anonymous quotes, some from assistants but obviously two of the interviewees are Lovie Smith and Kliff Kingsbury. full swipe is on The Athletic:

Q: Do you miss college? Would you go back?

Coach 2: "I’m not trying to get myself a job or anything, but yes. Yes, because I do like the relationships and talking to people. I like people, so yeah."

Coach 3: "No, I don’t. I don’t miss it. But I would say that, spending 15 years in college, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it at that time of my life. I was supposed to be a college coach from 23 until 36 or whenever. I think that was my path. So I don’t regret it. But no, am I like, pining to go back to college right now? No, not at (my age) with a young daughter whom I can go see at her gymnastics meet."

Coach 4: "I miss the relationships with people on staff, but that’s about it. I don’t want that to come off the wrong way; I think there are a lot of fantastic things about working at the college level. I really do believe the college sports experience is phenomenal. It’s just really difficult to work at that pace for a prolonged period of time because at a certain point you’re going to burn out."

Coach 5: "I don’t envision myself ever going back to the college level. I know that’s different from a lot of people. People enjoy the college level and different aspects of it, but I don’t see a world where I decide to go back. I think when you’re off in the NFL, you’re off. In the summer I can go play golf every day, and I’m not going to hear from anybody unless we’re going to set up a tee time for the next day."

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Coach 4: “One of the biggest differences is once our season is over in the NFL, most staffs are in the office for the next three-to-five days to have exit interviews with players and staff and, after that, staffs are typically off till after the Super Bowl. So if your team doesn’t go to the playoffs and you’re retained, you’ll usually get a three-to-five week break.

In the NFL, I think the head coach and general manager have the mentality of, with staff changes, let’s wait till all of the changes happen before re-grouping as a staff. That way we don’t start working on stuff if we lose people and get new people. It’s the mindset of knowing there’s going to be some healthy transition on staff, let’s wait till all is done before getting back together.

Based on my time at the college level, everything keeps moving. You have new coaches? It’s up to them to get up to speed. Another thing is colleges don’t get time off after national signing day. Teams will play a regular season, a bowl game and then come back from the bowl and student-athletes are back on campus for class. Coaches are going to the AFCA convention. They’re on the road. A lot of times if a team has success, you’re not getting a breather till after signing day, and a lot of teams don’t even give their staff the week after signing day off.

A lot of times college coaches are going from spring through March or April before they’re getting substantial time away. With that said, at the college level, when you’re away, you’re still expected to be communicating with recruits, you’re still expected to be communicating with your student-athletes and staying on top of them and dealing with issues if there are issues, and making sure that even though you’re away, the organization doesn’t miss a beat.”

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Coach 3: “People talk about relationships, and I think you know how I was at (my old college). I had my guys over and built relationships with my players, and people talk about how you don’t have that in the pros. And I think it’s just different. I don’t think it’s necessarily you don’t have relationships with the players. Instead of an 18-year-old, 19-year-old, you have relationships with 26-, 27- year-olds who are just getting married or having their first baby.

And so those are things that we can talk about, and relate about, just like I did with the 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds who are just trying to figure things out or coming to college and are missing their parents and all that type of stuff.

And so it’s just different things you talk about, and it’s different relationships, but you still have relationships. So I think that’s a little bit of a misnomer, that there’s no relationships. It’s just very, very professional in the league.”

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Coach 5: “We’d be in spring ball and after that, doing weight training, then getting ready for spring recruiting and going out and doing visits on weekends. We’d have Junior Days.

Recruiting is never-ending. If I recall correctly, the portal was starting during my last year (in college). It wasn’t what it is now. In talking to some friends, they’re comparing it to free agency, and it really is. I didn’t realize you could go in there and be eligible to play right away. I guess they go in and don’t have to talk to their coach for a release. It sounds insane. NIL was not around when I was in college, either, so I thankfully missed that.”

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Coach 2: “The season is longer at the pro level. In the season, in college, it’s four hours a day no matter what, including lifting and practicing, so that aspect is not as much of a grind. Whereas a season in the NFL is long. It’s a workday for everybody.”

Coach 3: “We’re all grinding, and I think in the NFL, there’s more schematics and there’s more X’s and O’s for a myriad of reasons. But there’s more of that on a daily basis because we don’t have any of our day filled with recruiting. So there’s more of that. So it fills your day and it fills up a whole day. But you have a day off during summer or preseason camp. You have days off when you have a bye week or you have a Thursday night game, and you have that mini-bye. The days that the coach gives you off, it’s totally off. You’re not worrying about an unofficial visit. You’re not worrying about anything else.

Coach 4: “I’d say the biggest difference is the fact you get time off throughout the year. This past year was the first year the NFL instituted a three-day mandatory player break for players between the end of preseason and the beginning of the season. A lot of coaching staffs got time off because the preseason was put to bed, player cuts were behind you, game planning for Week 1 was already done. A lot of the staff got two-to-three days off. When you have a bye week in the NFL, coaches are typically off four-to-five days. At the college level when you have a bye, coaches are on the road recruiting. At the college level, if you’re lucky, you get one day off on a bye week. For a Thursday night game in the NFL, coaches get one-to-three days off on the weekend. At the college level if you play on Thursday you get the next day off, but aside from that, coaches get no days off in-season. From my perspective, the NFL season is longer when you look at games, but that’s just game planning. Most staffs will get between seven and 10 days off during that time period, where at the college level you’re lucky if you get one or two days off.

"It can be a positive if you want a little variety in your work; coaches are able to go identify players, practice and develop younger guys with developmental practices, but coaches also want to coach ball and not do all the extra stuff.”

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Coach 3: “I just wonder when it’s going to be a little bit more balanced with these college coaches. It’s not there. Adding the transfer portal — which is free agency, but there’s no time limit on the free agency. It’s 365 days a year. Whereas our free agency, there’s a start and there’s a finish. I just don’t think it’s fair to the coaches. I don’t think that NIL deal (helps) — that adds stress and all that stuff to their jobs. And then just obviously everything else that comes in football. You can’t help some of the recruiting stuff, but some of the other stuff is just ridiculous. It’s not right. It’s not right.”

Coach 6: “Being off the phone is nice. Not having to check my phone all the time is nice. When you’re home, you’re home. I’m coaching pros. I’m coaching the best possible guys who want to win and want to make money. I like the maturity aspect of it the most. When you’re home, you’re home. Not having to get on a plane is a lifesaver.”

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meanwhile NFL coaches are playing golf and chilling pool side at the club.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*