Champs Sports Bowl: Bill Stewart and 15 Biggest Lame Ducks in Sports History
Champs Sports Bowl is Tuesday and it's going to feature West Virginia and its lame duck head coach Bill Stewart.
Stewart will be back next year, but he'll be doing it with his offensive coordinator waiting to take his job, which is always a fun atmosphere to work in. However, where does this situation rank among the biggest lame duck head coaches in sports of all time?
Inside are 15 coaches who were big lame ducks at some point in their career. Who do you think is the biggest lame duck ever? Let it be known in the comments.
No. 15: Byron Scott
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Before Byron Scott landed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was the coach of the New Orleans Hornets.
He led them to success, but ended up in the final year of his contract despite some major success during his time in New Orleans. He started the season, but didn't finish it as he only coached nine games, getting the team to a 3-6 record. This was after he had gotten the team to the playoffs the past two seasons.
He ended up signing with ESPN and becoming an analyst before going back to coaching.
No. 14: Greg Robinson
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Everyone knew Greg Robinson was going to be fired, it was just a matter of when.
He was abysmal at Syracuse and ended up with a record of 10-37 overall and a shoddy 3-25 record in the Big East, he was fired with one year left on his contract but everyone knew he wasn't going to coach through that contract.
It was just a sad state of affairs during his tenure.
No. 13: Jim Zorn
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Last year, we all knew Jim Zorn wouldn't be back after the season.
The Washington Redskins were struggling and as always, the Redskins are major news, even if they're win, lose or draw and the team was just terrible. There really wasn't much else to say and it just proved why Zorn was a terrible hire in the first place.
He only coached two years, but that second year was an agonizing death march to the very end for everyone involved.
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No. 12: Brad Childress
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How could we ever forget the last year of Chilly's tenure in Minnesota?
It started with him pleading to get Brett Favre back and having it promptly blow up in his face. Not only that, but he has a public war of words with Favre as the team's season goes right into the toilet and to top it all off, he waives Randy Moss without telling his owner.
That's a pretty good way to end your lame-duck status earlier than usual.
No. 11: Wade Phillips
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When it was clear that Dallas was keeping Jason Garrett around to eventually be the next head coach, you knew Wade Phillips was a goner.
Phillips was never what you'd call a wildly successful coach anywhere he's been but he managed to get the Cowboys their first playoff win in forever last year against the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas had Super Bowl hopes coming into the season.
Then the bottom dropped out and the team quit on him and we kept waiting for Phillips to be fired and the game against the Green Bay Packers where the entire team mailed it in was the final nail in his coffin and rightfully so.
No. 10: Marvin Lewis
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Poor Marvin Lewis, he deserved better than this.
The Bengals came into the year with Super Bowl expectations and are destined for a top draft pick and a team that has fallen down around them. Lewis won't be brought back next season and with no playoff wins to his credit, it's not hard to see why.
Someone has to pay for Cincinnati's failures and it all falls on Lewis.
No. 9: Mike Davis
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Following up Bob Knight at Indiana is no small task and Mike Davis found out the hard way.
After some early success, Davis struggled mightily and it was clear that his days were numbered as the coach of the Hoosiers. Indiana is still trying to work itself back to the level it used to be at, but that's going to take time.
Davis had a good run, but it wasn't enough.
No. 8: Ralph Friedgen
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This is going on right now and Ralph Friedgen is going to have to coach his team's bowl game.
Friedgen is being forced out at Maryland and a lot of people think that Mike Leach is going to take over as the next head coach, even if he's not a lock for the job as of right now. A lot of people think Friedgen is getting a bad rap and I agree.
I'm not sure what he did that was so horrible to deserve the treatment he's getting.
No. 7: Bobby Bowden
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This spot on the list is more about respect for Bobby Bowden's career.
We all knew that Bowden was going to retire at some point, but when Jimbo Fisher was named the coach in waiting, at his age and with his tenure, we all knew that the end was coming soon. Eventually, the Seminoles struggled and Bowden announced that he was stepping down at the end of the year.
It was a good run and college football isn't the same without him.
No. 6: Philip Fulmer
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There was always a lot of pressure on Phillip Fulmer to succeed and finally, it caught up to him.
The fans of the Vols weren't too happy with the direction of the team and eventually, it came down to he was either fired or he was going to step down. He agreed to step down and coach the rest of the season, beating Kentucky in his final game.
Tennessee still hasn't gotten back to the level Fulmer had it at.
No. 5: Mike Singletary
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This lame duck session just ended last night when the 49ers got home from St. Louis.
Mike Singletary wasn't exactly the brightest coach, but he cared about winning—but that wasn't enough to get results for San Francisco. The 49ers were just eliminated from the playoffs and everyone thought San Francisco was a lock to win the NFC West.
Well, so much for that. Let the coaching search begin.
No. 4: Ron Zook
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The job at Florida is not an easy one to take.
There's a lot of expectations in that fan base and if you don't perform, you're going to get blasted and that's what happened to Ron Zook. Zook didn't take the Gators to the level of national prominence and he was fired but had to finish out the regular season.
He didn't coach the bowl game though because he had already taken another job at Illinois.
No. 3: John Fox
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C'mon, John! Just one more game to go!
John Fox will not be back as head coach of the Carolina Panthers after his contract is up at the end of the year. However, don't weep for Fox as he's certain to land another job as head coach somewhere after he's gone from Carolina.
At least he had the decency to leave them with the first pick in the draft.
No. 2: Bill Stewart
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Nothing says lame duck like coaching one more year while your athletic department rips you to shreds.
That's what happened to Bill Stewart recently as it's been announced he will coach next year, but then be let go for Dana Holgorsen after next season. Stewart has had his tenure ripped by the athletic department and that's just a horrible way to work for a year.
He's a good guy and he deserves better, but that's the business sometimes.
No. 1: Tyrone Willingham
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Being a lame duck was so nice, Tyrone Willingham did it twice.
Not only was Willingham a lame duck at Notre Dame, but he ended up being one at the University of Washington after the fact. He was pretty much forced out at Notre Dame for Charlie Weis and then he went winless in his final year at Washington.
What a resume.
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