We have barely eaten all the leftover Halloween Sugar Daddys and haven’t even thought about buying that new turkey baster, yet four coaches have been whacked. Iowa State’s Dan McCarney and North Texas’ Darrell Dickey fell Wednesday, with Dickey getting the ax and McCarney resigning before the inevitable.
They won’t be the last, but the bloodletting that usually occurs every November and December shouldn’t happen.
McCarney wasn’t on anyone’s hot seat in August. He had his team in the running in the Big 12 North Division entering the final game the past two years and figured to contend with Nebraska this season. However, the Cyclones have been one of the biggest flops in the country.
Sure, the injuries have been massive. Iowa State played last Saturday without seven starters, including 1,000-yard rusher Stevie Hicks. Some have been truly bizarre. Receiver Todd Blythe is suffering from Epstein-Barr virus, and receiver John Davis was hit at the goal line against Kansas State and suffered a collapsed lung.
But injuries can’t cover the often moronic play of a fairly veteran team. Kansas State recovered one of its own punts after a Cyclone mistakenly thought it hit a teammate, and Iowa State committed four turnovers against Kansas. The offensive line might have set an unofficial school record for false starts.
McCarney, in last place this year at 0-6 in the Big 12 and 3-7 overall (55-84 in 12 years), probably figured a win at 1-9 Colorado on Saturday wasn’t going to help him.
Hovering near the top of Iowa State’s wish list is Broncos tight ends coach Kim Brewster, who assisted for nine years at North Carolina and four at Texas. The Des Moines Register also listed Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst and Central Michigan head coach Brian Kelly.
That list also included Tulsa head coach Steve Kragthorpe; Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Steve Loney, an Iowa native and Cyclone offensive lineman in 1973; Nebraska offensive coordinator Jay Norvell; San Diego State defensive coordinator Bob Elliott, formerly of Kansas State; and Pittsburgh Panthers defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, a Cyclone assistant from 1995-99.
Here are a few other coaches who, if not in immediate trouble, will be without a strong finish (listed by degree of danger):
- Don Strock, Florida International, 0-8, 15-37, fifth year. It is the worst team in the nation’s worst conference, and boring to boot. It is 117th in scoring (11.88 points per game) and 116th in total offense (243.63). And did we mention the lack of discipline? When your only national publicity comes from starting a brawl against Miami, you’re in trouble.
For Strock, he’d better win his last four Sun Belt games, all at home. He has a new athletic director who is planning a massive stadium expansion. Good luck.
- Larry Coker, Miami, 5-4, 58-13, sixth year. The Hurricanes must win at No. 23 Maryland on Saturday, at Virginia or against Boston College to avoid missing a bowl for the first time since 1999. One more loss and it will be the first five-loss season since 1997.
Coker has lost his past five games against ranked teams, and since finishing second nationally in 2002 has finished 14th, 14th and 17th and doesn’t even receive a vote now. He met with athletic director Paul Dee after Saturday’s loss to Virginia Tech; Dee says he will make a decision at season’s end.
Whatever happened to Miami playmakers? The Hurricanes are 74th in total offense.
- Chuck Amato, North Carolina State, 3-6, 49-34, seventh year. He’s safe – for now. However, it’s doubtful he’ll survive ending the season with seven straight losses, particularly when the last two are at woeful archrival North Carolina and against vastly improved East Carolina.
Since quarterback Philip Rivers left, the Wolfpack hasn’t topped 24 points against a I-A opponent the past two seasons.
- Dirk Koetter, Arizona State, 5-4, 64-42, sixth year. Like Amato, Koetter could use a strong finish. He has more stability. Last year new athletic director Lisa Love signed him to an extension through 2009, and firing him would cost the school $2.8 million.
But the Sun Devils, 2-4 in the Pac-10, were picked fourth and face three very losable games: Washington State and UCLA at home and at Arizona, which upset Arizona State last year and is bringing in better recruiting classes than Koetter. His ASU teams are 2-19 versus ranked opponents.
‘Canes carry on
Miami trudged through a dispirited practice Wednesday one day after defensive tackle Bryan Pata was shot to death outside his apartment. The players will wear a No. 95 patch on their helmets at Maryland.
The players were kept off limits to the 30-plus media members who attended practice, but Coker has been front and center. Again. He remembers the day he visited the Pata home in Miami and offered him his scholarship.
“I remember his mom and how elated she was, how proud she was that he’d get an opportunity to go to college and get his degree,” Coker said during Wednesday’s Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ call. “He was having an outstanding year for us. He was a pleasure to be around. His work ethic, the smile he had on his face, that’s what I’ll remember.”
Police are still investigating the homicide. Miami sophomore Jada Brody, Pata’s girlfriend, e-mailed an instant message to a Miami Herald reporter reading, “He was my World … and I feel like half of my heart has been taken away and I will never get it back. Also, he told me I was the best thing that ever happened to him and he loved me sooooooo much. RIP my love, my baby, my best friend, my everything.”
Footnotes
No team ranked lower than fifth in the BCS at this late date has qualified for the BCS title game. If form holds, that rules out Auburn, Southern California, California and Notre Dame….Texas’ Colt McCoy needs two TD passes to tie the NCAA freshman season mark of 29 set by Nevada’s David Neill in 1998. … If Jeff Fisher and his staff with the Tennessee Titans get fired, look for offensive coordinator Norm Chow to start popping up for college vacancies.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
TOUCHDOWN CHARLIE
IRISH HAVE EYES ONLY FOR WEIS
Notre Dame has been a place of worship, but nothing like this. Irish coach Charlie Weis has found himself becoming a deity by the attention he gets from his followers.
Notre Dame fans are making a pilgrimage past his South Bend home to take pictures and showing up at his office for autographs – at 4:30 a.m.
“Sickos, I’ll tell you,” Weis said.
Weis is 17-4 so far through his second season at Notre Dame and 8-1 this season heading into Saturday’s game at Air Force. Since Notre Dame’s 47-21 flop against Michigan on Sept. 16, the Irish have been left out of the BCS title-game discussion and rank ninth.
It doesn’t matter to the fans and students, so thankful the Irish are at least in the BCS bowl discussions. But autographs at 4:30?
“It gets worse around Christmas time,” Weis told the South Bend Tribune. “It’s a cheap Christmas present. Every once in a while if they’re walking alone and the weather’s really bad, I’ll feel sorry for them and I’ll pop them on the golf cart and drive them back over to the dorm.”
