 | Ryan White White on Target |
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If losing a coach gives a team added emotion, then this weekend's Illinois-Minnesota matchup promises to be the most emotional game in the history of college football.
Monday, Illinois coach Lou Tepper was fired. Yesterday, Minnesota coach Jim Wacker resigned.
And about 20 minutes after Wacker's announcement, the two made vacation plans together.
"In terms of Minnesota, they're a team we always have trouble with," Tepper said. "I'd rather be bass fishing with Jim than playing football against him."
If you're having trouble picturing the two in a boat with a couple of beers and a bucket of bait, you shouldn't.
Tepper said the only time he has ever been mad at Wacker is when the two tied in a fishing tournament, and Wacker took the trophy.
"They told me they would send me a duplicate, but they never did," Tepper said.
Apparently hearing enough, Wacker broke into the teleconference from his own press conference in Minnesota.
"That's because it was the only fish I'd ever caught," Wacker joked.
Wacker thanked Tepper for the many nice things he had said about him, and invited Tepper and his wife to go along with Wacker's family on a trip this winter in Texas.
"They've got a nice golf course down there and a little lake we can fish," Wacker said.
Tepper said he might just take Wacker up on the offer, and Wacker considered it a done deal.
All niceties aside, however, this is not an easy time to be a coach in the Big Ten. The conference has lost four coaches in the past three weeks, three in the past seven days.
Indiana's Bill Mallory was fired, and Purdue's Jim Colletto resigned last week citing, among other things, health reasons.
"You hate to see that happen to any of your colleagues," Ohio State coach John Cooper said. "This has been a bad year for coaches."
Wacker said his resignation was completely his decision. He said he had five years to get the job done, and he didn't do it. He even went as far as to apologize to the people of Minnesota for the performance of the team.
In truth, he was way, way too hard on himself.
The Golden Gophers play in a state where high school hockey is much bigger than high school football, and they play in a dome that nobody goes to.
You try recruiting under those circumstances.
Unlike Wacker, Tepper did not voluntarily step down. Illinois Athletic Director Ron Guenther gave Tepper the option to resign, but Tepper refused.
"I've never quit in 30 years of collegiate competition, and I certainly wasn't going to do it now," Tepper said. "I wish every coach could have an AD like Ron.
"I disagree with his decision, but I have great respect for him."
What makes Tepper's firing tough is that it happened to a man that cleaned up Illinois' program.
When he took over from former coach Mike White, the Fighting Illini were in trouble with the NCAA and the police, and they weren't graduating a whole lot of players.
Today, there is no trouble, and graduation rates are up. So does it simply come down to wins and losses these days?
"It absolutely does," Northwestern coach Gary Barnett said. "Why else would you fire Lou Tepper, Jim Wacker and Bill Mallory?"
As funny as it sounds, Barnett's success may have something to do with what has happened the past couple of weeks.
Before the season began, coaches talked about how Northwestern's success last season gave the lower-level echelon of the Big Ten hope.
It may have given them too many expectations.
"Yeah, that dirty Barnett," Wacker wise-cracked. "Wait until I see him again."
At least he's kept his sense of humor, if not his job.
Tepper said he would love to coach again, and he turned down an administration job in the Illinois athletic department. He even said he would love to coach with Wacker.
"I always told him that if we could get his offensive philosophy together with my defensive philosophy, we might win a national championship," Tepper said.
Wherever the two end up, it is sure to be a good move by the team that hires them. Despite what Wacker said, he probably didn't give himself enough time at Minnesota, and Tepper felt he was headed in the right direction at Illinois.
There are now four job openings in the Big Ten, and what that means for the conference is anybody's guess, but chances are it puts a little more pressure on the seven employed head coaches.
- Ryan White can be reached over e-mail at target@umich.edu.