Thursday, January 7, 2016

Everett Withers bails on JMU for Texas State

In my head, I have a complicated relationship with Everett Withers. He's clearly a gifted hype man, the sort of guy you'd want spotting you on the bench press or pumping you up in the corner of a boxing ring in between rounds. He's got some pretty neat slogans. He can string letters and numbers together with the best of them. He's got a knack for hash tags.

And in all seriousness, Withers was much-needed cough medicine. Bitter to the taste, but otherwise curative of what ailed JMU. The culprit in this particular case? The locker room behind the south end zone got a little too stale, just a little too complacent, under Mickey Matthews. It's football. It happens. And Withers' extra pep in his step fixed those problems, come what may.

But let's call this what it is. It's a shitty, savvy business decision from someone who's too smart to get exposed this early in his career. In the stock trade, you buy low and sell high. Your moves are dictated by the arc you feel your stock is on. When you're in a business like coaching, decisions are made along the same rubric. He may be coming off back-to-back playoff losses as a home favorite, but Withers' stock was arguably at peak height. He gets the credit for landing an ACC quarterback transfer. He gets the credit for centering that quarterback in a video game offense. He gets the credit for bringing College GameDay to an FCS school.

You sell high on that. It's that simple. All the other details, like the alumni love and the media disconnect? That doesn't matter. It's a cutthroat business, and this is a cutthroat business decision. Fans line up to make excuses for him here; he could be a god. But to him, that FBS head-coaching tab is more important, in the grand scheme of things.

I'm not going to break this down for you guys much further than that. By now, the Withers-to-Texas-State news is already almost 24 hours old, and the Internet has had plenty of time to digest the facts and spew up a football field’s worth of frothy hot takes.

What is undeniably horrible here is the timing. Coaching departures are just part of the business, but leaving a few weeks before National Signing Day, and six days after tweeting about how thrilled you are to bring in a top-tier recruiting class, is objectively shitty.




Past that, all that's left are the I-Told-You-So's. I try not to do this too much of that, because nothing is more annoying than a guy rubbing it in your face when you're already low. But back when I was writing columns for the Breeze, I penned this prophetic masterpiece:


"Matthews and his staff can’t be absolved of all responsibility. The lack of a forward passing game at JMU has become so publicly mocked, it’s nearly cliché. Calling plays out of the shotgun in short yardage situations has become a regularity. The defense, for all its talent, simply couldn’t cover anyone, and incomplete passes were often a result of happenstance rather than actual defensive prowess.

Most damningly, the offense failed to develop an identity as quarterbacks were shuffled and reshuffled like so many decks of cards. Mix in the option, the wildcat, zone-reads and numerous other play calls, and it’s unclear whether JMU oversees a football team or a Bertie Botts Every Flavored Bean factory.

As a result, CAA blogs and message boards are full of snide young alumni, living in their Northern Virginia lofts, parading on about how Matthews should be fired immediately. I think they should get back to their cubicle and concentrate on their spreadsheets. Inducing a coaching panic is the last thing the program needs right now.

While the expectations weren’t met and the class of 2013 will graduate without a home playoff game, Matthews deserves his fan base’s trust. I’m not a believer in national championships buying free rides, but there just isn’t enough here to trade an admirably devoted coach Matthews for some young up-and-comer who will only see JMU as a stepping stone."
I don't think I'm lobbying for us to send Mickey an offer sheet or anything, but I do feel a little bit like Alfred in The Dark Knight. Walking out of my secret underground shed where I write this blog, like, yeah, but I did bloody tell you.


Look, it's going to get worse before it gets better. JMU is going to lose recruits. And the more recruits that decommit and depart, the more enticing it's going to be for other recruits to jump ship, too. There's a certain element of self-sustaining chaos that will be in play over the next few weeks, until a hire is made and the athletic department can stop the bleeding.



The good news is that, after briefly talking with a couple of people this afternoon, I feel reassured that there is an actual plan in motion, and not just crisis communication, control-the-narrative bullshit. JMU is aggressively pursuing people, and it doesn't seem like anyone is off limits. (Seriously, though, stop holding your breath for Chip Kelly, because that shit just isn't happening.)



I suppose I'll end with one final thought on Everett Withers, before he goes in the sin bin with the rest of the sports unmentionables. I'm reminded of the Michael Jordan commercial where MJ speaks to a few dozen aspirational teenagers, looking for insight into how to be better.

"Maybe it's my fault," Jordan says. "Maybe I led you to believe my game was built on flash, not fire."
Jordan's voice trails off.

"Or maybe, you're just making excuses."

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I've misjudged Everett. Maybe he's more than a good-not-great coach who was gifted a one-in-a-million quarterback situation. Maybe he let me believe his talents were more throat than brain.

Then again, I haven't been wrong yet. And today, in Harrisonburg, nobody is making excuses for Everett Withers any longer.
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