Former San Diego State Coach Chuck Long Heading to Kansas as Offensive Coordintor

That rejoicing on the west coast Sunday came from the San Diego State athletic department that no longer has to pay former head coach Chuck Long doing his best George Costanza impression.  Long had being working at the school with his own office on 'special projects' and was being paid by San Diego State University (emphasis on State since California is in massive debt). However, as of Sunday night Long is fully employed at Kansas University as the new offensive coordinator as part of new staff formed by Turner Gill who was hired from Buffalo to take over the job from Mark Mangino.

Prior to this hire the Aztecs were required to pay Chuck Long his salary because of a clause in his contract:

His contract is unusual in that it contains a clause saying he is entitled to no further compensation once he lands a new job. In effect, this creates an incentive for Long to stay at SDSU because no other likely job would pay him nearly as much.

How much? Well, he was being paid his head coaching salary of $715,000.  Not a bad gig if one can get a job to just 'show up' and get near three-quarter of a million dollars.

Long's head coaching career was nothing less then a spectacular failure as he guidedthe team to a record of 9–27 from 2006-2008 before he was ultimately fired.  The reason for the hire by Turner Gill is that Long was an amazing offensive coordinator while at Oklahoma where he was first part of the 2000 BCS title team while being the quarterbacks coach.  Then he was the offensive coordinator from 2002-2005 where he lead the offense to a Rose Bowl as well as the highest point out put per game in Big XII history at 51.5.  He also was a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach.

The real question about Long's success was that he either had all the five star athletes and just called the plays, or he actually out schemed and out coached the others; something he obviously was not able to accomplish will running the ship into the ground at San Diego State.