Earlier this week, Christian Kiely '09 wrote an opinion piece in which he threw his support behind firing football head coach Buddy Teeevens '79.
After all, the Big Green achieved the pinnacle of inferiority by going 0-10 this past season, marking the program's first winless campaign since 1883 (when the team finished 0-1 after a 5-3 loss to Williams College). Since his first year at the helm in 2005, Teevens has overseen a team that has gone 7-33, with its best conference finish coming in 2007 with three Ivy League victories.
I do not, however, see eye-to-eye with the notion that Teevens should be shown the door -- nor with Knapp's proposal of moving Teevens to the position of athletic director.
Josie Harper, our current athletic director, has done a commendable job as the top athletics administrator at Dartmouth since she started in 2002. At least during my three-plus years as a student, I have witnessed stellar performances from alpine skiing (a national title in 2007), women's lacrosse (a national title game appearance in 2006) and men's soccer (Ivy champions in 2005 and 2008), to name just a few varsity sports that have flourished in that span.
Along with this has been the tremendous transformation of the athletic facilities on campus. Arguably every major venue for varsity sports has been improved in some way, with Red Rolfe Field as the latest project in the pipeline.
Not everything has been perfect under Harper. She did not win popular support for her letter to the community regarding the University of North Dakota's mascot in late 2006. Also, our "front-porch sports" -- football, men's basketball and baseball -- have been more than lackluster in this decade (although baseball has shown the most promise with a division title last season).
Even with all the success enjoyed by other Big Green programs, any athletic director at a major NCAA school will be judged largely by the success of this front-porch trio.
There are too many positives, however, going for Harper that one could justify simply replacing her with Teevens as athletic director. Why then, given all of the things going against him and Dartmouth football in the last four years, should the College keep Buddy Teevens as football coach?
First, it's the economy. We are experiencing some of the worst financial times in decades, and the College has made it clear that it will be cutting back drastically on funding for a number of programs after losing six percent of its endowment. Almost every facet of campus will be affected, from money available to academic programs to the salaries paid out to staff and support employees. In short, everyone will feel the pinch (at least Dartmouth didn't invest with Bernie Madoff).
There are only two ways to get rid of Teevens -- resignation or firing. It seems highly unlikely that Teevens will voluntarily leave his post, so the College at the moment is put in a position where it would have to buy out a portion of Teevens' contract. While the official terms of his deal have not been disclosed, one source with intimate knowledge of the football program told me that there is at least one year, but probably two years, left on the contract.
In sum, it would likely cost the College a significant amount to fire Teevens, and such a move during these times would seem hypocritical while other members of the Dartmouth community suffer from budget cuts. Dartmouth's money is better spent elsewhere (like keeping Food Court open late, in this writer's opinion).
Second, Teevens has a good deal of support from Dartmouth alumni. Obviously there is a contingent of alumni who would like to see Teevens leave. But there is also a significant cohort that thinks Teevens should be given more time to build the Big Green back up to the kind of dominant team we had in the mid-nineties. To my knowledge, there is no widespread call from alumni to depose Teevens; a crack poll taken during Homecoming this year by a reporter for this newspaper found few alumni that outright detested Teevens.
Being a former Big Green player himself gives Teevens a kind of connection with our alumni base that cannot be found by any outsider who would replace him as head coach. The football team needs all the support it can get right now, and Teevens provides the kind of relationship with former students that is critical to this support. Taking the proactive step to fire Teevens could damage alumni connections with the football team as whole.
To be clear, it pains me to leave Dartmouth with such horrid memories of our football team. I will always be behind the Big Green and wish for its continued success in years to come. But the solution right now does not rest with simply firing head coach Buddy Teevens. Perhaps down the road Dartmouth should seek out a new skipper on the gridiron, but for now, we should stick with Teevens.
