Dumbest Ways Coaches Got Fired in Sports History

The scope of the dumbest things coaches have done to get fired ranges from the mundane to the downright criminal.

Plenty of us have done dumb and embarrassing things at work. Very few of us have had to see those dumb, embarrassing things splashed across the internet or on the front page of the sports section.

Welcome to the world of head coaches who make big-time mistakes that lead to them getting fired — and the drama that plays out in incredibly public ways.

The scope of the dumbest things coaches have done to get fired ranges from the mundane, like being one class credit short of a college diploma, to the downright criminal, which in this case meant trying to cover up a murder.

Here’s a look at the dumbest coach firings of all time.

Honorable Mention: Pat Fitzgerald

Carlos Osorio / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Northwestern (2006-22)

Overall record: 110-101

Career highlights: Two-time Big Ten West Division champion (2018, 2020), Big Ten Coach of the Year (2018), Boddy Dodd Coach of the Year (2020)

Bottom line: Pat Fitzgerald saw his coaching career come to a shameful end when he was fired before the 2023 season in the wake of a hazing scandal at Northwestern, where he was a two-time All-American linebacker and two-time National Defensive Player of the Year in the mid-1990s.

Fitzgerald was originally suspended for two weeks but was fired a few days later for cause, setting up a nasty legal showdown between Fitzgerald and his alma mater.

30. Bill Frieder

Eric Drotter / AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: University of Michigan (1980-89), Arizona State (1989-97)

Overall record: 318-197

Career highlights: NIT champion (1984), two-time Big Ten regular-season champion (1985, 1986), AP Coach of the Year (1985), Big Ten Coach of the Year (1985)

Bottom line: Bill Frieder’s dumb move was not waiting until after the season to announce he was leaving the University of Michigan to become the new head coach at Arizona State — he made the genius decision to announce the move right before the 1989 NCAA Tournament.

Michigan athletic director Bo Schembechler was having none of it and fired Frieder immediately, announcing “A Michigan man will coach Michigan, not an Arizona State man,” and promoting assistant Steve Fisher to interim head coach.

What happened next was the stuff movies are made of … Fisher led the Wolverines to an improbable NCAA championship behind star Glen Rice and was hired as permanent head coach. Frieder resigned in 1997 amidst a point-shaving scandal involving his players at Arizona State during the 1993-1994 season.

29. Ed Orgeron

Matthew Hinton / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Ole Miss (2005-07), USC (interim 2013), LSU (2016-21)

Overall record: 65-44

Career highlights: CFP National Champion (2019), SEC champion (2019), SEC Western Division champion (2019), AP Coach of the Year (2019), Home Depot Coach of the Year

Bottom line: If you think being apathetic is a dumb way to get fired, then Ed Orgeron is your guy. Just 1.5 seasons after coaching perhaps the greatest college football team of all time and winning a national championship at LSU, Orgeron was fired midway through the 2021 season following the program’s almost complete collapse.

Since winning the national title, Orgeron was 9-8 before he was fired — a period in which Orgeron seemed mostly disinterested in the product on the field.

One problem for LSU? Orgeron signed a six-year contract extension in March 2020, of which LSU will be forced to pay him $17 million not to coach.

28. Rick Neuheisel

Rick Bowmer / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: University of Colorado (1995-98), University of Washington (1999-2002), UCLA (2008-11), Arizona Hotshots (2019)

Overall record: 90-62

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Here’s what Rick Neuheisel’s career boils down to before he was hired by UCLA for the 2008 season — he had two good seasons at the University of Colorado with Bill McCartney’s old recruits and one good season at the University of Washington when he cheated his brains off.

When put in charge of his alma mater, UCLA, where he was once a star quarterback, Neuheisel had a losing record in three out of four seasons before he was fired after his role in a — and we can’t make this up — massive NCAA Tournament bracket betting pool that was discovered.

27. Barry Melrose

Chris O’Meara / AP Photo

Sport: Hockey

Head coaching career: Los Angeles Kings (1992-95), Tampa Bay Lightning (2008-09)

Overall record: 84-108-29

Career highlights: Stanley Cup Finals (1993)

Bottom line: Barry Melrose didn’t really get fired for doing anything dumb — unless you consider being totally unprepared for games and practices and not really caring that you were something dumb.

Melrose got the hook quicker than almost any head coach in professional sports history when he was fired by the Tampa Bay Lightning just 12 games into the 2008-2009 season. What happened in those 12 games? Melrose didn’t have a game plan as much as a weird approach of having meetings to berate players, then saying “peace out” and letting assistant coach Rick Tocchet run the practices … as in Melrose wasn’t even there.

26. Maury Wills

AP Photo

Sport: Baseball

Managing career: Seattle Mariners (1980-81)

Overall record: 26-56

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Former National League Most Valuable Player Maury Wills was a tremendous shortstop — maybe as good as anyone who ever played.

In his short time as a manager, he was as bad as anyone who was ever put in charge of a team, and his .317 winning percentage is the worst all-time for a non-interim manager.

Battling massive alcohol and cocaine addictions for most of the 1980s and definitely during his time as manager of the Seattle Mariners, Wills did so many dumb things that led to his firing it’s hard to nail down just one … but an all-timer was when he got caught having the grounds crew add one foot to the batter’s box before a game against the Oakland A’s.

25. John Calipari

Mark J. Terrill / AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: University of Massachusetts (1988-96), New Jersey Nets (1996-99), University of Memphis (2000-09), University of Kentucky (2009-present)

Overall record: 814-343

Career highlights: NCAA champion (2012), four-time NCAA Final Four (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), six-time SEC Tournament champion (2010, 2011, 2015-18), four-time Conference USA Tournament champion (2006-09), NIT champion (2002), five-time Atlantic-10 Tournament champion (1992-96), three-time Naismith Coach of the Year (1996, 2008, 2015), AP Coach of the Year (2015), four-time SEC Coach of the Year (2010, 2012, 2015, 2020), three-time Conference USA Coach of the Year (2006, 2008, 2009), three-time Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year (1993, 1994, 1996)

Bottom line: You can make a solid argument that John Calipari should be considered among the greatest college basketball coaches of all time — a trailblazer in the modern era who has made four Final Four appearances and won a national championship with Kentucky in 2012.

On the flip side, he also had one of the worst tenures as an NBA coach in the last 30 years. Calipari’s time with the New Jersey Nets was marked by one dumb move after another, including a racist tirade against sports reporter Dan Garcia. Dumber than that? He had a chance to draft Kobe Bryant and picked Kerry Kittles instead.

24. Bobby Collins

AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Southern Miss (1975-81), SMU (1982-86)

Career highlights: Two-time SWC Champion (1982, 1984)

Overall record: 91-44-3

Bottom line: Bobby Collins cheated his butt off when he was the head coach at SMU from 1982-86 — to the point of stupidity.

Collins’ was one of the big reasons SMU received the only “death penalty” punishment handed out in NCAA history because of a massive pay-for-play scandal. Collins was a finalist for the Mississippi State job in 1990 but never coached football again after leaving SMU.

After Collins was fired, he was reportedly paid a severance package of $850,000 by SMU to ensure he wouldn’t disclose what he knew about the pay-for-play at SMU in the future.

23. Paul Westhead

AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: La Salle (1970-79), Los Angeles Lakers (1979-81), Chicago Bulls (1982-83), Loyola Marymount (1985-90), Denver Nuggets (1990-92), George Mason (1993-97), Los Angeles Stars (2000-01), Panasonic Super Kangaroos (2001-03), Long Beach Jam (2003), Phoenix Mercury (2006-07)

Overall record: 575-566

Career highlights: NBA champion (1980), WNBA champion (2007), two-time WCC Coach of the Year (1988, 1990)

Bottom line: Here’s the thing about coaching superstars — no matter how good of a coach you think you are, you’re not the one out there on the floor winning games. Paul Westhead was a fluke head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers after he was picked from head coach Jack McKinney’s staff to lead the team after McKinney was severely injured in a bicycle accident the year the Lakers won an NBA championship in 1980.

Westhead, wanting to prove he was the real reason behind the title, decided to change the Lakers’ offense to prove his point, effectively taking the ball out of the hands of the man truly responsible for the title — young point guard Magic Johnson. After Magic rebelled and demanded a trade, Westhead was fired and replaced with one of his assistants, Pat Riley.

It was a fitting twist to the career of Westhead, who loved to quote Shakespeare and other literary greats throughout his career during interviews.

22. Steve Sarkisian

Mark J. Terrill / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: University of Washington (2009-13), USC (2014-15), Texas (2021-present)

Overall record: 50-38

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Steve Sarkisian being fired by USC isn’t as much dumb as it is sad. Sarkisian parlayed his one year as offensive coordinator at USC into the head coaching job at the University of Washington, where he earned the nickname “Seven Win Steve” by winning seven games three years in a row.

He turned that mediocrity into the head coaching job at USC, where he was fired early in his second season after he reportedly showed up to several practices drunk and, according to his assistant coaches, even coached a game against Arizona State while he was drunk.

21. Roy Johnson

Twitter / awfulannouncing

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Bishop Sycamore High School (2019-21)

Overall record: 4-14

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Roy Johnson was the coach of a fake high school team for three seasons — Bishop Sycamore High School out of Columbus, Ohio, billed itself as the “IMG of the Midwest” but ended up being the laughingstock of the entire football world after a 58-0 loss to the actual IMG Academy in 2021, revealing the school’s true nature.

Johnson was fired after it was uncovered Bishop Sycamore wasn’t actually a school, the game against IMG Academy was the second in three days, and the team actually used some players who’d already played in college.

It was also revealed Bishop Sycamore stiffed a local hotel for the rooms on the trip with almost $4,000 in back checks. Johnson apparently built his playbook off plays from the “Madden” video games, and there was an active warrant for his arrest on fraud charges.

20. Steve Masiello

Joe Skipper / AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: Manhattan College (2011-present)

Overall record: 187-123

Career highlights: Two-time MAAC Tournament champion (2014, 2015)

Bottom line: Steve Masiello earned a reputation as a top-flight recruiter during his six seasons as an assistant coach to Rick Pitino at Louisville before he was hired to run his own program as head coach at Manhattan College in 2011, when Masiello was just 33 years old.

Masiello guided Manhattan to a 25-8 record and into the NCAA Tournament in 2014, which made him a hot coaching commodity for bigger schools. Masiello agreed to become the head coach at the University of South Florida in March 2014 but saw his contract terminated upon completion of a background check, which revealed he’d never received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky as he claimed.

In the history of dumb firings, this one actually has a sort of happy ending — Masiello was hired back by Manhattan, who placed him on leave until he completed coursework for his degree, which he did within several months and got his old job back.

19. Glynn Cyprien

David J. Phillip / AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: Iowa Energy (2017), Memphis Hustle (2017-18)

Overall record: N/A

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Glynn Cyprien trudged through the ranks as a Division I men’s basketball assistant coach, with six stops over 17 years before he finally earned his opportunity to lead his own program when he was hired as head coach at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in 2004.

That’s where Cyprien’s dream of becoming head coach came crashing down after he was fired before coaching a game for falsely claiming he’d received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas-San Antonio. Cypriend had instead received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Lacrosse University, a “non accredited distance learning university.”

18. Tom Williams

Greg M. Cooper / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Yale (2009-11), Greenhill School (2014-17)

Overall record: 16-14

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: As far as football careers go when it comes to playing and coaching, Tom Williams seemed to have a knack for being in the midst of “peak academia” so to speak — first as a star linebacker at Stanford in the early 1990s, then working his way up to become Yale’s head coach in 2009.

And in that role, Williams was actually pretty average, going 16-14 in his first three seasons, with the Bulldogs finishing as Ivy League runner-up in 2010 and 2011. Toward the end of the 2011 season, a glaring falsehood on Williams’ resume came into light when Yale quarterback Patrick Witt applied for a Rhodes Scholarship — Williams claimed he’d been a Rhodes Scholarship finalist but, in fact, had never actually applied.

Williams admitted he’d never applied for the Rhodes Scholarship and had falsified the information on his resume, and Yale accepted his resignation shortly after.

17. Mike Leach

Matt Slocum / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Pori Bears (1989), Texas Tech (2000-09), Washington State (2012-19), Mississippi State (2020-present)

Overall record: 146-100

Career highlights: Pac-12 North Division champion (2018), Big 12 South Division champion (2008), AFCA Coach of the Year (2018), two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2015, 2018), Big 12 Coach of the Year (2008)

Bottom line: Of all the dumb firings on this list, the firing of Texas Tech’s Mike Leach is probably the most basic in terms of dumbness. That means that Leach’s firing came down to his refusal to do one thing to keep his job — apologize to Texas Tech wide receiver Adam James, the son of former ESPN college football analyst Craig James.

School officials determined Leach had acted improperly when he’d sent Adam James, who was in concussion protocol, to sit in an equipment shed during practice to get him “out of the light.” Leach refused to apologize, and he was fired in 2010.

In 2011, Leach wrote a New York Times bestselling autobiography and was hired to be Washington State’s new head coach, where he remained until taking the head coaching job at Mississippi State in 2020.

16. Jim Tressel

Charlie Neibergall / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Youngstown State (1986-2000), Ohio State (2001-10)

Overall record: 229-79-2

Career highlights: Four-time NCAA Division I-AA National Champion (1991, 1993, 1994, 1997), BCS National Champion (2002), six-time Big Ten champion (2002, 2005-09), OVC Coach of the Year (1987)

Bottom line: The saddest thing about Jim Tressel being fired as Ohio State’s football coach is that one decade later, most of the things that led to the firing would be considered legal actions under the NCAA’s new Name, Image and Likeness policy.

Unfortunately for Tressel, that policy wasn’t in place in 2010, and when he covered for his players receiving myriad benefits for playing football — including tattoos, cars and cash — he was committing major NCAA violations.

Tressel was fired in 2010 and became the president of Youngstown State in 2014 — the same school where he won four Division 1-AA football national championships as head coach in the 1990s.

15. Rick Pitino

Bob Leverone / AP Photo

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: Boston University (1978-83), Providence (1985-87), New York Knicks (1987-89), University of Kentucky (1989-97), Boston Celtics (1997-2001), Louisville (2001-17), Panathinaikos (2018-20), Iona (2020-present)

Overall record: 770-271

Career highlights: NCAA champion (1996), six-time NCAA Final Four (1987, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005), three-time Big East Tournament champion (2009, 2012, 2013), two-time Conference USA Tournament champion (2003, 2005), five-time SEC Tournament champion (1992-95, 1997), America East Tournament champion (1983), MAAC Tournament champion (2021), Conference USA Coach of the Year (2005), three-time SEC Coach of the Year (1990, 1991, 1996), John Wooden Coach of the Year (1987), two-time Greek League champion (2019, 2020)

Bottom line: There’s nothing dumber than blowing your second chance — and Rick Pitino did it in one of the more epic ways possible.

Pitino was so good at coaching basketball that Louisville stuck with him after he admitted to an affair with the wife of Louisville’s equipment manager, and she was arrested for trying to extort $10 million from Pitino. He also survived a scandal in which the Cardinals were forced to vacate their 2013 NCAA championship.

What finally sank Pitino? His involvement in an extensive sex scandal involving recruits and paid escorts that first came to light in 2017 and to his firing in 2018.

14. Dennis Franchione

David J. Phillip / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Miller High School (1973-74), Peabody-Burns High School (1976-77), Southwestern College (1981-82), Pittsburg State (1985-89), Southwest Texas State (1990-91), University of New Mexico (1992-97), TCU (1998-2000), Alabama (2001-02), Texas A&M (2003-07), Texas State (2011-15)

Overall record: 213-135-2

Career highlights: Two-time WAC champion (1999, 2000), WAC Mountain Division champion (1997), KCAC champion (1982), four-time CIAC champion (1985-88), MIAA champion (1989), two-time NAIA Division I Coach of the Year (1986, 1987)

Bottom line: Of all the dumb ways a coach can get fired, we can actually put a monetary value on how much Dennis Franchione lost his job at Texas A&M over — approximately $37,000.

That’s how much money Franchione reportedly made on a “secret” weekly newsletter he and a former journalist were sending out to boosters/subscribers that entailed an injury report, his personal evaluations of current players and updates on recruiting.

The discovery of this idiotic move led to his firing at A&M — no big loss when you consider he went 4-16 against ranked teams while in College Station.

Nos. 11-13. Alex Cora, A.J. Hinch and Carlos Beltran

Twitter / LAcrimes

Sport: Baseball

Managing career (A.J. Hinch): Arizona Diamondbacks (2009-10), Houston Astros (2015-19), Detroit Tigers (2021-present)

Managing career (Alex Cora): Boston Red Sox (2018-19, 2021-present)

Managing career (Carlos Beltran): N/A

Career highlights: World Series champion (2017)

Bottom line: The Houston Astros were on top of the baseball world in 2017 after they won the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Two key figures saw huge benefits from winning the title — assistant coach Alex Cora was hired as the manager of the Boston Red Sox, and veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran was named manager of the New York Mets shortly after his retirement.

But after the Astros’ role in a sign-stealing scandal during the 2017 season was uncovered, both Cora and Beltran were fired by their respective teams in 2019 — Beltran without managing a single game. Astros manager A.J. Hinch was also fired as well as Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow. All four were suspended for the entire 2020 season, and the Astros were fined $5 million.

Cora was hired back by the Red Sox in 2021, and Hinch was named manager of the Detroit Tigers once his suspension was over.

10. George O’Leary

Chris O’Meara / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Georgia Tech (1995-2001), University of Central Florida (2004-15)

Overall record: 133-101

Career highlights: ACC champion (1998), two-time Conference USA champion (2007, 2010), two-time AAC champion (2013, 2014), four-time Conference USA East Division champion (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012), two-time ACC Coach of the Year (1998, 2000), three-time Conference USA Coach of the Year (2006, 2007, 2010), AAC Coach of the Year (2013)

Bottom line: George O’Leary appeared to have reached the top of the college football coaching mountain when he was hired as Notre Dame’s new head coach in 2001 following seven successful seasons at Georgia Tech.

O’Leary’s time on top didn’t last long once it was uncovered that O’Leary’s resume had been mostly fiction for the entirety of his career. He never played a single game at the University of New Hampshire, where he said he was a three-time letterman, and he never earned a master’s degree from NYU-Stony Brook, which is a school that actually doesn’t exist.

Notre Dame hired Tyrone Willingham instead, and three years later, O’Leary was hired as the coach at Central Florida, where he coached for 10 seasons.

9. Jon Gruden

John Hefti / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders (1998-2001, 2018-21), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002-08)

Overall record: 122-116

Career highlights: Super Bowl Champion (2002)

Bottom line: Jon Gruden spent most of his career as the NFL’s favorite rapscallion — first as the Super Bowl-winning coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then as a popular announcer on Monday Night Football (MNF).

Three years into his return to coaching the Las Vegas Raiders, Gruden’s career and reputation came crashing down when old emails sent during his time with MNF came to light — a period from 2011 to 2018 in which Gruden expressed his contempt for women, racial injustice protesters, homosexuals and seemingly every minority group in between.

He resigned within days of the emails coming to light, but the story continues to unfold, as he was only four years into a 10-year, $100 million contract.

8. Larry Eustachy

Twitter / KSeaboldt

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: University of Idaho (1990-93), Utah State (1993-96), Iowa State (1998-2003), Southern Miss (2004-12), Colorado State (2012-18)

Overall record: 523-330

Career highlights: Big 12 Tournament champion (2000), Big West Tournament champion (1998), AP Coach of the Year (2000), Mountain West Coach of the Year (2017), Conference USA Coach of the Year (2012), two-time Big 12 Coach of the Year (2000, 2001), Big West Coach of the Year (1995, 1996)

Bottom line: Larry Eustachy was regarded as one of the best college basketball coaches in the country during his time at Iowa State, which included coming within one game of the 2000 Final Four and Eustachy being named AP Coach of the Year.

Things came tumbling down for Eustachy shortly following the 2002-2003 season, when photos were published in The Des Moines Register of Eustachy pounding Natural Lights and kissing co-eds at a party by the University of Missouri just hours after Iowa State lost a game to the Tigers. The article in The Register also disclosed Eustachy had attended a frat party in Manhattan, Kansas, following a loss to Kansas State.

Eustachy was suspended, then athletic director Bruce Van De Velde asked for and accepted his resignation just days later.

7. Nick Rolovich

Rick Bowmer / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: University of Hawaii (2016-19), Washington State (2020-21)

Overall record: 33-33

Career highlights: Mountain West Division champion (2019), Mountain West Coach of the Year (2019)

Bottom line: Nick Rolovich went from being one of the best up-and-coming college football coaches in the country to unemployed in rapid fashion when he was fired by Washington State in October 2021.

Rolovich turned heads when he announced he wouldn’t attend the 2021 Pac-12 Media Day but wouldn’t elaborate much on why — it was because he refused to get vaccinated for COVID. Rolovich then tried to get a religious exemption — he’s Catholic — to avoid Washington’s mandate that all state employees be vaccinated.

One problem — the head of Rolovich’s religion, Pope Francis, has been an outspoken advocate for receiving the vaccine. The exemption was denied, and once the deadline for getting vaccinated passed, Rolovich and four of his assistants were fired, and his approximately $3 million per year salary was out the window.

He’s currently in the process of suing Washington State.

6. Hugh Freeze

Rogelio Solis / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Briarcrest High School (1995-2004), Lambuth University (2008-09), Arkansas State (2011), Ole Miss (2012-16), Liberty (2019-present), SunBelt Conference champion (2011), Mid-South Conference West Division champion (2009), two-time Class 8-AA Tennessee state champion (2002, 2004), Mid-South Conference Coach of the Year (2009)

Overall record: 65-40

Career highlights: Mid-South Conference West Division champion (2009), Sun Belt Conference champion (2011)

Bottom line: Shortly after winning the 2016 Sugar Bowl, the wheels started to come off when the NCAA accused Ole Miss of a wide range of violations, from illegal cash and car gifts to having another person take a college entrance exam for a player.

Freeze tried to weasel his way out of trouble by blaming his predecessor, Houston Nutt, who responded by suing Ole Miss for defamation. Part of the lawsuit included Ole Miss handing over Freeze’s cell phone records, which included the bombshell revelation he’d been calling escort services almost since he’d arrived in Oxford. Given the option to resign or be fired, Freeze chose to resign.

5. Tim Johnson

Twitter / JoseMelendez123

Sport: Baseball

Managing career: Toronto Blue Jays (1998)

Overall record: 88-74

Career highlights: None

Bottom line: Former MLB infielder Tim Johnson was a surprise choice to manage the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998, and it was a hire the franchise would come to regret. One way Johnson would motivate players during his time as manager was by telling detailed stories of his past — including turning down a basketball scholarship to UCLA and harrowing tales of his heroism fighting in the Vietnam War.

The problem was, Johnson never fought in Vietnam and was never offered a basketball scholarship by John Wooden and the Bruins — he said the truth coming out was like taking a “50,000-pound weight” off his chest, and he’d made up the stories out of guilt he felt about his friends fighting in Vietnam while he was in the Dodgers’ farm system.

The Blue Jays stuck with Johnson for a few months, but when training camp started, his presence proved to be such a distraction he was eventually canned.

4. Jovan Vavic

Steven Senne / AP Photo

Sport: Water Polo

Head coaching career: Palo Verdes High School (1987-90), USC (1992-2019)

Overall record: 545-146

Career highlights: Pac-12 Coach of the Century, 15-time National Coach of the Year, 13-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year, 16-time national champion

Bottom line: Jovan Vavic won 16 national championships as the men’s and women’s water polo coach at USC, creating enough of a legacy that he was named Pac-12 Coach of the Century.

That legacy came undone in 2019 when Vavic was fired by USC after his role in the massive college admissions bribery scandal was revealed. He was arrested and indicted on conspiracy to commit racketeering charges for taking $250,000 in bribes from parents of “recruits” who he signed … but the “recruits” never actually played water polo.

3. Mike Price

Ross D. Franklin / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: Weber State (1981-88), Washington State (1989-2002), UTEP (2004-12)

Overall record: 176-190

Career highlights: Two-time Pac-10 champion (1997, 2002), Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (1997), two-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1997, 2001)

Bottom line: It’s a shame that you can’t mention Mike Price’s name without recalling the worst incident of his career because it has completely overshadowed an almost 50-year career in coaching, including almost 30 years as a head coach.

Price made the power move of leaving Washington State for the University of Alabama in 2002. But he was fired before ever coaching a game thanks to a wild trip to Pensacola, Florida, in which Price had nearly $1,000 racked up in room service fees on a school credit card by a pair of local exotic dancers. This was after Price had already been warned for drinking excessively at bars near the Tuscaloosa campus.

2. Dave Bliss

Twitter / Deadspin

Sport: Basketball

Head coaching career: University of Oklahoma (1975-80), SMU (1980-88), University of New Mexico (1988-99), Baylor (1999-2003), Allen Academy (2010-15), Southwestern Christian College (2015-17), Calvary Chapel Christian School (2017-20)

Overall record: 543-343

Career highlights: Big Eight Tournament champion (1979), SWC Tournament champion (1988), two-time WAC Tournament champion (1993, 1996)

Bottom line: The crookedest, dumbest coach to ever walk a college basketball sideline was probably Dave Bliss — that doesn’t account for how dangerous he was.

Bliss tried to do no less than cover up a murder while he was at Baylor in 2003 when one of his players, Patrick Dennehy, was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson, and Bliss tried to frame Dennehy after the murder as a drug dealer.

Bliss did so in order to cover up his own crimes — he was illegally paying the tuition of Dennehy and another player and wound up with a 10-year “show cause” notice for his actions.

1. Bobby Petrino

Gareth Patterson / AP Photo

Sport: Football

Head coaching career: University of Louisville (2003-06, 2014-18), Atlanta Falcons (2007), University of Arkansas (2008-11), Western Kentucky University (2013), Missouri State (2020-present)

Overall record: 126-70

Career highlights: Conference USA champion (2004), Big East champion (2008), Missouri Valley Football Conference champion (2020), Cotton Bowl champion (2011), Conference USA Coach of the Year (2004), Missouri Valley Football Conference Coach of the Year (2020)

Bottom line: Bobby Petrino’s firing at the University of Arkansas operated on several different levels of dumb.

The part that got him fired was his affair with former Arkansas volleyball player and assistant recruiting coordinator Jessica Dorrell. After the couple were involved in a motorcycle crash in which Petrino was severely injured, details of their relationship came to light — that included a $20,000 cash present from Petrino along with securing her job on the football staff.

Petrino lied to athletic director Jeff Long about the affair — including that she was on the motorcycle with him — and only came clean when he realized her name was going to be on the police report. Long fired Petrino, who seemed to have Arkansas on the brink of being a national title contender. That’s the other dumb part.