FIRST CLASS...OR COACH?

Imagine this scenario: although it is your first season on the job, you are the coach of one of your league’s most prominent franchises, winners of three championships in the last 10 seasons. Your team has been playing well all season, to the point that two weeks before the playoffs, it has the second-best record in its conference and seems primed to win another title. For most coaches, this situation would warrant praise and merit. You would be held on a high pedestal in hopes that you could continue instilling your system in your players in hopes of reaching the promised land again. Fans and press and the front office would hold you in high regard. If you are New Jersey Devils coach Claude Julien, it means you are cleaning out your office right about now. Unexpectedly (or so we should think), team big wig Lou Lamoriello fired Julien earlier this week despite the fact that the Devils are currently leading their division and second in the Eastern Conference with a few games to go before the playoffs. Julien, in addition to the players, writers and fans, was stunned. Maybe he should have seen this coming though, as Lamoriello fired coach Robbie Ftorek late in the season in 2002-2003 before the Devils eventually captured the Stanley Cup (another slap in the face: this time, Lamoriello replaced Julien with…himself). The stunning firing is also a PR disaster for the Devils. I personally remember seeing one of the team’s beat writers explain how unexpected this was on ESPNews, not good for the way the Devils handle business. In addition, with the Stanley Cup chase weeks away, more attention will be given to the disaster on the bench than the success on the ice. “This is the sort of move that makes me hate the business side of sports entertainment. Even if we accept that the decision to fire Claude Julien will marginally improve the New Jersey chance at a Stanley Cup-a dubious promise- it’s still wrong. Not only did Claude Julien do nothing wrong, he’s actually done pretty well”- Tom Benjamin (http://www.canuckscorner.com/weblog/nhllog/archives/2007/04/the_madness_of.html) The canning of Julien is just the latest in a string of head-scratching coach firings in successful situations which could shed negative lights on their respective teams: -After finishing with the best regular season record in the AFC and boasting some of the league’s best talent on both offense and defense, the Chargers axed Marty Schottenheimer. Though Schottenheimer is held as one of the league’s top coaches and was responsible for turning San Diego into a playoff contender in three seasons, it is largely believed he was forced out for his inability to win playoff games. -Despite a national championship, several SEC championships and reaching the NCAA tournament every year in his tenure on the bench, Kentucky essentially caved in to fan and alumni pressure and forced out Tubby Smith. Though Smith was successful to some extent, he could never meet the high expectations placed on him with being coach at Kentucky, and his recruiting skills came into question as well. Sure, a coaching change could fire the team up and bring success. However, there is the downside. In pushing out coaches in the middle of successful runs, teams are putting themselves in danger of not being able to find a suitable replacement. Front offices come off as cold and setting too high of a bar when they change coaches in manners like this. I remember when Schottenheimer got fired, one analyst on ESPN (sorry I’m speaking like Larry Munson—this was months ago) pondered why anyone would want to take over the San Diego job when the organization treated Schottenheimer as badly as it did. Likewise, Kentucky is now facing the possibility of having a dinosaur-sized egg on its face after not being able to find a suitable replacement for Smith after running him out of campus. Or, as Arkansas is learning, teams could find that karma is a you-know-what and that coaches can bite back. The Razorbacks recently canned Stan Heath as head basketball coach despite the fact that he had turned the program around following a nasty scandal left by predecessor Nolan Richardson. Heath reached the NCAA tournament despite losing three perimeter players, and his team was in line to make a run at the SEC championship next season returning all starters. Some say Heath’s dismissal falls in the same calculating category as the displaced coaches above. The Hogs thought they found their replacement in Creighton coach Dana Altman. However, days after accepting their job, Altman decided to back out and return to Creighton. Is it possible that Altman saw the way Arkansas handled Heath and changed his mind, fearing intense pressure? “This season, (Heath) led Arkansas to the NCAA Tournament despite losing all three perimeter starters from a year ago. He could have had every key guy returning, with the potential to be a preseason Top 20 team next season. Yet that’s not good enough for their retiring AD (Frank Broyles) and some crazy fans. Arkansas deserves someone far worse than Altman.” –Matt Zucharski (http://yellow-chair-sports.blogspot.com/2007/04/good-for-dana-altman.html)