Well, the dark deed is done.
There was a lot of excitement around the Army program when Ellerson was first hired. He was hailed as a defensive innovator and the coach who would bring a “true” option offense back to West Point, and both were true. He made immediate progress, too, leading Army to a bowl win in only his second season. It was all downhill from there, though, as it took Army 3 seasons combined to surpass their win total from the high water mark in 2010.
Firing the coach is the easy part. Now comes the job of finding his replacement. Sal Interdonato offered up the usual suspects:
I don’t know if these guys are really on the list or if this is just the usual “find a grad or past assistant” guesswork. No matter who Army hires, though, there are so many questions to be answered. Is this just one change of many ahead for Army? Will they still run an option offense? It’s going to be an interesting week ahead.
The Birddog 
A logical candidate to pursue would be Georgia Southern head coach Jeff Monken.
I’d be very surprised if any former Navy coaches took the job.
Lucky guess or astute observation? Either way, I’ll take it. BTW, I first tweeted this prediction on December 1st.
MarkHyman@MarkHyman1 Dec
Prediction: @Army_Football fires Rich Ellerson & hires @GeorgiaSouthern @CoachJeffMonken #FB
Typical Sal. There are plenty of coaches with Army and service academy ties, if that matters, ready to coach that are more qualified and experienced than Kowtica. I would have him on my list but he’ll be down the totem pole and would be a total crap shoot.
I’m thinking Mike Shanahan and son…
Mike do you think someone like Jim Grobe would take the Army job?
Not that I have any idea what makes Jim Grobe tick, but I seriously doubt it. I’m not sure it’s as good of a fit as people think it is, either. Maybe someone from his staff like Steed Lobotzke.
Army’s Supe is going to have a big say in this decision, as he is a former football player and captain. The big question is if Army goes away from the option what the heck offense do they think they can be competitive in? They have proven they can run and score – they just can’t close or play defenseenough to win.
I’m not someone who thinks you have to run a strict option offense to win at a service academy, and in modern college football the “option offense” label is a little ridiculous anyway. So many offenses incorporate various flavors of option football that singling out only one specific variety as the “real” option offense doesn’t make sense.
It does look as if RE made it beyond Broad and Pattison!