Whipped Cream Difficulties

Rich Rodriguez fired last night as head coach of the University of Arizona.

Why? Would you believe…sexual harassment?

The former employee on Thursday filed a $7.5 million notice of claim with the state’s attorney general’s office alleging Rodriguez ran a hostile workplace, according to the Arizona Daily Star. A notice of claim is a legal document that signals a lawsuit will be filed.

Arizona Daily Star (really obnoxious about ad blockers). NYT. ESPN.

Part of what makes this interesting is that RichRod was fired, but the university admits it wasn’t “for cause”: this means that they have to pay his contract buyout ($6 million) plus whatever the plaintiff wins (or settles for) in their pending claim against the university. So this could add up quick. And, as the Daily Star notes, this isn’t the only sports related problem the university has.

(Also: why does a university football coach need representation from CAA?)

Rodriguez’s contract was set to run through May 31, 2020. His buyout as of Dec. 1 was $6.45 million, according to USA Today’s annual survey of NCAA football coaches’ salaries. Because he was let go before March 15, Rodriguez will miss out on approximately $3.2 million from a master-limited-partnership provision in his contract. That pay came via publicly traded units on the so-called “Longevity Fund.” Rodriguez was set to receive 25 percent of the value on March 15. If he had been fired any time after that, he would have been entitled to the full value of the fund.

“publicly traded units on the so-called ‘Longevity Fund'”? Have I just not had enough coffee this morning? Or did RichRod have some sort of weirdly structured deal?

David Fizdale out as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. I do believe this is the first coach firing of the NBA season.

He was 50-51 after a little more than a year with the team. The big problems seem to be that he was 7-12 so far this season, they’ve lost eight games in a row, and Mr. Fizdale got crosswise with Marc Gasol (one of the team’s star players).

In other news, Ty Detmer is also out as offensive coordinator for BYU.

David Bailiff out as head coach at Rice.

He’d been there for 11 seasons and was 57-80 overall.

During Bailiff’s tenure (tied for the third longest in school history), Rice players have regularly excelled off the field; eight players have been taken in the NFL Draft; and the school opened the $31.5 million, 60,000-square-foot Brian Patterson Center for coaches’ offices and a locker and weight room in 2015.

He also took Rice to four bowl games.

After going 3-9 in Bailiff’s first season in 2007, Rice rebounded with a 10-3 year and won the Texas Bowl in 2008. But since winning the Owls’ first outright conference title in 56 years in 2013, Bailiff’s teams have done progressively worse.
Rice went 8-5 in 2014 and won the Hawaii Bowl. They ended 2015 with a 5-7 record and finished 3-9 in 2016.

And they were 1-11 this year, which is not a good look.

…I think this is the strangest football story (college or pro) I’ve seen so far this season. I didn’t know anything about it until this morning when I checked my phone: Mike the Musicologist had pinged me overnight, but the media wasn’t covering this when I wrote last night’s loser/firings update.

But I digress. As you know, Bob, Tennessee fired Butch Jones a few weeks ago. So they’ve been looking for a replacement, and found one…

…Greg Schiano, current defensive coordinator with Ohio State.

The name “Greg Schiano” may ring some bells with longtime readers. Gregg Easterbrook had serious issues with Mr. Schiano during his previous coaching tenures, which include a stint at Tampa Bay (where he was fired after going 11-21) and at Rutgers for 11 years before that (where he was 68-67). Most of Easterbrook’s issues seemed to be with Mr. Schiano’s alleged lack of “sportsmanship”: Mr. Schiano famously bragged about telling his teams to disrupt kneel-down plays.

Anyway. The university apparently signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Mr. Schiano, and word got out on Sunday.

Hilarity ensued. If by “hilarity” you mean “a massive s–t fit”.

Tennessee students, fans, and some political figures did not like the idea of hiring Mr. Schiano. At least part of the objection seems to be that Mr. Sciano’s previous coaching stints also include a stop at Penn State during the Sandusky era.

Schiano was known in the NFL as being a domineering leader with a challenging personality.

Giggle. Snort.

A slew of state politicians spoke out against the possible hire, and at least three local businesses announced they were preemptively banning Schiano.

Now Tennessee has apparently backed out of the deal. USA Today. ESPN.

Question 1: does Tennessee owe Mr. Schiano money? And if so, how much?

There are reports that TN will owe Schiano $20 million in a buyout for a contract that was signed but TN backed… https://t.co/fouiHHZmjl

— Brad Jones (@BradJonesBBBTV) November 27, 2017

I think Brad Jones knows more about this stuff than I do, but $20 million seems unlikely to me. I can see this costing the university some money, maybe even in the seven-figure range. But it looks like Mr. Schiano still has his Ohio State job, and the contract was “subject to approval” by the board of regents…

Question #2: does athletics director John Currie quit, or get fired?

Look, national media can think what they want about us, but at no point in history has every member of #VolTwitter AND the Tennessee media agreed on something. That's how big of a deal this Schiano thing is.

— Brian Rice (@briancrice) November 26, 2017

After a lot of shoving and a few punches thrown, and TCU coach Gary Patterson among those trying to keep his players from running all the way across the field into the fray, officials announced that every player on both teams had been assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

And, of course, we have questions:

• Every player? On both teams?
• “Unsportsmanlike conduct, TCU bench,” the ref said. “Everybody on the field will get an unsportsmanlike. Unsportsmanlike conduct on Baylor. Everyone on that bench will get an unsportsmanlike.” Guess so.
• But what did this mean in game terms? It kind of sounds like offsetting penalties with nobody gaining or losing yardage.
• So what was the point of calling this? To make the refs feel better?
• What’s the practical impact long term? Does this go on each player’s permanent record?

This literally just in: the other shoe has dropped in Arkansas. Bret Bielema out as head coach. He was 29-34 overall in five seasons, with a record of 4-8 overall and 1-7 in SEC play this season.

Now we have a rare storm developing on the horizon. The Giants (2-9) could have a top-three draft pick and the Jets (4-6) could be in the top 10, setting up some New York-style quarterback drama come April. The last time the Jets and Giants used top-10 picks on quarterbacks in the same year was … never.

My prediction: Cleveland gets the first pick and takes either Darnold or Rosen. SF gets the second pick and takes whichever one Cleveland doesn’t. Whoever Cleveland takes plays for two years, gets battered and beaten, then gets tossed aside for another first round draft choice quarterback, and is probably out of the NFL by 2025.

I wish I didn’t think this: I’d like to see the Browns win a Superb Owl in my lifetime. But how many franchise quarterbacks have they drafted or signed from elsewhere over the years?