Wrong fire, wrong time

When IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan was introduced in September, he received a positive endorsement from this editorial board. But after Tuesday's decision to fire IU football coach Gerry DiNardo, Greenspan's once rosy review is now tarnished by a hasty, rash decision.\nWhen a program suffers, many times the coach is the first to be blamed -- and blaming DiNardo for the IU football troubles is exactly what Greenspan and the athletics program have done. The reality is that this program has been in shambles since the late 1990s. It's not as if Cam Cameron's teams had that much more talent than DiNardo's teams did. They simply had one exceptional player, Antwaan Randle El, and he was good enough to solve a lot of problems. Cameron never had a winning season at IU, and he was given five years to prove himself. DiNardo had one year with a full complement of 85 scholarship players, and since the season didn't work out as well as IU wanted, he's been fired.\nThat's simply not fair.\nGreenspan said Wednesday that DiNardo wasn't achieving the results to stay on as coach. While a 3-8 season isn't something of which to be proud, when evaluating the current state of IU football, realistic results are what should be evaluated. Those realistic results are an increasingly competitive squad, and DiNardo came within a few breaks of winning some quality games this fall. Realistic results are measuring increased recruiting success, and DiNardo was said to have his top recruiting class coming in February. \nAdding to the mystery of the situation is the IU Athletics Department's financial situation. With the department in the red, IU must now buy out the two years remaining on DiNardo's contract while at the same time having to spend big bucks to bring in a new coach.\nThe situation simply doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense on the field or in the bank accounts. \nA current trend has re-occurred. The IU football program must start over ... again.