CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming fired coach Joe Glenn on Sunday, a day after the Cowboys finished their fourth losing season in his six years at the school.
Athletic director Tom Burman said the program has not made the progress it hoped for under Glenn, including failure to compete for a Mountain West Conference championship.
“I want to thank coach Glenn for the way in which he has represented our athletics department and our university over the past six years,” Burman said. “He has been an outstanding ambassador for Cowboy and Cowgirl Athletics, the University of Wyoming and the state of Wyoming.”
Sunday’s announcement followed the Cowboys 31-20 loss to rival Colorado State in Laramie on Saturday. Wyoming finished the season 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the Mountain West, placing them eighth in the conference.
The 59-year-old Glenn went 30-41 overall and 15-31 in conference. The Cowboys finished above .500 just once in Glenn’s tenure, in 2004, when they went 7-5, finished fourth in the Mountain West and beat UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.
With the 2008 season shaping up to be a disappointment, debate over Glenn’s job security grew and he seemed to know the end could be near.
“It’s been a great six years, if you’ve been asking me about my time since I’ve been here. There’s been some great wins and some great people and just high times for me in my life,” Glenn said during a conference call with reporters earlier this week. “To have played in a Division I bowl game and to have played at places the likes of Tennessee and Florida and Texas A&M and Ole Miss and some of these places, Virginia, has been really sensational.
“But I would have to place the people and the players that I’ve worked with and that I know around the state as probably the highlight of my past six years,” he said.
Wyoming has contracted the firm Neinas Sports to assist in the search for the next coach. The contract is for $35,000 plus expenses, the school said.
“We recognize the magnitude of making a great hire,” Burman said. “We are prepared to attract a head coach who will make Wyoming football a power in the Mountain West Conference.”
Glenn met with his coaching staff and the team Sunday afternoon, the school said in a news release. Burman was expected to meet with the team on Monday.
Glenn received two contract extensions during his Wyoming tenure, most recently in 2006, when former AD Gary Barta lengthened the contract through the 2010 season. His base salary was $150,324, but various incentives provided for payment of up to $450,000 year.
The university said it will pay Glenn $316,000 for the remaining two years of his contract.
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