Indiana University’s football program has historically been one of the most downtrodden teams in major college sports. Yet it made national news yesterday by unceremoniously dispatching the rare coach who has had some success.
Kevin Wilson led the Hoosiers to back-to-back bowl games. At Indiana this is a huge deal. It hadn’t happened since 1991. He also beat rival Purdue four times in a row.
Yet yesterday word broke that Wilson had been fired. At an evening press conference, Indiana Athletic director Fred Glass revealed that Wilson had in fact resigned. Glass, a lawyer who was influential in Indianapolis politics before being named AD, blamed “philosophical differences” for the split.
Glass wouldn’t elaborate.
(Chris Howell/The Herald-Times via AP)
It could be that Glass and Wilson simply couldn’t work together any longer. Football coaches are often quite different from the people working in administration, and Glass does not come from a traditional sports background. Wilson, meanwhile, can be boisterous, brusque and hard-charging.
But it seems like there’s more than that going on. Glass had an Indy law firm conduct a review of the program, which is an unusual step.
And much of the speculation about what ended Wilson’s tenure has centered on his treatment of injured players.
Glass went out of his way, though, to say that the law firm’s investigation found “that medical care was not compromised in the program at all.”
Current Indiana players also jumped on social media to defend Wilson, including Zander Diamont, who made news last week by announcing he was leaving football to avoid further concussions, saying, “I need my brain.”
Other former players spoke with reporters about being rushed back from injury. These are just anecdotes, though, and can’t be seen as a whole picture; college football teams have more than 100 players, and you’re bound to have those who like the coach and those who don’t, whether or not the coach is actually doing something wrong or unethical.
Glass knows something isn’t right. He would not have taken this step otherwise. If his “philosophical difference” with Wilson revolved around how Wilson treated players — even if it didn’t qualify as “compromising” the medical care of those players — I wish he’d let us know. Was he verbally abusive? Did he get in the way of their academic work? In what ways did his leadership fail?
The opposite is also true: If Wilson was fired purely for his inability to manage up, he deserves for that to be known. “Clashed with boss” is an easier label to shed than “endangered players.”
(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Yes, people working in major athletic departments will know the real reason Wilson parted ways with Indiana. Word will get around. But even a brutal truth wouldn’t stop Wilson from working again; he’s good, and athletic departments have shown a disturbing willingness to overlook issues when a coach or administrator can deliver wins.
There aren’t, it turns out, many watchdogs within athletic departments able or willing to take on big-time coaches. It usually has to come from the outside.
Glass isn’t a typical AD, and that’s partially why he was hired by a university president from Australia who had clearly grown weary of the status-quo. But now that Glass has done the unthinkable — located a coach who could get Indiana to .500 regularly, then forced him out — he could lead a discussion on what “philosophies” jibe with his vision for combining big-time sports with high-level education.
Is it too much to ask of him to speak candidly about these issues, as a way to spur a broader discussion? Perhaps.
Then again, Glass has said his operation is focused on student-athlete welfare, and I’m guessing he evaluates his coaches based on how well they carry out that assignment.
If that’s where Wilson failed, the public has a right to know. Kevin Wilson is going to be trusted to oversee players again very soon — and probably for somebody who shares whatever philosophy Glass found so distasteful.
