Well That Was Fast!

As soon as it began, the John L. Smith era at Weber State is history.  Smith leaves his alma mater without even coaching a single game to take over an embattled Arkansas program that is reeling after Coach Bobby Petrino failed to disclose an extra-marital relationship with a woman half his age he hired to be an assistant.

Of course the same names that were on the short list last fall resurface, except spring practice and the spring semester are now history.  In fact, most players are off campus on Summer Break and are finding out about their new coach's departure the same way the rest of us did, through the news media.

It will be interesting to see how this develops, but don't have high expectations of a good fall for this year's Wildcats.  A situation like this is unsettling.  That now makes 2 programs that Bobby Petrino's unbridled passions have ruined.

SLTrib Article
CBS Sports Article.
ESPN Article
Arkansas Fan Site Article

My commentary on where WSU goes from here:

First, for the new head coach, there are many directions that the university can go at this point.  The spring semester is over, and not all of the players are on campus.  Some are away working summer jobs and at summer conditioning camps.  They are at a time when interactions between the coaches and players are limited.  This makes the timing of Smith's departure problem-some.

There first direction is to ask Ron McBride to come back for one more season, while the team begins to look for a new permanent head coach.  The problem with this option is that Smith canned most of McBride's old assistants and only kept 3 of them, Colton Swan, Cecil Thomas and Matt Hammer.  There may not be any cohesion between McBride and the assistants that Smith has hired, particularly new defensive coordinator Jody Sears.  That may show in the quality of play on the field.  But McBride is an easy-going fellow and this could work to their advantage.

The second direction is to promote one of the assistants to interim coach.  The most likely candidate for this honor would be Matt Hammer.  Hammer has been involved in the WSU program the longest of any of the assistants.  He is serving as assistant head coach to Smith and was co-offensive coordinator under McBride.  This is a double-edged option.  Hammer is very young.  If he succeeds at Weber's head coach, he certainly will have opportunities at bigger programs before long.  If he does not succeed, his age will be blamed, and he could end up as a life-long assistant much like Norm Chow.

The third option is hire a former head coach who is stuck in coaching Hell looking for a chance to coach somewhere again.  This list includes Mike Sanford, Gary Crowton and Dan Hawkins.  This could produce mixed results.  Certainly someone would be very happy for the work.  But there is a reason why these men are not coaching right now.

Another option is to make an offer to whomever was their #2 choice from last fall's coaching search.  I do not know who that was or whether or not he fits into any of the above categories.  The persistent rumor is that was former Utah assistant Don Eck who is now working with Jim Fassell for the UFL's Las Vegas Locomotives.

Yet another option is to find someone else who is ready to be a head coach in College Football who did not get a call last fall from the coaching carousel.  Not sure who that would be.  Not many people would leave a program mid-summer, even for a chance to become a head coach anywhere.

The best option is likely to name one of the assistants, probably Hammer, as interim head coach.  Give him a chance to remove the interim from his title, and if not, hire someone else in December.  That is not a very good option, but in late April, what are you going to do?