Saw this on Twitter:
Nick Saban
Bobby Petrino
Lou Holtz
Mike Keenan
Ryne Sandberg
Saban, Keenan and Sandberg I can explain. Not sure about Holtz or Petrino.
Fill in those blanks or tell us about other skippers that bailed on their teams? This does not include coaches that just took better offers from other teams.
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[Edit: I think you mean you don’t know why Petrino and Holtz left, not that you don’t know when they left. Never mind.]
Lou Holtz was 67 when he retired–could be normal retirement.
Which of the bailings on his team are you speaking about, with regards to Bobby Petrino?
IMO, the explanation behind it all is simple: Petrino is an asshole.
With regards to the Falcons, there is possibly the extenuating circumstance that, after Petrino was hired, their best player, Michael Vick, was arrested for the dog fighting operation, which pretty much torpedoed their season anyway. That said, the way in which Petrino quit on his team was classless.
Rick Pitino quit the Celtics in 2001 after a 12-22 start.
Best thing that ever happened. Pitino was a complete control freak. I worked for an outfit that did their ***promotional materials, ***and he even felt obligated to stick his nose in that end of things.
I believe the Lou Holtz reference is related to his 13 games as the New York Jets head coach in 1976. He resigned with one game remaining, in what was a fantastic failure as an NFL head coach. One can only imagine how Broadway Joe reacted to Lou’s rah rah mentality.
Tony Pena of the Royals in 2005.
Jeff Van Gundy left the Knicks after 20 games in, 2001 I think.
Urban Meyer - The University of Florida
Scandal was swirling around his program at Florida when, suddenly, Urban Meyer announced his retirement because of health reasons. He had a heart condition, and coaching was too stressful and tiring a job. His departure was shocking, but his health obviously had to be first.
His doctor must have prescribed Ohio State as a cure because he has been the head coach there since 2015, and there hasn’t been even a mention of any health problems in the intervening years.
He actually stepped down as OSU’s head coach at the end of last season, again citing “health reasons.” He took a position with OSU as assistant athletic director.
Those “health reasons” wouldn’t have anything to do with the domestic abuse scandal, would it?
One does wonder…
Lou Piniella walked away from a Cubs team that was going nowhere (51-74) and retired on August 22, 2010.
Then there was Ricky Byrdsong, who abandoned his Northwestern University basketball team mid-game in 1994, leaving the bench to wander the stands and chat with opposing fans. He took a “leave of absence” for several games afterward, but did eventually return and coach Northwestern to the NIT, which by Northwestern standards of the time represented unexpected excellence.
Totally forgot about Petrino’s NFL stint. IIRC his players found out when they found a letter from him in their lockers!
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Hell, that was excellence by Northwestern standards of any time. When Byrdsong led the team to the NIT in 1994, it was only the second time that they’d ever gotten to the NIT (and when they made the NCAA tournament in 2017, it was the first time ever).
Jim Riggleman quit the Nationals immediately after a win that brought them up to .500.
Referred to after the fact as his “Walk on the Wild Side”. (At least by the sports department of the Daily Northwestern. Don’t know if everyone called it that since it happened the year before my freshman year. But I do know they referenced that event frequently in the paper in later years.
In 1990 Whitey Herzog, who had managed the Cardinals to three World Series in five season, quit with a 33-47 record while the Cardinals were on their way to a last place finish. “I don’t think that I have done a good job as a manager this year. I just can’t get the guys to play and I think anybody could do a better job than me,” he said. Observers were split over whether it was the lack of front office support or toxic dissension among the players that wore him down.
In 1964 the Cardinals almost fired manager Johnny Keane in August, when the team suddenly caught fire and ended up winning the Series. The day after the Series ended, management called a press conference to announce Keane’s new contract. Just before the conference started, Keane walked in and handed his resignation to the owner. Four days later Keane was hired to manage the Yankees.
The White Rat was a great manager, but I think he wore players out mentally. I think there are other coaches out there like him: Jimmy Johnson (NFL) and Jim Harbaugh (also NFL) come to mind. Great, great coaches, but forever getting in players’ faces wears locker rooms out. And in baseball, Christ, there are, what, 162 games? It’s not like you take a break for 1-2 days and then show up on the practice field. It’s day-in, day-out, traveling with the guys, on the planes together, riding the buses together, sleeping in hotels together, eating at hotel buffets together - day-in and day-out, 6 to 7 months out of the year. That’s why that hyper-emotional crap that works on the sidelines in football and basketball just does not work in baseball. The best MLB managers are like Yoda.