Old Dominion Coach Blaine Taylor fired

[Da Coach]

This comes as a surprise- The head coach at Old Dominion University Blaine Taylor is fired-

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/sports/coach-blaine-taylor-out-at-odu

He was having a terrible season. ODU is 2-20 and 0-10 in the CAA this year. But he is the winningest coach in ODU history, and they are coming off 9 winning seasons in a row and an average of 24 wins per season over those last 9 years. He has 3 CAA championships, and they have played in postseason tournaments the last 8 years, including 4 NCAA appearances.

[real fan]

This comes as a surprise- The head coach at Old Dominion University Blaine Taylor is fired-

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/sports/coach-blaine-taylor-out-at-odu

He was having a terrible season. ODU is 2-20 and 0-10 in the CAA this year. But he is the winningest coach in ODU history, and they are coming off 9 winning seasons in a row and an average of 24 wins per season over those last 9 years. He has 3 CAA championships, and they have played in postseason tournaments the last 8 years, including 4 NCAA appearances.

Something else must have happened as I doubt they fire him because of how poorly they are doing this season.

[tornado]

I don't know - there's a 23 page thread on the ODU message board titled "Fire Blaine Taylor" that began well over 2 months ago - so people have definitely been grumbling for quite a while..

the consensus is that he's partly a victim of his own success - his success led to way better expectations that his coaching & recruiting have satisfied recently...

http://www.monarchfans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6017&sid=22f9929ea4ce4a379dc33931f58c2500

[SFP]

Something else must have happened as I doubt they fire him because of how poorly they are doing this season.

I agree especially since you usually do not fire a HC during the middle of the season.

[Da Coach]

He is known to be an extremely arrogant guy. They hired a new AD a couple years ago. I'll bet we hear that his arrogance did not go over well with the AD once he started losing. It's amazing how much can be tolerated as long as a coach wins (see Bobby Knight).

[lake Camelot]

I think now, or in a couple weeks sounds like a good time to fire him. Once the program has nosedived to that level it will be hard for him to turn it around. They get an early look at any coaches who may be looking to move up. Although I don't think anyone will take the job until this season is over.

[Bravesfan]

He is known to be an extremely arrogant guy. They hired a new AD a couple years ago. I'll bet we hear that his arrogance did not go over well with the AD once he started losing. It's amazing how much can be tolerated as long as a coach wins (see Bobby Knight).

Wow! And I just commented about him in another thread a couple of weeks ago. I did not know about his arrogance. But shocking they get rid of him after one bad, albeit REALLY bad year. I'm sure the truth will come out soon.

[Bravesfan]

I think now, or in a couple weeks sounds like a good time to fire him. Once the program has nosedived to that level it will be hard for him to turn it around. They get an early look at any coaches who may be looking to move up. Although I don't think anyone will take the job until this season is over.

Yeah, but we're talking one bad season, albeit rotten, but still. Just two years removed from their last NCAA Tourney appearance.

[Tulsa Brave]

4 NCAA appearances in 12 seasons, 7 seasons with 22+ wins, 5 top 3 conference finishes. 9 straight winning seasons, with 8 straight postseason appearances, before this one bad season.

The fallout from this firing may never end, and no doubt ODU will not be competitive in the CAA for at least a decade or longer.

[tornado]

the best proof of fallout is that the school was willing to fire the guy with time remaining on his contract
(he has at least 8 more games this season then TWO MORE years on his contract that has at least $250K per year base - but as seen below in the link, he was making more like $750,000 overall, and the school has to pay a big hunk of that to get rid of him)
..and likely they will accept the fallout - hoping to try to minimize it..down the road....

Just two to three years ago - Blaine Taylor was a hot commodity - getting much higher offers - but turning them down to stay at ODU as the school & boosters ponied up a lot of money to keep him then felt let down with the arrest issues and mounting losses - LINK - LINK

[Da Coach]

There is still a lot of mystery surrounding this sudden and surprise firing. Probably more will eventually leak out as to why Taylor was fired.

But this might shed some light- just 2 weeks earlier, Taylor appeared on a radio show, and below is some video from that interview. At times he seemed incoherent and rambling, seen especially in the second video posted near the bottom of this page. Apparently there have been other incidents that concerned administrators.-

http://deadspin.com/blaine-taylor/

Blaine Taylor had a history of alcohol issues after an arrest back in 1995. He went though a rehab program, and supposedly has been sober since. But I suspect the firing happened because someone at Old Dominion was concerned he might become an embarrassment to the university.

[Future Walk-On]

The fallout from this firing may never end, and no doubt ODU will not be competitive in the CAA for at least a decade or longer.

I was thinking min 2 decades

[Future Walk-On]

I don't know what led to this or if it his all his fault...

but ODU currently has 2 seniors and 2 juniors.... 1 of those juniors basically being a walk on.

[Buesch N Chips]

There is still a lot of mystery surrounding this sudden and surprise firing. Probably more will eventually leak out as to why Taylor was fired.

But this might shed some light- just 2 weeks earlier, Taylor appeared on a radio show, and below is some video from that interview. At times he seemed incoherent and rambling, seen especially in the second video posted near the bottom of this page. Apparently there have been other incidents that concerned administrators.-

http://deadspin.com/blaine-taylor/

Blaine Taylor had a history of alcohol issues after an arrest back in 1995. He went though a rehab program, and supposedly has been sober since. But I suspect the firing happened because someone at Old Dominion was concerned he might become an embarrassment to the university.

He certainly doesn't look good in that second video.