By now you've surely heard the news that Boston College AD Gene DeFilippo has fired Al Skinner for entertaining the St. John's basketball job.
This is the second major sport coach DeFilippo has canned in the last year and a half for interviewing for another job. Jeff Jagodzinski, BC's football coach at the time, was dismissed after entertaining the Jets job back in January of 2009.
You have to wonder about DeFilippo and his management style. I realize that, as AD, he has a responsibility to do his best to promote the school and insist on coaches that win and increase BC's visibility on a national stage.
However, is DeFilippo cutting his nose off to spite his face? Is the firing of two revenue coaches (and the un-amicable parting of Tom O'Brien from BC in 2006) creating a culture that will stymie their ability to attract top-notch coaching talent in the future?
It's an interesting balance that an AD must strike. In DeFilippo's case, having a quick trigger could have an adverse affect on their coaching hires. In the case of State--with an AD extremely adverse to firing, even in justified instances--the culture can sour from the fan side of the equation, also leading to a culture that makes hiring new coaches difficult (see: 2006 basketball coaching search). An AD must balance his wishes with that of the fanbase he ultimately serves.
I think DeFilippo was wrong to let go of Skinner, but I know there were plenty of folks outside of State that felt State's fanbase was wrong to exert pressure on Sendek that led to his departure. So who knows...perhaps BC will improve their lot in the long run. In the short term, DeFilippo's actions seem heavy-handed to me, just as they did in 2009 with Jagodzinski.
This is the second major sport coach DeFilippo has canned in the last year and a half for interviewing for another job. Jeff Jagodzinski, BC's football coach at the time, was dismissed after entertaining the Jets job back in January of 2009.You have to wonder about DeFilippo and his management style. I realize that, as AD, he has a responsibility to do his best to promote the school and insist on coaches that win and increase BC's visibility on a national stage.
However, is DeFilippo cutting his nose off to spite his face? Is the firing of two revenue coaches (and the un-amicable parting of Tom O'Brien from BC in 2006) creating a culture that will stymie their ability to attract top-notch coaching talent in the future?
It's an interesting balance that an AD must strike. In DeFilippo's case, having a quick trigger could have an adverse affect on their coaching hires. In the case of State--with an AD extremely adverse to firing, even in justified instances--the culture can sour from the fan side of the equation, also leading to a culture that makes hiring new coaches difficult (see: 2006 basketball coaching search). An AD must balance his wishes with that of the fanbase he ultimately serves.
I think DeFilippo was wrong to let go of Skinner, but I know there were plenty of folks outside of State that felt State's fanbase was wrong to exert pressure on Sendek that led to his departure. So who knows...perhaps BC will improve their lot in the long run. In the short term, DeFilippo's actions seem heavy-handed to me, just as they did in 2009 with Jagodzinski.
Gotta love being able to put "Nukes" in a headline about sports...awesome.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there's more to the story... I heard Skinner was going to be fired, and asked BC to hold off until after he interviewed for the St. John's job.
ReplyDeleteThis was stupid decision by BC, BC is not going to get much better then Skinner had them. Why let him go?
ReplyDeleteI firmly believe that you should not ever base a decision to fire/not fire a coach on "well, who can we get that's better?" either fire the guy or don't fire him based on some objective standard (wins/losses, coaching style, whatever). then you look for a new guy that you think could do the job. It's like using the "Go ugly early" dating style... well, i'm gonna stick with the horse-faced hippo, just because I don't want to go to the prom alone. Swing for the fences, people... you can always marry the uggo years down the road.. she'll still be around ...
ReplyDeleteIt was a done deal ,he was gone before he started chasing the st johns gig. No one up here is complaining really.
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