Saturday night, it seemed we had one report after another about people being hired.
Now, we’ve got one report after another about people being fired.
The University of Houston dismissed head football coach Dana Holgorsen on Sunday, according to ESPN (Houston fires coach Dana Holgorsen after five seasons), after the Cougars apparently did not live up to the administration’s expectations of the first season in the Big 12.
Also on Sunday, Indiana dismissed Tom Allen (Indiana coach Tom Allen fired, agrees to $15.5M buyout), who had gone 3-9 this season (apparently with the nation’s most difficult strength of schedule, according to the ESPN football power index – not sure I’m too convinced on that one, given the fact that the Hoosiers play in the paper mache’ Big Ten Conference).
And Terry Bowden, most famous, of course, for being one of the coaching sons of the late Bobby Bowden and also for coaching Auburn to an unbeaten season in 1993, was let go from Louisiana Monroe on Sunday, also according to ESPN (Terry Bowden out as Louisiana-Monroe football coach).
Bowden went 5-19 in the Sun Belt Conference in his three-year tenure, and 2-10 overall this season, finishing up the season with a 52-21 loss to archrival Louisiana. He was 10-26 at ULM, and has a career record of 185-140-2.
The Cougars parted ways with Holgorsen after a 4-8 season that included three straight losses to end the year, and 2-7 in UH’s first season in the Big 12. Their two wins: over West Virginia (Holgorsen’s former job) and Baylor.
Holgorsen leaves Houston with a 31-28 record there.
Allen went 33-49 as Indiana’s coach, since 2017, and lost the season finale this year to Purdue. He is an Indiana native. Among the things he said in a parting statement: “College football has changed dramatically over the past several years. Some of those changes have been a shock to the conscience of those who support IU football. The time has come to fully embrace those changes and I pray that IU does just that.”
Hey, man, it’s a tough world out there, being a football coach.
What was that, that Alabama’s Nick Saban said? “If you want to make people happy, don’t be a leader. Sell ice cream.”
