Stability/Longevity in coaching vs. stagnation

[WestCoastWildcat]

I’ve been struggling with the issue of having a head coach with a long term contract in place for many years and the pros and cons. For a long time we praised the stability of our football program and longevity and stability of the hc and coaching staff. Then the program seemed to be sliding downhill the last couple of years and doubts about rigidity of the staff seemed to emerge. I think one takeaway from NU and MSU’s hc situations may be that high cost long-term contracts may not be the best for the program and is no longer sustainable. Maybe some kind of periodic turnover is desirable to keep a program nimble and up-to-date and periodic change in leadership would prevent rigidity and promote innovation and new ideas. Joe Pa for example was allowed to stay around way too long and while his role as a figurehead was important to the PSU program, his competency as leader in control of the program turned out to be disastrous and the end of his career. How to weigh long-term history of success in a program vs short-term recent downturns to decide if changes need to be made. I think programs will be taking closer looks at long-term contracts but I also plead ignorance at tools used to mitigate risk like insurance and contract specifics designed to protect the university’s interests like firing for cause. It’s a bit of a conundrum.

 

[phatcat]

The situation has changed so rapidly in CFB that any prior modeling is obsolescent.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I am not sure longevity is the issue. We tend to conflate longevity with going "stale" when things go poorly on the field (our brains love to assign cause - effect explanations in complex, multivariate situations).

Re Fitz, I think bad hiring decisions and perhaps too much loyalty to longtime assistants were his downfall (along with entrusting the culture too much to the players when bad behaviors were occurring). Fitz was great at selling the program, but his coaching skills are suspect, to say the least. This made his assistant hires even more critically important, and we all know what has happened.

I hated to see Fitz go out like this, but part me welcomes the opportunity for new leadership. So much riding on the next hire...

 

[NUChicago]

I am not sure longevity is the issue. We tend to conflate longevity with going "stale" when things go poorly on the field (our brains love to assign cause - effect explanations in complex, multivariate situations).

Re Fitz, I think bad hiring decisions and perhaps too much loyalty to longtime assistants were his downfall (along with entrusting the culture too much to the players when bad behaviors were occurring). Fitz was great at selling the program, but his coaching skills are suspect, to say the least. This made his assistant hires even more critically important, and we all know what has happened.

I hated to see Fitz go out like this, but part me welcomes the opportunity for new leadership. So much riding on the next hire...

Fitz put individuals over the program and we see the outcome. I include Fitz in that group of "individuals".

 

[phatcat]

I am not sure longevity is the issue. We tend to conflate longevity with going "stale" when things go poorly on the field (our brains love to assign cause - effect explanations in complex, multivariate situations).

Re Fitz, I think bad hiring decisions and perhaps too much loyalty to longtime assistants were his downfall (along with entrusting the culture too much to the players when bad behaviors were occurring). Fitz was great at selling the program, but his coaching skills are suspect, to say the least. This made his assistant hires even more critically important, and we all know what has happened.

I hated to see Fitz go out like this, but part me welcomes the opportunity for new leadership. So much riding on the next hire...

notwithstanding the recent turd in the punchbowl, he became a poor man's Gary Patterson. It would have been nice to see if he could have recovered (see first clause above), since has done some changes, although some of them were not the best (e.g., anderson has a lot to prove). I would have been ok if he coached the rest of my life, just being competitive and averaging 6-7 wins a year. but the recent scandal put that all behind us anyway

 

[FanatiCat]

Fitz put individuals over the program and we see the outcome. I include Fitz in that group of "individuals".

Longevity in a head coach can still be great for a program if he is dedicated to continuous development of assistant coaches in parallel with continuous development of the program’s offense and defensive systems. It doesn’t have to be the Fitz way. Hank was an extremely rare case of an elite coordinator who was not interested in moving on. That may have broke the mold for Fitz. Ideally he would have gotten great assistants who would then get promoted to jobs elsewhere after being very successful at NU. There is some risk in that but it would have also forced Fitz to allow more frequent retooling of the strategy on both sides of the ball.

 

[DaCat]

Fitz and NU positioned "stability" of the coaching staff as a competitive advantage, for better or for worse. That aspect helped to tip the decision of some recruits to NU. In the case of Fitz, the question is whether the long term contract and stability bred complacency and arrogance, of which there were some signs. And of course the 4-20 record the past two years certainly points in that direction. He's gone now and a new era has begun for NU, let's see what happens.

 

[NUChicago]

Fitz and NU positioned "stability" of the coaching staff as a competitive advantage, for better or for worse. That aspect helped to tip the decision of some recruits to NU. In the case of Fitz, the question is whether the long term contract and stability bred complacency and arrogance, of which there were some signs. And of course the 4-20 record the past two years certainly points in that direction. He's gone now and a new era has begun for NU, let's see what happens.

I knew it was over after the SIU game where he said "we've never been stronger as a program". I mean, really?

 

[Katatonic]

Difficult to constantly hire 2 good coordinators, much less 1 - which is why it's important that the next HC can handle one side of the ball (preferably on O).

The Hoosiers under Allen have struggled once they lost DeBoer as OC.

DeBoer has the Huskies being nationally relevant for the 2nd season in a row.

Now, having Penix Jr. is a big part of that success, but even if the Huskies drop off next season, I'd be more comfortable in DeBoer finding and developing a replacement for Penix than Allen turning around IU.

 

[Frabjous]

Nothing good happens when an old person hangs around, on the job, like a quart of milk in the back of the refrigerator. But they all think they are good for another 5 years. Hayes, Paterno, and on and on…

 

[FeralFelidae]

Nothing good happens when an old person hangs around, on the job, like a quart of milk in the back of the refrigerator. But they all think they are good for another 5 years. Hayes, Paterno, and on and on…

Fitz isn't nearly that old, but he was coach long enough for complacency to set in.