Ron Prince
| Ron Prince | |
|---|---|
 Prince at the KC Catbackers summer 2006 event |
|
| Sport(s) | Football |
| Biographical details | |
| Born | September 18, 1969 Omaha, Nebraska |
| Playing career | |
| 1988–1989 1990–1991 |
Dodge City CC Appalachian State |
| Position(s) | Tackle |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1992 1993 1994 1995–1997 1998–2000 2001–2005 2006–2008 2009 2010–2011 |
Dodge City CC (volunteer) Alabama A&M (OL) South Carolina State (OL) James Madison (OL) Cornell (OL) Virginia (OC) Kansas State Virginia (ST) Indianapolis Colts (assistant OL) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 17–20 |
| Bowls | 0–1 |
| Statistics College Football Data Warehouse |
|
Ron Prince (born September 18, 1969) is an American football coach and current offensive line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars[1]. From 2006 through 2008, Prince was the head football coach at Kansas State University. He was one of six African-American head coaches in the NCAA Division I-Bowl Subdivision in 2008. He was terminated from his post at the end of the 2008 season.[2]
Contents |
[edit] College coaching career
Prince succeeded head coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State following the 2005 season. When he started his first season at Kansas State, in 2006, he was 36 years old and the third-youngest head coach in the Division I-Bowl Subdivision.
During the 2006 season, Prince led Kansas State to its first winning record since 2003 with a 7–6 mark, as well as a berth in the inaugural Texas Bowl. The hallmark win of the regular season was a 45–42 upset of then #4 Texas on November 11, 2006. Kansas State lost the 2006 Texas Bowl to #16 Rutgers, 37–10.
In Prince's second season, Kansas State slipped to a 5–7 record, including a four-game losing streak to end the year. He also led the Wildcats to their first home loss against Kansas in over a decade.
On National Signing Day in February 2008, 19 junior college recruits signed to play football at Kansas State, although only 15 of them were able to enroll in the fall. As a result, Kansas State's 2008 recruiting class reportedly contains more junior college players than any other class ever compiled by current BCS teams. Some have criticized this as "panicking" to get good players, while others have praised Prince's moves, pointing out his predecessor Bill Snyder's success with using junior college players.[3][4][5][6][7]
At the beginning of Prince's third season, on August 7, 2008, Ron Prince agreed to a new contract through the 2012 season. The deal was retroactive to January 1, 2008, and ran through December 31, 2012, replacing the original contract signed in December 2005. Prince's base salary for 2008 was $143,000 with a total guaranteed package of $1.1 million, which also included payments from endorsements such as television, radio, internet, personal appearances and apparel. Prince could have earned up to an additional $950,000 per year in performance-based incentives.[8][9]
On November 5, 2008, Prince was fired from his position as head coach.[10] He received a $1.2 million buyout and an additional $150,000 of a $250,000 longevity bonus.[11]
In 2009, Prince was rehired by the University of Virginia as special teams coach.[12]
Before coaching at Kansas State University, Prince served for three seasons as offensive coordinator under Al Groh at the University of Virginia, and for a total of five years as the Cavaliers' offensive line coach. Prior to first stint at Virginia, Prince also served as an assistant coach at South Carolina State, James Madison and Cornell.
[edit] K-State buyout
On May 20, 2009, Kansas State University and its athletic corporation filed suit to have an allegedly secret agreement between Prince and former athletic director Bob Krause declared invalid. Krause negotiated the agreement in 2008 with Prince's attorney, Ohio sports agent Neil Cornrich. The agreement required Kansas State to pay a total of $3.2 million in three deferred payments to a corporation called In Pursuit of Perfection, LLC, if the school terminated Prince before December 31, 2008. The payments were scheduled to be made in 2015, 2016, and 2020.
The agreement was entered into separately by Krause on the same day that Prince signed a five-year contract extension, on August 7, 2008. The agreement was allegedly discovered on May 11, 2009, as the university responded to "routine informational requests" for a lawsuit involving former coach Tim Tibesar. University president Jon Wefald denied any prior knowledge of this agreement and immediately called for Krause to resign, which he did, effective May 20, 2009.
In a subsequent release, interim Kansas State athletic director Jim Epps stated: "On May 11, 2009, I learned of a secret deferred compensation agreement that Bob Krause apparently negotiated with Ron Prince's attorney. This alleged deal was made without the knowledge of anyone else in the athletics department, including its attorney. This deal was apparently constructed as a further supplement to the buyout provision contained in Prince's employment contract. I do not know why any additional supplement was justified, or why Bob Krause concealed this agreement from everyone until it was inadvertently discovered last week."[13]
On August 10, 2009, attorneys for Prince filed a counterclaim against Kansas State Athletics seeking $3 million in punitive damages. The filings claim that Wefald and other high-ranking members of the athletic department were aware at all times of the agreement. The claim also contended that Krause directed the department's attorney to reword the public contract to allow for a supplemental buyout.[14]
Kansas State University announced on May 6, 2011 that an agreement for settlement between Prince and K-State Athletics, Inc. and the University had been reached. K-State Athletics, Inc. will pay one lump sum of $1.65 million to Prince's company, In Pursuit of Perfection, LLC, on or before May 25, 2011. This is in addition to the $1.2 million Prince had already received per his employment contract, for a total buyout payment of $2.85 million.[15] K-State President Kirk Schulz stated: "We are pleased to have this matter resolved. We appreciate the work that our University counsel has provided during this process and can now maintain focus on moving forward as a University community." K-State Athletics, Inc. reported paying $395,000 in external legal fees during the dispute.[16] The University made the agreement public as a news release and was bound to provide this statement: "Neither the University nor K-State Athletics contends or believes that in negotiating his employment agreement or the MOU, Coach Prince engaged in any wrongful or unethical conduct. Discovery has demonstrated that this situation was not of Coach Prince’s making."[17]
[edit] Professional coaching
On March 21, 2010 The Indianapolis Colts announced the hiring of Prince as the assistant offensive line coach.[18] On January 31, 2012, Prince was fired by new Colts head coach Chuck Pagano.[19]
In February of 2012, Prince was hired as assistant offensive line coach by the Jacksonville Jaguars and new head coach Mike Mularkey.[20]
[edit] Personal information
Although Prince was born in Nebraska, he was raised in Junction City, Kansas, a town 20 minutes west of Kansas State's campus in Manhattan, Kansas. He was raised by the late Ernest and Georgeanne Prince. He is married to the former Zoe Ahern of Valhalla, New York and they have three sons, Deuce, James, and John, and a daughter, Grace.
Prince attended Junction City High School, where he graduated in 1988. He began his college football career at Dodge City Community College, then transferred to Appalachian State University, where he graduated and played on the offensive line under coach Jerry Moore.
[edit] Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas State (Big 12 Conference) (2006–2008) | |||||||||
| 2006 | Kansas State | 7–6 | 4–4 | T–2nd (North) | L Texas | ||||
| 2007 | Kansas State | 5–7 | 3–5 | 4th (North) | |||||
| 2008 | Kansas State | 5–7 | 2–6 | T–4th (North) | |||||
| Kansas State: | 17–20 | 9–15 | |||||||
| Total: | 17–20 | ||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll. |
|||||||||
[edit] Record against Big 12 teams
| Team | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| Baylor Bears | 1 | 1 |
| Colorado Buffaloes | 2 | 1 |
| Iowa State Cyclones | 2 | 1 |
| Kansas Jayhawks | 0 | 3 |
| Missouri Tigers | 0 | 3 |
| Nebraska Cornhuskers | 0 | 3 |
| Oklahoma Sooners | 0 | 1 |
| Oklahoma State Cowboys | 1 | 1 |
| Texas Longhorns | 2 | 0 |
| Texas A&M Aggies | 1 | 0 |
| Texas Tech Red Raiders | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 9 | 15 |
[edit] References
- ^ https://twitter.com/#!/RavensInsider/status/167319907124514816
- ^ "KSU: Ron Prince Won't Return As Football Coach". http://www.kmbc.com/sports/17907474/detail.html?treets=kc1&tml=kc1_break&ts=T&tmi=kc1_break_-1_03370111052008.
- ^ Evans, Thayer (July 23, 2008). "Kansas State Sees Players Where Some See Panic". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/sports/ncaafootball/23kstate.html?ref=sports. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
- ^ "How desperate is K-State's Ron Prince this year?". http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3514911&name=feldman_bruce.
- ^ "The pros and cons of raiding the junior colleges for players". http://www.kansascity.com/165/story/761133.html.
- ^ "Playboy envisions breakthrough year for K-State". http://www.cjonline.com/stories/081608/cat_319265753.shtml.
- ^ "Juco-heavy Wildcats take a risk". http://www.kansas.com/sports/lutz/story/504439.html.
- ^ Prince signs new contract
- ^ Details of Prince's contract
- ^ Prince won't return as Kansas State's football coach in 2009
- ^ "Fired Ron Prince: 'I do believe we ran out of time'". http://www.kansas.com/354/story/586707.html.
- ^ Rejoined UVA staff
- ^ "K-State files suit asking court to declare secret agreement invalid". http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/may09/princekrause52009.html.
- ^ Prince seeking $3 million
- ^ "K-State settles with Ron Prince for $1.65 million". http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/06/2855665/k-state-settles-with-ron-prince.html.
- ^ "K-State settles lawsuit with Ron Prince". http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=0e24868b794b44fb90df7452d0829e22.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Colts hire Prince
- ^ http://www.profootballweekly.com/2012/01/31/colts-hire-goodwin-arians-fire-prince-thomas
- ^ http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2012-02-08/story/jaguars-finish-coaching-staff-hire-ron-prince-assistant
[edit] External links
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- 1969 births
- Living people
- People from Omaha, Nebraska
- Alabama A&M Bulldogs football coaches
- Appalachian State Mountaineers football players
- Cornell Big Red football coaches
- Indianapolis Colts coaches
- James Madison Dukes football coaches
- Kansas State Wildcats football coaches
- South Carolina State Bulldogs football coaches
- Virginia Cavaliers football coaches
- Junior college football coaches in the United States
- People from Geary County, Kansas
