Firing college coaches early in the season is not only defensible, it’s the right move

“It’s a business decision.”

That’s the phrase you hear when a receiver steps out of bounds or a defensive back dodges a hit from an offensive lineman on the field. The same phrase fits when a player de-commits from one school or transfers to another. “It’s a business decision” is about what is best for the future of the student-athlete. For the most part, it’s a defensible position. 

It’s no different when a school fires a coach during the regular season. Auburn’s Bryan Harsin is the next fired-coach-waiting-to-happen in 2022 heading into Week 5. He could potentially follow Nebraska’s Scott Frost, Arizona State’s Herm Edwards and Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins, who were fired within the first three weeks of the season. “It’s a business decision” applies here, too. It might not be financially responsible in the business sense – Nebraska opted to fire Frost instead of waiting a few weeks to save $7.5 million in buyout money. It’s about what is best for the program. 

This is a defensible position now, too – because it’s becoming the norm in the Power 5. It’s the right decision now. 

Let’s start with the firing itself. Before Auburn’s game against Missouri on Saturday, The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported a loss to Missouri could have led to Harsin being fired the next day.  Auburn won – with the impossible combination of a missed field goal, an offsides call and a Missouri fumble into the end zone. All that to win 17-14 in overtime. All that just to save a job? 

MORE: Huskers’ best replacements for Frost

“We love Coach Harsin,” Auburn edge rusher Eku Leota said via the Montgomery Advertiser. “We’re fighting every day just to block the distractions.”

For Leota, a graduate transfer from Northwestern who is done after this season, that is fair. Why not just fire Harsin at this point? Then the every-day questions about Harsin’s job status go away. Auburn plays LSU and No. 1 Georgia the next two weeks. Does Harsin’s job depend on those games? At this point, it’s almost not fair to him. 

It’s also a chance to get a head start on the following season. Week 1 looks more like the beginning of the hiring cycle now instead of the offseason. More Power 5 schools are figuring this out. 

It didn’t use to be that way. From 2015-2020, only two Power 5 coaches were fired before Oct. 1. LSU’s Les Miles (2016) and Rutgers’ Chris Ash (2019) were gone in the first month of the season. In 2015, five Power 5 coaches were gone but the circumstances were different. Maryland’s Randy Edsall and Miami’s Al Golden were fired because of on-field performance. South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier retired, Minnesota’s Jerry Kill resigned because of health concerns and Steve Sarkisian was let go because of personal issues. 

FBS coach firing trends from 2015-21

The 2021 coaching cycle was different. USC’s Clay Helton was fired on Sept. 21. The following month, four more Power 5 coaches were fired in LSU’s Ed Orgeron, Washington State’s Nick Rolovich, Texas Tech’s Matt Wells and TCU’s Gary Patterson. The short-term losses for those programs were real. Orgeron was the only coach that stayed on for the rest of the regular season, and the other four schools finished with a combined record of 10-13 after their coaches were relieved. 

Look at where those programs are with their coaches now. USC (4-0) is ranked No. 6 with Lincoln Riley. LSU (3-1) and Brian Kelly bounced back from a season-opening loss to Florida State and could be the final blow for Harsin at Auburn this weekend. Texas Tech (3-1) beat Texas under first-year coach Joey McGuire. TCU (3-0) is undefeated with Sonny Dykes. Interim coach Jake Dickert retained the full-time job and has Washington State (3-1) competitive in the Pac-12 again. 

MORE: Where to find the next ‘home run hire’

Now, look at their 247Sports team recruiting rankings for 2023. LSU (No. 7) and USC (No. 14) are in customary spots, but Texas Tech (No. 21) and TCU (No. 26) are higher than usual. Washington State (No. 59) is just four spots behind Auburn (No. 55) – and that should not be that way. 

Nebraska (No. 48), Georgia Tech (No. 51) and Arizona State (No. 93) also are in varying states of recruiting disarray. With the early signing day period being moved up to Dec. 15, it’s not so much about this recruiting class. It’s getting the jump on the next one and having a hire place shortly after the season is over, if that. After all,  Helton took the Georgia Southern job during the same regular season he was fired at USC in 2021, and McGuire moved into his Texas Tech office in November. 

By firing the coach during the season, Nebraska can get a jump on Kansas’ Lance Leipold or Iowa State’s Matt Campbell. Georgia Tech and Arizona State can at least give Deion Sanders a call. Auburn? Well, you can’t spell Auburn without Urban.

There is a better chance of getting him if you start the back-channel process now. Those LSU and Georgia games aren’t going to change the outlook for Harsin. Press reset now before the next wave of coaches are fired in November. Had they done it before the Missouri game, then it wouldn’t have been a problem. 

Does this line of thinking hurt the players? Sure, but take Nebraska, for example. Senior linebacker Garrett Nelson spent a significant portion of Big Ten Media Days on July 26 answering questions about Frost’s job security. 

“We want to win so badly for this coach and for this team and finally change our lives and the trajectory of this program,” Nelson said. 

After the Week 0 loss to Northwestern, it was clear that might not happen. After a loss to Helton-led Georgia Southern, it was over. At least Nelson and the seniors don’t have to answer the questions anymore. Recruits have time to sign somewhere else, and transfers have the freedom to come and go without sitting out a year. They have NIL money, too. The players have never really been an excuse to keep the coach around anyway, but now there are fewer reasons to be outraged about the coach being fired during the season. 

You’ll see more Power 5 programs doing it, too, especially after seeing the success at USC and LSU in 2022. More Power 5 teams are going to follow that business model with a win-at-all-costs mentality, and it’s defensible given the playing field. 

When it comes to college football, there is nothing wrong with that decision at all.