After struggling to a 2-10 mark this season as a new member of the American Athletic Conference, Tulsa has decided to part ways with head coach Bill Blankenship.
Prior to joining the staff at Tulsa as the special teams coordinator / receivers coach in 2007, Blankenship enjoyed a very successful high school coaching career at various Oklahoma high schools including Spiro HS, Edmond Memorial HS, and perhaps most notably, Union HS.
At Union, where he spent 14 seasons leading the program, Blankenship compiled a record of 154-26 overall with three state titles and an impressive home win streak of 56 straight games.
Unfortunately, Blankenship just couldn't replicate that same success at Tulsa.
In four seasons, Blankenship was 24-27 overall and 18-14 in conference play (16-8 in C-USA and 2-6 in the American). His best season came in 2012 when the Golden Hurricane posted an 11-3 season, including a win over Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl.
After finishing in the top two spots in C-USA in his first two seasons as head coach (winning the league in 2012), Blankenship went 3-9 in 2013 and won just two games (Tulane and SMU) this season, both by 10 points or less.
Salary wise Blankenship made $759,436 annually, according to the USA Today database of coaching salaries, which ranked the lowest among head coaches in the American. Next closest was Tulane's Curtis Johnson, who made over $100,000 more annually thank Blankenship.
As always, we'll keep you updated on what we're hearing on The Scoop.
Early on, everything we're hearing in the profession tells us that there is no shortage of quality candidates interested in the job.