The NIL movement may have pushed its first Power 5 coach to leave his job.
Boston College’s Jeff Hafley was named the defensive coordinator for the Packers on Wednesday night — and it is rare for a coach from a top conference to willingly leave for a coordinator’s job.
However, it appears the new college football landscape may have played a significant role in the decision.
“He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told ESPN.com.
“College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore. A lot of things that he went back to college for have disappeared.”
On top of the recruiting that is a staple of college sports, coaches also now must secure NIL funding from donors to land and then keep players in the volatile transfer portal.
Hafley, who was 22-26 in four seasons with Boston College, had resisted NFL offers before, according to ESPN.
Hafley was previously a defensive backs coach for the Buccaneers, Browns and 49ers. He left the NFL to become the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State before getting the head coaching job with Boston College.
“CFB in its current state will be seeing more and more coaches heading to the NFL,” ESPN’s top college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit wrote on X. “Without boundaries and regulation that make sense coaches that get real opportunities in the NFL will be gone.
“This trend will continue until there is a new governing body and it creates a CBA with a players entity or union that would include issues like NIL-Transfer Portal-and eventually revenue sharing. The sport is spiraling out of control as we know and many these coaches are not sticking around and waiting. Just a new reality for the sport.”
Hafley will replace Joe Barry, who was fired after three seasons in Green Bay.
The Packers, who reached the divisional round of the playoffs, ranked 10th in points allowed per game (20.6), 17th in yards allowed per game (335.1) and 23rd in yards allowed per play (5.4) during the regular season with a defense featuring eight former first-round draft picks.
“I loved my four years at Boston College,” Hafley said in a statement released by the school. “This is an exceptional place to coach given the caliber of student-athletes we recruit, the facilities and the support from the University and BC fans.
“I will miss the players who gave so much of themselves these past four years, and my wife Gina and I will certainly miss the BC community and the many friends we have made here.”
