Archive for the ‘Firings’ Category

Firings watch.

Friday, March 15th, 2024

There’s been a lot of activity over the past two days. I guess the period between the end of the tournaments and Selection Sunday is the NCAA basketball equivalent of the NFL’s “Bloody Monday”.

Why don’t we get to it? In violation of my general rules, I’m using ESPN links mostly because I just don’t have time to go through the local papers.

Juwan Howard out today at Michigan. 8-24 this season (3-17 in conference), and an overall record in five years of 87-72.

Jerry Stackhouse fired yesterday at Vanderbilt, also after five seasons. 9-23 this season (4-14 in conference).

Jerod Haase out on Thursday at Stanford. 14-18 this season (8-12 in conference) and 126-127 overall in eight seasons.

Mike Boynton out at Oklahoma State after seven seasons. 12-20 this season (4-14 in conference).

I think that covers all the firings. If I’ve missed any, please leave me a heads-up in comments.

Firings watch.

Wednesday, March 13th, 2024

Kenny Payne out as head coach of men’s baskeball at Louisville. ESPN for the archive challenged.

12-52 in two seasons, with one road win. 8-24 this season, 3-17 in conference.

Firings watch.

Monday, March 11th, 2024

Roberto D’Aversa has been fired as manager of Lecce. Lecce is a team in the Italian Serie A soccer league.

This is not ordinarily something I would take notice of, but the reason for his firing is interesting:

D’Aversa, 48, head-butted Verona striker Thomas Henry in the aftermath of their 1-0 home defeat on Sunday.

Hellas Verona was the opposing team, and is in 13th place in Serie A. Lecce is in 15th place.

That old devil is at it again…

Monday, March 4th, 2024

The New Jersey Devils fired coach Lindy Ruff. ESPN.

Ruff, 64, departs the Devils after coaching the team to a 128-125-28 record in 281 regular-season games over three-plus seasons.

Net loss.

Monday, February 19th, 2024

Jacque Vaughn out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

The team is 21-33 this season, and lost their last game before the break to Boston by 50 points. Vaughn was 71-68 in “two plus” seasons, and 0-8 in the playoffs.

In not exactly firings related news that I don’t have another place to put, I didn’t pay a darn bit of attention to the All Star game, but I did read the stories this morning.

The Eastern Conference won, 211-186. Yes, one team scored over 200 points. Yes, Adam Silver is peeved.

“And to the Eastern Conference All-Stars, you scored the most points,” Silver said flatly. “Well … congratulations.”

And the players still aren’t taking it seriously.

Instead, it was another game with virtually no defense and with little to no life inside the building — to the point that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said his most memorable moment was when the hype teams from the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers went through their dunk routines between the third and fourth quarters.
“I think the best [moment], we were talking about it, was the Bulls and the Pacers dunkers,” Davis said. “With the trampoline? They were very, very impressive.”

Then there was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who admitted he wasn’t interested in playing all that hard in an All-Star Game, period.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” he said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.

I actually have a three part proposal for improving the All Star game:

1. Eliminate the All Star Game.
2. Shut down the NBA.
3. Profit.

Alternative proposal: no rules, no penalties, no substitutions, and the teams play until only one man is left standing.

Firings watch.

Thursday, February 15th, 2024

Very quick, because I have a meeting tonight (and maybe some smoking hyenas to update):

Jarmo Kekalainen out as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

ESPN:

The Blue Jackets have the worst record in the Eastern Conference with a .404 points percentage in 52 games (16-26-10). The Jackets last made the playoffs in 2019-20. Under Kekalainen, Columbus qualified for the postseason five times but won only a single playoff series — their shocking 2019 first-round upset of first-place Tampa Bay in a sweep.

San Francisco fired Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator yesterday.

In Wilks’ lone season with the Niners, the defense had its share of ups and downs. A unit that led the NFL in multiple categories in 2022 under DeMeco Ryans — including fewest points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive expected points added (89.58) — took a step back in 2023.
San Francisco still finished third in points allowed (17.5) this season, but the 49ers were ninth in defensive EPA (41.48) and sprung significant leaks against the run in the playoffs, allowing the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs to average 5.1 yards per carry and 149.3 yards per game in the postseason.

(Not quite) firings watch.

Friday, February 9th, 2024

Billy Eppler has not been fired as general manager of the Mets, because he actually resigned October 5th.

But he won’t be involved in baseball this year: Rob Manfred placed him on the ineligible list through the end of the 2024 baseball season.

Sadly, it’s just a year, not “permanently ineligible“, which is my favorite form of ineligible.

Prithee, good sir, you may ask. Why the suspension?

…he directed the team to fabricate injuries to create open roster spots…
Manfred said in a statement that Eppler directed “the deliberate fabrication of injuries; and the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper injured list placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”
The scheme involved fabricating injuries for up to a dozen players, sources told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Sources also said that an anonymous letter from within the organization tipped off MLB.

Firings watch.

Friday, February 2nd, 2024

Todd McLellan out as head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

Firings watch.

Wednesday, January 24th, 2024

No big firings still, but a few coordinators lost their jobs. I’m playing catch-up here, so please forgive the ESPN links.

Vic Fangio has been let go as defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins, supposedly by “mutual decision”.

Joe Barry fired as defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. That’s the Green Bay Packers who made it as far as the divisional round of the playoffs.

Sean Desai out as defensive coordinator of the Eagles.

Firings watch.

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

Adrian Griffin out as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. I’ve been having intermittent problems with archive.is again, so here’s the ESPN link as well.

This was his first year coaching (he was hired over the summer) and the team is currently 30-13.

Dave Heeke out as athletic director of the Arizona Wildcats.

(TMQ Watch is about 90% done, and will be going up later. It would be going up now, but I have two breaking news stories to do.)

Quick firings watch.

Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

The NFL firings will continue until morale improves. But none of the rumored really big firings have happened yet.

Alex Van Pelt out as offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns. Also out: running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney.

Despite starting five different quarterbacks this season, the Browns finished 11-6 during the regular season and made the playoffs.

Yeah, I’m not sure Van Pelt was the issue here…

Pete Carmichael Jr. out as offensive coordinator in New Orleans. Also out: “Senior offensive assistant” Bob Bicknell and wide receivers coach Kodi Burns.

Firings watch.

Thursday, January 11th, 2024

One sort-of firing, one not a firing but noteworthy.

Bill Belichick out as head coach in New England. Everyone was expecting this, but it seems more like a firingnation:

Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft spent a good part of this week periodically meeting and discussing how each side wanted to proceed. From sources familiar with those conversations, there was said to be no conflict, no disagreement, and in the end, productive talks resulted in a mutual decision that left both sides comfortable and at ease.

Belichick, 71, leaves New England with 333 career victories (including playoffs), ranking second all time behind Don Shula and his 347. Belichick, George Halas and Curly Lambeau are the only NFL coaches with six championships since the league began postseason play in 1933.

As I’ve said before, the man has nothing left to prove. Does he try to go someplace else and pick up the 15 wins he needs to pass Shula? That’s the speculation, but I figure it will take two to three years at least to get 15 wins. It isn’t like he’s going to another team that’s as good as the Patriots were: I’d expect five win seasons at best to start with.

And Nick Saban out in Alabama in what seems like a genuine retirement.