It’s About Time for Coaching Accountability!
7 Jan
by Ryan Liss “The Sportmeister”
One of my biggest pet peeves is coaches who leave early for bigger and better opportunities (I’m looking at you, Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Rich Rodriguez, et al.), especially when they spew so much garbage to get recruits to play for them (don’t give me this “they go to play for the school” crap), and then they can just pick up and walk, while if the recruit wants to leave, they are forced to sit out a year and risk their own potential future while the coach laughs happily to the bank. Well, finally, a school stood up and said, risk leaving here, and we’ll fire you, and from that, Boston College today fired Head Coach Jeff Jagodzinski.
Jeff Jagodzinski was in his first college head coaching job, after spending 1998-2006 in various NFL coaching jobs. Through two years he held a record of 20-8, with a 1-1 bowl record. However, he had already experienced the limelight of the professional ranks, and I guess he was looking for his way back there. Enter the New York Jets, coach-less after firing Eric Mangini. Jagodzinski, who had three years remaining on his contract, was interested in the position, but Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo told him point blank: Interview for the job and be fired. Jagodzinski did, and DeFilippo followed through on his promise.
I think this was the right move for Boston College, regardless of his record and what Jagodzinski had done in Chestnut Hill. He went behind his bosses back, and started searching for greener pastures while he was in a binding contract with his employer. Not one other person in this great nation can just turn around one day and say, I know you signed me for five years, but after two years someone else offered me more money, so I’m leaving. NCAA Coaches have the most ridiculous abilities! First, if they want to leave, they can just up and go, leaving the contract in the dust. Take Bobby Petrino. He signed a 10 year, $25.5 million dollar deal that was signed in July 2006. Six months later (and one football season), Petrino left his team and those kids he just recruited, and accepted a five year, $24 million dollar offer from the Atlanta Falcons. A mere 10 months later (with the NFL season still ongoing), he decided to coach the Arkansas Razorback for a five year deal with 15 million. So add that up, and Petrino has 20 years worth of deals for $64 million dollars that he just up and ignored on his own accord to go somewhere else. It is ridiculous what these coaches can do.
When a coach leaves, everyone gets affected. The alumni get affected because they pay part of the salary as boosters and such. The coaching staff gets affected because they don’t know where they’ll be the following year. The athletic director gets affected because he has to hire a new coach. But the ones who get it the worst? The players, the ones who pour blood, sweat, and soul into the school and the coach now get shafted worst of all. These players let coaches come into their lives for just about two years to tell them how sweet University X is and if they play, they’ll be a fixture in the coach’s offense and gets them to change their original plan and sign with X…and six months later the coach walks out, leaving that brand new recruit in a hole. If he stays, the new coach’s scheme is nothing like the old coach, meaning he has to spend at least a year or two learning a whole new system that is not his style, or he can get up and transfer. Of course though, if he’d like to transfer to another school with a system more suitable to his playing standards, he has to sit out a year. Yes, any player who transfers has to wait a whole year, and lose all that eligibility (which they don’t get back), while the coach is free to bounce from school to school, racking up the money and the wins by duping young kids.
Where does it go from here? Boston College apparently had a “loyalty clause” stating Jagodzinski had to be there for at least three years, which is a start in the right direction. Other schools have large buyouts for the coach in their contract, but even Rich Rodriguez got his paid for. We also can’t make coaches sit out a year, so where is the even line? Boston College was looking for a coach to be in the long term plan, and when they saw that they could lose that, they forced Jagodzinski to make a choice, and when Jags did, so did DeFilippo and Boston College. The Eagles staff felt a decision had to be made, because let’s face it, how many recruiters will whisper in potential Boston College athletes that Jagodzinski could leave at any time, come to a different school where that won’t happen? Quite plenty, and because now the kids at BC are happy and the incoming recruits will be recruited by Boston College coaches, Jagodzinski can go back to playing in the NFL and finding a job, but not with the Boston College Head Coach title around his neck anymore, because he doesn’t deserve, but hopefully the next guy will.
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