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Texas A&M Football

The grass isn't always greener: Ten worst head coach firings since 2000

February 23, 2021
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Remember that old flame you doused so many years ago? That significant other you let get away because maybe everything wasn’t perfect?

Or maybe you thought you could do better. Maybe you did. But perhaps it took a while.

Still, from time to time, you might reflect with regret and wonder what might have been if you had stayed together.

Well, football coaches are like that, too.

It’s quite common for college football fans and media to analyze the coaching hires that failed, but what about the programs that may have made a mistake in firing a coach?

There is a long list of college programs that have been stuck in mediocrity after firing successful coaches. In many cases, that can be excused because of unacceptable behavior or controversy.

Ole Miss had to fire Hugh Freeze. Arkansas had to fire Bobby Petrino. Baylor had to fire Art Briles. Colorado had to fire Gary Barnett.

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With a record of 123-47-2, Slocum is the winningest head coach in A&M history.

However, many programs just became impatient or had unrealistic expectations. Other times, a coach became a victim of his own success.

Texas A&M certainly isn’t immune.

The prudence of the 2002 firing of R.C. Slocum is still often debated among Aggies, but it’s clear A&M did not get better for a long time following his termination.

Slocum never had a losing season in becoming the winningest coach in A&M history. The Aggies were 123-47-2 in 14 seasons under Slocum, winning four conference championships and enjoying five seasons with at least 10 victories.

Nearly a decade of mediocrity followed his dismissal. Dennis Franchione, Slocum’s successor, was 32-28 in five seasons. Mike Sherman, who followed Franchione, was 25-25.

A&M still hasn’t won a conference championship since Slocum’s exit, though that’s more due to moving from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference than coaching.

Firing Slocum was a mistake, but A&M is in no way alone in making such an error. Indeed, the Aggies probably wouldn’t make the Top Ten for worst firings since 2000.

Here’s ours.

10. Jeff Tedford, California: Once a national power, Cal had managed one winning season in 10 years before Tedford was named head coach in 2002. The Golden Bears went 7-5 in Tedford’s first season. That was one of nine winning seasons in 11 years under Tedford, in which he was 82-57. However, he was dismissed after a 3-9 finish in 2012. In the following eight seasons, Cal is 40-51.

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Cutcliffe has found some success at Duke and is 74-88 as the Blue Devils head coach.

9. David Cutcliffe, Ole Miss: Before Cutcliffe brought respect to a moribund Duke program, he had an impressive six-year run in Oxford. Cutcliffe was 44-29 from 1998-2004 at Ole Miss. The highlight was a 10-3 finish in 2003 when the Rebels tied for first place in the SEC West, but he was fired after going 4-7 in 2004. Cutcliffe was replaced by Ed Orgeron, who posted 10 victories in three seasons. Then, the Rebels went 24-26 in four seasons under Houston Nutt. Ole Miss finally regained consistent success under Hugh Freeze, but he was eventually fired for … uh … unsavory use of a university-issued credit card as well as recruiting violations.

Bottom line, Ole Miss had five winning seasons in six years under Cutcliffe. It has had six winning seasons in 16 years since he left.

8. Ruffin McNeill, East Carolina: Historically, East Carolina has had brief periods of success but has never been able to sustain it. Ruffin McNeill came close. He was 43-34 in six seasons. The Pirates had a three-year run from 2012-2014 in which they won at least eight games every year, but McNeill was fired after going 5-7 in 2015. Four of those losses were by a touchdown or less to the likes of Florida, BYU and Cincinnati. The Pirates have not managed more than four wins in any of the following five seasons. They’re 16-41 in that span.

7. Paul Pasqualoni, Syracuse: In 14 seasons from 1991-2004, Syracuse was 107-59-1 under Pasqualoni. That included three 10-win seasons. Syracuse opted to make a change after a 6-6 finish in 2004. It didn’t work out as planned. Greg Robinson, Pasqualoni’s successor, was 10-37 in four seasons. The Orange are 73-121 under four coaches since replacing Pasqualoni.

6. Frank Solich, Nebraska: Perhaps the greatest failing for Frank Solich was that he was not Tom Osborne. In 1998, Solich was put in the difficult position of replacing Osborne, the winningest coach in Nebraska history and a bona fide legend in Lincoln. To make matters even more challenging, Nebraska had won a share of the national champion in 1997. In six seasons, Nebraska was 58-19 under Solich. The Cornhuskers posted 12 wins in 1999 and 11 in 2001. However, Solich was fired after going 9-3 in 2003. He was replaced by Bill Callahan, who was 27-22 in four seasons. Bo Pelini had a successful seven-season run but brought off-field embarrassment to the program. Mike Riley was 19-19 in three seasons. Current coach Scott Frost is 12-20 since taking over the program in 2018.

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After a stint as an analyst for ESPN, Brown returned to North Carolina in 2019 and has the Heels rolling.

5. Mack Brown, Texas: Brown took over a moribund Texas program in 1998 and quickly transformed it into a national power. Brown went 158-48 in 16 seasons. That included a national championship in 2005, a national championship game appearance in 2009 and nine 10-win seasons. His team had just one losing season. Yet, he was forced to resign after an 8-5 finish in 2013. Charlie Strong took over and suffered through three consecutive losing seasons. Tom Herman followed with mediocre results. Texas is 48-39 since Brown’s departure.

4. Philip Fulmer, Tennessee: Only legendary coach Robert Neyland posted more victories at Tennessee than Fulmer, who was 152-52 in Knoxville over 16 seasons. Tennessee won the 1998 national championship, two SEC championships and posted at least 10 victories nine times under Fulmer. However, one year after a 10-4 finish in which the Volunteers represented the East Division in the 2007 SEC championship game, Fulmer was fired. He only had two losing seasons at Tennessee, but they were 5-6 in 2005 and 2008.

Tennessee demanded more. It got less. In the following 12 seasons, Tennessee has compiled a 73-75 record under four coaches. The Vols have not had another 10-win season since Fulmer’s ouster.

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Since being bounced from Lubbock, Leach had a good run at Washington State, where he was 55-47, then joined the SEC, taking over at Mississippi State in 2020.

3. Mike Leach, Texas Tech: Texas Tech never had a losing season in ten years under Leach. In fact, the Red Raiders won at least nine games five times. They even were ranked No. 2 during Week 13 of the 2008 season. Leach was 84-43 at Tech and the winningest coach in school history. Still, Leach was fired before the 2009 Alamo Bowl one day before he was due an $800,000 tenure bonus and more than $1.7 million in guarantees for the 2009 season. Tech saved the money, but its football fortunes declined dramatically. In the following 11 seasons, Texas Tech has had three head coaches, four winning seasons and has managed no more than eight victories (twice) in a year.

2. Mark Mangino, Kansas: It seems hard to believe, but Kansas football once ranked in the final top ten. That was 2007 when the Jayhawks finished 12-1 and defeated Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Mangino was Kanas’ head coach that year. In fact, he coached Kansas for eight seasons from 2002-2009. He was 50-48 and led the Jayhawks to four bowl games. That’s no modest accomplishment in Lawrence. After a 5-7 finish in 2009, Mangino was fired for boorish behavior, profane language and poking a player in the chest. Kansas is 21-108 under five coaches since Mangino left. The Jayhawks have not posted more than three victories in any season during that span.

1. Ralph Friedgen, Maryland: Maryland had not won more than six games in any season for 15 years before Friedgen took over in 2001. His first team finished 10-2. The next season, the Terps were 11-1. In 10 seasons from 2001-2010, Maryland went 75-50 under Friedgen, yet he was fired after Terps went 9-4 in ’10. He was replaced by Randy Edsall, who was 22-24 in over four seasons. Since Friedgen’s ouster, Maryland is 43-73 and has not managed more than seven victories in any season. Still, the Terps did post victories over Texas in 2017 and 2018.

Discussion from...

The grass isn't always greener: Ten worst head coach firings since 2000

123,758 Views | 54 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by DustysLineup
SEC Champs
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Meximan said:

I feel like the Solich firing should be #1; with Solich, they were very close to being national title contenders. No other team on the list can say that.

I believe it's a tie between Solich and Leach. Anyone around during his tenure at Tech saw the program changing. He went 45-20 in his last 5 seasons, and that was when the Big XII was still respectable. Tech was starting to recruit 4-star talent on defense to compliment its uptempo offense because it was a winning program. Tech had never been associated with good defense before that.

What also made Leach's firing so stupid is the controversy surrounding his treatment of Craig James' son. Tech threw Leach under the bus like we did Fran after the recruiting newsletter allegations. At least our move made sense.
SinKiller
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Agsuffering@bulaw said:

RC never figured out how to defend the spread. He was a solid coach who found himself in a very good spot for a while. The great HCs either build, win titles, or both. RC did neither.

Fran was a fraud that we bought into (me included). We could have done better, had we done our homework.


Kansas and TBAT got fat and sassy and fired winners for personal reasons.
You see the NC game, Ohio State hasn't figured it out either.
Agsuffering@bulaw
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Quote:

You see the NC game, Ohio State hasn't figured it out either.

Nobody had a secondary to match up with Bama's WRs last year. When the talent was comparable, RC got scorched by the spread.
W
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I don't buy the facilities excuse.

Tech and Colorado had worse facilities than A&M, but they beat the Ags on a regular basis during R.C.'s last 5 years.

also the reason t.u. whipped A&M in recruiting starting in 2000...was because Mack committed to a passing attack. While A&M was still trying to run the ball.

that's why the sips got Roy Williams, B.J. Johnson, Sloan Thomas, et al in their 2000 class
schmellba99
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aalan94 said:

Firing RC was a mistake. I went through 5 years on campus and only saw us lose 1 game at home, and 2 of those years, we never lost any games in the regular season. RC needed a good OC he could keep, but he was the best coach we had between D.X. Bible and maybe Jimbo (the jury's still out, but looking good now).
No, it was not a mistake.

Unless you were happy with being middle of the pack in perpetuity, because that is what RC was going to deliver. We had 14 years wit him and knew exactly what we were getting each and every year.
schmellba99
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Haricougar said:

A&M slipped under RC not because of him but because of Wally Groff.

A&M refused to spend on infrastructure and facilities became outdated.

RC's biggest flaw was not to start to offer to juniors in February as Mack Brown did.

Firing Toledo was the right thing to do. I coached HS football at A&M Consol at the time (we had gone the the state championship 3 out of 4 years at the time) and we laughed at how simplistic and predictable A&M was.
Facilities didn't help, but the fact of the matter was that RC was stagnant as a coach, and it was past time to move on.

He had a great overall record...until you dive into the details. His record against ranked opponents was not good at all. His bowl record was not good at all. He was the epitome of "best of the worst" in that he could consistently beat teams that we we could simply overmatch on size, speed, etc. but he could not consistently beat teams that were close to us in terms of physical talent.

He was absolutely destroyed his last few years in recruiting and had made no real effort to change with the times of football - sometimes you just have to move on. And sometimes that gamble works, and sometimes it doesn't work. It didn't work for us for a while, but we are climbing out of the sewer we were in and in the long run it will be a better situation for our program as a whole.

Slocum was predictable, and if you were happy with an average of an 8 win season and a crappy bowl, with the occasional better season and better bowl (that we would lose), then he was your guy.
Iraq2xVeteran
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During RC Slocum's final season, we defeated 12-2 Oklahoma, but lost home games to 10-4 Virginia Tech, 9-5 Texas Tech, 7-7 Nebraska, and 5-7 Missouri. We lost road games to 8-5 Oklahoma State and 11-2 Texas for a total of 6 loses. Losing winnable home games to Texas Tech, Nebraska, and Missouri in the same season doomed RC Slocum's tenure.
Divining Rod
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Firing RC was the absolute right move to move the program forward.

It's correctness is NOT determined by the effectiveness of the subsequent hires.

Example:

Cutting out high sugar to improve diet is the right move. If you then replace with a high fat high processed foods so you're even worse off, that does NOT mean cutting out high sugar was a mistake.

A&M needed RC to retire if it was EVER going to have a team that could win a NC. That was, and is, the goal.

RC's offense was mediocre. The passing game was HORRIBLE until just before the end. 6 yard outs on 3rd and 8.... that was the height if his creativity, or the long pass thrown out of bounds. 95% of his passing "attack" was that...,
Divining Rod
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Quote:

The ratio of 10 win seasons for Emory, Jackie and RC is practically identical


and to support your point further, Emory's and Jackie's came at the BACK END of their tenures, after rebuilding programs.

RC's came at the BEGINNING of his tenure, after taking over a program that was humming.
sleepybeagle
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Quote:

Cutting out high sugar to improve diet is the right move. If you then replace with a high fat high processed foods so you're even worse off, that does NOT mean cutting out high sugar was a mistake.
Ok... but who is the Diet Dr. Pepper in this scenario?
Coog_aTm
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#1 should be Mangino. He had a top #5 team and won the Orange Bowl with freaking Kansas.
Agsuffering@bulaw
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The facilities were a factor. Had we built the Bright Center 2 years earlier, maybe RC lasts another year or 2.
Foxo
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PanzerAggie06 said:

You're wrong. Firing RC was not a mistake. That was a reasonable course of action. The mistake was the hiring of Fran. The two are separate events and thus need to be judged separately.
Firing RC was a huge mistake
infinity ag
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PanzerAggie06 said:

You're wrong. Firing RC was not a mistake. That was a reasonable course of action. The mistake was the hiring of Fran. The two are separate events and thus need to be judged separately.

Agreed. RC had his moment and by 1998 he was done. Just mailing it in and collecting retirement checks. So A&N did the right thing.We should have hired Saban then
halfastros81
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The RC question will never be fully settled. It's all opinion and there will never be close to a consensus either way imo. It took a long time to make the right move but whoever pressed to hire Jimbo appears to have been a wise sage at least once and likely a lot more than once to be in a position to have been listened to.

I do agree that if RC had been listened to with regard to the facilities battle A & M football would have been in a much better position to be a legit contender a lot sooner than 2021
Jarrin' Jay
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I wanted RC gone at the time but I was young and these things are supposed to be handled and vetted by mature rational thinking football people. It was quickly apparent that firing RC was a mistake if Fran was the replacement. In RCs last year yes we went 6-6 but lost 3 games in OT or by one play, very close to being 9-3 or 8-4. We had Reggie as a true fish and we were letting him play QB the way he was meant to, not like Fran making him an option QB. Then again Fran was a disaster and maybe the hiring of Fran makes some, myself included, revise their RC firing opinion from not a mistake to a mistake. Fran was a disaster, Sherman was a good hire with a mountain to climb and a placeholder who could build a program but wasn't a college gameday coach, Sumlin was all flash and no substance and should have been fired 2 years sooner, but it has all worked out to having Jimbo!!

In this state, given their history and pedigree, there will NEVER be any bigger firing mistake than Leach at Tech. Leach had them rolling and winning bigger than ever before, and this was prior to any real investment in their facilities and awful stadium. They were not winning the Big 12 and Sherman reversed the A&M series on Tech, but Tech was still doing much better than historically.

The comedy of the Leach firing was that Technical (or is it Technological) really thought they were like A&M or t.u. or Bama, Ohio State, UGa, FL, a true blue-blood program, going so far as to claiming they were one of the best programs in the country and could hire whoever they wanted to. Obviously that is not true and it didn't work out that way at all. I was shocked they got Tuberville to go there, maybe he just wanted some clothing with his initials, but that didn't last long and he left in a rush for a commuter school in Cincy (though I think his wife's traffic accident and staying in Lubbock played a large part in that).
Fightin_Aggie
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Why the isn't Tech on there twice? Kliff Kingsbury was as bad or worse than firing Leach.
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Iraq2xVeteran
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Fightin_Aggie said:

Why the isn't Tech on there twice? Kliff Kingsbury was as bad or worse than firing Leach.
In Kliff Kingsbury's first season in 2013, Texas Tech started 7-0 (4-0 in Big 12 games) before losing their last 5 regular season games. Then, 7-5 Texas Tech upset #14 10-3 Pac-12 South Division champion Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl to finish 8-5 (4-5 in Big 12 games). Since then, Kingsbury posted 4 losing seasons in 5 years, including 3 straight losing seasons from 2016 to 2018. Also, Texas Tech never finished better than 4-5 in Big 12 games in any of his 6 seasons. That's why Texas Tech Athletics Director Kirby Hocutt decided not to retain Kilff Kingsbury.

Year, Record, (Conference Record), Bowl Results
2013: 8-5 (4-5), 37-23 win over Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl
2014: 4-8 (2-7), N/A
2015: 7-6 (4-5), a 56-27 loss to LSU in the Texas Bowl
2016: 5-7 (3-6), N/A
2017: 6-7 (3-6), a 38-34 loss to South Florida in the Birmingham Bowl
2018: 5-7 (3-6), N/A
Totals: 35-40 (19-35), 1-2 in Bowl games

DustysLineup
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Daytripper said:

RC could have been the best ever had he paid more attention to offense. I don't believe he ever completely turned the offense over to his OC. And when it was crunch time, he always turned to his defense to win it. He thought the high flying offenses, the ones dominating football today, were not real football.
RC talked openly about the need to adapt to the spread and modify schemes on both sides of the ball to adapt. He tried to hire coordinators to do that. But we were out-recruited by OU and Mack. And there were some outside factors. It wasn't just ignorance or refusal to adapt.
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