After 24 seasons, which included 214 wins and nine conference coach of the year honors, Dixie State football coach Greg Croshaw was fired.
"It blind-sided me," said Croshaw of the decision that came down Tuesday. "It devastated me. I didn't see it coming."
He will have no affiliation with Dixie State when his contract expires in June.
"Greg is a master on the field at the JC level — nobody can argue that," Dixie State athletic director Dexter Irvin said.
"Greg has taken our football program to national prominence and his overall record at Dixie is hall-of-fame material. His teams have regularly been ranked in the top 10 and have been in the hunt annually for the national championship."
Playing in their final year at the junior college level, the Rebels finished 9-3, won their 15th Rotary Bowl under Croshaw and ranked 11th in the nation.
Next year, the Rebels will compete at the NCAA Division II level and the academic standards are far more stringent. And that concern ultimately led to Croshaw's dismissal.
"Academics has been a struggle in football for a while," Irvin said.
Croshaw was known for his willingness to give players — many of whom were academic causalities at higher institutions — a second chance, but with the new academic requirements associated with the level move, the college decided to go in another direction with the coaching position.
"As we make the move to the NCAA and into a mode where academics are paramount, we want and need to put a premium on academic performance," Irvin said. "We want to recruit student-athletes who will be successful both in the classroom and on the field, and it's incumbent on us to provide an atmosphere where that can happen."
Academics has been a concern for the Dixie State administration for several years and safeguards were put in place to help athletes meet their academic requirements. According to the administration, several of those initiatives for improving academics were not followed and the GPA of scholarship players fell below the standard.
"In today's academic climate we think it's critical that all student-athletes be student-athletes," Irvin said. "We want that from all of our sports and we have that same expectation from football."
Irvin said a search for Croshaw's replacement could begin as early as next week.
In his 24 seasons, Croshaw, 57, compiled a record of 214-56-1, won 17 conference titles and was the national runner-up twice. He coached 36 NJCAA first-team all-Americans, had the nation's top running back nine times and coached four NJCAA players of the year.
He coached such players as Corey Dillon, Reno Mahe, Scott Brumfield (who Croshaw recently hired as an assistant coach) and Kelvin Minnefee.
"The biggest thing is I need to thank all the guys that played for me," Croshaw said.
Just last season, he had six former players on NFL rosters and over the years he has had close to 40 play professionally.
In his 24 years, he won 10 games or more 12 times and he had an 11-1 record five times. He never had a losing season. His worst season was in his first year in 1982, when the Rebels went 5-5.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com