Cohen leaving in print form..
- Thread starter RobbieRandolph
- Start date
Sounds like this has been in the works at least for a little while if UK is saying they may be ready to name a replacement as early as this afternoon. They obviously knew about it, which leads me to believe that the deal has been done for at least a few days.
....Mitch Barnhart saw that this was a strong possibility and had already decided to promote from within immediately if Cohen left. This isn't the Federal Government. These decisions can happen really fast and every day you delay if you know the end result is more time that your program is being hurt.
Cohen says look, I'm going to State. Either we drag this along till July 1, I go to state, there's no buyout, and then you guys are stuck looking for a coach after all the good ones are gone, OR you can just waive the buyout, we get this over with, and you get to pick a coach while some are still on the table.
Kentucky has no reason not to waive the buyout with just 3 weeks before it disappears anyway. And if they hire from outside (which doesn't appear too likely at this point), it would actually be in their best interests to waive it and start contacting other coaches now instead of waiting until the Auburns' of the world have already taken the best ones available. Even if they hire from within, if I'm AD I go ahead and waive it just to keep from having to answer reporters' questions every day for the next 3 weeks.
If they promote from within and do it fast, I'm gonna say that recruiting would be the #1 reason for waiving the buyout clause. Imagine what recruiting would look like with an on-the-way-out coach sitting there for 1 month and his assitants not being able to tell prospects who the next coach would be much less if they would still be recruiting them. Of course we're kind of in the same situation but our recruiting situation is probably no worse than it has been the past several years and that's what is really sad.</p>
That would be stupid and Cohen leaving before July 1 gives them a pretty strong argument that Cohen took away their opportunity to satisfy the condition precedent (the argument that they probably wouldn't have met their obligations is speculative and they could argue that raising money = significant progress). My guess is that it was negotiated to a lower amount and will be paid by state and/or cohen. If uk just waived it, they have a bunch of sissies for attorneys up there. I also kind of doubt not hiring a baseball coach this very minute is going to hurt too bad. That argument flies for football but not baseball. </p>
Veazey got a copy of Cohen's actual contract and it specifically says the buyout goes away if ground hasn't been broken on the new stadium by 7/1/08. And their AD has said all along there is no way they could come anywhere close to that schedule. There would be no reason for UK not to waive the buyout at this point and let both our baseball program and theirs move forward instead of dealing with the media speculation for the next 3 weeks.
baseball program back. However, if the clause is "ground broken" v. significant progress (which i thought i heard on this board), then that changes things because it would be pretty easy to prove that you don't have the construction, etc. lined up for 7/1/08.
We'd have just waited until July 1. And you're right that we all thought the clause was "significant progress" until Veazey came up with a copy of the actual contract and posted it on his blog. Lawyers could argue for weeks what "significant progress" means, but if anybody tried to enforce the buyout based on "breaking ground" when the financing hadn't been arranged and there was no signed construction contract would be thrown out of court. UK did what was in everybody's (including their own) best interests by waiving the buyout.
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