Today was the start of the ‘can the coach’ season, and three schools celebrated in style by either firing their head man (Nebraska, Ole Miss) or convincing him to pursue other opportunities (Texas A&M). It reminds the Modern Gal of all the bad decisions made in regards to head coaches in the past few seasons.

If you will, consider the following situations in which the athletic director involved is probably wishing he had a time machine:

1. Ole Miss fires David Cutcliffe, because he went 4-7 in 2004, one year after sharing the SEC Western Division championship. That doesn’t seem so bad after the now-departed Ed Orgeron went 10-25 in his three seasons and won only three SEC games. I mean for Pete’s sake, the O went for it on fourth-and-1 in his own territory when up two touchdowns against Mississippi State, a stupid idea which cost the Rebs the Egg Bowl win. Cutcliffe is laughing all the way to the SEC championship.

2. Notre Dame hires Charlie Weis, which is directly related to the Fighting Irish firing Ty Willingham after he went 21-15 in three seasons, including 6-5 in his last Irish season. Now that’s even stupider than firing Cutcliffe, especially considering the fat man has lead his team to an abysmal 3-9 this season.

Notre Lame indeed, but we all like it that way.

3. Alabama sends Gene Stallings into retirement, which in turn sends Alabama into an 11-year tailspin culminating with the signing a $4 million-per-year contract by Nick Saban. Call it the curse of Bear Bryant, but the end of Stallings’ career resulted in the hiring of a string of mediocre coaches, including Dennis Franchione, who kissed his own Texas A&M position goodbye today. The powers that be at Alabama decide to spend the big bucks on Saban, expecting immediate results and instead getting a 21-14 loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Catastrophic, indeed.