Wrestling Blogs - Martin Floreani

It is a beautiful thing when coaches get fired and new ones get hired. I like when things get shaken up because anyway you cut it there are some 80 odd teams in D1 wrestling and there are 40 head coaches whose teams finished in the bottom half. Furthermore there are at least 20 head coaches whose teams finished in the bottom half in consecutive years. This means their are plenty of head coaches who arent up to par and need to be replaced. This is a sign of a healthy sport. What isnt a sign of a healthy sport is when coaches sit and run teams at the same mediocre level year after year without performing. That is when programs get cut.

This is not to say that even if you win and are a top 25 team that a head coaching change shouldnt be made. A truly healthy sport will have ADs firing coaching staffs because they couldnt bring home a national title in 4 years.

Now I know change takes time. To turn a horrible program around I think you need a complete life cycle of 4 or 5 years. For a team like Ohio State who has top notch resources and a coaching staff lead by Tom Ryan maybe a year will do. Some might say that it is unfair to judge smaller D1 programs on the same plane as the Big XII and Big 10, I say go ask Tom Borrelli of Central Michigan what he thinks. Central Michigan placed in the top 10 this year without anything close to the funding support as those Big 10 and Big X12 schools. Central still finds a way to place 7th at Nationals and lure one of the best if not the best recruiting classes in the Nation. I wonder what Coach Borrelli would say about being able to compete as a smaller school? Other schools that find a way: Cornell (That is right they are Ivy League) & Edinboro (classic PA small town state school).

And then there are some programs that finish in the top 25 even top 10 where the top management need to be replaced. A school like Iowa and Oklahoma State finishing outside the top 5 is considered blasphemy. Iowa did it last year and Oklahoma State did it this year. A complete pardon was given last year for Iowa because it was Tom Brands' first year and fans in Stillwater will hold their tongues...for now... because they still own 4 titles over the last 7 years.

Wrestling teaches us never to be comfortable. We must always keep pushing and looking to grow. Some CEOs enjoy firing, Like Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric. He thought that he was doing his under performing employees a huge disservice by keeping them on staff. I wish more ADs were like Jack Welch with their wrestling teams.