Tag: Coaching Carousel

East Carolina parts way with head coach Mike Houston

ECU becomes the first school to jump on the coaching carousel in 2024.

The East Carolina Pirates have fired head coach Mike Houston following the 48-28 loss to Army. ECU becomes the first team in 2024 to jump on the coaching carousel.

Houston finishes his tenure with ECU with a record of 27-38 and 15-28 in American Athletic Conference play. He never saw anywhere near the same success as he did with James Madison. In five plus seasons the Pirates had two winning season where the team was 15-10 in 2021 and 2022. Outside of those two years, ECU was a combined 12-28 including 5-14 over the last 19 games.

The Pirates will begin their search for the next head football coach at East Carolina University. Defensive coordinator Blake Harrell has been named the interim head coach for the rest of the season, ECU announced in a press release on the move.

“After a comprehensive evaluation of our football program, I informed Mike Houston this morning that we are making a change in leadership,” said AD Jon Gilbert. “This was a very difficult decision. Mike has led our program the last five plus seasons with tremendous class and has positively impacted so many student-athletes. After earning back-to-back bowl invitations, we looked poised for continued success. Unfortunately, we have not seen the results we all want, and a change is needed to move the program forward. We have high expectations and those are not changing.

“We are confident we will identify the right leader for our football program. I believe ECU is a premier job with a passionate fan base, unprecedented support from our Pirate Club donors, and great facilities that continue to improve. Right now, we are focusing on our student-athletes as they compete for a postseason opportunity in the final five regular season games. My hope is Pirate Nation will rally around our student-athletes like they have always done.”

ECU still has an opportunity to make a run at a bowl game with five games left on the schedule. The Pirates will face the Temple Owls on Saturday, much like ECU they are looking to keep any fading hopes of a postseason bowl alive.

Lane Kiffin: Coach Florida fans crave, but a few factors tie him down at Ole Miss

All eyes are on Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin—an enticing candidate whose family ties and recent success may keep him from making the jump to the Gators.

Many believe that the Billy Napier era at Florida football has come to an end, which would conclude a three-season stretch marked by underwhelming performance and missed expectations.

The Gators skipper is not quite out the door but the fanbase nonetheless has been clamoring for a replacement since the Week 1 loss at home to the Miami Hurricanes.

Presumably, the program is now searching for a replacement head coach to get things moving back in the right direction. There have been a number of candidates that fans have been hoping Florida can reel in, but none are as big as Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin.

Who wouldn’t want a coach like Kiffin? He brings the swagger, the charisma, and most importantly, creativity on the offensive side of the ball.

USA TODAY Sports writer Blake Toppmeyer wrote about a scenario that Florida football fans are hoping would happen to make everything line up to hire Kiffin.

“Florida fans who crave Lane Kiffin as their coach need the Rebels to lose a few games between now and Thanksgiving,” Toppmeyer wrote. “It’s a fine line: Win enough to still look desirable, but lose enough for Ole Miss to miss the College Football Playoff and make Kiffin wonder whether he’s hit his ceiling with the Rebels and ought to uproot and resettle in The Swamp.”

However, it may not be realistic at this point. Of course, we all remember back in 2009 when he suddenly left the Tennessee Volunteers to be the head coach for the USC Trojans after just one season, but things are different now.

He’s been in Oxford, Mississippi, for five years and has really enjoyed his time with the Rebels. Kiffin has settled in, and with the success he has going for him currently, it just doesn’t make sense for him to leave that all behind and start all over again in trying to man a rebuild for school.

Kiffin also has family ties with Oxford. His oldest daughter, Landry, is currently attending Ole Miss as a sophomore, and has been loving it. In fact, back in 2022 when Kiffin was rumored as the next head coach for the Auburn Tigers, it was Landry who convinced him to stay.

ESPN senior writer Chris Low revealed what Kiffin’s daughter, Landry, did to get him to stay with the Rebels. 

Low wrote, “Kiffin was leaning toward taking the Auburn job toward the end of the 2022 season when Landry came to him with a heartfelt message. ‘You left me one time for another job when you went to Alabama, and now I’m here with you and you’re going to do it again?’ she asked her father.”

Low continued, “Landry and her friends created a slideshow, complete with music, showing all of them together with Kiffin at Ole Miss.”

It just doesn’t seem logical for Kiffin to leave a school that his family loves.

Having worked under Nick Saban with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kiffin may have learned the value of stability and long-term growth within a program. He might believe that continuing to develop the Ole Miss program will be more rewarding than jumping to a program that is currently in turmoil.

Kiffin has significantly improved the Rebels football program, achieving two seasons with at least 10 wins in the last five years, with the potential for a third this season. He has completely turned that program around and has helped his team make a bowl game every year he’s been there.

And now with the growth of Ole Miss’ NIL program, “The Grove Collective”, it has provided advantages in terms of recruiting and creating a presence with the transfer portal. Kiffin wouldn’t just throw that all behind and start from scratch at a new program.

With the way things are going with Florida in terms of desperately getting that program back to the mountaintop of college football, there needs to be an understanding that it will most likely take Kiffin some time to rebuild the program which can create pressure to produce immediate results.

While the allure of Kiffin’s coaching prowess and charisma may captivate Florida fans, the strong connections he has established at Ole Miss—coupled with the program’s recent successes and the stability he has built—suggest that it would be more prudent for him to continue his journey with the Rebels rather than embark on a challenging rebuild in Gainesville.

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Report: Lakers targeting UConn’s Danny Hurley as next head coach

The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing to make a massive offer to hire UConn Huskies head basketball coach Danny Hurley.

The biggest NBA brand is looking to bring in the most successful college basketball coach, with ESPN reporting the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting UConn’s Danny Hurley for their vacant head coach position.

Hurley led the Huskies to back-to-back NCAA Championships, becoming the first coach to do so since Billy Donovan did it with the Florida Gators in 2007 and 2008.

The Lakers had been targeting former Duke guard and NBA analyst J.J. Redick for the role, but now the team is reportedly preparing to offer Hurley a huge contract to pull him to the NBA.

The 51-year-old would take over a team still hoping to keep their championship window open with 40-year-old LeBron James and veteran big man Anthony Davis in the mix. LA won the title in 2020 but lost twice in the first round, and missed the playoffs altogether, since then.

For UConn, if Hurley does depart the players on the roster will all have 30 days to enter the transfer portal, and all eyes will be on recent NBA draft returnee Alex Karaban as well as incoming freshman Liam McNeeley and transfer portal additions Aidan Mahaney (St. Mary’s) and Tarris Reed (Michigan).

This story is continuing to develop.

Green Bay hires radio personality Doug Gottlieb to coach men’s basketball

The Green Bay Phoenix are set to hire radio personality Doug Gottlieb to replace Sundance Wicks as head coach.

The college basketball coaching carousel is still moving, and the latest head coaching hire comes at Green Bay where the Phoenix are reportedly set to hire Doug Gottlieb to replace Sundance Wicks.

Wicks left just a few days ago to take the head coaching position at Wyoming in the Mountain West, a position vacated by Jeff Linder who went to Texas Tech to be an assistant coach in the Big 12.

Gottlieb is unquestionably an out of the box hire, coming to Green Bay as a well known figure in the sports media industry – with stops as a broadcaster at FOX Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, and the Pac-12 Network.

He does have some coaching experience, leading Team USA at the 2017 Maccabiah Games and again in 2022 when they won gold. He also has stops at AAU and was a consultant for his alma mater Oklahoma State.

The 48-year-old does not have any head coaching experience at the collegiate level, however, and it’s unusual to say the least to see someone transition from the media space into coaching who has not previously been a head coach.

Green Bay went 18-14 last year and 13-7 in the Horizon League under coach Wicks, a huge improvement after winning just 11 games combined in the previous two seasons.

The Phoenix will hope Gottlieb, who interviewed for the job last year before Wicks was brought in, brings enough name recognition to the position to keep the positive momentum going in 2024-25.

Kara Lawson reportedly not pursuing vacant Tennessee job, will stay at Duke

WUNC reporter Mitchell Northam reported on Friday that Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson didn’t interview for Tennessee’s open coaching job.

Duke women’s basketball head coach Kara Lawson is staying in Durham despite her alma mater Tennessee looking for a new leader.

WUNC’s Mitchell Northam reported on Friday that Lawson didn’t interview for the Volunteers coaching job, instead opting to stay with the Blue Devils.

The Volunteers fired former head coach Kellie Harper last week after five seasons. Harper won at least 20 games in four of her five seasons, but the eight-time national champions never made it past the Sweet 16.

Lawson, a former Tennessee basketball player, was considered a favorite for the opening position. The Blue Devils head coach played for legendary head coach Pat Summitt for four years in 2000-03, averaging 13.7 points across her career and making three Final Fours in four seasons.

The Blue Devils have won 48 games across the last two seasons with Lawson, headlined by a second-round upset of Ohio State in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Chris Mack returns to college basketball, replaces Pat Kelsey at Charleston

College of Charleston replaced Pat Kelsey with former Louisville and Xavier coach Chris Mack, a proven winner in college basketball.

Two years and three months after getting fired by Louisville, veteran college basketball coach Chris Mack is back after accepting the open position at Charleston vacated by Pat Kelsey – who is now at Louisville after replacing Kenny Payne.

Mack was dismissed by Louisville in January of 2022. The program made Payne the next head coach in a move that could not have gone more poorly –  as the program tanked over the last two seasons under Payne, and now will hope Kelsey can get them out of the cellar in the ACC.

For Charleston, Mack comes in hoping to keep this program relevant after Kelsey’s excellent tenure, especially as the program remains in consideration to join the Atlantic 10 as a replacement for UMass.

Mack has experience in the A-10, leading Xavier to a pair of regular season titles before they moved to the Big East, where he also took them to a title.

All told, Mack has reached the NCAA Tournament in nine of his ten seasons as a head coach, not including 2019-20 when he had Louisville at one point ranked No. 1 in the country before the tournament was cancelled due to COVID.

Mack has had success at every stop in his career, with an overall record of 278-133. This hire sends the message that Charleston has no intention of fading back to obscurity following Kelsey’s departure, and could keep them relevant regardless of whether they take the leap to the A-10.

Could Florida Atlantic’s latest hire make them ‘the next Gonzaga?’

Can former Baylor and Gonzaga assistant John Jakus keep Florida Atlantic among the premier mid-major programs in college basketball?

In March of 1999 the Gonzaga Bulldogs went on a magical run to the Elite Eight as an 11-seed, punctuated by a game winner over Florida which led to the iconic Gus Johnson call: ‘the slipper still fits!’

The next year head coach Dan Monson departed for a job in the Big Ten at Minnesota, and an unknown assistant coach named Mark Few took over the program – and the rest is history.

While the story doesn’t quite line up perfectly, there are a lot of similarities to what is currently happening in Boca Raton with the Owls of Florida Atlantic.

FAU went on a miracle run in the NCAA Tournament in 2023, going all the way to the Final Four under coach Dusty May as a nine seed. One year later, he too departed for greener pastures in the Big Ten – taking the head coaching job at Michigan. He will be replaced by John Jakus, a relatively unknown assistant coach who has a background at Baylor and – you guessed it – Gonzaga.

Will Jakus turn around and lead FAU to 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and cement himself as a future Hall of Fame coach? It’s unlikely, simply because of the extreme rarity that is Few and Gonzaga’s story.

However, a program coming off a great two year run, in an improved basketball conference, with an invigorated fanbase, hiring a coach who developed under Few and Scott Drew, and who has professional coaching experience in Europe, is certainly one that is trending in the right direction.

Many programs have at times been given the label of ‘the next Gonzaga’ and none have kept it long term – mostly because their coach departed for a bigger job before the program was able to grab a strong enough foothold to succeed without them.

Loyola Chicago lost Drew Valentine, VCU lost Shaka Smart, George Mason lost Jim Larranaga, Florida Gulf Coast lost Andy Enfield, Oral Roberts lost Paul Mills, the list goes on and on – and in the transfer portal era the ability to retain talent at the mid-major level is harder than ever.

Jakus is a phenomenal basketball mind, and both the Gonzaga and Baylor coaching trees are rife with successful names – like Tommy Lloyd, Jerome Tang, Grant McCasland, Leon Rice, and Mills – but the journey to being Gonzaga in Florida will require Jakus not only to stick around long term, but to continue to fight through college basketball rule changes which heavily favor the Power-6 programs.

Perhaps it’s unfair to toss the Gonzaga label around before Jakus has even coached his first game, but FAU has the infrastructure and current momentum to keep it going in the post-May era, and they are a team well worth keeping on the radar going forward.

Report: Louisville considering Richard Pitino as next basketball coach

The Louisville Cardinals are considering Rick Pitino’s son Richard as their next head coach after a successful season at New Mexico.

The Louisville Cardinals have an opportunity to bring a very familiar face back to campus in Richard Pitino, the current New Mexico head coach and son of former Cardinals and current St. John’s coach Rick Pitino.

Reports indicate Pitino is the top candidate to become the head coach at Louisville, and that athletic director Josh Heird has been in contact with Richard “several times over the past few days.”

Pitino led the Lobos to a 26-10 record and their first Mountain West tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014 this past season, his third at New Mexico.

Pitino served as an assistant coach at Louisville from 2007-2009 under his father Rick, before serving as an assistant at Florida under Billy Donovan.

He was back at Louisville in 2011-12 during the team’s Final Four run, and then spent one year as the head coach at Florida International before taking over at Minnesota in 2013 and leading the Golden Gophers to the NIT championship in his first year and two NCAA Tournament appearances before departing in 2021.

Hiring the son of the coach who led you to a national title may sound good on paper, but the elder Pitino’s transgressions at Louisville are well documented and bringing the family back into the mix is certainly a unique situation.

However, Louisville struck out on top targets Scott Drew and Dusty May, and Pitino is a reasonable candidate based on his head coaching experience, recent success, and familiarity with the program.

Alabama basketball assistant coach Austin Claunch linked to head coaching vacancy

Nate Oats will have to hire his fourth assistant in a years time!

It appears [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] will be having to hire his fourth assistant coach in the last year as Austin Claunch is reportedly expected to take the head coaching job at UTSA.

Oats hired Claunch last offseason and he played an instrumental role in developing the Alabama offense into one of the most efficient groups in the country.

Claunch is just 34 years old but already has five years of head coaching experience as he was the head man at Nicholls before taking the assistant job with Oats in Tuscaloosa last year, posting a career record of 90-31.

Reports indicate that Claunch is expected to remain with the Crimson Tide through the remainder of Alabama’s season.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow the Alabama basketball program as the season progresses.

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This mistake by Stanford men’s basketball could haunt them for years to come

Stanford basketball coach Jerod Haase was let go on Thursday, magnifying the Cardinal’s mistake not hiring Mark Madsen last offseason.

They say hindsight is 20-20, but Stanford’s decision to retain head coach Jerod Haase after last season – instead of hiring prominent alumni and Utah Valley coach Mark Madsen – was viewed as a crucial mistake at the time.

And it looks even worse now.

Madsen instead took the head job at Cal and is clearly in the process of turning the Golden Bears around, while Stanford floundered in mediocrity for another season before ultimately doing what should have been done last year, letting Haase go.

Haase was dismissed shortly after Stanford’s loss to Washington State on Thursday in the Pac-12 Tournament, and held himself accountable for the team’s struggles in an emotional postgame press conference.

“I have not won here to the level that I expect,” Haase said. “Just like I hold my team accountable, I’m being held accountable, and I have no issue with that.”

Stanford failed to make the big dance in all eight of Haase’s seasons in Palo Alto, finishing with a nearly perfect .500 record at 126-127 overall. While he was able to add high-end talent as a recruiter, including Harrison Ingram and Andrej Stojakovic, the on-court results just were not there and the program wanted to find new leadership before moving to the ACC.

Meanwhile, Cal has a full year head start on their rebuild – and it adds a little salt to the wound that Stanford’s bitter rival is in a better place because of Madsen, who almost certainly would have taken the Cardinal job if they had made it available one year ago instead of giving Haase one more – ultimately uninspired – season.