Today at Bloody Sunday. A handful of coaches lost their jobs today and I'm sure a handful of coaches will also lose their jobs in the upcoming week. And then we'll have coaches leaving schools to take one of the job openings leaving a job opening at his former school. It's a cannonball of fun. Here are the coaches who lost their jobs today.
Turner Gill, Kansas: Amazing that it was three years ago when Gill was the hottest coaching name in the country. Remember when he was passed over the Auburn job in favor of Gene Chizik and the uproar that followed that decision? Seems like ions ago but was only three years ago.
Gill was fired at Kansas mainly because Kansas has one of the worst defenses in the country and the fact that in two years Gill only won one Big 12 game, that was against Colorado last season who immediately fired Dan Hawkins after that game. The Jayhawk offense wasn't much better ranking dead last in rushing and passing.
Possible candidates for Kansas: Kevin Sumlin, Mike Leach
Ron Zook, Illinois: Amazing that Ron Zook lasted longer at Illinois than his successor at Florida, Urban Meyer, lasted in Gainesville. Zook is the classic recruiter who is a terrible in-game coach. Zook constantly brought in great recruiting classes to Illinois only to see mediocre results except for their Rose Bowl season. Illinois had no choice but to fire Zook after Illinois started the season 6-0 and then never won another game.
Possible Candidates for Illinois: Ron English
Rick Neuheisel, UCLA: Slick Rick's demise won't happen until after the Pac-12 championship game, but it's coming. Slick Rick never quite dominated Southern California like he stated he would do when he was hired at UCLA. And after USC taking the Bruins to the woodshed last Saturday, there was no possible reason to bring back Slick Rick for another failed year of the 'pistol offense'.
Possible Candidates for UCLA: Chris Petersen, Kevin Sumlin
Paul Wulff, Washington State: Wulff was doomed from the start at Washington State who immediately became terrible upon Mike Price's departure. Injuries also plagued the Cougars during Wulff's tenure especially at Quarterback. Washington State started this season off fine but the Cougars lost eight of their last nine games which was more than enough for the AD department to fire Wulff.
Possible Candidates for Washington State: Mike Leach
Dennis Erickson, Arizona State: Arizona State is bowl eligible for the first time since Erickson's first season in Phoenix, but when your team is expected to win the awful Pac-12 South and finishes second to the even more awful UCLA team then you can understand while Arizona State moved in a different direction with Erickson. Half empty stadiums, like what we saw last Friday, will also contribute to your firing.
Possible Candidates for Arizona State: Kevin Sumlin
Larry Porter, Memphis: Porter becomes the eighth consecutive Memphis coach to be fired with a losing record. Porter only received two years at Memphis and only won three games. Porter might fall into the Ron Zook category, terrific recruiters and terrible in-game coach.
Possible Candidates: Mario Cristobal
Definitely expect more coach firings and hirings along with job openings in the coming weeks. This is just the beginning.
Tom Bradley has not been let go yet, but Penn State is almost certainly going to go in another direction next year. Mark Richt, Gary Patterson, and Dan Mullen have been thrown around.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to throw in another one and mention Derek Dooley at Tennessee. The Volunteer faithful (at least the more vocal ones) seem to be more than happy to volunteer their criticism of him especially after Kentucky finally beat them for the first time since the early Jurassic period.
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