Coaching Carousal Part 9: Loose Ends

Army Has a Coach
Army AD Kevin Anderson wanted this search wrapped up quickly, and, having terminated seven year Head Coach Jim Crews on the eve (practically) of Midnight Madness, Anderson has, indeed, identified and, according to the Times Herald-Record, the news outlet that has been on this story from the first whispers, hired Zach Spiker, the 33 year old assistant coach at Cornell. Cornell's head coach Steve Donahue was Anderson's original target. According to the Times Herald-Record Spiker will be introduced as the Army head coach at a news conference scheduled for Tuesday October 6.

Credit the 2009 Offseason?
Are Crews and Spiker the last act in the 2009 season (and off season), or the first fire/hire of the 2010 season? Like most sports these days, the news cycle does not appear to stop, even at the least active point in the off season. Full fall practice does not start for another 2 weeks...though Grambling may not have settled it's own coaching vacancy (teams in the SWAC tend to allow their interim coaches the opportunity to erase the "interim" from their titles), I'm calling Army's hire the last act in 2009 off season. Though I reserve the right to change that if something else pops in the next ten (or so) days. It may have been a relatively inactive off season, logging the fewest number of turnovers in (at least) 4 seasons, the duration has been unusually long. Scott Edgar's (from Southeast Missouri State) termination back on December 31 of 2008 marked the first vacancy, stretching this fire/hire cycle to a full ten months.

By the Numbers
Crews' firing made the Army job the 31st vacancy in this cycle; Grambling, following Army's announcement by two days, became the 32nd vacancy. As in prior cycles, the employer initiated most of the vacancies, and consistent with prior seasons, the employers moved overwhelming in the period between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the spring signing period. While employer-initiated turnovers are unusual at other times (during the season, after the spring signing period ends), they are not unheard of, largely explained by exigent circumstances. Edgars' termination at SE Missouri State came as the culminating act that started with an NCAA investigation into program violations. Both Grambling's Rick Duckett and Army's Jim Crews were terminated as a direct result of alleged player abuse.

Coaching Carousal Part 8: Never Say Never?

Proclaiming September 24 as the latest date in the off season that a coach has been terminated was...premature!? A sign perhaps that the 2009 season & off season will not behave, Grambling University terminated 1st year coach Rick Duckett by letter on Friday. Like Army's late termination of Jim Crews, the proximate cause was the treatment of a player, though in Grambling/Duckett's case, the player in question, Henry White, a 21 year old Milwaukee native who transferred into Grambling from Hill Junior College in TX, grew ill during a training exercise and died 12 days later. Stranger still Duckett, in the hospital receiving surgery on the day of the training exercise, was not present to supervise the activity. Subsequent to White's death on August 26, Duckett, an assistant coach at South Carolina under Dave Odom and a DII head coach for 8 seasons, compiling a 150-75 record, and two of his assistants were placed on administrative leave. A third assistant, Robert Washington, was retained as the interim coach. Duckett was notified by letter on Friday, that he would be terminated on October 31.

By the Numbers
Grambling is the 32nd vacancy this off season, the 22nd initiated by the employer, pushing employer-initiated vacancies to 68.8% of the total. Higher than usual, but given the circumstances (as suggested by the extremely later point in the offseason cycle) surrounding both Army and Grambling's situations, understandable.