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Morris Brown coaches out in cash crunch
By EARNEST REESE
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Financially strapped Morris Brown has fired head football coach Sol Brannan, two of his @$$istants and three other athletics department employees in an effort to save money, the school's athletics director said.
"It was a mandate by the school to cut staff across the campus," Russell Ellington said. "The decision to cut the head coach was made by the president [Charles Taylor] and athletics director. The other . . . cuts were my decision."
Fired with Brannan were offensive coordinator Greg Thompson, a former Morris Brown head coach and athletics director; offensive line coach Mike Wallace; equipment manager and adminstrative @$$istant Cecil Fred; trainer Nicole Pinnock and @$$istant women's basketball coach Jerome Rowland.
The combined annual salary of those released was $236,500.
Morris Brown is $27 million in debt and is appealing the loss of its accreditation. A decision on whether to replace the fired employees won't come until March, after the school learns the result of its appeal, Ellington said.
Ellington: "I hate to keep going back to that, but everything is contingent on regaining accreditation."
Without accreditation, the school can't compete as an NCAA member and might not be able to afford to field teams, if it can stay open at all.
@$$istant coach Mike Pitts will lead the program on an interim basis. Four @$$istant football coaches remain, including defensive backs coach Rashid Lemoine, Ellington's grandson. There will be an early spring practice, with an estimated 63 players participating in the 15 days of workouts, Pitts said.
"Spring practice won't be a waste of time, because it'll help us get better," redshirt freshman tight end Jackie Wright said. "Transferring is in the back of everybody's mind if we don't get our accreditation back."
Brannan, a longtime Wolverines @$$istant and Morris Brown alumnus, was 5-6 and 1-11 in his two seasons as head coach.
"I think my release was personal," said Brannan, whose annual salary was about $62,000 but who is still a part of a family sporting goods business. "Winning wasn't the thing, because they didn't give me anything to win with. In my two years as head coach, I was never given any recruiting money. I must've spent close to $40,000 of my own personal money."
Brannan said that he was as much perturbed by the way he was dismissed as by the dismissal itself.
"The athletics director called a meeting of the [football] staff and told me, Greg and Mike that we were being dismissed. He told us to go to the office of human resources," Brannan said. "That was so unprofessional."
"I was shocked by all of this, but I look forward to the opportunity," said Pitts, who played four seasons for the Falcons in the mid-1980s and now gets to run the team after spending the past two seasons as an @$$istant at Morris Brown.
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By EARNEST REESE
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Financially strapped Morris Brown has fired head football coach Sol Brannan, two of his @$$istants and three other athletics department employees in an effort to save money, the school's athletics director said.
"It was a mandate by the school to cut staff across the campus," Russell Ellington said. "The decision to cut the head coach was made by the president [Charles Taylor] and athletics director. The other . . . cuts were my decision."
Fired with Brannan were offensive coordinator Greg Thompson, a former Morris Brown head coach and athletics director; offensive line coach Mike Wallace; equipment manager and adminstrative @$$istant Cecil Fred; trainer Nicole Pinnock and @$$istant women's basketball coach Jerome Rowland.
The combined annual salary of those released was $236,500.
Morris Brown is $27 million in debt and is appealing the loss of its accreditation. A decision on whether to replace the fired employees won't come until March, after the school learns the result of its appeal, Ellington said.
Ellington: "I hate to keep going back to that, but everything is contingent on regaining accreditation."
Without accreditation, the school can't compete as an NCAA member and might not be able to afford to field teams, if it can stay open at all.
@$$istant coach Mike Pitts will lead the program on an interim basis. Four @$$istant football coaches remain, including defensive backs coach Rashid Lemoine, Ellington's grandson. There will be an early spring practice, with an estimated 63 players participating in the 15 days of workouts, Pitts said.
"Spring practice won't be a waste of time, because it'll help us get better," redshirt freshman tight end Jackie Wright said. "Transferring is in the back of everybody's mind if we don't get our accreditation back."
Brannan, a longtime Wolverines @$$istant and Morris Brown alumnus, was 5-6 and 1-11 in his two seasons as head coach.
"I think my release was personal," said Brannan, whose annual salary was about $62,000 but who is still a part of a family sporting goods business. "Winning wasn't the thing, because they didn't give me anything to win with. In my two years as head coach, I was never given any recruiting money. I must've spent close to $40,000 of my own personal money."
Brannan said that he was as much perturbed by the way he was dismissed as by the dismissal itself.
"The athletics director called a meeting of the [football] staff and told me, Greg and Mike that we were being dismissed. He told us to go to the office of human resources," Brannan said. "That was so unprofessional."
"I was shocked by all of this, but I look forward to the opportunity," said Pitts, who played four seasons for the Falcons in the mid-1980s and now gets to run the team after spending the past two seasons as an @$$istant at Morris Brown.
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