mid-season firing

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GophersInIowa

GophersInIowa

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Just curious, how often does a DI-A coach get fired mid-season? I don't mean between the regular season and bowl games either. It just seems that it hardly ever happens. You see that a lot more in other sports and in the pros.

I still don't think it will happen with Brew unless it really gets ugly within the locker room.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Just curious, how often does a DI-A coach get fired mid-season? I don't mean between the regular season and bowl games either. It just seems that it hardly ever happens. You see that a lot more in other sports and in the pros.

I still don't think it will happen with Brew unless it really gets ugly within the locker room.
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Happened to John L. Smith at MSU in 2006. Not sure beyond that.
 

Ron Zook. A few coaches have been told during the season that their contract would not be renewed after the season. For example: Tommy West and John Bunting.
 


By the way John Bunting was fired so UNC could lock up Butch Davis who was fired from the Browns. Therefore, I'm going to throw out Jack Del Rio's name.
 



John L was told he wouldn't be coming back, but he was allowed to finish the season.
 

Bobby Bowden was also more or less fired mid-season. Ouch!
 

Bobby Williams at MSU was also fired before the season was over.
 




Mid season firings are on the rise. Richt, Hawkins and Brew all in hot water.
 

Tyrone Willingham also was told he wasn't coming back. I think Notre Dame wanted Urban Meyer but got beat out by Florida who cut ties with Zook completely.
 

As a follow up, if a firing is going to occur, is it better for our program to fire mid-season or at the end of the season?

Firing at the end of the season allows your current staff to continue recruiting during the season which presumably would be preferred to a lame duck interim staff trying to recruit. Is there anyway that firing now makes more sense than firing at the end of the season (for example, if we could name a coach prior to the end of the year?)?
 



If the freefall continues, I can see an announcement with about a month left so a search committee could be named so the initial work could get done prior to the end of the season and a final decision on the new hire could be made as soon as possible in the Bowl season (provided the candidate works for a team playing a Bowl game).
 

Tubtastic said:
As a follow up, if a firing is going to occur, is it better for our program to fire mid-season or at the end of the season?

Firing at the end of the season allows your current staff to continue recruiting during the season which presumably would be preferred to a lame duck interim staff trying to recruit. Is there anyway that firing now makes more sense than firing at the end of the season (for example, if we could name a coach prior to the end of the year?)?
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I'm not sure that firing him right now would be helpful, but with the level of vitriol that is building in the fanbase I can still see a later season firing (say, after the first 2 or 3 B10 games) making sense. I'm really starting to believe that waiting until the end of the year might cause more harm then good when it comes to fan relations.
 


GoAUpher said:
I'm not sure that firing him right now would be helpful, but with the level of vitriol that is building in the fanbase I can still see a later season firing (say, after the first 2 or 3 B10 games) making sense. I'm really starting to believe that waiting until the end of the year might cause more harm then good when it comes to fan relations.
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I don't know whether it is better or not to do a mid-season firing, but I do see a couple of positives to doing it now vs. waiting until the end:

1. It could increase our pool of candidates and put us out ahead of the game before other jobs open (depending on who our candidates would be), much as it seemed to do with Tubby. Coaches can have their "people" (friends, agents, etc, etc.) reach out to gauge a schools interest and see if the feelings may be mutual.

2. It could expedite the hiring process and allow us to have someone in place shortly after the end of the season, which would help on the recruiting front. Brewster was hired so late in the game that that class was pretty much Mason's, from which we lost Greg Jones (MSU) and Gilreath(WI).
 

Some people keep bringing up Tony Dungy as the next coach which is not going to happen-no interest.

If the powers that be decide to release Brew during the season, would Dungy be willing to be the interim HC for the rest of this year and also serve on a search committee.

Might serve as one heck of a PR move to fans, recruits, national media and potential coaches. Would show we are serious about a winning football program.
 

station19 said:
Some people keep bringing up Tony Dungy as the next coach which is not going to happen-no interest.

If the powers that be decide to release Brew during the season, would Dungy be willing to be the interim HC for the rest of this year and also serve on a search committee.

Might serve as one heck of a PR move to fans, recruits, national media and potential coaches. Would show we are serious about a winning football program.
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Wait, what? You want them to pluck Dungy and toss him in as the interim coach out of nowhere? When it is probable that he's never even spoken to the vast majority of the players on the team before? WTF? No, this has bad idea PR stunt written all over it. And that's assuming Dungy would do it (which he wouldn't).
 

Dungy's not superman.

I'm not concerned about the impact on the fans of keeping Brewster on until the end of the season vs. firing him now. The fans will come around when the new coach is hired. I'm concerned about the impact on the team. The staff is likely to be replaced next season anyway, they will all be lame ducks. If firing him now prevents the team from going into total free-fall, go for it. If firing him now accelerates the free-fall, don't do it.

Morale on the team has got to be awfully low, I'm not sure what best helps it.
 

While it's probably next to impossible to imagine Dungy playing a day-to-day role in Gopher athletics in his lifetime, I could see him serve on the task force seeking the new coach.
 

RodentRampage said:
Dungy's not superman.

I'm not concerned about the impact on the fans of keeping Brewster on until the end of the season vs. firing him now. The fans will come around when the new coach is hired. I'm concerned about the impact on the team. The staff is likely to be replaced next season anyway, they will all be lame ducks. If firing him now prevents the team from going into total free-fall, go for it. If firing him now accelerates the free-fall, don't do it.

Morale on the team has got to be awfully low, I'm not sure what best helps it.
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The bold makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, where does the free-fall of the fan-base come in? Assuming they'll "come around" once a new coach is hired is assuming a lot given the size of the season ticket base prior to the new stadium.
 

We have two scenarios: a) Brewster is fired now and b) Brewster is fired at the end of the season. Everyone knows Brewster is gone. Will season ticket holders be any less likely to renew if Brewster is fired at the end of the season versus now? It's possible that so much disarray could be caused by firing him now that the impact on the fanbase could be even greater.
 

This is the old "how to tear off a bandage" dilemma. Do we suffer the pain of tearing it off immediately, do we tear it off a little at a time or do we sit around debating about tearing it off for so long that we end up watching it fall off on it own?
 

Except that once you rip off a bandage, it's done and over with. The wound is going to be open until a new coach is hired anyway. It might be satisfying to fire Brewster now, I'm just not sure it does any good.
 

RodentRampage said:
We have two scenarios: a) Brewster is fired now and b) Brewster is fired at the end of the season. Everyone knows Brewster is gone. Will season ticket holders be any less likely to renew if Brewster is fired at the end of the season versus now? It's possible that so much disarray could be caused by firing him now that the impact on the fanbase could be even greater.
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On the face of it, there does seem to be a chance that waiting too long on Brewster might disallusion some % of the fanbase b/c they'll feel that the U isn't doing what it takes. I don't think there is a way to prove one way or the other what the outcome will be (which is why I don't think your position is invalid).

My thought is this...if the new hire isn't flashy enough right off the bat (I'm ignoring the substance of the hire here and looking at the perception of the hire), you run the risk of losing anyone who thinks the U erred in how they fired Brew. I think it is likely more folks will be turned off by waiting too long rather than firing too soon.

Also, waiting too long will have an impact on the U's ability to quickly sign a replacement. A mid-season firing means that the search is well under way at the end of the season and that the U is more prepared to act if they have access to a coach they like (imporant if this coach will be pursued by other schools...think MSU and Dantonio).
 

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