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Is Zack Follet ready to start his coaching career?

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I added this to the article and am reposting to the comments to hopefully increase visibility.

We previously reported that DeRuyter’s 2020 salary was $393,334 per the USA Today. However, a story by the Register Guard notes he received a $300,000 retention fee for a total compensation of “$8250,000”. It is likely that his salary was anywhere between $693,334–825,000 and was not significantly affected by the internal coaching shuffle between the 2019 and 2020 seasons. I apologize for the misinformation.

https://www.registerguard.com/story/sports/college/football/2021/01/22/oregon-ducks-hire-former-fresno-state-head-coach-tim-deruyter-defensive-coordinator/6670499002/

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Thanks for the update! Provides clarity re: motivation for his departure.

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I thought it was kind of obvious at the time TDR was re-labeled as co-dc that it was expected for him to get hired away. at some point. Maybe he & Wilcox discussed it & Wilcox did the classy thing by leaving the door open for his departure. It was actually surprising that Beau Baldwin got hired away before TDR did, as Cal's defense was getting national kudos, offense not so much. Wilcox brought them both in as former head coaches to tap their experience while he was a newbie. It could be looked at as they fulfilled their collective purpose, and Wilcox no longer needs the mentoring. It would be great if Cal had an unlimited budget for assistants, but reality bites.

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Movin on. I'd like to see a young coach get hired to fill the role of OLB coach. Kinda like a Browning type!! I suspect TDR's Oregun defense may crush Cal's offense for the next couple of years. Oh well.

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eyes emoji

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The coaching carousel leaves me more meh than it used to. I certainly appreciate the turn around under Wilcox, but am in no position to know how much was DeRuyter or someone else. So in Wilcox I will keep trusting. Teams succeed or fail based on their head coach, ultimately. Saban is no offensive guru, but they keep crushing it because he hires and recruits well. Of course, he has infinite money, but still. It's on Wilcox. Tedford fell apart because well, he did. Dykes failed to ever hire decent defensive staff. I think Wilcox and Musgrave will attract good coaching talent, and it's on Wilcox to keep us strong.

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So much for the theory that DeRuyter was "semi-retiring" and Sirmon's promotion was part of the transition (re: some of the explanations provided here when wondering what the heck was going on with the DC position last offseason and why was DeRuyter seemingly demoted). I suppose he could've changed his mind, but like all things coaching related (particularly under Wilcox's tight lipped regime), its always going to be just conjecture from the fan base..

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Like most people, I liked DeRuyter more than Sirmon. But let's trust Wilcox can find a great OLB coach.

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Is Andy Buh available?

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He's too expensive. He made $500k while at Cal.

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Presumably Sirmon will be DC and things will be fine.

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he's already DC

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I get why he is going. It still sucks though :(.

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Yeah, this sucks. I did NOT realize the size of the paycut he took to go to co-DC.....that was not small and I can see why rainy Eugene looks more green.......

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What pay cut? TDR made about 700K. The amount listed was his base salary and did not include his talent bonus. In fact, he made more last year because his salary was structured to increase after the Fresno contract finished (Fresno was still paying him). The media continually looks at Cal coaching salaries and under-reports because Cal reports what the UC pays and not the additional talent rates.

Regardless the change to DC from TDR was based on a number of factors, most of which were related to the rest of the conference catching onto his tendencies, which has happened at many of his stops over time. But at the end of the day, he was an excellent coach, had significant input into the game plan, and will be missed. But Wilcox made his decision two years ago with TDR and he looked last year and did not get a gig. He is looking to become a DC and Oregon is a good place for that. It was not a huge increase - about 10%. I think actually this was OK from a perspective of Cal can now use that budget to keep the other guys who are going to be long term guys hopefully - Toler, Browning, etc. Keeping 4 former DCs on staff is a little bit top heavy...

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Why would Fresno State be still paying his buyout after 4 years? I doubt his remaining contract was more than a couple of years at most.

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Me neither! Imagine being so good at your job that you get your salary halved...

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That would make me happy!!!

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Wow. Looking at Gerald Alexander's tweet about DeRuyter getting back "to a position he deserves to be in." If that isn't a condemnation of the middling state of Cal's football program, I don't know what is. It would be entirely different if DeRuyter was heading back to the head coaching ranks, but this was all about the money and the prestige of being in a much better program that directly competes with Cal.

BTW, I noticed that Alexander did some similar cheer leading when Bechton left the program. Not let's go see if Wilcox can go poach a great D coordinator from a successful program. Ain't happening.

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I wouldn’t read much into it. From what I know defn not the right read.

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Cal beat Oregon , DeRuyter was not the D coordinator, lowest points of the year for Oregon. That was in Orego by the way!

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I think DeRuyter deserves to be DC and I can understand GA congratulating him for going back to that role. And in reality, to the eyes of most people, Oregon > Cal in the current football world.

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Digging through GA's tweets, I don't see similar vibes for Becton's departure. It's a much more standard congratulations.

https://twitter.com/GAlexander21/status/1346961509725958144

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That's an interesting interpretation of GA's tweet that I didn't think about. It would be odd, however, for him to take a shot at Cal as being a lowly program and DeRuyter "deserving" to be at a program like Oregon when GA coached at places like Cal (duh), Indiana State, and Montana State--not exactly big names.

Might be my own bias based on the situation, but I think GA's tweet is more about DC vs. co-DC.

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Agree with this take. I think GA was just saying TD deserved to be solely in charge regardless of the institution

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I always thought that DeRuyter was totally compliant in accepting the co-DC role. But this makes it sound like he wasn't and started looking around when it happened. If a high profile program like Oregon thought he was good enough to be a DC and double his salary, then why the hell did he get tagged as a co-DC at Cal? Did Wilcox do that to keep Sirmon from looking around?

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Gah. Given that Wilcox will forever keep his fingertips on the defensive side of the ball, this wouldn't sting so much under normal circumstances, but losing him to a Pac 12 North rival is brutal.

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Agreed. Losing DeRuyter is not a shock in the least, and Wilcox will always be heavily involved. Oregon picking up a competent DC that knows our system is very bad news.

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