College football notes

— SOUTHERN MISS Johnson fired

Southern Mississippi has fired Coach Ellis Johnson after one disastrous season that saw the program plummet from Conference USA champion to the worst record in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Athletic Director Jeff Hammond announced the decision Tuesday morning, three days after the 0-12 season ended with a loss to Memphis on Saturday.

“At Southern Miss we expect to compete hard and succeed both in the classroom and on the field,” Hammond said in a statement. “This is not the exception. This is in fact the standard, the norm, our identity and who we are.”

The decision wasn’t unexpected, though it will cost the Golden Eagles. The 60-year-old Johnson is due a $2.1 million buyout over the next three seasons.

The veteran coach had been a successful defensive coordinator at several schools, including South Carolina, Mississippi State, Alabama and Clemson before his arrival in Hattiesburg, Miss.

He was also the defensive coordinator at Southern Miss in the late 1980s and was hailed as an experienced coach who had goodties to recruiting in the deep South when he was hired.

His experience didn’t translate into head coaching success with the Golden Eagles - and the program suffered a stunning fall under his leadership.

Hammond said the search for Johnson’s replacement has already started.

“Today marks a new beginning, a new season and a new start,” Hammond said.

OLE MISS

Rebels fined for fans

OXFORD, Miss. - Mississippi has been fined $5,000 by the SEC after fans rushed the field following the football team’s 41-24 victory over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl on Saturday.

The victory snapped the school’s three-game losing streak in the Egg Bowl and also made the Rebels bowl eligible for the first time since 2009.

The conference said in a statement Tuesday that this was the university’s first violation of the policy that bans fans from entering the competition area since it went into effect in 2004. The policy covers football, men’s and women’s basketball.

A second violation would costthe school $25,000 while a third and any subsequent violations would be a $50,000 penalty.

VANDERBILT

AD: No steppingstone

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Pick any school with a coaching vacancy, and James Franklin’s name has probably been mentioned as a possible candidate by someone.

That happens when you win at Vanderbilt, the smallest school in the SEC and the league’s only private institution.

Franklin led the Commodores to an 8-4 record this year and in the process has seen his stock skyrocket.

Vanderbilt Athletic Director David Williams is monitoring reports about the coach he hired nearly two years ago. Williams said Tuesday he brought in Franklin with the idea of turning Vanderbilt into a destination program, not a steppingstone to a better job.

“James understands if we do things that we can do to be a class program, he can win here just as he can win somewhere else, so you don’t have a need to go somewhere else to win,” Williams said.

“We went from 2-10, 2-10 to 6-6and a bowl loss to 8-4 and a bowl trip, so yes you can win. You can win at Vanderbilt, and when you think of it we haven’t done all the things that we need to, and can do, to make the experience more attractive. I think he understands this is a place he can win if we’re committed, and we are committed, and he can create a legacy here absolutely.”

Franklin is 14-11 in two seasons, which wouldn’t cut it at SEC schools like Alabama, Florida or Georgia. But Vanderbilt hasn’t seen such success in a coach’s first two seasons in more than a century - Dan McGugin arrived in 1904 and went 16-1.

The Commodores are headed to a second consecutive bowl under Franklin, which had never happened before at Vandy where the previous four bowls could be counted on one hand. Franklin led the Commodores to their first winning record in the regular season in 30 years, and they wrapped up the regular season with a six-game winning streak for the first time since 1948.

Vanderbilt had gone 3-32 in the month of November for the 10 years before Franklin was hired. Now the Commodores are 6-2 combined in that month since Franklin’s arrival.

Sports, Pages 23 on 11/28/2012

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