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THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Careful with whom you trust to rebuild

| November 27, 2021 1:15 AM

It seems like the popular belief anymore is when a team underperforms, fans want to believe it’s time for a coaching change.

Sure, in some cases, that might be in the best interest of everyone involved.

Other times, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.

WHO KNEW just what was going to happen last Saturday when Idaho took on Idaho State in the Big Sky Conference football finale for both Vandal coach Paul Petrino and Bengal coach Rob Phenicie.

Well before kickoff, it was announced that both were going to be out of jobs at the end of the game, with Phenicie’s news breaking the morning of a 14-0 loss to the Vandals at Holt Arena in Pocatello.

Petrino’s news came out a few days earlier.

It wasn’t like either coach was going to punt on third down and play for a 0-0 tie, but Petrino’s team did just enough to get a win.

Idaho finished this season 4-7 overall, 3-5 in conference games. Three of the team’s losses were by seven points.

Sure, maybe a change was needed in Moscow, but it’s possible that one wasn’t needed.

There’s a belief that you don’t fire a coach unless you’ve got someone better waiting to take things over. So with that said, just who replaces Petrino?

I asked some of my Facebook friends just who they thought should step in, and why it’s hard to compete in the Big Sky Conference.

One of my friends believed that the Vandals haven’t been relevant in football since the mid-90s, and anytime the program had someone good enough to succeed, they left for a better job.

And that’s true in some cases.

Then again, Petrino won the Humanitarian Bowl in 2016, and the Vandals have also won that game two other times (1998 and 2009).

Yeah, Idaho probably needed to make a change.

To whom, that remains something that has a lot of people interested to see.

ALONG THOSE same lines, there’s also a belief that the Seahawks might be better off without coach Pete Carroll.

And that could also be true.

Maybe the NFL, with all of its passing, just isn’t something that a defensive-minded coach can handle anymore.

Carroll is 115-70 in his 12th season in Seattle. Sure, there’s been some bad losses this season and it appears likely that Seattle’s season will end when the regular season comes to a conclusion on Jan. 9 against Arizona in Glendale, Ariz.

With how bad things have gone so far, it still doesn’t feel as bad as that season when Seattle, with a bunch of unproven guys, finished 7-9 and still won a playoff game.

Since 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers have had just three head coaches — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and the current coach Mike Tomlin.

When things have been bad, and it hasn’t been too often for the Steelers, they don’t panic after a subpar year.

They trust in their coaches that they’ll get it right again the next year.

Sure, there’s plenty of reasons to be concerned and overreact.

Just be careful what you wish for.

Rebuilding things, that just doesn’t seem all that fun anymore.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.