Just A Minute: Could Jay Wright Stepping Down Be Part a Growing Trend Among Coaches?

Turnover is one thing, but it's probably not a coincidence that numerous legendary coaches have stepped down since NIL turned the recruiting into the Wild, Wild West.

After 21 seasons as Villanova basketball head coach Jay Wright officially resigned on Wednesday, sending shock waves through college athletics. 

He had coached the Wildcats to national championships in 2016 and 2018 and four appearances in the NCAA Final Four. At age 60, he's done coaching.

And he's far from alone. 

Men’s basketball’s all-time winningest coach Mike Krzyzewski coached his final season in 2021–22, while longtime North Carolina coach Roy Williams stepped down a year ago and was replaced internally by Hubert Davis. 

Lon Kruger, who won 674 games in his career, also retired last spring. 

The legends are leaving, and it's worrisome. 

We're used to seeing a lot of coaching changes each year in the sport, especially in the SEC. The past few months saw Florida, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Mississippi State and South Carolina all makes moves. 

That's on top of all the movement in college football, including Brian Kelly still pulling the stunner of the year by leaving Notre Dame to dance in LSU of all places.

Let this be another reminder to Alabama fans just how good they have it with Nick Saban and Nate Oats. 

This move was different, though, and seemed to catch everyone by surprise. Wright didn't leave for more money or to run a bigger program. He's not that old and health doesn't appear to be an issue.  

I don't know Wright's reasoning, and I never feel it's a journalist's place to tell someone when they should hang it up, either coaching or playing. When you've had enough, you've had enough. 

But with coaches having to deal with running their programs, recruiting, the transfer portal and now NIL all at the same time, I have to seriously wonder if we're going to see a lot more coaches walk away like this in all college sports. 

Consider something Nick Saban recently told the Associated Press: 

“I don’t think what we’re doing right now is a sustainable model. The concept of name, image and likeness was for players to be able to use their name, image and likeness to create opportunities for themselves. That’s what it was. So last year on our team, our guys probably made as much or more than anybody in the country.

“But that creates a situation where you can basically buy players. You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place.”

That's frustration, pure and simple. Talking to coaches behind the scenes (i.e. off the record), most of them are miserable. 

It's not just free agency that the transfer portal has created, this is worse. Even the pro sports have rules and regulations that make it so the teams don't have to worry about opposing forces poaching their players every day. 

So far the NCAA seems powerless (at least so far) to stop or cap it, meaning that there's no end in sight.

Regardless, I don't blame Wright at all.