Everybody talks about a pay cut, but I'm not sure I agree that it's an issued. He's made more money than he'll ever need at Iowa. Michigan is the better overall job. Let's say he makes half of what he's making now. Wouldn't that be worth the cut? It's not like he's in dire financial staits.
Drop Iowa and take the job. Win big games, beat OSU, compete for the Big Ten title/BCS spot and money will take care of itself. It really shouldn't be an issue. It'll be there eventually.
Even if there were a cut, say his 3M to 2M, he's easily going to be setup in new contract with more years than he has at iowa. I'd think the Michigan job is going to be a 5 yr contract minimum. I thought he's only setup with iowa through '10 or '11? His feet are already to the fire on asst coaches. Another season like this, he might be sent packing. At the very least, he'll have to make some changes he really doesn't want to.
Plus, we rant and rave about his contract - but it's somewhat incentive laden isn't it? Granted, some of the incentives are softballs.
I remember when the contract story broke a year or so ago, Tirrell was up in arms about how mediocre the qualifications for some of the incentives were. Something about $75K bonus for a bowl under 1M payout, 100K for a bowl over - a bunch of stuff like that.
Well, he didn't make that incentive - so not so much of a gimme after all