Coaches! Fresh coaches, bought and sold!
Arizona State fans got their wish when head coach Dennis Erickson was fired on Bloody Sunday. (AP)
“I’m concerned that by the end of the day there may be more coaching openings than bowl teams.”
– Stewart Mandel, November 2011
Canned Coachmas is upon us once more (presiding patron saint: Mike Leach). It’s the most wonderful time of the year – if your name’s Jimmy Sexton. There’s one very large piece of news this morning involving the vacant coaching position at Ohio State, which has been a foregone conclusion for some days now. Stewart Mandel has a fresh column up on Urban Meyer’s return to Buckeye country. Over here, however, we’ll be tracking goings rather than comings. Bookmark this page, if you’re into this sort of thing, as we catalog the firings, “retirements” and Actual Retirements throughout college football. This post will be refreshed as needed as news of more oustings breaks.
NB: For documenting purposes here, we’ll be sticking to news rather than conjecture, which means we won’t add new bodies until they’re officially defenestrated. To the already dismissed likes of Mike Stoops, Mike Locksley, Houston Nutt and Bob Toledo, and the slated-for-retirement Howard Schnellenberger, we can now add:
• [UPDATE 12/06] Greg McMackin, Hawaii: Following a rocky four-year tenure that concluded with a drop from 10 wins in 2010 to six in 2011 (to say nothing of the recent unpleasantness with points-shaving allegations), June Jones’ successor is hanging up his Warriors whistle. It’s probably time; how anybody can manage to lose to this year’s UNLV and Fresno State squads with Bryant Moniz as a quarterback, rampant injuries or no, is beyond comprehension.
• [UPDATE 12/05] Pat Hill, Fresno State: The magnificently mustachioed skipper of the Bulldogs for 15 years, Hill’s had a bad few seasons despite his overall winning record, and the party line from the AD is making it sound like ticket sales were the real culprit: “Our community was not responding any longer to the record that we had.” The 2011 team finished well out of bowl contention, with a nasty OOC schedule that included Cal, Nebraska and Boise State, but also dropped games to such FBS luminaries as Ole Miss, New Mexico State and San Jose State.
