Georgia State has officially announced the firing of head coach Trent Miles. After reports surfaced Saturday night the coaching change was happening, the school formally announced the change within the program on Sunday. Assistant coach Tim Lappano will continue to serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
“These decisions are never easy to make,” Georgia State Director of Athletics Charlie Cobb said in a released statement. “Coach Miles is a first class guy, who has run a first class program who has always been a true professional and great leader for our program, but we felt the time was right to make a change. We will begin a national search for our next head coach immediately.”
Georgia State has fired a search firm to assist with finding new head coach for the program. Don’t expect Georgia State to make any big waves with its coaching search. The Georgia State job won’t attract a coaching candidate like Les Miles or Tom Herman but will be one likely to give an assistant coach a chance to make the jump to being a head coach, or perhaps a coach from the FCS or below.
This could also alter the future of the program when it comes to satellite camps. Miles had openly welcomed power conference programs to come to Georgia State for football camps. Some programs who have accepted an invitation to Georgia State have included Missouri, N.C. State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Tennessee, USC and Wisconsin. Miles was critical of the NCAA’s initial decision to shutdown satellite camp practices. Whether those continue under a new head coach remains to be seen.
Miles was 9-38 at Georgia State but took the Panthers to a bowl game last season. What’s next for Miles remains unknown of course, although given his years of coaching experience it would be hard to envision him not being on a sideline somewhere in 2017.