Rough Weekend

Coincidentally, I’m writing again about fired coaches. This weekend David Elson learned he will not be at Western Kentucky for an eighth season, and Memphis will be without Tommy West for the first time since 2000.

Now maybe I don’t have room to talk. I’m an SEC fan, and we’re notorious for kicking coaches to the curb at seemingly slight provocations, like not winning the national championship every year. And my school of choice just fired one of the most successful coaches in college ball. I did disagree with that decision—I thought it was three season too late. So I’m not in the least gun shy about coaching changes.

But I question the Hilltoppers. Elson has been mightily successful at their school. His record shows a dip in recent seasons, but WKU was trying to angle itself into the big league. Those losses were mostly coming from Division I schools. This is his first season playing all IA teams. That’s a huge transition, and though I luckily can’t imagine the pain of sitting at 0-9, I would have liked to see what Elson could do with this experience under his belt.

West gets no such leniency from me, however. He did good things for the Tigers, but he’s slipping.

I also wonder how advantageous announcing the intended changes mid-season, especially since coaches will maintain their duties through the last game. From the outside looking in, it does seem cruel and any morale boost to the fan base will be negated by the morale bust to the staff and players. However, I understand the motivation. It takes a while to hire a new coach—time that coach needs to hire his own staff, recruit, and have a game plan ready for spring practice. Tennessee definitely benefitted from having Kiffin in place the first week of December, and Memphis has all ready thrown out names of coaches they’re courting. Not to mention the fact we’re expecting several more vacancies at the end of the season. Memphis and WKU will have a jump on securing the most attractive candidates. It may be cruel, but that’s the way it is.

Not that these coaching changes matter. Neither team will ever be competitive. Remember South Florida’s first season in the BCS and how they shot up to #2? And then they crashed ne’er to be heard from again? There may be 120 FBS programs, but fewer than thirty will ever matter.