After a 20-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals dropped their record to 4-7-1 on the season the Green Bay Packers decided it was time to make a head coaching change.
Mike McCarthy was in his 13th season with the Packers and had a very good record of 125-77-2, but last season was the first since 2008 that the Packers finished under.500 and missed the playoffs. Now this season the Packers can still finish over .500 by winning out, but making the playoffs looks like a different story.
I have to say that I was a little surprised by the reaction of the national media as most of the experts I saw thought that Green Bay did McCarthy a disservice by firing him with 4 games left I the season. Most thought that Green Bay should’ve just let McCarthy finish the season as head coach and then let him go, but I don’t understand that logic. If you’ve made the decision that you’re going to be letting the head coach go why wait until the end of the season? I think it’s better that the Packers and McCarthy went their separate ways now instead of waiting. By making the move now it allows McCarthy to start thinking about another coaching job if that’s what he wants to do and it also gives the Packers a head start in looking for their new coach.
Humorously this is the same national media that thought it was a great move when the Cleveland Browns fired Hue Jackson after Week 8 this season. Is it because Jackson doesn’t have the same resume as McCarthy that makes one a good move and one a bad move?
Joe Philbin was named interim head coach of the Packers. Philbin was serving as the teams offensive coordinator, but McCarthy was calling the plays for the offense.
This is Philbin’s second stint on the Packers coaching staff. He joined Green Bay in 2003 and was with them until 2011 in his final four seasons there he was the offensive coordinator. In 2012 Philbin was hired as the Miami Dolphins head coach. He spent three seasons plus four games as the Dolphins head coach amassing a record of 24-28 while there.
Philbin will be the 15th head coach in Packers history, but it hasn’t been said if he’ an actual candidate for the permanent job or if he’ll just finish out the 2018 season. Maybe if the Packers run the table Philbin would be considered as a serious head coaching candidate.
There was a second firing over the weekend, but this one was in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls decided it was time to move on from head coach Fred Hoiberg after the team started out 5-19 this season.
Hoiberg was in his fourth season with the Bulls and the teams record was worse ever season he was there. After starting out with a winning record at 42-40 in his first season, but not making the playoffs. The Bulls came back and went 41-41 the next year and managed to sneak into the playoffs. They where knocked out in the 1st round. The Bulls fell to 27-55 last season before getting off to such a bad start this season that they decided to make a coaching change.
This was Hoiberg’s first NBA head coaching job. Before getting the Bulls job Hoiberg was head coach at Iowa State University for 5 seasons. Hoiberg had a 115-56 record at Iowa State and made the NCAA Tournament five of the six seasons he coached their. Iowa State mad it to the Sweet 16 one time with Hoiberg as their head coach.
When the Bulls named Hoiberg as their head coach back in June of 2015 they also announced that he had signed a 5-year $25 million dollar deal; so it looks like the Bulls will be paying him not to coach for a period of time.
Jim Boylen will take over as the Bulls head coach in place of Hoiberg. This is the first time that Boylen will be a head coach, but he has many years as an assistant coach.
Boylen has an interesting coaching history. He started as an assistant with Michigan State University from 1987-1992. Then he went to the Houston Rockets from 1992-2003. He spent a year with the Golden Sate Warriors 2003-2004 and then a year with the Milwaukee Bucks 2004-2005 before returning to Michigan State from 2005-2007. Boylen then went to the Utah Jazz from 2007-2011. Then he was with the Indiana Pacers from 2011-2013. Then it was off to the San Antonio Spurs from 2013-2015 before landing in with the Bulls at the start of the 2015 season.
So I guess you can say that Boylen doesn’t have any head coaching experience, but as you can see he has a lot of coaching experience and has been on the coaching staff of three NBA champions.
Of course these won’t be the last two coaching fired in either the NBA or the NFL. These where just two teams that decided to make a change and thought it was better to make it now than wait until the end of or in the case of the NBA the middle of the season to make a move.
You just never know which teams are going to make coaching changes. Remember two of the NFL coaches that where “on the hot seat” Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens now have the respective teams in the hunt for a playoff spot. I don’t know if that might mean they’re safe as their teams could just as easily fall out of playoff contention, but sometimes you can’t push a coach out the door to quickly.
In the NBA there was some talk very early that Luke Walton’s job with the Los Angeles Lakers might be in trouble because he wasn’t LeBron James’ choice as coach, but that rumor has seemed to have went away. There was also some talk that the Washington Wizards would remove Scott Brooks as their head coach as the team has struggled badly this season, but as of right now Brooks is still their head coach.
Of course these things can change quickly; so who knows who might be the next head coach to go or wat league that coach will be from.
You can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but you can also listen to the podcast any time you want at TuneIn.com.
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Burketime
Sports Time Radio 