How to replace a coach.

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 10, 2006

Gators will like this article. It's very complimentary of Foley and his decision making in firing Zook early and his hiring of Urban Meyer. I find this interesting and in great contrast to how the press views the Irish firing of Tyrone Willingham, which is still being criticised by the press as a racist move, completely ignoring that Tyrone after his first 8 games was a .500 coach with a string of complete blowouts by our rivals that was unprecedented in Notre Dame history.

New York Times
October 9, 2006

With a Decisive Dismissal, Florida Remakes Itself
By PETE THAMEL

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct. 8 — Two years ago this month, the Florida football program was in crisis mode after a loss at Mississippi State.

Things had become so bad that in less than three seasons under Ron Zook the Gators had lost six home games, more than in Steve Spurrier’s 12-year tenure.

So the athletic director, Jeremy Foley, fixed his own mistake by firing Zook the Monday after the Mississippi State debacle. The move, considered unusual and controversial at the time because it was so early in the season, looks ingenious two years later.

Now, under Urban Meyer, Florida is 6-0 for the first time since 1996 and is ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press poll for the first time since 2001. In two years, the Gators have gone from a complete mess to the elite team in this football-rich state, rocketing past Miami and Florida State, both unranked for the first time in 24 years.

One of the legacies of this swift and stunning Florida revival may be a blueprint of how to fire and hire a head coach.

“I don’t want to advocate firing coaches, but if someone is headed down that road, I think it does help,” Foley said of a dismissal early in the season. “You need to do your due diligence, especially in a high-profile program where the scrutiny is going to be very, very high. I don’t think I’ll have to, but I would not hesitate to do it again.”

And with this season crossing its halfway point on Saturday, there is the potential for a slew of high-profile jobs to open. Last season, only four jobs changed hands among the 65 in the six major conferences. Only one of those, Colorado, came from a university firing its coach.

In this short-fuse world of college athletics, where instant results are not quick enough, that low job turnover led to predictions last off-season of an avalanche of job openings.

Most of the speculation will revolve around Bobby Bowden at Florida State and Larry Coker at Miami. Both programs are mired in relative mediocrity.

It is unlikely both of those jobs will open. But if one does, those universities will probably be competing with several others for the top available coaches. Topping the list of jobs likely to be open are North Carolina, Michigan State and Arizona State. None of those jobs are the caliber of Miami and F.S.U., but they offer good tradition, salaries in excess of a million dollars a year and good facilities.

“I think what Foley did was astute and showed clearly there was a strategy,” said Neil Cornrich, a lawyer and agent who represents numerous college coaches, including Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. “I think that’s the trend. The smart athletic directors will follow Foley.”

What the early firing of Zook did was give Foley five weeks to thoroughly research Meyer, who was coaching at Utah, and other candidates. While Foley did not contact Meyer until after Utah’s regular season ended in late November, he did talk to Meyer’s former bosses and players and his friends. Foley said he ended up with a notebook full of material he would not have gotten had he waited to fire Zook.

“How do I make calls about Urban Meyer when I still have a coach?” Foley said.

The week that Florida hired Meyer, three other programs — Illinois, Washington and Notre Dame — were trying to do the same. Representatives from Washington and Notre Dame ended up in his living room.

But Foley had an advantage when his turn came to try to lure Meyer to Gainesville. Through his research, Foley knew exactly what Meyer wanted.

Instead of dropping off clunky piles of books with generic information about the University of Florida, Foley gave him an itemized book with sections on everything he knew Meyer cared about.

“It was very succinct, very clear,” Meyer said. “It was about how the athletic department worked, the academic structure and where my kids would go to school and where we’d live.”

Foley knew from his research how important family was to Meyer. So Foley had Florida’s basketball coach, Billy Donovan, call Meyer and Donovan’s wife, Christine, call Meyer’s wife, Shelley. They talked about schools, neighborhoods and living environment.

If those interactions and early research had not happened, Foley is not sure things would have worked out the way they did.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think he’d be here,” Foley said of Meyer. “Urban is a thorough guy who doesn’t leave many stones unturned. One reason among many he’s here now and not in South Bend is because we did our research and established a relationship as soon as the season was over.”

Meyer has long loathed the way coaching searches are handled, saying they can be a distraction to a team and often force a coach to make a momentous decision with little time to research. Meyer did not even have a chance to visit Gainesville before taking the Florida job.

“You’re making career decisions and decisions that affect a bunch of young people and universities and you basically have 24 hours to do it,” he said.

With the college coaching landscape appearing ripe for an overhaul this off-season, it will be interesting to see who strikes first.

“The timing allowed us to do our job and allowed us to be where we are today,” Foley said.

And No. 2 in the country two years later shows that a quick hook can yield big results.
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Scott88 · Oct 10, 2006

Lord I wish Byrne would follow this model, and strike NOW!

I'm afraid we'll be tied to the Frantastic anchor until 2008...

:cry:

Gator Bill · Oct 10, 2006

Yes I liked the article, and I hope the Gators don't have to follow it again for quite a number of years.

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 10, 2006

So that last comment about the coaching scene being ripe for change this year...who's going to get the axe?

Dirk Koetter at ASU?
JoePa retire?
John L. Smith at MSU?
Lloyd Carr retire if UM wins it all?
Bobbah Bowden retire?
Larry Coker at Miami?

more?

Sid · Oct 10, 2006

I find this interesting and in great contrast to how the press views the Irish firing of Tyrone Willingham, which is still being criticised by the press as a racist move, completely ignoring that Tyrone after his first 8 games was a .500 coach with a string of complete blowouts by our rivals that was unprecedented in Notre Dame history.
Click to expand...

Terry, as we know ND always has been and always will be a lightning rod. We understand that our experience has nothing to do with Florida's except for the similarities in circumstances and timing, which make the comparisons of media coverage quite interesting.

gipper · Oct 10, 2006

One little point overlooked in the article was the fact that the Fla. president had been the president at Utah while Meyer was coaching there. He's not even mentioned. The fact is, the deal was done when Zook was fired. This 5 weeks of search time is nothing but nonsense. Of course that would have looked really bad tampering so early with Meyer while he was in the middle of the season at Utah so we get this created coach search.

wzt · Oct 10, 2006

In a different article on CSN, I laughed at how the ND-haters are still pushing the Ty-wronging by ND. Matthew Zemek had this as part of his response to Mid-season Best Story:

On a more season-long basis, it's gotta be Ty Willingham's triumph in Seattle with Washington. What total vindication for someone who had to endure such shabby treatment from Notre Dame, and had his reputation besmirched by a lot of bitter people. The Huskies are a solid, well-coached football team that has made real progress with a lot of the same players who had been scuffling in previous seasons. That's a testament to the kind of coach Willingham is, and thank goodness America is seeing this in the post-Notre Dame years.
Click to expand...

Terry O'Keefe · Oct 10, 2006

I don't begrudge Willingham any success he has at Washington. He's back on the west coast and he knows the PAC10, so it's not incomphrehensible that he would make a turn around. But he clearly wasn't getting the job done at ND. Not to mention that his personal motivation for success maybe at an all-time high due to getting canned by the Irish.

I doubt if any Gators hope Zook fails at Illinois nor would they be surprised that he is still a good recruiter. But I doubt if any think, now especially, that he should have been given more time.

Terry

gipper · Oct 10, 2006

Interesting quote from Zemek.
If the Huskies are "well coached" maybe it's in no small part due to the fact that UW wouldn't let Ty take the inept idiot he had for an OC at ND. Dietrich was so bad he couldn't find a coaching job in the US and ended up as a volunteer coach in Canada. Maybe if Ty had dumped that clown earlier he wouldn't have been blown out by so much at ND.

Scott88 · Oct 10, 2006

I'm trying to figure out how a "well coached" team can be standing around with their collective heads up their arses as time runs out on their last gasp shot at the upset of the year?
Yep, those guys were a well-oiled machine...

Motorcity Gator · Oct 10, 2006

Nice article for UF to be sure.

And yes....in retrospect especially, I believe Zook had enough time to show all that he could do. Thank God that rollercoaster came to a stop.

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How to replace a coach.

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