First coaching change of post season - Turnbull

[RPKD 0]

http://www.intermatwrestle.com/articles ... m=facebook

[BigApple 86]

Craig is a nice guy, but he should have retired about 10 years ago. Hopefully, a good young coach will get the program back to a competitive level. Now if Minkel would step aside that would be even better.

[lu_alum 850]

Navy posted their job just before the EIWA tournament.

[NJwrestlingguy 106]

I guess we'll see how committed WVU is to Wrestling...Bring in Flynn (pay him as assistant football coach) $250,000...Watch the Program rise fast.

[NJwrestlingguy 106]

I guess we'll see how committed WVU is to Wrestling...Bring in Flynn (pay him as assistant football coach) $250,000...Watch the Program rise fast.

[gowrestle 675]

Silly question......was he fired or did he retire?

[gowrestle 675]

Silly question......was he fired or did he retire?

[gowrestle 675]

Silly question......was he fired or did he retire?

[piggy 8]

Silly question......was he fired or did he retire?

The WVU AD (Luck) said "Turnbull’s contract as head wrestling coach will not be renewed for next season".

 

Seems like an involuntary retirement to me.

[commonwealth 0]

Bring in Lou Rosselli !!!

[abc_123 0]

I can only assume they gave the courtesy of offering to let him retire and announce it as such after such a long time. If so, he obviously didn't want to do that.

[HurricaneWrestling 1,123]

It's pretty clear from the link posted by RPKD that Turnball didn't retire. However, for those who may still have doubts, the Charleston WV Gazette put it more bluntly:

 

WVU fires wrestling coach Craig Turnbull

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck has fired longtime wrestling coach Craig Turnbull, announcing Friday that Turnbull's contract will not be renewed for next season.

 

(Full article at : http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/201403280250)

Another article, by sportswriter Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, makes it seem that Turnball never saw this coming. If so, I think it should have been handled differently by the WVU AD.

 

http://triblive.com/sports/college/wvu/5850748-74/coach-turnbull-wrestling#ixzz2xNhQKT7q

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[silver-medal 670]

Bravo to WVU for wanting to improve. More programs should do the same.

[vaughn1900 0]

Turnbull knew he was under scrutiny. He was given expectations from OL at the end of last season, none of which were met, of course. He refused to retire voluntarily, as he thought he was doing a stellar job, apparently. This should have been done about nine years ago, because without Zeke Jones and Nate Carr before Jones, the program has been a mess. Luck has tried to clean house with the Olympic sports, as the volleyball coach took a retirement, and he had to fire the long-time unsuccessful baseball coach last year. A large majority of WVU fans are very happy about all three coaches having to step down and are eagerly anticipating who the new hire for wrestling will be. The program should be top-notch considering the facilities, the finances, and the recruiting area and should be a great opportunity for someone.

[JasonBryant 1,946]

Don't know if "never saw it coming" is the case. I'd heard leading up to nationals there were informal talks with some folks and this was inevitable -- off the record -- I really liked Coach Turnbull, but I don't think this was a giant surprise.

[HurricaneWrestling 1,123]

If you'll note, the comment I made was that the Pitt Trib-Review article made it "seem that Turnball never saw this coming." And one of the article's main points was that it came as unexpected news to many. For example, he quotes Matt Lebe, a former WVU wrestler who is now a H.S. coach and AD as saying; "It was a surprise. A lot of talking today to people who care about the program and Coach Turnbull.”

 

That said, I can't imagine that Turnball wasn't aware that his program was under scrutiny. However, he may not have felt that his job was in as serious jeopardy as it obviously was. Under similar circumstances, coaches are often given an option to announce they're "retiring," in lieu of the school issuing a press release that they've been fired. And, maybe Turnball even had that opportunity and - for whatever reason - didn't go along with it. Nonetheless, the article's tone strikes me as indicating that he may not have known this was coming (or perhaps thought it wasn't an inevitability).

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