Sunday, January 04, 2009

How did this happen?

There is a ton of speculation flying tonight. Let's take a deep breath and recap what we know (with my opinions sprinkled in).


1. The Jets have interest in Jags. Despite the initial denials, it is clear that they want to interview him. Assuming it would be wrapped up relatively quickly -- this should have been a good thing. If he gets the job, congrats, thanks for two great seasons. Gene could go find the next Jags. If he doesn't get the job, he and Gene have a big public show of him "staying at BC." You then show to the college football world and recruits that the BC coach is hot and has NFL connections.


2. Jags and Gene disagreed on how the Jets situation was handled and an ultimatum was given. The full story will never surface publicly (unless there is a lawsuit coming) but clearly Jags and Gene saw things differently. Even if there was deception or insubordination or power plays, an ultimatum is a dangerous and stupid thing in any line of work. What does the ultimatum solve? After the Maryland game Gene was crowing in the postgame press conference that Jags should be the coach of the year. Do that sort of stuff and you lose your leverage to fire him for cause six weeks later. Why force Jags' hand especially on a job that he is the long shot for? If Gene didn't like how Jags dealt with the situation, then fire him on the spot. An ultimatum is ugly.


3. Someone leaked the showdown to ESPN's Chris Mortenson. There is debate on all the message boards over who leaked this. It doesn't matter. Leaking it makes it the point of no return. Can either trust the other again?


Where do we go from here?
I am assuming the Jags era is over. The only way this can be saved is if the two parties kiss and make up soon. I don't think that can or will happen.


Jags will be fine. His life gets turned upside down in the short term, but he'll land on his feet. BC will be fine in the long term...the school has overcome worse. The big question is what happens in the near term with the players and Gene. Unless he works some sort of magic shortly this will blow up in his face.

4 comments:

Alex said...

Here is Monday morning's Herald article also suggesting the Jags era is over:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/football/view.bg?articleid=1143146

Unknown said...

Steve Burton from WBZ just said on "Sports Extra" that the Jags firing was "a done deal."

Adam M. said...

According to Channel 5 News (ABC) in Boston, Jags' contract states that he's not allowed to leave until the end of his 3rd year coaching. Since Jags has only been with the team for 2 years, he'd be violating his contract by going to coach the Jets this year.

Sr.Atlanta said...

Too bad Jags is gone. BC's been through worse. We'll get through it.

I think the team has a great future. Lets hope the new coach knows how to nuture and develop the great foundation he will inherit.

Go Eagles!