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Much is being made of the weakeness of the middle and bottom of the ACC, and this is at least one of the reasons only four or five teams will make the NCAA Tournament. Just not a whole lot of opportunities to rack up quality wins, especially with an unbalanced schedule.
So who are the worst hires from the group listed below? Who gets fired? Gott, Bennett and Larranaga have been excused. And mine as well excuse Turgeon as Maryland heads to the boonies.
Bzdelik – Wake
Johnson – Va Tech
Gregory – Georgia Tech
Donahue – BC
Brownell – ClemsonDoesn’t Johnson win in a cakewalk? Of course, the situation that lead to his hiring set him up for disaster from day one, but they went from a middling team to putrid and have stayed there.
You could also clearly argue Bzdelik. Walks into a situation with a decent team and immediately they drop to the bottom and have stayed there, even with some improvement this year.
Gregory has kept GT about where they were, so neither good nor bad. Donahue I don’t feel can be argued as a bad hire. At the time he was hired it looked like an amazing hire, but the potential has never materialized. Brownell has Clemson playing well and in the best position they’ve been in in a while. If he fixes their schedule to go from horrible to okay they might even get themselves over the bubble in future years.
These are all just observations from watching brief snippets of these teams play this year and looking at records. I haven’t done the work to produce hard evidence for my feelings.
Coach Consonant is a definite bust, and will be rightfully canned after the ACCT concludes.
VPI is a dumpster fire, but Johnson was hired under dreadful circumstances. Probable bust, but it was mildly nuts to even take the job when it was offered.
Donahue and Gregory each had a really bad year, but they seemed on track before that. Next year is pivotal for each.
Brownell seems to have Clemson back around where most of Purnell’s teams were. Not sure Clemson is likely to perform much better than that.
Agree on Brownell. Pretty good year this year should buy him another.
BC and GT have each been disappointing. Probably each will get at least one more try.
Johnson and Bzz were awful hires. Bzz gets canned in four days. Johnson likely gets another year.
The league needs some of these teams to step up. It’s bad.
One of the more interesting questions for Wake is will Wellman be around to make the next coaching hire or did he use up all of his AD equity sticking with his buddy for too long?
Everybody swings and misses and makes a bad hire every once in a while. Indiana, UNC, Kentucky & UCLA have all made bad coaching hires. The difference is when those programs make a bad hire, it’s usually obvious to everyone within 3-5 years. When Clemson, VPI, GT, BC, etc. make a bad hire it takes a while for the general public/media/fans to call attention to it. Unless you hire Bzdelik and it is obvious even before the press conference that it’s a bad hire.
Clemson & NCSU outperformed my expectations. FSU, Md, ND & BC were disappointing to me this year. Funny, but WF tied for 11th at 6-12 outperformed my expectations. I didn’t think they would win 4 ACC games.Gregory has kept GT about where they were, so neither good nor bad.
4-12, 6-12, and 6-12 counts as bad to me
4-12, 6-12, and 6-12 counts as bad to me
Well, can’t argue with that. Guess it just hasn’t been the dumpster fire that VT and Wake have been, so I hadn’t noticed.
Why did you leave B.Poulton off the list of “worst hires in the ACC: ??
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Last year at the ACCT, we sat in the WF section or near it. A LOT of well heeled WF donors in their Brooks Bros Blazers with females at their side bedecked in more gold that a rapper would wear and every hair in place and their well “reconstructed” faces (and other parts) were abounding. Most had FIRE BZZZ buttons on.
Then last December, we went to a concert at Joel and this was sponsored by an “old money” crowd from WS. Same thing….there were Fire BZZ buttons there.
Don’t know if Wellman has gotten the memo yet? Interesting thing….Wellman supposedly had to pull the pin on Dino as Dino was pulling a Petrino and Wellman decided to “nip it in the bud….”
SO, Ron did not have the best hand….he seems to be held in relativity high esteem…so he probably gets another swing….but that will be his last strike.
Guess we will see…
Speaking of BAD HIRES (as well as Bad HAIR)…..did anyone notice that we NEVER, EVER had Karl Hess for a game this year. That was TWO YEARS….which is totally unprecedented. Whatever cage rattling the DY did…seemed to work. The ejection happened on Feb 18, 2012. Hess did not work the 2012 Tourney….can’t recall if he worked the 2013 one or not.
We have had Dorsey and Natelli MANY times, but NEVER the Karlster….should be interesting.
I thought maybe Bzzz had turned the corner early in the season. Of late the clouds are rising – over him and possibly over Wellman as well.
‘roo I think it is telling that we have not seen King Karl since the blessed event. Telling that he crossed the line and rightfully so he has been blackballed from NCSU games. I am not a conspiracy theorist but this case was so obvious that even …
Wellman hitched himself to Bzz. He does not want to admit it was an awful hire. It was. I have no idea about the Wake politics, but if I’m Wellman I fire him the second the horn sounds following Wake’s loss in Greensboro. They can and should be much better. Odom had ’em there. Then Prosser. As did Gaudio. It is not a bad job.
OK….SFN….the EDIT in the Forums is GONE again….
Just checked on KH. He DID work the 2013 ACC Tourney….but not our game(s?).
SO, will we see his scowling face later this week. Time to get out the KH Watch site.
Wulf I think that boat sailed long ago. From what I hear from the WF people there will still be an uprising until BZZZ and Welman are both gone.
Agreed not a bad job. Small school but the right coach can make things happen. That coach will have all the $$$ needed to run a quality program.
2nd worst recent hire (behind Bz): Gregory
GT’s players can’t dribble. They can’t shoot either, but they really can’t dribble. Without UT transfer Trae Golden (the guard who transferred from Tennessee that was immediately eligible), they’d really suck. He’s done nothing for the Jackets, imo.
Bad hires are only one part of the problem. “Average” coaching can be even worse because it can be so much harder to move past.
Good point, VA. I don’t see anyone in the ACC that looks like a star coach in the making. Not at all.
Not until he replicates this year’s success and/or does something in the NCAAT. I remain skeptical they won’t gag and play too tight/cautious in tourney play. They will be the 3 seed that everybody in your office pool picks to get upset early.
I pout Turgeon in that basket too, but he’s off to the B1G.
Bennett and Gott are your only candidates. Some may argue Bennett has already reached stardom.
I am still not convinced Bennet can recruit to the top tier but he can sure coach. Combine Gott and Bennet and you would have a heck of a coach. Call him Gotnet.
Call him Gotnet.
Sounds like a computer virus.
The same thing that applies to basketball coaches, has applied to ACC football for too many years.
Mediocre coaching begets mediocre results…no matter the sport.
Yes. But there is no reason teams like Wake and GT should suck that bad. They both have some good basketball history. Our history as a football conference is not so colorful.
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