As salaries and pressures rise, coaches see shorter leashes
The questions swirl around Charlie Weis: Are four seasons enough to judge his effectiveness as Notre Dame’s football coach? Should the Irish cut their losses? Let him go?
The school — specifically, new athletics director Jack Swarbrick — has yet to make a call, but the drama in South Bend, Ind., underscores how patience in an increasingly results-driven sport has thinned.
Chuck Long got three years as coach at San Diego State, Ron Prince three at Kansas State. Four more major-college coaches in the past month have been fired or moved out just four years into their tenures.
COACHING CHANGES: See which teams are making moves
Next season, it’s likely that more than half of the 119 coaches in the NCAA’s top-tier bowl subdivision (formerly Division I-A) will have been on the job for three years or less and more than three-quarters for four or fewer years.
usatoday.com
12/2/08
