D'Angelo: Coaching carousel spinning out of control earlier than ever
Washington State and Washington will play for the Apple Cup the day after Thanksgiving with two interim head coaches on the sidelines.
A perfect snapshot of the 2021 college football season.
Two more FBS coaches learned this week they were out, bringing the number to a dozen with three weeks remaining until the playoff field is set. Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente was fired Tuesday morning, one day after Butch Davis accused the FIU administration of sabotaging the football program. Davis' contract will not be renewed.
Impatience is as much a part of college football these days as paranoia. Some skittish athletic directors start envisioning angry boosters withholding checks just weeks into the season. And nothing causes night sweats for an AD more than the thought of influential alumni not happy with the play calling.
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Already, dismissals have occurred at blue-blood programs (USC and LSU) and programs whose bloodlines are more basketball (UConn and UMass). They have occurred at rival schools in the Northwest (Washington, Washington State) and in Texas (TCU, Texas Tech). And at a program whose two wins through six games this season were more than it had in five of the last 11 years (Akron).
Shown the door was a coach with a winning record (Texas Tech's Matt Wells was 5-3), a coach who won a national championship two years ago (LSU's Ed Orgeron) and a coach whose team played in a conference championship game one year ago (USC's Clay Helton).
Helton was canned after just two games. Georgia Southern's Chad Lunsford outlasted him two.
And all the firings have not been performance related. Washington State's Nick Rolovich was removed from his $3.2 million-a-year job for his refusal to comply with a state COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Because he was fired with cause, he did not collect his buyout, which he will fight. Others did and so far approximately $73 million in buyouts will be paid to nine coaches.
The chaos hit our state Monday and it may be just the start.
Davis was the first coach to go in Florida and that came hours after Miami announced AD Blake James was out, a move that almost certainly will lead to another major firing.
Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz is expected to join the list of unemployed coaches following the season. Diaz's season has been an emotional grind after starting 2-4 and then winning three in a row. But it may all have crashed with a close loss to FSU last weekend and the departure of his athletic director two days later.
And Florida's Dan Mullen may need to update his resume. Mullen has given his administration the best reason for making a change after seeing the lack of effort from his players in recent games.
This could mean 43 percent of the FBS coaches in the state, and two of the three in the Power Five, will not return.
The way things have gone in the state in recent years, it would be fitting if the the only coach among the Big Three to survive the season would be the one who started 0-4 with a loss to Jacksonville State, FSU's Mike Norvell.
So how has college football gotten to a place where ADs now are willing to make changes before Mike Leach starts ranting about Halloween candy? This is something that has happened before — remember Lane Kiffin being fired by USC AD Pat Haden in late September eight years ago ... while on the tarmac? But never at this rate.
Other than living in a microwaveable society, the calendar has become as much a factor in pulling the plug early as anything. And the date circled by everyone is the third Wednesday in December, the start of the early signing period.
In the words of Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt, who fired Wells Oct. 25: “When you arrive at a position where you believe a decision is inevitable, then it’s time to make that decision. It’s time to act.”
These mid-season firings are all about saving recruiting classes and hoping to prevent a mass exodus from your roster into the transfer portal. It used to be ADs would have time to do their messy work after the regular season, do a national search and still make a hire in time to allow the new coach to sign a solid class in early February. Since the early signing period started in 2017 about 80 percent of the prospects sign their NLI in December.
As for the transfer portal, those words weren't even part of the playbook four years ago.
Now, decisions need to be made fast. Not only have a dozen jobs opened, three already are filled, including at Texas Tech where Joey McGuire was plucked from the Baylor staff. McGuire already has started his new gig, but not on the field.
His priority is recruiting while interim Sonny Cumbie continues to coach the team.
Remember: "Time to act."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Why are so many college football coaches being fired mid-season?
