When handling coaching changes, schools have to consider
many issues. First is the overall
upheaval of job transitions. Second is
what to do with current students.
Finally: what to do for the future of the program. There have been recent coaching changes in
NCAA sports that indicate major differences in how schools handle these
transitions.
Because of a motorcycle accident, Arkansas is in search of a
new football coach. Bobby Petrino was dishonest
about who was involved in the accident, which in turn resulted in an
investigation of why he hired a particular football assistance. However, the track record of this particular
hire made this a more risky endeavor than the Arkansas AD realized at the time. Petrino sort of backhanded his former school,
Louisville, by visiting other schools undercover before unexpectedly leaving to
coach the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL. He
leaves Atlanta by placing a note on the players’ locker room informing them of
this decision to become the coach at Arkansas.
In his contract, Petrino had provisions to remain in good character to
save the face of the program. It is no
surprise that he failed to live up to the expectations set forth and is now
unemployed. He may not have been hired under the best terms, but his firing is right on target. This turns a preseason top 5
team into one of the biggest question marks of the college football
season.
Florida International, on the other hand, fires its basketball
coach without any explanation. Isiah
Thomas is a hall of fame player fired with two years left on a 5 year
contract. He did not have a full roster
of his own recruits but was bringing solid talent to an unattractive FIU
program. The administration provided no
reason for his removal, though general consensus is because he only won 26
games in three seasons. It took storied
Indiana over 9 years to bounce back to prominence, and FIU has never been a
relevant program in the sport. To ask
Thomas to work wonders in one-third the time it took a historically dominant
program to return is ludicrous. And his
successor is a man with no head coaching experience or playing relevance. In addition to this, FIU refuses to release
the student athletes from their letters of intent to play at FIU.
Athletic programs make changes for different reasons. From Arkansas, there is a well-known reason
why the head coach was fired. At FIU,
there are too many questions surrounding their head coaching change. In order to sustain support, people need to
trust that what you are doing as an athletic director does not appear to have a
glimmer of underhandedness or dishonesty.
Penalties from the NCAA are not always so kind to this behavior. Time will tell how successful these decisions
were.
