Saturday, November 29, 2008

The System

They fired Joe Glenn,the UW football coach, this week. It wasn't unexpected. He had four straight losing seasons. The final blow came last Saturday when the Cowboys lost at home to archrival Colorado State.

Joe being fired wasn't unexpected, but it was a shame. Joe Glenn by most accounts is a good man. As a coach, he treated his players well and encourageed them to be good men. He is an affable guy who played the piano and led the singing of "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" for students, alums, fans and players. It was his trademark at UW. It was a winning one.

I don't know why he wasn't successful at producing teams that won football games here. He was very successful at a number of smaller programs. Laramie is a difficult place to recruit players to. My thought is that UW would be better off as a big fish in a small pond rather than trying to compete in the Mountain West Conference. UW is just to small and located in a place where few people want to come.

Winning is the bottom line in NCAA sports. Coaches have to win in order to stay in a place and do the other things which may be the real value of sports. Whichever school hires Joe Glenn next will get those real values.

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