we didn’t do that, we held on to him and he eventually started piling up 10+ seasons, so I wasn't in "fire him" mode as long as the 10+ regular seasons were occurring because I was banking on the talent influx that always happens when ND Wins!
Having said that, I'm happy he's gone, but wasn't happy with the timing or him being afforded the opportunity to pull the plug.
But what I'm least happy about (and this isn't a knock on Freeman specifically, I do "like" him) is that we rode out the storm and suffered with that other guy for 12 years and it finally starts to pay off, the program is on an upward trajectory and he bolts (yeah that socks, but what do we do?) ..hire a HC with zero experience to replace him. smh.
When conversations used to be had about replacing him, I always said that if we just hired a quality experienced guy we would likely be OK, but if you told me in advance we were going to hire another guy with zero experience then I'd rather just keep the old guy because hiring no experience is almost every time, a total disaster.
I really, really hope Freeman is the exception, otherwise the past 12 years will end up being for nothing and we'll be right back in the Davie ty Weis loop.