The University of Massachusetts fired football coach Charley Molnar on Thursday morning, the university announced in a news release.
Molnar, who coached UMass to a 2-22 record in its first two seasons as a Football Bowl Subdivision member, was dismissed with almost three years and roughly $836,000 in pay remaining on his current contract.
“We want to thank Charley Molnar for his service and the extraordinary time and energy he devoted to coaching the Minutemen as we entered competition in the Football Bowl Subdivision,” athletic director John McCutcheon said in the news release. “It has become clear, however, that we must improve our performance in several areas and move in a new direction to ensure success in the FBS.”
According to the release, the university will begin the search for a new coach immediately. The search will be aided by “an advisory committee with membership from the Board of Trustees, the UMass Amherst Foundation board, faculty, students, alumni and senior administration.” In addition, Carr Sports Consulting has been hired to assist in the search.
The decision to fire Molnar came late last week after a three-week long investigation after the season finale against Ohio, which included Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, on the state of the program, McCutcheon told Daniel Malone of MassLive.com, and the decision had nothing to do with his record over the last two seasons.
“It wasn’t something that was done lightly, obviously,” McCutcheon told MassLive.com. “After the conclusion of the season, both myself and the Chancellor reached out to a number of different constituencies, both internal and external, to get a clear understanding of what the perception of the program was and assess where we were moving forward and how we could do that most effectively.
“The bottom line was we didn’t think the perception of the program was where we wanted it to be,” McCutcheon added.
According to multiple reports, defensive coordinator Phil Elmassian and inside linebackers coach/special teams coordinator Ted Daisher were fired last Friday.
Stay with the Daily Collegian for continued updates on UMass football and its ongoing coaching search.
Mark Chiarelli can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli. Nick Canelas can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @NickCanelas.
