Jon Robinson out as general manager of the Tennessee Titans.
Interestingly, the Titans are 7-5 and at the top of their division…
Jon Robinson out as general manager of the Tennessee Titans.
Interestingly, the Titans are 7-5 and at the top of their division…
The Browns picked him first in the 2018 draft, and traded him in July to the Panthers for a fifth-round draft pick (“…that could have become a fourth had Mayfield, the first pick of the 2018 draft, played 70% of the snaps.”)
This is a weird one.
Sean Kugler out as offensive line coach/running game coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals..
Why fire Kugler? Well, they are 4-7…but apparently that’s not why.
Answer: there was some sort of unspecified “incident” while the Cardinals were in Mexico City for Monday Night Football. More from ESPN, although the article seems speculative.
Jeff Scott out as head coach of the University of South Florida.
The team is currently 1-8, has lost seven games in a row, and got beat 54-28 by Temple last week.
Scott compiled a 4-26 record (1-19 AAC) in his two-plus seasons with the Bulls.
I feel like I am obligated to say something about the Houston Astros winning the World Series.
With that out of the way, I wanted to mention my Theory of Compensatory Suckage.
The Astros won the World Series. The Houston Texans are 1-6-1 so far this season, which gives them the worst record in the NFL at the moment. The Houston Rockets are currently 1-9, which is the worst record in basketball at the moment. Seems like everything balances out.
In other news: Frank Reich out as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
40-34-1 over roughly four and a half seasons.
The triggering event seems to have been the Colts losing 26-3 to New England on Sunday, and putting up 121 yards of offense in the process.
And the latest on the firings front: Steve Nash out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
94-67 over roughly two years.
But wait, it gets even better! Though this is technically not part of the firings watch: Ime Udoka is rumored to be next up as Nets coach.
That’s Ime Udoka, who was suspended for a year by the Boston Celtics for having an inappropriate relationship with a female subordinate.
Personally, I’m thinking: this is not a good look.
Bryan Harsin out as Auburn football coach.
He was two years into a six year contract. He was also the subject of an inquiry by the university back in February:
Ultimately, though, it was the on-field product:
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Executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby out in Houston.
More from Pro Football Network by way of Lawrence.
Not much more to add to this, really: nobody seems unhappy with Easterby’s performance in the role. There’s a lot of “it was just time”.
The Texas are 1-3-1 and had a bye this past week.
Matt Rhule deposed as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, in the first NFL coach firing this season.
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As with the offensive coordinator dilemma, Rhule never identified a long-term, efficient quarterback. The team signed journeyman Teddy Bridgewater to lead the offense in 2020, but he was traded to the Denver Broncos following a 5-11 debut season under Rhule.
The Panthers traded three draft picks to the New York Jets for former first-round pick Sam Darnold last offseason. Darnold faltered as the franchise QB in Carolina, as he did in New York, and the Panthers remained on the hook for his salary through this season after picking up his fifth-year option following the trade to acquire him.
This summer, the Panthers tried to upgrade the QB spot by trading for former first overall pick Baker Mayfield. Through five games, Mayfield has struggled mightily, completing just 54.9% of his passes for 962 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions.
Mike Matheny out as general manager of the Kansas City Royals.
Also out: pitching coach Cal Eldred.
While they avoided a 100-loss season, the Royals (65-97) finished in last place in the AL Central and recorded the fifth-worst record of any club in the majors. They went an MLB-worst 26-55 on the road.
Matheny inherited a 103-loss team in 2019. In his first season, the Royals went 26-34 playing a pandemic-shortened 2020 schedule.
The Royals went 74-88 last season after adding veteran pitcher Mike Minor, first baseman Carlos Santana and left fielder Andrew Benintendi.
ESPN:
Missed this yesterday: Paul Chryst out as head coach of the Badgers.
The team is 2-3 this season.
Geoff Collins and athletic director Todd Stansbury out at Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech is 1-3 this season. That one win came against Western Carolina.
(Apologies for linking to ESPN, but the AJC is pretty much unreadable and unlinkable without a subscription.)
Herm Edwards out as football coach at Arizona State.
He was 20-26 overall (about five years) and 1-2 so far this season. AZ State lost 30-21 at home to Eastern Michigan, who was playing their backup quarterback.
The bigger issue, though, seems to be that AZ State is under a major NCAA investigation.
That investigation is still ongoing.
We’re only two (or three, depending on schedules) games into the college football season, and we already have our first firing. (As far as I know: at least this is the first major school firing.)
Scott Frost out at Nebraska. Rather unceremoniously: they fired him now, three games in, rather than waiting until October 1st. On the first, his buyout amount would have been halved.
Frost was pretty well regarded: as a quarterback, he led Nebraska to the national championship in 1997. Nebraska hasn’t won a championship since. As a coach, he led Central Florida to a 13-0 season in 2017.
Then he came to Nebraska. His record in four and a quarter seasons was 16-31, “worse than any of the previous four Husker head coaches who had been fired this century”. His record in “one-score” games was 5-22.
The final straw seems to have been Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern, a cupcake team that Nebraska paid $1.423 million to play in Lincoln. Nebraska lost 45-42, at home, after being a a three touchdown favorite. They’re now 1-2 this season.
Chris Woodward out as manager of the Texas Rangers.
Currently, the Rangers are 23 games out of first in the AL West.
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