After 11 straight losses, Athletics Director Wood Selig backed his head coach. At 17, the mood changed.
Head Coach David Elson was told Sunday night by Selig and President Gary Ransdell that he will not be retained after the end of the 2009 season.
Selig expressed his support for Elson to the Herald in September, saying “you just can’t microwave” the process of building a Football Bowl Subdivision program.
Those comments followed the Toppers’ 28-7 home loss to Football Championship Series opponent Central Arkansas.
On Monday, Selig cited a dramatic decline in ticket sales over the past two seasons and general discontent from fans as the leading factors for Elson’s dismissal.
“We are counting on revenues for the future growth of our entire program, not just football,” Selig said. “When our program should be white-hot right now at the beginning of our transition, that’s when you expect to see season tickets skyrocket.
“When that’s not happening, you have to sit back and really ask yourself, ‘Why?’ and, ‘Have we lost the confidence in our community and in our program in the transition?’”
Season ticket sales are down 17 percent since the transition began in 2007, and walk-up ticket sales have dropped almost 50 percent this season, Selig said.
Elson was hired as head coach in 2003 after five years as an assistant coach and two as the Toppers’ defensive coordinator. Though Western won nine games in both of his first two seasons, the number of victories has steadily decreased since then.
The Toppers (0-9, 0-5 Sun Belt Conference) went 9-15 during a two-year transition into the FBS and haven’t won a game in their past 17 attempts, the longest losing streak in the FBS.
Ransdell said he didn’t see the trend changing in the future.
“The reality is, if we had confidence that this turnaround could occur and this ship could be righted and that we could be successful, then we wouldn’t be here today,” Ransdell said.
Elson has been adamant about taking full responsibility for Western’s mounting losing streak.
“You can put every ounce on me, and I can take it,” Elson said in September. “Trust me — I can handle it. It’s part of life. It’s part of college football and being in a competitive arena.”
Selig said there were no extended talks about the situation before Elson’s firing, which comes with three games left in the 2009 season.
He and Ransdell met about the state of the program on Sunday and spoke to Elson at Ransdell’s house that night, Selig said.
Selig previously told the Herald that he and Ransdell wouldn’t expect significant results within the program until 2012 but said on Monday that they felt a serious change needed to be made for the Toppers to be successful in the future.
“You look at where we are this year compared to last year, even the year before, and there’s just a general sense or a general feeling that the program is not headed in the direction that we need to be headed,” Selig said. “It’s not a how many wins or losses does it take or would it have taken … it was just a lack of confidence that we were on the right path.”
The Board of Regents approved a four-year contract extension for Elson in January, promising him a $500,000 buyout if he was fired before 2016.
The buyout will be paid from money Western received from playing “guarantee games,” Selig said.
Selig said the timing of Elson’s firing leaves the administration ample time to find a replacement before National Signing Day in February. Prior to his dismissal, Elson had acquired three verbal commitments for next season’s class.
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