A coach leaving a good job for a better one happens all the time. A coach leaving a good job for a better job -- in the oil industry? That's a rarity.
Kansas safeties coach Todd Bradford has left the staff to return to the oil industry, he confirmed to Jayhawk Slant. Bradford started his coaching career in 1987 at his alma mater, Southern Utah, before climbing the coaching ladder at schools ranging from New Hamsphire to Oklahoma State with a number of stops in between. After he was let go as Maryland's defensive coordinator following the 2012 season, Bradford left coaching to work in the oil industry and take care of his ailing mother.
But the coaching bug bit him again, and he returned to the game in 2015 to work on David Beaty's staff at Kansas. He remained there through this week, switching from linebackers to safeties in preparation for the 2018 campaign.
Along the way, a buddy in the oil business hit him with an offer he couldn't refuse.
“A guy that I was involved with and had business dealings when I was in the oil world before I was helping with my mom reached out to me. He told me he had some companies that were doing really well and he needed someone to come in and help me run them. He asked if I was interested and I told him I was happy coaching," Bradford told Jayhawk Slant.
“Then he called two more times after that and offered me the job after signing day. I turned it down twice. But each time the offer was getting a little bit better and by the third time financially it was oil world money.”
Bradford made $245,000 as a Kansas assistant in 2017 according to the USA Today coaching salary database, so one can only wonder what "oil world money" actually entails.
Bradford is the second FBS assistant to walk away from coaching for a hard-right turn into the business world in recent memory. Former Iowa assistant Eric Johnson left his job to partner with his wife in starting a Culver's franchise in Nashville.