The White moves

With the firing of football head coach Jeff Quinn Monday, Athletic Director Danny White has changed eight coaches since arriving in Buffalo in May 2012.

White has acted swiftly with coaching changes, regardless of a coach’s tenure or contract situation, when a program didn’t perform up the standards of his movement to make Buffalo “America’s next big-time athletic brand.”

White’s hires have been a combination of young coaches who were some of the most elite athletes as players and experienced head coaches who had success at other universities.

June 2013

Women’s basketball

Predecessor: Linda Hill-MacDonald (75-137, 35-77 MAC)

White’s hire: Felisha Legette-Jack (29-33, 18-16 MAC)

White’s first head-coaching hire was Felisha Legette-Jack after UB Athletics announced they would not renew the contract of seven-year head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald May 30, 2012 – three days before White took office as Buffalo’s A.D.

Legette-Jack starred Syracuse women’s basketball team before coaching Hofstra and Indiana to four combined WNIT appearances. Indiana fired Legette-Jack in March 2013 after she won a combined 29 games in her final three seasons as head coach of the Hoosiers.

White hired Legette-Jack three months later, and the head coach has the most MAC wins in a two-year stretch in program history. Buffalo has advanced to the MAC Tournament in both of Legette-Jack’s first two seasons and were the No. 4 seed in the tournament last season – the program’s highest seeding ever.

January 2013

Men’s soccer

Predecessor: David Hesch (13-19-3, 6-6-1 MAC)

White’s hire: Stu Riddle (6-19-5, 1-4-2 MAC)

White hired Riddle in January 2013 to replace two-year interim head coach David Hesch. Riddle had an extensive playing career all over the world, including Australia, England and the United States and was the youngest player on New Zealand’s 1996 Olympic qualifying team.

Riddle led MAC team Western Michigan to back-to-back MAC Championship game appearances during his four-year run with the team. White convinced Riddle to come to Buffalo in the hopes Riddle could make a similar turnaround with the Bulls.

The team has not had much success under Riddle through a season and a half, winning just six games. But Riddle has brought in several young promising players who may bode well for the future of the team, including 2013 MAC Freshmen of the Year Russell Cicerone, who Riddle originally recruited to Western Michigan.

March 2013

Men’s basketball

Predecessor: Reggie Witherspoon (198-228, 98-140 MAC)

White’s hire: Bobby Hurley (19-10, 13-5 MAC)

In perhaps White’s most controversial firing, the athletic director fired 14-year head coach Witherspoon a day after the team fell in the 2013 MAC Tournament quarterfinals.

Witherspoon told The Buffalo News that White told him he decided to fire Witherspoon in December 2012. The Bulls went just 14-20 in 2012-13, but had several injuries to key players and were coming off five-straight winning seasons.

White hired Hurley less than two weeks later. Hurley served as an assistant coach for three seasons at Wagner and Rhode Island, but brought instant name recognition as he won two national championships at Duke as a player and is the NCAA’s all-time assist leader. White’s father is the Athletic Director at Duke.

Hurley led the Bulls to their first-ever MAC East title in his first season as head coach, but will be without UB all-time leading scorer Javon McCrea, as well as Jarod Oldham and Josh Freelove – all of whom graduated.

May 2013

Wrestling

Predecessor: Jim Beichner (151-120-4, 23-51 MAC)

White’s hire: John Stutzman (3-17, 0-8 MAC)

White fired another longtime coach less than than a week after terminating Witherspoon’s contract.

Beichner’s 17-year run as head coach of the Bulls ended after Buffalo won just one dual meet in the 2012-13 season and finished sixth in the 2013 MAC Tournament. Beichner was notified he would not be returning after the conference tournament but before the NCCA Championships, in which Buffalo had four wrestlers competing.

White hired Stutzman, a former UB wrestler who graduated as the program’s all-time wins leader, almost two months later. Stutzman went 97-56-1 in eight seasons as Bloomsburg’s head coach.

Stutzman failed to win a MAC dual meet in his first season last year, and this year’s team has been banned from both the MAC and NCAA tournament this season due to a low Academic Progress Rate scores calculated from Beichner’s last four seasons as head coach.

July 2013

Softball

Predecessor: Jennifer Teague (88-159, 33-73 MAC)

White’s hire: Trena Peel (30-22, 11-5 MAC)

White fired Teague after she failed to produce a winning season in five years as the Bulls’ head coach.

Peel, who was coming off a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title at Hampton, was hired by White two months later. Peel instantly brought a new mentality of “swagger” to the program, instilling confidence in a program that had previously had only one winning record since joining Division I.

Peel led Buffalo to it’s first ever MAC East title in her first season, as well as the program’s first ever MAC Championship game appearance – in which it lost 4-0 to Ohio.

Like many of White’s hires, Peel is a young coach who had a decorated career as a player. Peel won SEC Player of the Year in 2002 and ranks in the top-six in career runs scored, triples, runs batted in and stolen bases in LSU program history.

January 2014

Volleyball

Predecessor: Todd Kress (73-81, 24-56 MAC)

White’s hire: Reed Sunahara (13-7, 3-3 MAC)

Kress was fired days after Buffalo concluded a season with which it won the most games and most MAC games since joining the MAC in 1999. Buffalo’s best MAC finish in program history was just 6-10, however, and the team failed to make the tournament with a talented senior class and 12-0 start.

Sunahara was hired two months later, after the coach had spent the previous year coaching USA Volleyball. Unlike most of White’s other hires, Sunahara is well-established, veteran coach, having led Cincinnati for 12 seasons before resigning in 2013.

But as with all of White’s hires, Sunahara is a former successful player. He helped lead UCLA to three national championships from 1982-84 and was regarded as one of the best players in the country before a motorcycle injury before his senior season.

Sunahara won 12 of his first 16 matches as head coach of the Bulls, and currently has the team at 3-3 in MAC games this season.

January 2013

Women’s soccer

Predecessor: Michael Thomas (31-67-16, 12-43-11 MAC)

White’s hire: Shawn Burke (8-2-3, 4-0-2 MAC)

This is White’s only hire from the team’s previous coaching staff. White promoted Burke to head coach after Burke had served as an assistant coach under previous head coach Michael Thomas for five seasons.

Burke fits White’s mold for head coaches in other ways, however, as he won Great Lakes Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2002 while playing for Mercyhurst College. Burke had no previous head coaching experience.

Burke told White in his interview that he felt Buffalo could contend in 2014, and with Burke’s familiarity players, White may have felt Burke gave the Bulls the best opportunity to win immediately.

The decision to hire Burke has looked like the right choice thus far, as Burke has led the Bulls to a national ranking, No. 65, in his first season. The Bulls are also undefeated in MAC play (4-0-2).

Football

Predecessor: Jeff Quinn (20-36, 13-22 MAC)

White’s hire: ?

White informed Quinn Monday that Buffalo had terminated his contract, less than two years after extending it to the 2017 season. The decision came less than 48 hours after Buffalo’s 37-27 loss at Eastern Michigan, and was the first-time White removed a coach in the middle of the season.

Offensive coordinator Alex Wood will serve as the team’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season. White said a national search would be done for Quinn’s replacement.

If the hire is anything like his previous seven, it will likely be a former football player and a name football fans are familiar with.

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