General

Gene DeFilippo Has An Itchy Trigger Finger

Mar 31, 2010, 9:00 PM UTC

â†µBoston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo must be a big Dirtyâ†µHarry fan, because there's apparently nothing he loves more than blowingâ†µhis coaches' heads off with preposterously large guns after being givenâ†µlittle or no provocation. He terminatedâ†µfootball coach Jeff Jagondzinski, then 20-8 in two seasons at BC,â†µfor having the temerity to interview for an NFL job. And now he's offedâ†µbasketball coach Al Skinner for missing the NCAA tournament for...â†µuh...â†µone consecutive year. Punks do not feel lucky on The Heights. â†µ

â†µâ†µIt would be one thing if either firing came paired with an obviouslyâ†µattractive replacement candidate. Schools occasionally push fledglingâ†µcoaches out of the nest when Urban Meyer’s hanging around in theâ†µMountain West or John Calipari’s looking to blow town before the fuzzâ†µcatches up with him. BC had no such candidates. The football coach isâ†µnow an elderly guy with zero previous head coaching experience who willâ†µprobably retire in the next few years, occasioning another coachingâ†µsearch that will either land on an old retread no one wants or a guy whoâ†µwill have some success, sniff a higher-profile job, and get canned likeâ†µJags. â†µ

â†µâ†µMeanwhile, Tommy Amaker(!) is being mentioned as an attractiveâ†µcandidate to replace Skinner. Amaker has made one tournament in thirteenâ†µyears as a head coach. Boston College blog Eagle in Atlanta dismisses thatâ†µpossibility but theâ†µrest of the list consists of guys who came up under Skinner andâ†µapparently won’t be considered strongly, guys who aren’tâ†µcoming (BC alum Bruce Pearl most prominently) and the head coachesâ†µat Cornell and Richmond. â†µ

â†µ

â†µBoston College fired a guy who made seven tourneys in ten years afterâ†µbuilding BC up from a disaster zone for this? Neither Steve Donahueâ†µ(Cornell) or Chris Mooney (Richmond) has any experience at a majorâ†µconference level or operated at a relative deficit to his conferenceâ†µpeers, as they would certainly do at Boston College. They're completeâ†µwildcards who would be extraordinarily lucky to have the same level ofâ†µsuccess Skinner-BC's most accomplished coach in their history- had only a year ago.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhile Skinner was aging and the program had started slipping, anâ†µathletic department with a little patience or loyalty would have givenâ†µSkinner another year or two worth of rope. Tom O’Brien’sâ†µthen-inexplicable decision to jump from a perpetually nine-win BCâ†µprogram to a basketcase like NC State now looks like a guy who wasâ†µeither pushed or saw DeFilippo polishing his gun daily and read theâ†µwriting on the wall. He’s not exactly safe with the Wolfpack, but if he’dâ†µgone 16-21 the last three years at Boston College, the press conferenceâ†µannouncing his firing would look like the final scene inâ†µScarface.â†µ

â†µâ†µWord to wildlyâ†µsuccessful BC hockey coach Jerry York: wear a vest and try not toâ†µlose to Miami in the Frozen Four. â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: