Brandon Fired at Bowling Green Despite Success

Gregg Brandon became head football coach at Bowling Green at the start of the 2003 season. The Falcons are 44-30 since, including 31-17 in Mid-American Conference play, and none of the league’s other 12 teams has matched or bettered those numbers over that time frame. BG also is the only MAC team since ‘03 to have a winning record in non-league play. Those are the little snippets you find in a school’s weekly game notes prepared for the media. In fact, it was all right there in the BG notes on Friday, although we’ve taken the liberty of updating the records in light of the Falcons’ subsequent 38-10 romp past archrival Toledo. Not such a big deal was made of all that yesterday in a midafternoon press release sent by BG officials to announce Brandon had been fired.

Very interesting. V-e-r-y interesting. Although the 2008 season, which ended 6-6, was definitely frustrating and disappointing for a team expected to win a MAC divisional title, BG could not very well fire Brandon for losing. Could it? Not with his aforementioned record. Not a year after he led the Falcons to a bowl game. Not some 10 months after giving him a contract extension through the 2011 season. Contracts, of course, are disposable. Might as well be written on toilet paper. If somebody wants to get you, they’ll get you. Athletic director Greg Christopher is the “somebody” in this case. He giveth the extension and he taketh it away. It will cost $250,000 to separate Brandon from his contract. Christopher made it clear at a press conference last night that the money will come not from student fees but from athletic department fund-raising and marketing revenues. Translation: Someone whose wardrobe features orange and prefers his tailgate fare served on fine china will write a check. – Toldeo Blade

Gregg Brandon was fired as football coach of Bowling Green State University Saturday morning, just hours after the Falcons defeated rival Toledo 38-10 to end their year with a disappointing 6-6 record. BGSU athletic director Greg Christopher said ‘an accumulation of things’ both on and off the field went into his decision to fire Brandon, who accepted a three-year contract extension in February. “There have been some off-the-field things that I think ultimately have impacted what’s happened on the field,” Christopher said at a news conference Saturday night at Anderson Arena. In six seasons as head coach of the Falcons, Brandon went 44-30 overall and 31-17 in the Mid-American Conference. His winning percentage (64.6) in the MAC is the best of any league coach since 2003. – Toldeo Blade