 date=1513606738]
How many programs are going to come offer $2+ million to steal away a defensive coordinator? 
My bet is Leavitt didn't have another offer worth looking at.

[/quote]
,
Both of these comments seem a bit confusing to me. Leavitt was already being paid a base of about $1.2 million, and as WIM alluded to: delivering Levitt to FSU was widely seen as a big part of the Seminoles attraction to the Taggart 'package'. So, that was the bidding war. Not a stretch to see this given the impressive job he did with the UO defense in his first year, following the prodigious turnaround he effected at Colorado in 3 years. This was all over the FSU and UO boards and mentioned on sites like Rivals, Scout-24/7 and SBNation. "Sources" floated numbers like $1.5mil as the FSU offer, which would seem reasonable for a guy making $1.2mil, as would a counter offer of $1.7 mil.

Sure, the bidding stuff is blogosphere 'source'-speculation that may never come out, but the fact is UO did bump his salary from $1.2mil to $1.7mil and he's still going to be coaching in our division and not 3K miles away. And Chip Kelly is going to be playing us every year instead of Willie Taggart, so WIM's header of "coaching non-attrition" seems spot on.

[unclechuck]

Not sure I understand this comment. One would think that if Oregon paid 1.7 to keep him they had to believe he was a hot commodity. Or maybe they went to the Peter McGowan school of negotiations and paid him twice what anyone else was willing to offer.

[quote author=Hulk01 link=topic=18384.msg218527#msg218527 date=1513606738]
How many programs are going to come offer $2+ million to steal away a defensive coordinator? 
My bet is Leavitt didn't have another offer worth looking at.

[/quote]
,
Both of these comments seem a bit confusing to me. Leavitt was already being paid a base of about $1.2 million, and as WIM alluded to: delivering Levitt to FSU was widely seen as a big part of the Seminoles attraction to the Taggart 'package'. So, that was the bidding war. Not a stretch to see this given the impressive job he did with the UO defense in his first year, following the prodigious turnaround he effected at Colorado in 3 years. This was all over the FSU and UO boards and mentioned on sites like Rivals, Scout-24/7 and SBNation. "Sources" floated numbers like $1.5mil as the FSU offer, which would seem reasonable for a guy making $1.2mil, as would a counter offer of $1.7 mil.

Sure, the bidding stuff is blogosphere 'source'-speculation that may never come out, but the fact is UO did bump his salary from $1.2mil to $1.7mil and he's still going to be coaching in our division and not 3K miles away. And Chip Kelly is going to be playing us every year instead of Willie Taggart, so WIM's header of "coaching non-attrition" seems spot on.