San Diego State fires coach Long

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

November 24, 2008

San Diego State athletic director Jeff Schemmel announced Sunday that Aztecs football head coach Chuck Long has been fired and will not return next season.

The announcement was relayed by senior associate athletic director Don Oberhelman as Schemmel was hospitalized with a hip infection and was scheduled for surgery.

"Jeff's goals for each and every one of our sports is two-fold - win championships and graduate our student-athletes - and Chuck certainly excelled on the academic side," Oberhelman said. "We thank Chuck for his service with regards to academics, citizenship and APR, where we're vastly improved in those areas under his leadership."

Long was annointed as the 16th football head coach at SDSU on Dec. 17, 2005 despite having no prior head coaching experience. He did however served as part of Oklahoma's staff for six seasons.

The program has suffered seven straight losing seasons prior to Long's arrival, the last winning season (7-5) coming in 1998 under the watch of Ted Tollner. Unfortunately, the former Heisman Trophy runner-up failed to turn the program around, going 3-9 in his first season, 4-8 last year, and 2-10 this season.

Schemmel gave Long the news hours before the Aztecs came up with a 42-21 win over UNLV. The school owes Long about $1.4 million and will be defrayed by whatever amount the former Iowa quarterback makes if he lands another coaching job.

Schemmel indicated that a national coaching search will begin immediately to fill the vacancy.

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