AP lists Enos on top 10 coaches on hot seat; he says he’s not feeling pressure
Central Michigan head coach Dan Enos walks the sidelines of Commonwealth Stadium on Sept. 10, 2011 as the Chippewas take on the University of Kentucky. The Chippewas lost to the Wildcats 27-13. (File photo by Andrew Kuhn)
Football head coach Dan Enos was listed in an Associated Press story for 10 coaches on the hot seat Tuesday.
Since joining the program, Enos has led the team to two consecutive 3-9 seasons and a 2-5 start this year.
The story by Ralph Russo pointed out that Central Michigan got accustomed to winning the Mid-American Conference under former coaches Butch Jones and Brian Kelly, but Enos has eight wins in three seasons.
After practice Tuesday, Enos was asked if he feels pressure after two straight 3-9 seasons to show improvement.
“No, I think we have (shown improvement),” he said.
Saturday, Enos will try to get his fifth-career MAC win against Akron, and first conference win this season. Akron is 1-19 in the MAC during the past three years.
No other MAC coach was on the AP list. Among those on it are Gene Chizik at Auburn, who won the National Championship two seasons ago, Derek Dooley at Tennessee, Joker Phillips at Kentucky, Frank Spaziani at Boston College, Jeff Tedford at California, David Bailiff of Rice, Mike Price at UTEP, Doug Marrone at Syracuse and Bobby Hauck of UNLV.
In February, Enos was given a one-year contract extension. His current contract would end Dec. 31 2015. If he were to get fired during this season, he would be paid $700,000 by the university. If he were to get fired after the season, or during the 2013 season, he would receive $400,000. In 2014-15 it would be $300,000 and 201, he would be paid $200,000.
CMU athletics released this statement from Athletic Director Dave Heeke after the extension:
“We are all-in with Dan Enos and his strong vision for and dedication to rebuilding this program into a perennial championship contender that has a foundation for sustainable success. Continuity, stability, and commitment are the critical qualities needed at this point to define the next chapter of Chippewa Football success.”
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I’ve been saying all along Enos isn’t going anywhere if the $700,000 figure is correct. In fact, he’s in a great position. Even, next year, $400,000. Going to be tough to fire a coach after December 31. Perhaps, we could stop funding liberal guest speakers for Hyphenated American month for the next 5 years and apply it to Dan’s Golden Parachute. It boils down to how bad you students want a winning football program. Give up a night with Al Sharpton or the Animal Lady and we can get a great coach.
I can’t believe Heeke’s comment. Heeke is the Joe Biden of college athletics.
Things could really be bad. According to ESPN, Chizik’s buyout at Auburn is over 7 million. His two coordinators, both former CMU assistants are at 1.3 million each.
This should teach the CMU faculty to ditch the union and negotiate your own contract with the university. Enos did and got a heckuva deal. He’s in the driver’s seat.
Dan shouldn’t be the only person on the Hot Seat. It should also be Heeke, the BOT at the time….and whoever was the president at the time who signed off on it. I’m not sure Ross was here yet. It may have been the Interim President.
Maybe, Heeke will get lucky with his Powerball ticket tomorrow night. Or, we win the final five games against teams with a combined 5-25 record. The way we’re playing, he might hit the Powerball.
By the “Animal Lady”, do you mean Jane Goodall? Yeah, you’re right, having a better football team is clearly superior to having a top biologist come to speak. After all, it’s not like anyone actually goes to CMU for an education, we’re all just here to complain about sports games we don’t even attend.
How on earth do you inject politics into the issue of the CMU football coach? Sad.
So you’re suggesting getting rid of speakers for the foreseeable future and dumping that money into a football program for which we already pay millions to sustain? And to do what exactly, still be overshadowed and out-recruited by huge football programs like MSU and U of M? What a great idea. Why pay Ross all that money when we have you?
After Enos’ response, I would have asked, “What areas have you shown improvement in?” From where I’m sitting, there is no improvement. Also, Enos is working to rebuild the program that he tore down. When he came in, there was already sustained success. Ugh…
I am a 1980 Graduate…even when I lived 2 hours away I made it to nearly all the home football games..Live in Mt. P now..and I am hear to tell you ..I AM DONE..not another game until they get rid of Enos. Send him back to Sparty!
A failed experiment, a ruined program. There exists a Grand Canyon size leadership void. The Board, the President, and the AD can share the blame (but they won’t).
We maay have just enough juice to beat an Akron team the caliber of a poor 1AA team but don’t count on beating EMU or U-Mass in Amherst late in the season.
Pathetic.
With only 14,000 in the stands at HC, $22 ticket prices (except Western & Navy being more) I think it’s time to cut the losses and get a new AD and Coach. Now is the time to make a change. Central has paid large buyouts in the past and the Med School went way over budget so whats a few million extra…
Really? Not feeling it?! Ask him how he’s eating and sleeping!
Derek, the schools that have championship football and men’s basketball teams get favorable statewide, regional and national publicity which helps the admissions office (successful programs attract more high school seniors. We were down 12.5 in enrollment thanks to our losing teams), fund-raising (former CMU president Rao attracted a lot of $$$ from donors when VCU made the Final 4 two years ago., and helps students find jobs. It’s a great marketing tool to sell your university.
I don’t know anything about Gonzaga, out in Spokane, Washington except they always have a great basketball program. I couldn’t tell you anything about the University of Alabama except they have a great football program.
You think more people visit the University of Notre Dame and the University of Michigan on a Wednesday…..or on Football Saturday.
The Animal Lady didn’t do anything for CMU except cost us $60,000. If we can make a major bowl, it can be a money-maker and great PR for the school, its employees, students and alumni.
The same for all the other liberal speakers we bring in here and pay close to $100,000 or more a year. It’s up to the students. Have losing sports teams or cut the speakers and get a winning football coach in here.
I can’t believe Enos said “No, I think we have (shown improvement),” ! If this was a true statement, he would have more wins than losses! And then for Heeke to say they are still supportive of Enos? I guess Heeke will find out how supportive the students and fans are when 1) the students stop attending the games and 2) fans stop contributing to the 1100 Club and attending the games! This situation is becoming even more pathetic than what we went through with DeBord!
He is so out of touch with reality…but when your AD is ok with an empty stadium and a lousy product on the field then why would Enos say anything other than he is feeling no heat and showing improvement? Any casual fan who has gone to a game these past 3 seasons knows the truth about the Enos experiment and it is enough already. The only thing that will get anyone’s attention in the athletic department is an empty stadium, which being a season ticket holder for the past four years is the only area where Enos has shown improvement. He is saving the department tons of money because with each home game they need to have less and less staff working. Heeke is as much the problem as Enos. The players are not buying what Enos is selling. Watch them if you are one of the few who still go to games. They are done. When I saw a handful of players dancing to the intercom music right before the start of the 2nd half vs Ball St (as they were losing), I knew he has lost this team. A losing mentality from the top down. Embarrassing…………….
Why does Heeke mention “rebuilding this program” when it was a CHAMPIONSHIP program when this *coach* was hired? We needed a coach to sustain the championship culture, not take us from first to worst.
Four wins in the MAC so far in two plus seasons….not good. Even if, IF, we manage to beat Akron and UMass (former FCS school), we are still only looking at a 4-8 team. 10 and 26 is not deserving of a return. Can we beat WMU or EMU right now?…sadly, probably not.
Can this *coach* be fired immediately following the UMass game and have to ride a bus back from Foxborough to East Lansing? Just wondering…since
Enos needs to go. Students and Alumni have been pleading for this for a long time. They were never really behind the hire anyway. We wanted a big-name. Someone with head coaching experience. Maybe the old GVSU coach? Heeke, you suck at picking coaches. The only one you’ve gotten right in the last 6 years was the women’s basketball coach, she’s top notch. Aside from Butch Jones, who left.
Duke is bowl-eligible. That’s right, Duke football.
A lot of people have mentioned that CMU doesn’t want to pay Enos a buy-out. However, let’s not forget that Butch Jones PAID CMU a hefty fee when he headed to Cinci a few years back. . . lets put that money to good use!
What a joke. This guy is so clueless and full of crap – does he really think anyone believes any of that garbage? A friend of mine works in the athletics department and after last weeks embarrassing loss, he said he witnessed a few players talking to their parents saying “we work our butts off – we’re just getting completely out-coached out there”. When his own players start saying they’re being out-coached, it’s OVER. Now, the players will completely give up, if they didn’t already, and he won’t last much longer. I know season tickets holders who can’t even GIVE tickets away for FREE. On top of that, they said it would be their last year buying season tickets. Such a sad story. I watched championship after championship and always had to look forward to December for a MAC Championship game and/or a bowl game. Now, the best we can do is try to not lose by 30 or more.
As an Alumni of CMU I was there when CMU was struggling in the early 2000′s. Then came the great Brian Kelly, Butch Jones rode his coattails and was not a spectacular coach (see loss to North Dakota State), but he made sure he won the MAC. From the second Enos was hired I knew it was the wrong pick for a coach because it went back to the failed montra of “we want to keep talent within the state of Michigan”. A team in the MAC cannot be built like a Big Ten team like Debord did. We saw that fail before and now again. You have to recruit nationally (Illinois-Lefevour, Bellore-Wisconsin, and Brown-Miami) and find players with potential, quickness, and hustle. It was doomed to fail from the start. The sad thing is that this team has pieces in place that could make them successful. Find another coach that has been successful at the national level (see Kelly at GVSU) and bring them in. The program will be back to .500 in a year.
There is one positive to have Enos here. The ticket brokerage firms like Ticket City have CMU tickets going for $7-$8. It’s what CMU charged in the 1970s. Way below face value. Enos football is cheap entertainment for the family.
No parking jams, no lines for concessions, no lines for the bathroom.You can sit wherever.
Look at the positives of having Enos as our coach.
Blame the Administration. Those academic “intellectuals” have a difficult time understanding that a good football team is one of the most important aspects of university profitability. A quality football team is historically proven to increase enrollment, increase ancillary revenues, and generate good PR for the school.
Therefore, you must be willing to INVEST in the football program. We had two of the best coaches in the country, and let both of them go because the Administration can’t stand to see the football coach get paid 3x what they make. Deal with it. Pay people what they are worth. Otherwise get used to empty stands and a hollow feeling in the community every fall.
As an alum, I refuse to donate a single penny to CMU until they put something together on the field. Sad but true. I like winners. Students like winners. Alumni like winners. Right now we have a coach, and an administration who are losers.
Time to hire Tony Annese. Google him. Perfect fit for CMU.