By Jordan Long
The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) fired Head Coach Ed McCaffrey. This was his second full season as Head Coach. It was time to move on from him.
McCaffrey was hired on December 12, 2019. McCaffrey didn’t have Head Coaching experience in the college game. The only knowledge he had of the game was as a high school coach for Valor Christian High School located in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. There his team went 24-2. Other than that, McCaffrey played NFL football from 1991 to 2003. His stops included New York, San Francisco, and Denver. McCaffrey won 3 Super Bowls.
UNC didn’t play a game in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Their conference, the Big Sky, decided to play in the spring of 2021, but UNC chose it was best for the health and safety of the athletes to not play.
In his first full season of coaching, the fall of 2021, UNC finished with a 3-8 record. This year UNC expected to be a more improved team. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. UNC ended with a 3-8 record.
UNC decided it was best to move on from McCaffrey. According to CBSsports.com, Northern Colorado Athletic Director Darren Dunn said, “This is never an easy decision. We appreciate all the work, time and energy Coach McCaffrey has put into the program and we wish him the best in the future.”
McCaffrey leaves the school with a 6-16 record. It wasn’t only the poor play that cost him his job. McCaffrey supposedly altered scholarships to show bias towards transfers. His staff didn’t receive scouting reports on the opponents. Game plans with plays they wanted to run were allegedly installed one or two days before game day. It makes a person wonder how invested McCaffrey was in coaching or what they did in practice.
The worst incident with McCaffrey came last year. His son, Max McCaffrey was the offensive coordinator in 2021. When UNC lost to Montana State that year by the final score of 40-7, Max McCaffrey was upset and threw a clipboard into the stands. He claims fans were heckling him during the game. Max McCaffrey needed to not let his emotions get the best of him.
UNC made the right decision by firing Ed McCaffrey. The program wasn’t improving. UNC will start a coaching search. Hopefully, the next one has coaching experience at the college level even if it is as a coordinator.
For Ed McCaffrey, he may not have a second chance to be a college Head Coach again. He showed he wasn’t ready. Maybe, it is better for him to learn to coach at the high school level once again to figure out what he did wrong.
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