Best and worst coaching moves in Big 12

While it will take a fee years to really tell if firing Dan Mac at ISU will be a bad call, I’m trying to understand what you’re saying.

So an ISU fan’s point of view should be?:

Oh well, we should be content with winning 7 or 8 games once every 3 years and oh well, we almost made it to the Big 12 title game twice in a row, good try! But it’s ok, we’re Iowa State so we should never expect more.

If you paid attention to what McCarney did in his last 2-3 years you would fully understand the “retiring”/firing. He was a great motivator, great face for the cyclones, but terrible at X’s and O’s and unwilling to make changes to the staff.

There will always be bottom dwellers in any conference. Unfortunately for me that is where Iowa State is sitting right now. But what is wrong with trying to expect more. We had reached a plateu with DMac and were gradually fading. (The jury is still out on Chizik, though it’s obvious people here are glad to see him gone)

Gary Pinkel was on thin ice before the past couple seasons. He was considered an inept boob. I’ll be very surprised if he and Missouri don’t return to the mean after Chase Daneil moves on. I think Kansas and Mangino have truly peaked, but they’ll be consistently solid/good as long as he’s there. Colorado I think has the best chance of becoming the consistent powerhouse of the North. I don’t think kansas state has a chance to be more than a 6-6 team moving forward.

The Slocum and Solich firings were not so bad, they were just followed by 2 awful hirings. The writing was on the the wall for both programs, the young talent was dwindling, and they needed to do something to stay relevant.

I compare it to Texas circa 84 or 85. Akers should have been gone after 85 at the latest. One bad season should not be enough to get a coach fired, but add in no young talent in the pipeline and he has got to go if you are going to save the program.

There was never a wrong time to fire Are-See.

Here’s a tool to use to figure out whether you should think twice about firing a coach- make a list of the three best coaches in your program’s history. If your current coach is on that list, maybe you’re taking on a huge risk by firing him.

By this measure, firing McArney, as well as Bowers (S. Miss), and Lubick (CSU) have the potential to really backfire.

Now, if a coach has retired in place, something must be done- preferably you kick him upstairs.

TaylorT

agreed.

Unfortunately for Mac, he had a window just after our old AD was fired to slip in and be the AD, could’ve been the same situation as Wisconsin with Alvarez. Mac could have written his ticket but he was too hard headed to see the writing on the wall.

Instead he stayed another year, slid to a 3-9 season, with our only wins over terrible Toledo, UNLV, and UNI teams by a combined 10 points… and then was so eloquently shown the door.

On a side note: Will the Horns please for the love of god beat those “oohh we went to the Orange bowl and are now on equal ground with OU, UT, Nebraska” Ass Clowns from KU. They’ll be ripe for a beat down. I don’t think we’ll have enough man power to do it so I leave that to you guys.

Some MU fans were pretty upset with Pinkel, but I think the AD was always pretty solidly behind him. Fan & media expectations were raised due to the fact that we had a special talent at QB in Brad Smith, but we really didn’t have the talent around him to win consistently. We really only had a few other fringe NFL type guys on those teams.

Basically, because of Brad Smith we won several games over those years we really had no buisness winning. Expectations got elevated, but we really weren’t ready as a program to win at a high level yet. I think unreasonable expectations by a fan base played a large part in almost all of the firings listed in the article.

Missouri is in a much better place talent wise now. We’ll lose alot to graduation & possible early entry in the draft after this season, but recruiting is definately on the upswing and player development has been pretty consistently good here. I don’t think fans of other programs realize just how bad things were here when Pinkel arrived.

Firing Solich at 9-3 stung, but he was never going to be better than 9-3, and the Husker faithful remembered a time when that wasn’t acceptable.

With all due respect, the problem was letting one coach (a chess player, in football terms) choose his successor (a checkers player).

I completely disagree about Slocum – he needed to go. He hadn’t recruited a good class in about five years, and had completely lost the ability to go head-to-head with either Brown or Stoopsie. I suspect the writer makes this assessment based on the failure of Fran to elevate the program at all in five years there, but five years from now, when they’re looking for yet another head coach, the Aggies will be looking back on Fran with fondness.

I agree with EyesOfTx 1st assertion. Slocum had gotten complaisant and was full of excuses for his team’s mediocre performance. I disagree with his second statement as we will never fondly look back at Fran. I’m also willing to give Sherm a chance. I wonder if all this naysaying about him represents some fear that he may be better than advertised. Few were jumping up and down with joy about Gillispie or Turgeon’s hirings.Ditto with Childress or Blair. Could it be that Byrne like Dodds actually knows what the hell he’s doing?

Well, my own naysaying about him is based on his abject laziness as a recruiter and intention to run the West Coast Offense with a QB who couldn’t pass the potatoes. But that’s just me…

Pinkel first has to ask Stoops’ permission before going outside to play.

Yes, Stoops coached a team with superior talent to a couple of victories over Mizzou, and 3 losses to teams with inferior talent. Stoops should spend his time kicking himself in the junk for blowing a clear shot at a NC instead of ruling on requests to go out and play from Pinkel.

Is it more frustrating seeing Stoops blowing a clear shot at that NC and think “man, we lost to that guy – again.”

btw, for as good of a job as he’s doing at Mizzou, Pinkel’s 0-5 versus Stoops, not 0-2.

Could we get a “Worst Hirings” list on here. I’d just like to see Ron Prince’s name somewhere.

Dave Roberts, Dennis Franchione and Bill Callahan are currently vying for that title.

Coming soon: Gene Chizik