Why drugs are bad . . . for your coach

I'm not gloating, I swear, but this guy should have fired after his assistant was busted dealing meth.

Montana State fires Kramer as football coach

By SARAH COOKE<P>
The Associated Press
BOZEMAN, Mont. — Montana State football coach Mike Kramer was fired Friday, several days after another former Bobcats athlete was arrested on drug charges.
Kramer was 40-43 in seven seasons, including an 8-5 mark last season. He led the Bobcats to three Big Sky Conference titles and three NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances and became their 30th head football coach in 1999.
Athletic Director Peter Fields said the football program’s legal troubles, which date back to 2003, point to a “crisis in leadership.”
“It starts with leadership,” Fields said. “When you look at our football program’s recent history, it is apparent that its direction does not fit with what this university is all about.”
He said he made the decision Friday.
Kramer was not in his office late Friday and did not return a call to his cell phone seeking comment.
Former MSU wide receiver Rick Gatewood was arrested this week on drug charges and is accused of using his athletic scholarship money to traffic cocaine from California in the Bozeman area. His brother also faces drug charges.
Gatewood is the sixth former MSU athlete arrested or charged with crimes involving drugs or murder in the past year.
Gatewood, a Richmond, Calif., native, was an all-Big Sky Conference wide receiver in 2004 and 2005. He signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent last summer, but didn’t make the team, and was expected to try out with Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies this month.
Montana State cornerback Andre Fuller pleaded not guilty in March to charges he sold cocaine to a confidential informant last June. He was suspended from the football team while the case is investigated.
Former wide receiver Edward Sullivan, 23, of Carlsbad, Calif., and Derrick Davis Jr., 21, a former cornerback from Santa Monica, Calif., have also been charged with selling drugs.
And last June, former redshirt football player John Lebrum and former Bobcat basketball player Branden Miller were charged with murder and kidnapping in the shooting death of suspected drug dealer Jason Wright. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial in the coming months.
In October 2004, former assistant head football coach Joe O’Brien was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy.
A nationwide search for Kramer’s replacement will begin immediately, sports information director Bill Lamberty said.
Montana State opens its 2007 regular season Sept. 1 at Texas A&M.
The Bobcats posted their first postseason win in 22 years when it beat Furman 31-13 in the Division I-AA championships last fall, and finished the season ranked 10th in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. Montana State was beaten 38-17 by Appalachian State in the I-AA quarterfinals.

 

If you're from the area you had to know this was coming....
Yet, Kramer said he didn't know why they fired him.
Now that's pretty thick headed!

 

I still think the drug issue is why Idaho didn't hire him when Erickson left, but yea, everybody knew he was on a short leash as far as the drug issue went. Everybody except for him. Montana State is just Thug U, at the I-AA level.

 

M-kay

 

Of course!
They're gonna have a tough time finding a replacement.
I'll put money on them calling Van Deist at Carroll, and him turning it down.
I bet ya.

 

Only way Van Diest leaves Carroll for an in-state school is if Hauck leaves Montana for I-A.

 

I was really hoping no one posted this yet. I guess that was kinda like hoping the sun won't rise.

 

I don't think he leaves even then. But it's more likely than Bozeman.
He seems pretty content at Carroll.
UM would have to throw a lot of money his way, and I dunno if they're willing to do that for any coach.
They couldn't get Hauck to sign a multi-year deal cause they didn't want to pay him.
Hauck isn't a GREAT coach but still, he's done well enough to get a bump and every off-season he seems to at least get interviewed for a D-I gig.

 

Hauck's a pretty good coach, just not the best recruiter. He's too dependent on I-A castoffs, and most of them leave big schools for a reason.

Hauck wants to leave. He's had his kids and his wife threatened by the idiot Griz fans. I think he'd like to wind up at WAC school or someplace where his team isn't the biggest thing in the state.

 

No way he goes to the Vandals, Alt has been at Nevada forever so it's only a matter of time before he steps down. He's the AD too I think. So that could be a possibility, and lets see...Boise State isn't going to get rid of Petersen any time soon.
Those are the only WAC schools I know anything about.
After Stanford passed on him Hauck said he doesn't want to leave, in public at least. I'd leave just to get away from Guffey.
God I hate that guy!

 

I think Pat Hill's out at Fresno this season if they have another season like last year. It's possible that Petersen will leave for a Pac-10 school at any time.

What'd Guffey do to you?