The Trickle Down Effect of Jim Mora Jr.’s Firing

On Friday, January 8th, 2010, Jim Mora Jr. was fired after only one season as Seattle Seahawks head coach.  After compiling a 5-11 record, Jim Mora Jr. was hastily replaced by USC head coach Pete Carroll.  Pete Carroll had led the USC program to be one of the best in the country, and was in a prime location for recruiting and coaching, among other things.  So one may ask, “Why would Carroll leave a prime college coaching position at USC to coach in the pros at a mediocre Seattle Seahawks organization that just fired its first year head coach, and prior to that did not fire, but had been pressuring long time head coach Mike Holmgren to resign for years?” 

There is no doubt about it, the USC head coaching job is a better job than the Seahawks coaching job.  Carroll did not leave the USC program to upgrade.  Instead, Carroll was escaping the bad situation that he created at USC.  The USC football program is currently under investigation for the Joe McKnight controversy, which concerns running back Joe McKnight’s illegal use of an SUV.  This action is considered an illegal benefit of being an NCAA athlete and is a major NCAA violation.  If the allegations are proven, USC could be forced to vacate wins and relinquish future scholarships, which could have negative impacts on the program many years down the road.  Therefore, Pete Carroll left a top job in the country to be the head coach at Seattle in order to escape possible NCAA sanctions.

How can the NCAA prevent coaches from escaping these situations and leaving all the problems with the university they left?  The most effective solution would be to have the sanctions tied to the coaches even if they leave their program.  In the Pete Carroll case, any sanctions issued by the NCAA would be issued to both USC and Pete Carroll.  Therefore, if Carroll were to return to the NCAA level as a head coach, his sanctions would be applied to that university. 

This solution would do three things.  First, it would limit the amount of NCAA violations that do occur, as head coaches would now be held personally responsible for any and all violations that occur within the program.  Second, this solution would limit the amount of coaches that would leave the university in order to escape the violations incurred, because the coaches would still remain responsible.  Third, it would limit the amount of coaches who have committed violations from returning to the NCAA.  College football programs would be much less likely to hire coaches like Pete Carroll because of the effect the sanctions would have on their football programs.  This trend would make the college football coaching ranks much cleaner and would result in less violations and subsequent sanctions.  This solution is the best way to clean up college football recruiting and the treatment of its players.

After the Seahawks’ hire of Pete Carroll, the USC coaching job was open.  After consulting with a few big name head coaches, including Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio, USC decided to pursue Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin, who served as an assistant at USC from 2001-2006 before becoming the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2007.  Lane Kiffin spent one year at Tennessee, and helped to rebuild the program after the departure of long time head coach Philip Fulmer.  He caused controversy in the SEC, as he called out Florida and head coach Urban Meyer multiple times on his recruiting, his lack of maturity, and the annual Florida vs. Tennessee game.  However, Kiffin decided that it would be in his best interests to return to USC, this time as the head coach, as he said that he would have stayed at Tennessee if any job was offered to him other than USC. 

This development was not well received at the University of Tennessee.  There were many students, players, and alumni who were rioting in downtown Knoxville.  Freshman Philadelphia native Matt McCullough has first hand accounts of the mass chaos on the Tennessee campus.  Let me first say that Matt had NO part in the illegal riots.  He noted that students were burning mattresses, football players were burning t-shirts with Lane Kiffin pictured on them, and students gathered around the athletic department building in hopes of keeping Kiffin from leaving campus.  He also noted that the “Rock” was filled with profane message directed at Kiffin that cannot be expressed on this blog.  Tennessee is a place that revolves around its football program, and such a major decision and betrayal by the coach prompted these riots and chaos.

USC is getting a coach in Kiffin that is extremely intense and fiery when it comes to football.  While he may not always be politically correct, Kiffin is a coach who will revitalize interest in a program and get the student body excited about football.  He has shown himself to be a very good recruiter, although it is still to be seen after an investigation whether or not Kiffin did his phenomenal recruiting job within NCAA standards.  USC is getting a coach who knows the program and is genuinely excited about college football.

Where can Tennessee go from here?  It is actually a difficult situation for Tennessee.  Most of the hiring in college football took place about 1 month ago, and many of the top coaching options for Tennessee are already settled for next year.  Assistant Kippy Brown will take over as interim head coach, but Tennessee is trying to reach out to some big name coaches.  Long time Philip Fulmer is a potential candidate to return, and some sources suggest “coach in waiting” at Texas Will Muschamp will be contacted.  However, it appears that Tennessee may have a hard time finding a big name head coach quickly, and this development, along with the potential NCAA sanctions headed Tennessee’s way, may negatively affect the strong recruiting class that Lane Kiffin produced.     

Only 4 days after Jim Mora Jr. was fired in Seattle (which at the onset did not appear to be a big story), has now led to the resignation of Pete Carroll at USC, the resignation of Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, and the head coaching positions of the Seattle Seahawks and USC to be filled by Carroll and Kiffin respectively.  The future of USC is fairly uncertain due to the impending Joe McKnight investigation, and the future of Tennessee is even more uncertain due to potential recruiting violations and the head coaching vacancy.  It will be interesting to see how the future of these two reputable programs will be affected by the major changes, and how Pete Carroll will perform as head coach in Seattle.