Monday, December 4, 2017

We do not have a track record for Chasse

Since he has hired only two coaches and has not yet fired one that he hired, we do not know what our AD's criteria are for dismissing a coach purely for performance reasons. My guess is that he would be reluctant to fire Wes before he has served the three years of his contract. If when he hired him he theoretically gave him three years to get things going, then he probably will allow him that much at least.

However, if we do have another Moncrief-type season, all that might go out the window. Chasse is much closer to the program than any of us. (He can watch practices.) Thus he is in a much better position to know to what extent Wes can or cannot coach and to what extent he is just unlucky. (Imagine year before last without Josh Hagins.) If he decides that the program is just out of control and is not likely to improve, he might pull the plug regardless of the contract and probably should - IF we can afford to do so.

I have no earthly idea how much pressure big donors bring to bear on the AD at Little Rock. I cannot imagine that it is anything like the situation at Fayetteville, but still it is possible that there might be some heat on Chasse to make a move.

A more potent force than contributors, however, may be attendance. In the first four D1 games last season we drew 12,179. This year we drew 7771. That is a 37% drop in attendance, assuming we are accurately comparing apples to apples. If every one of those 4408 customers who did not attend this year bought a cheap $6 ticket and $4 worth of refreshments, that alone is $44,000 gone from the till in only four games. Granted, much of the attendance decline may be circumstantial and not connected in any way with the team's performance, but that really is beside the point. Revenue loss is revenue loss.

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