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BREAKING: Twitter is abuzz with the news that Danny White has fired Buffalo Football Head Coach Jeff Quinn. UB had lost two in row to MAC opponents Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan in the two weeks prior to the announcement.
Quinn was 20-36 in four seasons and part of a fifth at UB. In early 2013 he received a contract extension that ran through the 2017 season and any subsequent bowl game.
I'll be updating this post as soon as I publish it but I want to get something up here. Credit to Bull Run commenter TYGA for alerting us to the news here, while Buffalo News reporter Mark Gaughan and general college football blogger Mark Roussell seemed to have the news first on Twitter.
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Update #1: Today's move by Danny White comes after a particularly ugly loss to EMU in Ypsilanti that, as I wrote yesterday, saw every fault of the last two years exposed all at once. On a macro level, Jeff Quinn's four-plus years at the helm of the Bulls saw Buffalo earn only two wins over teams that would finish their season with a winning record. On a game-to-game basis, Conrad's recent posts have exposed just how historically bad the defense has been this year.
I'm going to miss a lot of the early tweets, because they're old now, but the first bit of real news we have is that Alex Wood has been elevated to interim head coach.
Offensive coordinator Alex Wood will serve as UB's interim head coach after Jeff Quinn's firing. More coming @TWCNewsBuffalo
— Andy Young (@AndyTWCNews) October 13, 2014
From a non-media person, here's the most powerful reaction I've seen yet:
I couldn't be happier for UB! Playing for a man like that made me hate football.
— Gio Ozkan (@GioOzkan) October 13, 2014
On the flip side, there's always the crummy aspect of transition. Coaches are adults with lots of experience and people willing to vouch for them. We've always tried at Bull Run to recognize that players and recruits are at best very young men with a lot of visibility, and we shouldn't forget that this transition will effect a lot of people who have less ability to land on their feet than Coach Quinn
Freaking out a bit..
— Duke Hwang (@Duke_Hwang42) October 13, 2014
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Update #2: Thanks to CTBullsFan for posting the official UB release in the comments. I want to highlight the main ADDW quote here:
"It is with great disappointment that we have to make this change," White said. "Unfortunately, the performance on the field this season and over Coach Quinn's tenure has not matched our expectations for the growth of Bulls football.
"With the bye week, our coaches and student-athletes have an opportunity to evaluate themselves and make the changes needed to improve," White said. "We have some very talented and hard-working student athletes on this team and we hope this change shifts the course of the 2014 season.
And Jesse Rack laying the lumber, fairly or not:
I just hope @UBDannyWhite Relieves The DC of his duties. Cause idk what you call that defense looks like SWISS CHEESE!
— Jesse Rack (@Jesse_Rack) October 13, 2014
As for Quinn's replacement, keep in mind that Danny White's MO when it comes to hires is to find coaches with experience playing and/or coaching at the highest level. The jury is out on all four, but Felisha Legette-Jack, Bobby Hurley, Reed Sunahara, and Trena Peel were all elite level athletes in their sports before turning to coaching.
That's pretty much the gist of things now. The biggest unanswered question is the fate of Defensive Coordinator Lou Tepper. I'm having a hell of a time finding any news there, but you know where I'll put it when I do.