Football: Goveia gone as UBC coach

In a result that shouldn't come as much of a shock to anyone, Ted Goveia has been removed as head coach of the UBC football program.

From the press release...

The University of British Columbia Department of Athletics announced today that football head coach Ted Goveia will not be returning to the program for the 2010 season.

Goveia came to UBC in 2004 as the team’s offensive coordinator before being promoted to head coach prior to the 2006 season.

In his four seasons at the helm, Goveia had a 12-20 regular season record. He led the Thunderbirds to the playoffs once during his tenure, in 2006, after UBC finished with a 4-4 record.

The search for a new head coach begins immediately and the Thunderbirds hope to name a new head coach in the coming months. In the interim, defensive coordinator Dino Geremia will serve as acting head coach.

Any coach needs to win to keep his job, and unfortunately for Goveia, he simply hadn't done that, with a 2–6 record in 2008 and a 1–7 record this year (technically 3–5, but you know...). The Athletic Department pledged at the end of the regular season that a full evaluation of the program would be done in the coming weeks, and at the time Goveia didn't sound too optimistic he would be back, telling me, "You know, I like UBC as an institution, it’s a great school, but I think it’s time we look at some of the deeper reasons why we aren’t having the success we ought to have."

Regardless of who steps in as coach, their biggest challenge will be changing the culture of a program that simply hasn't been given the resources and attention needed to succeed in the Canada West conference for many years. For many football watchers on the West Coast, the Athletic Department's treatment of the football program has been a joke; witness how this game thread on cisfootball.org devolves into a criticism of AD Bob Philip. In private conversations, Goveia had been quite critical of the treatment of the football program, especially the lack of a turf field—Vancouver's never-ending rainy season makes practicing on muddy fields a bit of an issue, and the team has had to travel outside of Vancouver for their training camp the last two years due to Thunderbird Stadium being used by concerts.

For his part, Philip has often pointed to the success of UBC's other teams (two or three CIS championships in one year is a common occurrence) to deflect criticism of the football program. All of which means that the change of Goveia at UBC in and of itself may not amount to more than just window dressing.