COMMENTARY: Vacant coaching positions may be a sign of concern

The start of a school year is like a clean slate, but somehow, Athletics just kept throwing dirt all over that slate, nearly burying it.

Between June 2011 and April 2012, the FIU coaching staffs have gone through a face lift, seeing four new head coaches over that time span. It all started when Beth Torina, head softball coach, took the same position at Louisiana State University over the summer.

The school year began and all attention went straight to the football program, while a historically more successful program in volleyball was placed on the back burner.

Once the season ended, head coach Danijela Tomic took her experience elsewhere, namely Bowling Green State University.

At the same time, the men’s soccer program was floundering and the decision was made to get rid of head coach Munga Eketebi after sub par years.

And now the news of Isiah Thomas being let go just adds to the list of coaches who were a part of the university heading into the season and are no longer here.

This University has 14 Division-I athletic programs. This year, nearly 30 percent of them were without leadership, without guidance and without a way to go.

In this day and age of the coaching carousel in major college sports, it is impossible to ever predict exactly what a coach has in mind for his or her future. But I do believe it says something about the department if a few of the more respected coaches decide to move on.

Torina had a better job become available. It is completely understandable for her to make the jump from the Sun Belt conference to the Southeastern Conference, which is arguably the most prestigious in the nation.

But for a coach like Tomic to move to the Mid-American Conference from the Sun Belt is virtually a lateral move. Those transitions have brought up a bit of questioning into how things are being handled internally.

The firing of Thomas is one that was questionable. For the amount of money that was left on his contract, around $560,000, that still has to be paid to Thomas, the timing just does not add up. Coupled with the fact that the new coach will also need some kind of compensation means that that coach will hardly be able to make any kind of money.

It is a frustrating thing to see a program that has the potential to become a national power, but it is always tripped up by the little speed bumps like this.

Stability can never be established if a coach is not given his or her proper time to put his or her imprint on the program. In the case of Thomas, he still had two more years on his contract and supposedly had top recruits in the state of Florida on the way in next year. The system is set up to where it is only beneficial for the coach because they can decide at anytime to leave for a better situation.

 

What can happen

 

Obviously, this year was a bit of an outlier for 30 percent of the head coaches to be fired. It won’t happen like this every year. But when cases like this come up, it brings into question whether it is the coach or athletic director who is more at fault.

The next few years at FIU will be very telling as to what exactly the department is going to become, whether more head coaches will be fired or decide to take on better positions. Lest we forget that Mario Cristobal was out the door, twice. If he would have decided to leave, then this program would have been completely decimated.

That would have taken this place back into the stone age of Intercollegiate Athletics.