Conventional wisdom holds that all things being equal, you should have a replacement pretty much ready to go before you fire someone in an important position within any organization. That goes as much for a Fortune 500 company as it does a major college football program. You don’t see many professional sports teams firing their entire management staff without a clear line of succession, or at least thoughts towards who the organization is looking to succeed the current incumbent. That would be lunacy, and is no way to run a multi-billion dollar organization. You won’t stay in charge for long, or be making much money if one were to run operations in such a manner.
Supposedly any athletic director worth his or her salt has a list of names at the ready should a head coach in a major sport ever step down or screw the pooch so badly that it requires a termination. Likewise, schools use back channels and coaching search consultants to take the temperature of the market and, frequently, have the next coach ready to roll when they finally do decide to let the hammer fall on a coach. Oh, sure, they go through the motions of a coaching search, but chances are that they’ve already done enough homework ahead of time to the point that the outcome is either predetermined or, at the very least, not a complete question mark.
It would appear that the athletic department at UCLA, much like Arizona State and Texas A&M, prefers to buck convention. If you have any guess as to which big name college institution or coach will be the next big name on the move, you could always place your wager at BestOnlineSportsbooks.info to try to win some money in the meantime!
The Bruins’ publicized hire of Jim Mora Jr. to replace ousted head coach Rick Neuheisel has landed in the college football world with a gigantic meteoric surprise. Remember, Mora was the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco Forty-Niners in the National Football League, and then moved on to coach the Falcons and the Seahawks to less than stellar turns before taking the head job at UCLA. Does that mean he is going to fail? No not necessarily.
That kind of approach appeared to serve Washington State Athletic Director Bill Moos well a few weeks ago. After it was announced that Paul Wulff possibly wouldn’t be retained, CougCenter.com had this to say about the matter:
“Sources close to the situation say Wulff, whose Cougars lost 38-21 to Washington on Saturday at CenturyLink Field, will be dismissed after a meeting with athletic director Bill Moos, barring a last-minute change of direction by Moos. It could happen as early as Sunday, possibly Monday.
A reversal of thinking is unlikely, and sources familiar with the process say the Cougars will have former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach at the top of their list of possible replacements. Leach has been out of coaching since 2009 after a controversial exit from Tech that resulted in him suing the school.”
