If recent history is any indication, Kansas won’t be the only school to fire its football coach before the end of the regular season.Kansas made the season’s first coaching change Sunday when it dumped Charlie Weis. Last year, Southern California fired Lane Kiffin, Connecticut removed Paul Pasqualoni and Miami (Ohio) ousted Don Treadwell by mid-October.For athletic directors making the call, it usually comes with a great deal of hand-wringing as they decide if an immediate change will help the program or if they’re better off waiting to see how the rest of the season goes.”It’s not an easy process,” said Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne, who fired Mike Stoops after the Wildcats lost five of their first six games in 2011. ”There are so many moving parts to decide what the right thing is to do.”With more midseason firings potentially on the horizon, here are a few things athletic directors take into account when making a coaching change:KNOWING THE RIGHT TIME: The dilemma in firing a coach before the season’s end is deciding whether to make a change right away or see if the coach can do something to save his job by the end of the season. When Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Sayler fired Treadwell last season, the RedHawks were 0-5 and Sayler sensed a turnaround wasn’t in store that season. He believed ”the whole program was in a malaise of hopelessness” and it needed to be addressed immediately. ”If you really feel the decision is that you’re going to make a change at the end of the year, I’d absolutely go ahead and do it again during the year,” he said. ”It reaches a tipping point where you just know it’s the right decision. I think when you reach that point, you have to make the change.”SAVING THE SEASON: Once an athletic director has given up on a coach, how do the players avoid giving up on the season? Southern California showed last year that a coaching change doesn’t have to result in a lost season. USC was 3-2 when Lane Kiffin was fired and went 7-2 the rest of the way. …
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