Description: Head Coaches are 100% optional for teams in Franchise Football. They are the in game generals on the field. Playing without a head coach is like a yellow football head coach in all statistics.

Topics

Contracts
     Salary
     Contract Length
     Contract Bonus
     Guaranteed Portion
     Re-Negotiation
Record
Skills
Offense
Defense
Special Teams
Kicking
Experience
Motivation
Strategy
Temper
Availability

Contracts: Head coaches each have a contract to play for their respective team. If a team is non-subscribed, you may only offer a coach a single season contract, that contract is always 0% guaranteed, and no bonus may be offered when signing. The only piece of the contract terms that a non-subscribed team may offer is the salary. When competing against other teams to sign a coach, it will be treated as a 0 year (remainder of this season - or if during the playoffs next season), 0% guaranteed, no bonus contract.

Salary - A head coaches salary is the amount of money that a team agrees to pay a coach per game for their services. If the team is (for any reason) unable to pay the head coach that salary, he will leave (without any warning). It is very important to note that a team may not rely on revenue from that game to pay the head coach. In other words, a team owner should have ample money to pay the head coach in their bank or money reserve prior to the games being played, and not count on money earned from tickets, concessions, merchandise or any other revenue stream from that day's games or events to cover the coach salary. That is a good way to lose your coach because of lack of funds. As a general management tip, always have money to pay for the expenses of your team, don't rely on income. Head coach salary is charged to a team for each game that they play. If a team does not play a game, they will not be charged for their head coach. If a team makes the playoffs, therefore continuing to play, they will be charged for the head coach for each game they play.

Contract Length - The contract length is the duration for which your team has signed the head coach. Head coaches are committed to a team for that time. Head coaches do not holdout and will only leave if not paid (or if they retire). As mentioned earlier, non-subscribed teams will not be able to choose the duration of the head coach contract, they are all 0 years, which, if hired during the regular season, means that they are employed until the end of that season. If they are hired during the playoff bidding (after the end of the regular season) that means the coach will join your team at the start of the next season and be under contract for that season.

Contract Bonus - Bonus' are only available to subscribed owners, and they are only applicable to head coaches that teams are competing to sign. So, when you are re-negotiating a contract with a coach that is already on your team, you will not have the bonus option available. Bonus' have no impact on the head coach salary demands. It is only used as an extra incentive to get a coach to join a team.  For simplicity, the sum of money you may offer a head coach as a bonus is limited to pre-defined values (translation: the bonus field is a drop down list with several round values, teams do not have the option to type in any value they want).

Guaranteed Portion - The guaranteed portion is another option only available to subscribed team owners. This term of a head coach contract defines what percentage of the coaches contract is guaranteed to be paid by the team. There are 5 options available to subscribed teams, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. This says the team agrees to pay X% of the entire coach contract in the event the coach is relieved of his duties. This includes if the coach leaves for lack of payment. Failure to pay a coach is considered breech of contract, the team, at that point, owes the coach the remainder of his contract while losing his services.

When a head coach is released with time still left on his contract, the remaining money on his contract is calculated. If the coach is released during the regular season, the team is responsible for paying the remainder of that season (based on the number of games in the regular season) and any subsequent seasons (again based on the number of games in the regular season). That amount is then multiplied by the guaranteed percentage to arrive at the total amount owed to the coach. For example: A head coach being payed $ 100,000 per game is released with the rest of this year (currently on day 17) and all of next year (16 games). 50% of the contract is guaranteed. So, the coach would be owed 4 days from this season - $ 400,000 and 16 days for next season - $ 1,600,000. That is a total of $2,000,000. Since only 50% is guaranteed, the final tally would be $1,000,000. That money would be deducted at the time of release from the team's money and/or bank. If there is not enough money, a percentage of the money that is available will be deducted from the total and the rest will be placed in the debt section of the front office.  Please note that pre-season games are not included when calculating the coaches contract for the future.

Re-Negotiation - When a head coaches contract is down to 0 years remaining, a button will appear in the bench section that allows a team owner to re-negotiate with their head coach. A head coach must sign a new contract with the team before the end of the regular season. Once the playoffs begin, the coach will be placed in a pool of coaches that may be offered contracts by all teams except the one he is currently employed by. Those teams may compete to sign the coach for the next season. Again, the current team may not participate in this process. If no one successfully signs the coach for next season he will make his way to the coaches pool at the start of the following season. At that time the original team may bid on him, however, this is after the end of the season.  So, to summarize, in the final year of the coaches contract the team that he is employed by has all regular season to come up with a contract.  If they cannot do that, he may be bid on by every team but the team he is employed by.  This takes place during the playoffs.  If no one signs him, he remains in the coach pool at the start of the next season and the original team may now bid.

A coaches demands when re-negotiating will be presented in a paragraph on the offer screen. As a general rule of thumb, the coach will move very little off of those demands (unlike players). A head coach always wants more guaranteed money (as he has now proven himself and the team is attempting to keep him through re-negotiation). In addition, several factors will impact his salary demands as well. This includes his record, playoff winning percentage and the number of championships won. Most of these metrics are while he has been with the team, not his overall career numbers. Due to the factors included, it is quite possible (if not probable) that the coaches demands will change on a daily basis (as wins and losses change). The more wins and losses the coach has while with that team, the less of an impact each new win or loss will have on demands.  It may be beneficial to re-negotiate early in the season in some cases, or it could be beneficial to re-negotiate late in the season. In any event, it is unlikely (but possible) that the coach will ask for less money than he is currently making. Essentially you can probably guess that as the team does well, the head coach will be looking for a better contract.

Record: A number of records are kept for each coach. The current season record for each coach is kept as well as their playoff and career records. This may or may not influence the decision to hire a head coach.

Skills: Each coach has eight skills (listed below). A coach with a yellow football skill score in an attribute is considered average. Blue and green are above average. Red is below average. It is quite rare to find a head coach who has all green and blue footballs for skill scores, so, teams will have to make choices about what skills they feel are important.

Offense: A coach who is high in offense will help a team on the offensive side of the ball. Increased yards, completion's, etc.

Defense: Coaches who are high in defense give a team some added ability on the defensive side of the football. Teams will allow less yardage, knock down more passes and more.

Special Teams: The special teams skill relates to everything on special teams but the actual kicking. That would be returns, return yards, and all around special teams play. The better a coach is in the area of special teams, the more yards on returns a team will see, and the better the team will be at stopping other franchises on special teams.

Kicking: Kicking covers all punting and kicking, including kickoffs. A coach who is high in kicking will help his team kick more accurately and for greater yardage.

Experience: Experience is a catch all that is also included when determining game playing successes. Typically experience relates to turnovers and take aways. A coach with a high experience should have less turnovers and more takeaways than he otherwise would. It is important to remember that turnovers still rely on the players, not the coach, but, some bonus' are obtained with a coach with high experience.

Motivation: This one is a handy little skill. It keeps players on the field longer and more frequently. Players do not tire as quickly. Low stamina players will not be able to play as many downs as high stamina players. If a coach has a high motivation skill, all starters will be available to play more downs.

Strategy: In strategic decision making, like double teams, shadowing, some passing and running situations, etc. the strategy skill comes into play. As with experience and the offense, defense, special teams, and kicking, this skill relates to different game play situations.

Temper: This one is a bit of a catch all. A high temper rating means the coach is in control of his temper, and thus makes the other attributes stronger because he isn't easily swayed from the intellectual part of the game. Low temper takes away from all other attributes because emotion often gets the better of the coach. So, temper can make the coach better or worse than his statistics might indicate.

Availability: Teams should be able to hire a coach if they wish (meaning there are at least 32 available). There is not, however, an infinite supply, and some teams (if they choose to hire a coach) will have to settle for coaches that have poor ratings in some skills. Again, coaches are 100% optional. Teams will function fine without one. In fact, teams with little revenue or trying to build up their front office may want to avoid the coach.