Pac-12 coaching landscape has earthquake

Big Gulps, huh? Welp, see you later!

That’s basically how three of the Pac-12 teams treated their coaches this past week. Washington State, UCLA and Arizona State all fired their coaches. Quickly.

Rick Neuheisel is out at UCLA after a 50-0 thumping at the hands of USC. Dennis Erickson was fired from his position at Arizona State despite winning two-of-three games against Top 25 opponents this season. Patrick Wulff after only tallying six wins the past two seasons.

To me, they all make sense.

Neuheisel wasn’t making the progress he set out to accomplish. Nor was he getting – even remotely – close to it. EVen though the Bruins are in the Pac-12 Championship game, they are not contenders.

Erickson just flat out failed. The Sun Devils started this season 6-2 and were sitting in the prime position to win the Pac-12 South at the start of November. Then they crumbled like week old cookies down the stretch. That and Erickson only won 16 games the past three seasons.

Wulff, well, might make the most sense, even if it isn’t his fault. WSU has been a perennial failure in the Pac-12 dating back to right after Ryan Leaf left. Wulff only won nine games in four years.

Nine.

Washington State, ready to move in a new direction hired former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. The other two schools are still searching for their replacements.