Officially, Dave Arslanian was removed from his position as head football coach at Utah State Thursday night.
Unofficially, he never really had got there.Arlsanian had all the official parts of the job. He had the office, the nifty Aggie Blue hats, jackets and paycheck. But what he lacked was support from a variety of sources.
While some fans warmed to Arslanian and hoped for the best, a vast majority wondered how he ever got the job after compiling a 53-47 record at Weber State over nine years. A span in which the Wildcats went just 31-36 in conference games.
There was a running joke that Arslanian was former Athletic Director Chuck Bell's parting gift to a community and university that had run him out of town after repeated scandals and bad publicity.
On thing was certain, Utah State President George Emert never embraced the idea of having Arslanian patrolling the Romney Stadium sidelines. In fact, Emert went so far as to publicly voice his lack of confidence in the Arslanian-led Aggies when he picked Idaho to beat the Aggies in a newspaper pick-the-winner contest and defended his action by stating he didn't think Utah State had a good football team.
At the time, USU had a 1-0 Big West record.
Still, the timing of the whole thing is sure to be debated for quite a while.
If Dave Arslanian was not the coach Emert and company wanted running the football team, why did Emert approve his hiring in the first place? If Arslanian was given a 4-year contract, why was he given only two years to accomplish anything?
Arslanian was given that 4-year contract when he was hired. Accordingly, the former Weber State coach has recruited and built his program thinking he would have four years to prove he deserved to be coaching at the Division I level. With freshman-based recruiting classes, Arslanian was building his team for the long haul. While previous Aggie coaches like Charlie Weatherbie and John L. Smith were bringing in a parade of junior college transfers and getting a quick fix, Arslanian took the job hoping to stick around longer than it took for his name to crop up in the rumor mill for coaching positions around the country.
But the fact remains; Arslanian won only five games at Utah State that were against Division I opponents, none of which came outside the woefull Big West Conference. His overall record of 7-15 will go down as yet another embarrassing blip on USU's history.
At the same time, one has to wonder about the administration in Logan. Rance Pugmire, USU's third AD in as many years, was recently quoted as saying removing Arslanian after just two seasons might not be the best move.
"You cannot make a change just to make a change. You have to have a plan in place and move quickly," Pugmire said when asked about the internet rumors that Arslanian