Whipped Cream Difficulties

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.

I’m home now, and expect to get back to regular blogging soon. In the meantime, Ken Dorsey out as offensive coordinator of the worthless Buffalo Bills.

Seriously, Buffalo got pwned by Denver? Seems to be consistently the story of the Bills: every year, they’re expected to do great things and go places, and every year they finish middle of the pack.

About to pull out and head home, but: Zach Arnett out as head coach of Mississippi State after only 10 games (4-6 overall, 1-6 in the SEC).

Still away, but I just have time to note: Jimbo Fisher out at Texas A&M.

The move is expected to cost the school more than $76 million to buy out Fisher’s deal, which is nearly triple the highest known coaching contract buyouts at a public school.
According to the terms of the contract, Texas A&M will owe Fisher $19.2 million within 60 days and then pay him $7.2 annually through 2031. There is no offset or mitigation on those payments, and the annual payments start 120 days after termination.

45-25 in six seasons.

Mike Yurcich out as offensive coordinator at Penn State.

David Ross out as manager of the Chicago Cubs. Tribune. Sun-Times. ESPN.

According to ESPN, Connor Stalions, the guy at the center of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal, has been officially fired.

Also, according to the tabloid of record, Michigan fired Alex Yood, who I’ve seen described as a “low-level” staffer. This firing seems to have nothing to do with sign-stealing, and is quite frankly weird.

Back in September, a man who went by “Boopac Shakur” posted a video on Instagram that purported to show Alex Yood had tried to pick up a 13-year-old girl online. Mr. Yood has not been charged by any law enforcement agency with any crime. “Boopac Shakur”‘s persona on social media seems to have been a “To Catch a Predator” wanna-be.

In the video, the man alleged to be Yood is wearing Michigan gear and seen carrying a bottle of alcohol at a store when he is confronted by two men.
At first, Yood appears to believe he has been caught by the police, but the men inform him that they are not the authorities.
When the men ask Yood what he is doing, he answers that he bought the liquor for a graduation party that he is hosting in a couple days.
Yood is asked how old he is and says he is 22.
The men ask him what he’s doing at the store and how far he drove, and Yood responds, “I’m not looking for trouble.”
The men then present Yood with photos of his online exchange with the person he allegedly thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Yood says he didn’t know she was 13, and they respond that he had been told her age twice in the exchange.
The two men then start screaming in the store: “This man is here to meet a 13-year-old girl!”

Again, Mr. Yood has not been charged with any crime, to the best of my knowledge and according to the reports I’ve seen.

Interestingly, “Boopac Shakur” (real name Robert Wayne Lee) was murdered not too long after the video was posted.

On Sept. 29 at around 10:30 p.m., Lee was in a restaurant in the area of Pontiac, Mich., — a city 30 miles outside of Detroit — when he was shot and killed by a person during an argument.
The following day, investigators told reporters Lee confronted two males sitting at a table and accused one of them of being a pedophile before punching him. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said one suspect pulled out a knife while the other pulled a gun, shooting Lee multiple times.
But in an updated statement on Tuesday, Bouchard said this no longer appeared to be the case.
“When we originally responded to the call, the community inferred he could have been there for that reason, to confront a pedophile,” Bouchard told NBC News.
“As we get deeper in the investigation, we have yet to find any corroborative information on that point,” he added.

I say “not a firing”. Yet. But the winds are blowing in a direction that makes me think a whole bunch of people are going to get fired.

Connor Stalions, a “football analyst” with the University of Michigan, has been suspended indefinitely with pay.

There’s an ongoing investigation into Michigan by the NCAA. The university is accused of using “an ‘elaborate’ scouting system to steal signals from future opponents since at least 2021“.

Athletic director Warde Manuel announced Stalions’ suspension with pay on Friday, one day after the analyst was identified as a person of interest in the investigation into whether No. 2-ranked Michigan violated an NCAA rule by scouting future opponents in person at games, sources told ESPN. The NCAA prohibited such scouting in 1994.

I can understand the issue with “stealing signs”, though I really don’t know what that means in college football. But the NCAA has a rule against attending your opponents games in person? Seriously? I guess, maybe, they are afraid larger schools with more resources will have an advantage over smaller schools that can’t afford to travel as much? Or is this just more of “we’re the NCAA. Nothing we do has to make sense”?

Harbaugh served a three-game suspension to start this season related to NCAA charges of failure to cooperate and head-coach responsibility over alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. A violation by a member of his coaching staff could trigger another charge of head-coach responsibility, potentially a Level I violation.
Sources said the NCAA enforcement staff’s level of interest in Stalions was so significant that it sought access to his computer as part of its investigation.

So they were already looking at Harbaugh for recruiting violations, and he basically pled guilty to that. This would be the second rules violation in less than a year. What would be the implications in terms of NCAA penalties if this is substantiated?

Could we see…dare I say it…the “death penalty“?

I doubt it myself. But it’d be fun to see. Realistically, if this is substantiated, I suspect major loss of scholarships, a ban on post-season play, and possibly for Harbaugh to get a “show-cause penalty“.

Running a little behind here, but: the Red Sox fired Dave Bush (pitching coach) and Carlos Febles (third-base coach) on Monday.

This is an…interesting…story. John Roth, “chief operating officer” of both the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres, has been fired. Also fired: Kathryn D’Angelo, “general counsel and senior vice president of business administration” for the Bills.

The alleged reason? Roth and D’Angelo were allegedly involved in a “romantic relationship”. Which, once again, consenting adults, etc.

But: D’Angelo apparently was one of Roth’s direct reports. It seems like dating one of your subordinates is generally frowned upon in this establishment. As a matter of fact, I think it’s generally frowned upon in most ethical workplaces.

Things between Roth and D’Angelo “got too brazen” in London, where the Bills suffered a 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, and it “became an issue that had to be addressed.”

(I apologize for not linking to “The Athletic”. While I apparently have “limited” access to the site as a NYT subscriber, it wants me to “customize my feed” before I do anything. To heck with that.)

Phil Nevin out as manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

ESPN calls this a firing, while other sources say they “declined the option on his contract”. That to me is functionally indistinguishable from a firing, but maybe it makes some sort of difference to someone.

The Angels finished 73-89 and fourth in the AL West. Nevin’s first managerial position concluded with a 119-149 career record.

Another one down, another one down, another one rides the bus bites the dust…

Buck Showalter out as manager of the Mets.

I was initially a little confused by this: was it a firing, or a retirement, but later articles make it clear it was a “forced resignation”.

ESPN:

Showalter took over in December 2021 and led the Mets to a 101-61 record last season, when he was voted NL Manager of the Year. New York lost to San Diego in their wild-card series, then added three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to its pitching staff during the offseason. The Mets boosted their payroll to a record $355 million on Opening Day but wound up dealing Verlander, Max Scherzer and several other veterans ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

Also ESPN:

New York is 74-87 and 29½ games behind National League East champion Atlanta.