2008 Woodie Awards
Stowers fired after disappointing football season
Matt Pavao
Issue date: 11/20/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
11/20/07 - Tim Stowers, the University of Rhode Island football team's head coach, was fired yesterday after spending eight years in the position.
Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn met with Stowers Monday morning to let him know the university's decision.
"Coach Stowers is a class act," Bjorn said. "In coach Stowers case, he did a lot of things really well. He was able to really rally a booster group around his program, he was able to bring in good kids and if there was ever a problem he dealt with it right away. In this case we just couldn't get over the hump to make ourselves into a winning program."
The Rams went 3-8 this season. The team just finished its sixth straight losing season and seventh in the past eight years.
Stowers was hired before the 2000 season and won the Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year in 2001 when the team went 8-3, which was Rhode Island's only winning season with him as head coach. Stowers compiled a 33-57 record with the Rams.
The evaluation of the football program was a yearlong job for Bjorn.
"It wasn't a matter of saying in the last week that I made my choice," Bjorn said. "You sit down in the last week of the season and evaluate where you are and if you're going in the right direction and to do that effectively you have to do that all season long."
A search committee headed by Bjorn will be named within the next week.
"It's really going to be a search rather than sitting back and waiting for candidates to come along," Bjorn said. "I think when you hire a coach of this type of high-profile coaching position, you have to actively go out and look for people who are interested ... As you sit back and look at coaches, you want a coach that comes from a winning program, has an understanding of our recruiting areas, has a history of graduating the student athletes and has a history of bringing good players into the program. I think we need to find someone who does all of those things and also try and get us over that hump with winning seasons."
Stowers still has one year left on the contract extension that he signed in 2005. He earned $196,027 in 2006. Bjorn acknowledged that the Athletics Department would be responsible for paying the final year.
"We are going to pay through non-state funds," Bjorn said. "These are funds that we receive for things like when we go out and sell space for advertising and sponsorship. Those dollars then get budgeted in a way where we sit back and say this way is the best way for us to spend this in a way to enhance our program. I made the decision to use those dollars in this way."
Stowers was unavailable for comment as of press time.
Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn met with Stowers Monday morning to let him know the university's decision.
"Coach Stowers is a class act," Bjorn said. "In coach Stowers case, he did a lot of things really well. He was able to really rally a booster group around his program, he was able to bring in good kids and if there was ever a problem he dealt with it right away. In this case we just couldn't get over the hump to make ourselves into a winning program."
The Rams went 3-8 this season. The team just finished its sixth straight losing season and seventh in the past eight years.
Stowers was hired before the 2000 season and won the Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year in 2001 when the team went 8-3, which was Rhode Island's only winning season with him as head coach. Stowers compiled a 33-57 record with the Rams.
The evaluation of the football program was a yearlong job for Bjorn.
"It wasn't a matter of saying in the last week that I made my choice," Bjorn said. "You sit down in the last week of the season and evaluate where you are and if you're going in the right direction and to do that effectively you have to do that all season long."
A search committee headed by Bjorn will be named within the next week.
"It's really going to be a search rather than sitting back and waiting for candidates to come along," Bjorn said. "I think when you hire a coach of this type of high-profile coaching position, you have to actively go out and look for people who are interested ... As you sit back and look at coaches, you want a coach that comes from a winning program, has an understanding of our recruiting areas, has a history of graduating the student athletes and has a history of bringing good players into the program. I think we need to find someone who does all of those things and also try and get us over that hump with winning seasons."
Stowers still has one year left on the contract extension that he signed in 2005. He earned $196,027 in 2006. Bjorn acknowledged that the Athletics Department would be responsible for paying the final year.
"We are going to pay through non-state funds," Bjorn said. "These are funds that we receive for things like when we go out and sell space for advertising and sponsorship. Those dollars then get budgeted in a way where we sit back and say this way is the best way for us to spend this in a way to enhance our program. I made the decision to use those dollars in this way."
Stowers was unavailable for comment as of press time.