Bo's Fired

Hootyhoo

https://www.on3.com/news/kennesaw-state-owls-football-to-fire-head-coach-brian-bohannon/

Bo is out. Burks is intirim head coach.

I guess Burks must have a good relationship with players? It's a cute story to make him the interim. I think he'll end the season a lot more aggressive. I don't think that will help much but maybe it keeps guys engaged for these last few games.

I'm really curious to see who we hire and what the budget for the new coach/staff looks like. I'm grateful for what Bo built, but 10 years is a long time. I think KSU and he both needed to break up at this point.

bb_fan

Bush league move. After all Bo has done for KSU football to not let him finish out the last 3 games of the season is unacceptable. Pathetic.

Hootyhoo

bb_fan I think it's nice to make the change early. Showing up to work everyday when he knows it's probably over seems very stressful. He's seemed pretty burnt out in press conferences really since last season. He gets this time to figure out what he wants and network before the Assistant and FCS head coach carousel really heat up.

Hopefully that's how he sees it instead of feeling disrespected.

ScrappytheOwl

Any thoughts on who we should target to replace Bo?

OwlHowl69

ScrappytheOwl Buster Faulkner should be first call.

ScrappytheOwl

I think dean kennedy from JMU could be a good fit too,

ScrappytheOwl

Another guy could be mike shannahan who is indiana's offensive cordinator.

BurialGround

Yeah, I don't agree with firing him before the end of the season, and I don't really see us benefiting from doing so. My wishful-thinking scenario would've been for us to let him coach out the rest of the season, and then for him to resign after the last game. Not that it would've made sense for him to do so, but I wish this all could've ended in a more positive, respectful way. Coach Bo has carried out his job with utmost professionalism for 9+ years, and obviously was the one to build this program, so this should've been handled in a way befitting the situation. Also, I think, just like the UTEP game, the last three games on the schedule were all winnable (depending on the status of SHSU's QB). Now, I really doubt we win another.

Any thoughts on the next HC?

BurialGround

Faulkner is an obvious option and will get a call. Might have to convince him to take a pay-cut though. Shanahan won't be coming here, he's gonna draw a lot of interest from bigger schools. Also, my preference is for someone from the state/the southeast who knows recruiting in this area. Other options:

Mercer HC Mike Jacobs - Risky, because he's only had one season in the FCS, but he's won everywhere and he runs the type of offense we will probably want to run. 9-1 this year with Mercer

Navy DC PJ Volker - Highly respected while coaching here, and has been one of Newberry's most important assistants since they both left to Navy. The fact that he's still Newberry's DC, when Newberry is known for not keeping around unproductive assistants (Chestnut was fired after one season there) is telling

Navy OC Drew Cronic - Has done eye-opening things with Navy's offense this year, was really good as a HC at Reinhardt (national semi-finals) and Mercer (took them to their first playoff appearance). He has adjusted his Wing-T offense at Navy, they kinda look like our old explosive offenses of Bo's early years

Duke RB Coach Willie Simmons - This name came up on the CUSA board and is really interesting

FAU TE Coach Chad Lunsford - This would be a fall-back plan, but a really safe one. A good recruiter and motivator, he had Georgia Southern competitive in all except his last season, and had to rebuild them from Tyson Summers's disastrous years

North Alabama's Brent Dearmon would've interested me a year ago, but not anymore. There are a couple other Georgia and Tech assistants that I would also be interested in (again, they'd have to be convinced to take a pay-cut)

I tried to keep this list realistic, and not just bound to stupid shat like "must have SEC head coaching experience"

Hootyhoo

I would be shocked the GT and Indiana coordinators don't have better career options available to them than Kennesaw.

It's really hard to guess who we'd be looking at for the next coach. I'd like an offensive minded coach with G5 success somewhere on their CV and experience in the south. That probably describes hundreds of active coaches lol.

Dean Kennedy that Scrappy shouted out sounds like a good hire and pretty realistic. He's a young guy that could see this a good opportunity for head coach experience. This move would be a significant pay increase even if our budget is a little below market. His age makes me think he might see Cobb County public schools as a real perk. He's having success at a G5 right now. He's had success at FCS. He's had experience in the SEC. He checks alot of boxes.

jones682

Hootyhoo Dean Kennedy is a OC at a G5 school in the SBC. No we can do better. KSU budget is 36M, which is the same as WKU's budget. I think KSU got the money to do better then him.

Hootyhoo

KSU's email says Bo is "Stepping Down" and frames it as his decision. Sounds like everyone wants this breakup to be amicable. That's nice to see. He had a great run. Not many coaches keep the same job for 10+ years.

HootyHooKSU

I understand it, but the way he was let go was shitty. He earned the right to finish out this season.

Kmase14

Idk if Bo was the right guy for FBS, but letting him go now in the middle of the transition to FBS AND the transition of this offense is absurd. I know there were some Bo skeptics out there, but I figured through next season was his chance, when we were post season eligible and he had some time to develop and recruit players for FCS.

If we was gonna be on the hot seat this year, there was no point in keeping him. Should have gotten rid of him last year. It’s another 2-3 years before we compete now, most likely. This team isn’t built for most other coaches/offense.

The best next move is to get rid of the embarassing AD we have, but that isn’t going to happen.

naqvi

I am surprised it happened in the middle of the season. Not a good move or PR on the AD's part. But it seems like these conversations must be happening over time, and a decision that didn't happen overnight on a moment's decision.

Perhaps the wording/technical terms may be debatable. Perhaps, there were other factors in this decision happening suddenly. If he were to officially "step down", KSU would not be obligated to the contract terms of "stepping down", firing makes KSU obligated. They probably mutually agreed to a clean "Press Release".

I am sure Milton already had Options 2 and Options 3 as replacements and a transition in place. Perhaps a discussion was made if Bohannon wanted to continue with the writing on the wall or leave now and still get paid the same and have time to search for new opportunities.

I truly wish Brian Bohannon the best, he will no-doubt find a great opportunity with the success he has had at the FCS level with a school that wants him. The AD needs to move fast to get things in order. I wonder if they already have a candidate in mind.

HootyHooKSU

naqvi Nope, Milton is a liar and Coach Bo confirmed he did not step down effective immediately

naqvi

HootyHooKSU That's good for Coach Bohannon, that statement he made justifies the contract obligations for his compensation for being fired. If he intentionally left, then KSU would not have to meet full contract obligations. Coach Bohannon chose to keep it real and further clarify so that later on. At least he will be paid for the remainder of his obligated contract due to the firing.

bb_fan

From the MDJ:

Then, later Sunday night, Bohannon released his own statement on social media disputing Overton's terminology.

"This morning I was informed directly from AD Overton that he was making a change in leadership," Bohannon wrote on X. "Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down from my position as head football coach at Kennesaw State University.

Hootyhoo

I don't take issue with the midseason firing. I don't think that's disrespectful. I think that's just how these things end most the time. It is very unprofessional that they did not leave the conversation when he was fired on the same page with 1 story.

I'm sure it's a he said/she said but I do think it's a lot more likely that Milton decided saying he decided step down sounded better and assumed Bo wouldn't mind. That's really unprofessional. The only other possibility I can see is they agreed to say he was stepping down and now Bo is pissed and making things messy. I suppose that's possible, but seems out of character for him.

Doug Robertson from AJC was also bitching about lack of media access this week. Has he ever cared to cover this team before now? I hope Kai and anyone else that has covered this program is able to talk to people using the relationships they've developed. I think it's really smart for the program not to be putting Burks in front of media. He's got to be in so far over his head right now without media asking him about this messy breakup.

jones682

I said and predicted this months ago hits my posts over the months. However, I said that many times over and over that our AD as a major communication issue. Remember the AAR hire. Our AD is bad at communicating to the public.

GO-OW15

When I thought about Bohannon getting fired/stepping down I thought about how much potential there was with the program if he was to continue as our coach. In Baseball under Coe and Basketball with AAR and now Pettway I get optimistic about potential championships and postseason play where with football I never saw us eclipsing 5 wins in FBS even with a larger budget. I just don't think Bohannon moves the needle for the school or program like our other coaches did (AAR) and currently do. If we can get a strong recruiter I feel we have a chance to rebound but it may be a tough time with players able to leave at will.

jones682

GO-OW15 Our budget is 36M, which is the same as WKU's budget. How high our budget needs to be to compete in CUSA when there are schools in the same conference competing with a lot less money then us.