Archive for the ‘Firings’ Category

Milk for the Khorne flakes!

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

More from the NFL firings front:

Contrary to reports the other day, “Wink” Martindale is officially not out as defensive coordinator for the New York Football Giants.

Yet.

Current reports are saying he’s furious with the organization, and (as noted above) “cursed out” head coach Brian Daboll after his people were fired. But he hasn’t officially resigned or been fired at this point.

The Giants could prevent Martindale from joining another team if he resigns. If that were the case, this could get even uglier.

He’s got one year left on his contract. If he’s fired, the Football Giants would owe him $3 million. If he resigns (and there’s apparently interest in his services from the Rams and Eagles) they don’t owe him anything. So I’m not sure why they would block him from joining another team, unless it is just pure spite.

Edited to add: “sources” are reporting that da Bears are firing offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, but keeping Matt Eberflus. Given the situation with the Winkster, I’m looking at “sources say” with a bit of skepticism.

Also “out” according to “sources”: quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko, wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, running backs coach Omar Young and assistant tight ends coach Tim Zetts.

Edited to add 2: both the NYPost and ESPN are reporting that the Winkster is officially out, by “mutual decision”. Which apparently translates to: they don’t have to pay him, and he’s free to sign with some other team.

Meanwhile, Pete Carroll is out as coach of the Teattle Teahawks…I mean, Seattle Seahawks. This sounds like one of those firingnations:

“After thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interest of the franchise, we have amicably agreed with Pete Carroll that his role will evolve from Head Coach to remain with the organization as an advisor.”

He had been saying that he planned to coach in 2024 as late as Monday. ESPN. 137-89-1 overall, 10 playoff wins. But they were 9-8 and missed the playoffs this year.

Skulls for the skull throne!

Tuesday, January 9th, 2024

Continuing with the NFL firings theme: Mike Vrabel out as coach of the Tennessee Titans.

The Titans fired Vrabel after six seasons, ending a run that featured three playoff appearances, two AFC South titles, an AFC Championship Game appearance and the 2021 NFL Coach of the Year award. The Titans were 54-45 in the regular season under Vrabel, making him the third-winningest coach in franchise history, including the Houston Oilers era.

But they missed the playoffs in 2022 and 2023, and it is being reported that their was friction between Vrabel and team owner Amy Adams Strunk.

ESPN.

Blood! Blood in the streets!

Monday, January 8th, 2024

This is your Monday morning after the end of the NFL season firings thread.

From the “Damn! You didn’t even wait to get him in the house!” department: Arthur Smith was fired last night as head coach of the Falcons. 21-30 over three seasons, 7-10 this year. ESPN.

Ron Rivera out as coach of the Washington Commanders. 26-40-1 over four years, 4-13 this season. ESPN.

Scott Fitterer out as general manager of the Carolina Panthers, who already fired their head coach. 14-37 over three seasons, and Carolina finished 2-15 this year. ESPN.

Mote updates later if there are any.

Edited to add: the NYPost is reporting that special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and offensive line coach Bobby Johnson have been fired from the NY Football Giants. Additionally, Don “Wink” Martindale has “resigned” as defensive coordinator.

Edited to add 1/9: late on Monday, Jacksonville fired defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and a whole bunch of other folks:

In addition to Caldwell, [head coach Doug] Pederson also fired defensive line coach Brentson Buckner, passing game coordinator/cornerbacks coach Deshea Townsend, inside linebackers coach Tony Gilbert, safeties coach Cody Grimm, senior defensive assistant Bob Sutton and defensive quality control coaches Tee Mitchell and Sean Cullina.

Filibusted.

Monday, December 18th, 2023

D.J. Smith fired as coach of the Ottawa Senators. Also out: assistant coach Davis Payne.

Five seasons as coach. I don’t have a full record, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs at all under Smith “…with their strongest finish coming last season when they went 39-35-8 but finished six points behind the Florida Panthers for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.”

The other problem is that the team is completely screwed up. “restricted free agent forward” Shane Pinto is sitting out a 41-game suspension for gambling on sports.

Less than a week later, the club fired general manager Pierre Dorion on the same day the Senators lost a first-round draft pick for their role in an invalidated trade back in 2022 involving Evgenii Dadonov and the Anaheim Ducks.

Christmas! In December!

Friday, December 15th, 2023

And I got an early Christmas present. Really, more like two early Christmas stocking stuffers, but it is the thought that counts.

The worthless LA Chargers got stomped by the Las Vegas Raiders last night, 63-21.

And I guess pretty much as a direct result of that (though everyone was saying it was coming, I think the timeline was accelerated), Brandon Staley is out as head coach. Tom Telesco is out as general manager, too.

ESPN. Since I prefer to link to local coverage when I can, here’s an archived version of the story from the LAT, but I know some folks may not be able to read that. (It hasn’t made it in the Wayback Machine yet.)

Staley’s teams finished 24-24 in the regular season and made one playoff appearance. In his first year in 2021, the Chargers were eliminated from postseason contention on the final snap of the regular season.
The defeat at Las Vegas was a record-setter, the Chargers surrendering an all-time high in points for a game. Also, no Chargers team ever had trailed by 42 points at halftime.

You know what I say: shut the franchise down, throw all the players out of the NFL, reduce all of their facilities to rubble, plow the rubble into the earth, and sow the ground with salt so nothing ever grows there again.

Can’t get no antidote for blues…

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

Craig Berube out as coach of the St. Louis Blues. ESPN link for those who are having problems with archive services.

He was 206-132-44 over about six seasons, and his team won the Stanley Cup in 2019. The team is 13-14-1 so far this season.

Well, that’s done.

Monday, November 27th, 2023

Frank Reich fired as head coach of hapless the Carolina Panthers. ESPN for the archive challenged.

The Panthers are currently 1-10. Which, by a curious coincidence, is also the number of games Frank Reich coached.

Reich is the third full-time head coach to be fired by Tepper since taking over as owner in 2018. He chose not to hire former interim head coach Steve Wilks — who went 6-6 during his run last year — in favor of Reich this offseason.

Firings watch.

Sunday, November 26th, 2023

Tom Allen out as head coach of Indiana. (“Sources say”)

Seven seasons, 33-49, and 18-43 in conference. Indiana lost their final three games and went 3-9 this season.

According to ESPN, Indiana will have to pay a $20.8 million buyout, since they fired Allen before December 1st of this year. If they had waited until next year, the buyout would have been only $8 million.

ESPN is reporting (“sources say”) that Dana Holgorsen is out at the University of Houston. I have been unable to find any backup for this on the HouChron website or the two local TV station websites I checked.

Houston went 4-8 in its inaugural Big 12 season, which included a loss at Rice in September and three straight losses to end the year. The Cougars finished 2-7 in the Big 12, with their wins coming in overtime against Baylor and on a last-second 49-yard touchdown against West Virginia.

31-28 over five seasons. The buyout is estimated at $14.8 million, but there’s an offset clause if he gets another coaching job.

Edited to add: the Holgorsen firing seems official now. HouChron

Edited to add 2: Some additional firing updates I ran across on ESPN. I’m just going to cover them quickly:

Terry Bowden gone as head coach of Louisana-Monroe. 10-26, 5-10 in conference, and 2-10 this season.

Frank Cignetti Jr. out as offensive coordinator for Pitt.

Dana Dimel out as head coach of UT-El Paso. 20-49 in six seasons, one bowl appearance in 2021, but 3-9 this season.

Firings watch.

Friday, November 24th, 2023

Jack Del Rio out as defensive coordinator of the Washington NFL team.

The Commanders’ defense ranks last in points allowed and 29th in yards allowed — one year after ranking seventh and third, respectively, in those categories. The Commanders consistently gave up big plays and failed to make many of their own.
Washington has allowed a league-high 49 pass plays of 20 yards or more. The Commanders haven’t intercepted a pass in the past six games or caused a turnover in the past three.

Washington lost 45-10 to Dallas yesterday, is 4-8 this season, has lost three games in a row and eight out of the last 10.

Blame Canada! Blame Canada!

Tuesday, November 21st, 2023

Matt Canada out as offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Non-archive link, extremely aggressive about turning off your ad blocker. Archive link, which may not work for some people. ESPN, which will probably work for almost everyone.

Firings watch.

Sunday, November 19th, 2023

Dino Babers out as Syracuse head coach.

Eight seasons, 41-55 overall, 20-45 in the ACC. One bowl appearance in the last five years.

The Orange (5-6) have lost six of their past seven games, marking the second consecutive year that featured a precipitous slide to end the season. Last year, Syracuse lost six of its last seven games.

Am I delusional, or didn’t Syracuse used to be called “The Orangemen”? Now it seems like they are just “The Orange”, and I can’t find any explanation for the name change online.

Edited to add: and shortly after I posted this, I found out that East Tennessee State had fired George Quarles as their football coach. 6-16 in two seasons, 3-8 this season.

What to do? What. To. Do?

Friday, November 17th, 2023

I could do three, maybe four, very short posts covering and updating about various news items.

Or I could do one post hitting all of those items, even though it wouldn’t be as organized as doing multiple posts. But it’d just be one post, and maybe slightly more substantial. So one post it is.

Obit watch: A.S. Byatt, noted British author (Possession).

George Brown, drummer for Kool & the Gang.

Non-flaming non-hyenas watch: Mike the Musicologist sent over a link (but I’m using the Post‘s instead) stating that the gun charges against NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov are going to be dropped. Turns out that her gun was unloaded and also missing the recoil spring assembly, so it couldn’t be fired.

“In order to sustain this charge, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the weapon in question was capable of firing bullets,” Brooklyn DA spokesman Oren Yaniv said in a statement. “Absent such proof, we have no choice but to dismiss these charges.”

This actually makes me feel less sympathetic to her. It seems like she was carrying the gun as a prop, not because she felt a need for protection. And that doesn’t strike me as being very smart.

Firings watch: Chris Partridge, linebackers coach at the University of Michigan. This does seem to be tied to the ongoing scandal.

There are somewhat more than hints in that article and this one that UMich has found out some things about what’s been going on that are causing tsuris.

Sources told ESPN that university leadership this week has shifted its tone from the stern rebuke of the league’s sanctions to a growing acceptance that the football program may be dealing with significant NCAA infractions that could include a failure to properly monitor the program on Harbaugh’s part.