Boise State Football Coach Retiring Amid Rapidly Changing NIL and Portal Landscape
Boise State is losing one of its best coaching minds, a person that was instrumental on helping Boise make their first College Football Playoff this season.
Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter announced his retirement on Thursday in what ended up being one of the most powerful social media posts lamenting the state of college football in this new era that focuses heavily on NIL and the transfer portal.
Koetter has been a football coach for 42 years, was the offensive coordinator for a brief stint in 2022 and full time in 2024. He was also Boise's head coach from 1998-2000 and accumulated a 26-10 record.
Needless to say, he has seen a lot of football and its inevitable evolution over the last four decades of coaching at various levels.
Koetter laments the state of football and how NIL money and lack of commitment has completely changed the face of the game and made it almost unrecognizable from even just a few years ago.
“College football is changing rapidly, and maybe not for the better,” Koetter wrote. “Conference realignment, roster limitations, transfer portal, NIL, lack of a governing body with any power are all issues that have to be dealt with.”
Multiple teams are trying to poach the very best players off of these Group of 5 teams, Ashton Jeanty being a top target. One only needs to look towards Tulane, another powerhouse Group of 5 school, who lost their starting quarterback Darian Mensah to questionable circumstances with Duke and have now lost their prized running back in Makhi Hughes to the portal.
“Our best players are getting offered between 2 and 10 times what we can offer,” Koetter wrote. “We are losing recruits in the portal to schools that are just flat outbidding us. I know it’s not all about the money, and Coach D and staff will undoubtedly continue to find the ‘right kind of guys,’ but money is an issue.”
While Koetter is from a different generation of football, many of his concerns are not only valid but shared with a large percentage of fans watching today's game. Where Boise State goes from here in unknown, but one thing is for certain: until there is a governing body that creates a system of integrity, the current system will remain corrupt and chaotic.