Kent Austin returns to coaching in the NCAA

Were we saying that in 2006 (in the midst of 0-4) after Marshall went 0-8 in 2005.
Asking for a friend.

Personally, the Guelph years and the first couple of years at THF were some of the best years in recent seasons. Encouraged me to upgrade from my five games per year to seasonā€™s tickets. I agree Kent left on a terrible skid, but that was only a small part of his time in Hamilton.

Kent Austin struck me as a competitor, a guy who wanted his team to be better, and a guy who wanted to win. Admittedly, not always personable on the sidelines, or with the media, but all in all, I see him as a good coach in Hamilton and for the Cats. I wish him well.

Lancaster was pulling the strings ā€¦ remember?

So much down the memory hole . Hope the most recent 0-8 gets the same courtesy.

Austin lost me the second he threw Zach Collaros under the bus despite him having next to no time to throw due to a complete lack of a rushing attack and gaping holes on the O.Line. He did do a good job his first two seasons, mainly because he did what a team is supposed to do when they are rebuilding.

Pull as much talent available for evaluation in your pre-season, separate the wheat from the chaff, and donā€™t be afraid to cut veterans who arenā€™t willing to take a pay cut if they donā€™t produce.

However, after the initial run, began the slow decline of the team. No longer were swathes of players bring brought in during the pre-season. No longer was anyone being released, nor free agents being pursued, in favour of trying to keep the same team together (that came close, but didnā€™t win the Grey Cup and werenā€™t a dominant force) in the hopes of finally getting a good dice roll, instead of making those small tweaks towards consistent improvement. No new rushing attack was produced, instead the same throw heavy offence. No changes on defence to a more bend but not break system, which favours younger players that we now had.

Why did this stuff fall to the wayside? Simply put, itā€™s hard for one person to manage all of that on a regular basis, and it showed. You need a proper separation of coach and GM duties. Players got old, or hurt and departed and their loss wasnā€™t filed. Salaries increased and starter positions started getting filled with rookies with the gaps the team had, coaches started leaving and everything slowly began cracking, pretty much as expected and then the dam broke with an 0-8 season.

Every team thatā€™s won the Grey Cup in recent memory has had clear distinctions between head coach and GM. Austin never let go of those reigns, and weā€™ve seen this happen several times in recent memory with Buono and the Lions and Popp and the Als. It only works briefly and then the workload overwhelms.

I wish him well in his future endeavours, but for his bump of Dave Stala, his temper getting the better of him on the sidelines and with the media and whatever role he had in the Art Briles hiring attempt (if any) makes him departing the organisation a long overdue change.

HAMMER, that was very well written but you wrote all that and failed to mention the two killshots that started Austinā€™s demise. Zachā€™s knee injury and Austinā€™s mismanagement of Tommy Condell. Those two events were the catalysts that sunk Austin into a flood of crap that was well over the safe wading level.

It was perfect cover for Austin to wait until June Jones took control of the team so that Austin could finally hire Jonesā€™ friend Art Briles to assist Jones in coaching, and make it look like it was someone elseā€™s idea all along.

(Just a wild guess here, but Iā€™m thinking the guy you can pin the blame on is the one whose name appeared most frequently in the sentence above.)

Liberty University is an evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell. Hugh Freeze was recently appointed head coach, in spite of a rather checkered past. Recruiting violations and calls to escort services from staff issued cell phones, are but a few of the issues that hung around his neck while at Ole Miss. NCAA sanctions and a continuing investigation at Ole Miss suggest that maybe Freezeā€™s stay at Liberty may be brief .

Into this enters Kent Austin who is also a devout Christian. He is currently the Co- Offensive Coordinator and QB coach . Who knows, by next week he could be head coach .

Pat Lynch (the old guy)

Amen Palmer. The Kent years gave us the best and probably the most promising seasons weā€™ve had in a long time. Things just went south when his teams couldnā€™t break through, and players couldnā€™t reapond to him or play for him any more. He wore his heart on the Ticat jersey.

We are talking Jones right! Jones was making the calls as I recall as a condition of his hire. So letz not blame Kent for every wrong that happenedā€¦ inclusive of WW2 as some would do!

I think you missed the sarcasm there

To the first, I kinda touched base on the first paragraph. If you are going to pay a QB as much as they did Zach, you have to protect that investment. We had rookies starting on the O.Line. It was a recipe for disaster, and Austin should have owned up to that simple fact, instead of criticising Zachā€™s release time in a pass happy offence, where defences were teeing up on him. That he couldnā€™t get a solid Offensive End and upgrades at O.Line that were desperately needed.

As far as the coaching mismanagement, well again, that falls into the ā€œhead coach and manager distinctionā€ although I have a somewhat different take there. A GMā€™s role, apart from signing personnel (both on the player and coaching side) is to be the quality control agent for the players and coaching staff. When the OC canā€™t make a play clock, itā€™s the GM that notes it. When a head coach starts ripping into his players needlessly itā€™s the GM who polices it. When a player is locker room poison, is the GM that gets him on the trade block quietly.

Thatā€™s a dramatically different role though, when the GM is subordinate to the head coach or is the head coach, as was the case with Austin. Then the GM canā€™t really do his job at all, he just becomes a glorified scout and enforcer of the head coaches will, for good or ill. You canā€™t be your own second set of eyes. Thatā€™s not to say the GM is more involved with day to day team operations then the head coach is. Itā€™s just, having a GM be subordinate to the head coach partly defeats the purpose of the role. Itā€™s fine when you are starting a rebuild (because everything is getting nuked and put together from scratch) but itā€™s not sustainable long term.

Anyways, appreciate the compliment.

I disagree entirely. If the second the uproar at the hire, Mitchell fired Austin and blamed him for the hire and stated that he was busy with his other projects and didnā€™t know exactly the scope of this hire was, then maybe you might have a case on that one.

However, that was never going to fly because Austin likely wanted to pursue other coaching opportunities and few schools would look kindly on a potential coach that went rogue and tried to hire a coach thatā€™s been effectively NCAA blacklisted. I also doubt Jones would have stayed as silent about the situation.

Instead, Mitchell the second he got flack for hiring Briles, double downed on the hiring and said everyone was involved from the get go and muddied the waters for everyone involved in the hiring, himself included. So now, Young, Mitchell, Austin, Jones, Tillman and Burke now shoulder a share of the blame, of which only Young apologized for and Mitchell non-apologized for.

Yes, Iā€™m pretty sure Jones was the primary driver. Head coaches generally want their own staff, and Jones and Briles had history. I do wish the team had competent management who would have stood up and said ā€œNo, you arenā€™t getting this guy, we arenā€™t even going to make the attempt. If thatā€™s a problem, weā€™ll find another head coachā€ instead trying to pull a fast one and disgracing the teamā€™s good name in the attempt. Iā€™d wager weā€™d still be in the same spot on field as we are now. A team with a losing record, squeaking into the East Semi off the back of a weak east division due to an imploding Montreal and an injured Ricky Ray.

Just wanted to bump to congratulate former Ticat Kent Austin on Liberty Football's second bowl win, this time over 12th ranked Coastal Carolina (the nation's sweetheart team). The 10-1 record likely would have had Liberty ranked in other years.

There's rumors HC Hugh Freeze will be offered numerous power 5 HC jobs and take Austin with him.

Looks like Austin has landed firmly on his feet.

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His career trajectory trending way up. Many of the players who quit on him playing careers are either over or winding down.
Some media criticsā€™ careers are invisible or non existent
Like life itā€™s a funny ol game.

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Perhaps instead of going with Hugh Freeze he might be offered the HC job at Liberty?

I think a major coordinator job is more pay and more prestigious than HC at Liberty. But weā€™ll see.

One of the names rumored for Liberty is Art Briles.

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