The right and wrong of coaching changes.

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.