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Kansas safeties coach Todd Bradford has left the program. But this is not a standard case of an experienced assistant leaving a 1-11 team for greener pastures. No, this is more a case of an experienced assistant leaving a 1-11 team for untapped oil reserves.
The exact position is unclear, but Bradford is taking a job in the oil industry, he told Kansas’ Rivals site, Jayhawk Slant. Bradford said an old associate approached him with the idea around Signing Day in February. He was pretty straight-up about his reason for leaving.
“Each time the offer was getting a little bit better,” Bradford told the website, “and by the third time, financially, it was oil world money.”
Bradford said his decision was difficult.
“I looked at every reason not to do it,” he said. “It is a situation from a family standpoint and economically for someone my age I feel like I had to do.”
His decision carries shades of a former Iowa assistant’s decision to leave that program to open a Culver’s restaurant. Georgia Tech has been the recent king of players leaving for non-football opportunities, such as a NASCAR pit crew and seminary.
Bradford made $245,000 on KU’s staff last season, according to the assistant coach pay database at USA Today. Whatever his oil money is, seems like it’s more than that.
Bradford has some prior experience in the industry, according to Rivals. But he’s been coaching college football since 1987, save for an extended leave from 2012-15.
His decision to go swimming in a pool full of oil money cash rather than stick around and go 0-9 in the Big 12 this season is one of the most understandable life choices ever.