Leadership Lessons on Letting Good People Go from Navy Football

If you’re not a Service Academy fan or a really die-hard NCAA Football fan, you might be missing a leadership debate about firing an employee that’s happening right now. For those not in the know, the 123rd Army-Navy game was played this Saturday to an exciting finish where Army won in the first overtime game in the series’ history. A great win for them and a devastating loss for the Navy team that had already had a lackluster season. Again, for the uninitiated, a win over your arch-rival in THIS game can change the nature of a season regardless of the win-loss record of the previous 11 games.

Navy’s head coach, Ken Niumatalolo, had been a breath of fresh air to the program when he took over from Paul Johnson over 15 years ago. The winningest coach in Navy football history, “Coach Niumat” took Navy to bowl games and a conference championship game in Navy’s first season in the American Athletic Conference. He had an unbeaten stretch against Army that was the longest ever in the series – 14 straight wins. On top of that, he had turned down lucrative offers to coach at other bigger NCAA Division I programs to stay at Navy where he felt he was able to engage with players on more than just football. He loved his players, and they loved him. Few coaches in Navy Football history have better understood the relationship of the program and the players to the school and to the militaries that they will eventually staff.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Navy team’s performance over the past few years has been – at best – mediocre. The offense, never considered exciting or innovative, became especially stale and unproductive. The triple option offense relies on an exceptional athlete and intelligence at the quarterback position. When you have players of the caliber of a Ricky Dobbs, Keenan Reynolds, or Malcolm Perry at the helm, you have a chance. When you don’t have that caliber of defense-reader on the field, you suffer. And Navy suffered.

What was once the most explosive running offense in the Nation became basically average. When you can’t (or won’t) throw the ball in the air, not being able to consistently run is trouble. Big trouble. Things came to a head last year with the sudden firing of offensive coordinator, Ivin Jasper, immediately after a poor showing against the Air Force Academy. He was re-hired early the following week as the quarterback’s coach, while Coach Niumat assumed the dual-role of head coach and offensive coordinator.

It was an embarrassing moment for the program. The seemingly rash and knee-jerk response by the athletic director occurred without even a brief consultation with his long-time friend and head coach. Some observers point out that from that moment it seemed the spark and energy left the offensive side of that football program. Others would say that it irreparably damaged the relationship between the AD and the head coach.

Which leads to this week’s leadership laboratory. Sometime Saturday evening, with the pain of the loss still fresh, Navy’s Athletic Director, Chet Gladchuk, walked into the locker room at Lincoln Financial Field and informed Coach Ken that Navy Football would be going in another direction in 2023. Coach Niumat would be let go immediately. Whether coach needed to go or not, the leadership lesson here is about the how and not about the why. At the leadership laboratories known as US Service Academies, one would hope that we teach all cadets and midshipmen lessons that transcend the sports field and the classroom. I think we failed here.

There are a lot of variables here. To go into all of them would make this even longer than it is – things like the differences between D1 sports at Navy compared to other NCAA schools, the inability of service academies to participate in lucrative “NIL” (Name-Image-Likeness) deals, and the challenge of finding a new coaching staff between now and Spring Football. To sum it up, it will be tough to find a new head coach and staff at a school where football isn’t their players’ full-time job and where high academic standards, a long military commitment, and VERY limited NFL opportunities impacts recruiting heavily.

All of that to say that once the decision was made, executing that decision quickly was likely necessary. I don’t know exactly what ‘quickly’ means, but I have a hard time believing that waiting 36 hours until Monday morning in the office would have cost the Naval Academy that perfect coach for the next 15 years. That is the argument many are making – that the decision HAD to be executed IMMEDIATELY, or Navy would be unable to find their next head coach. That argument seems implausible and rings hollow.

Based on the Ivin Jasper debacle, the Athletic Director is a proponent of the “ready, fire, aim” philosophy of leadership. He’s either a reactive hot head or he’s weak and easily embarrassed by alumni and donors who react emotionally to tough losses. Publicly, it’s a bad look. Internally, it has to be really tough for the midshipmen. Taught from year one that leaders making hard decisions need to be deliberate, thoughtful, and reasoned. They are taught to be ethical and moral in their decisions – the end doesn’t always justify the means. Especially when it comes to leading people, it also helps to have some sympathy and empathy.

Unfortunately, what the Athletic Director, and his boss, the Superintendent, are demonstrating to the mids is that making decisions when you’re pissed off and/or embarrassed is the thing to do. That rushing into a defeated team’s locker room to metaphorically execute their beloved leader is the way to lead in battle.

It’s not. We’re not ancient Sparta. Yes, you still have to make hard decisions, but do them in the right way. It’s not about the what, it’s about the how.

There’s other good articles about this firing. John Feinstein has a good piece in the Washington Post about it. I’ll just put the finishing touches on my thoughts. Coach Niumatalolo gave 15 great years to this institution. He grew the program, he grew attendance, and he grew young men into great leaders for our military. A leader would have taken this into consideration. The decision wouldn't have changed, but honoring the time, effort, and love put into this program by a good man warranted giving him 24-48 hours to grieve his loss with his men and then notify him Monday morning/afternoon. Navy could have given him the chance to retire/resign on his own terms – that would have shown respect for his service.

That didn’t happen, and it’s a shame. Some will practically deify Coach Ken and argue that he should never have been let go and only needed a new offensive coordinator. Some think Ken was always the problem and should have been let go years ago. For this piece, arguing the decision isn’t the leadership dilemma. The AD and the Superintendent have their goals and key performance metrics for Navy Football success. It’s their prerogative to hire and fire their people. How they did this is what sticks in my craw.

For my part, I’d like to hear Superintendent Buck’s comments. Not as a ‘gotcha moment’, but to hear his thoughts on the leadership demonstration that Chet Gladchuk gave on Saturday night. You know my thoughts. What are yours?