Coaching Carousel: Hofstra Decides to Fire Mo Cassara

Hofstra Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway has decided to move on from Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara after just three years, as first reported by CBS' Jeff Goodman.

Cassara took over for Tom Pecora, who is now at Fordham, three years ago. Since taking over the Pride, Cassara has not been able to sustain the same level of success that Pecora brought to Hofstra.

Under Cassara, the Pride went just 38-59, including a 7-25 mark this year. As a point of reference, Pecora had five winning seasons in his last six years at Hempstead.

Laying all the blame on Mo for this season probably isn't right, but a lot went wrong under his watch this season. First he had a couple of new players suspended to begin the season. Then there was that whole "our players are stealing laptops and other stuff from their fellow students" thing.

That was really went the train went off the tracks for the Pride. Until that point, there was a belief that this team could be right in the middle of the back in the CAA.

It is never a good thing when you have to sit down with your AD and reassess your recruiting philosophy. That is basically your boss telling you that you messed up big time in the way you are thinking about building your program.

The news would have gotten out, but it wouldn't be surprising if Cassara was told at that meeting that his job was basically over.

What is surprising is how hard the Pride still played under Cassara despite all of the issues with the program. At the end of the day, he still coached his heart out with the team he had left. The new guy will be walking into a mess, but at least the players will have some toughness.

Before coming to Hofstra, Cassara was an assistant coach at Boston College and Dayton. He was also the head coach at Division III Clark University.

See all of the mid-major coaching changes on our Coaching Carousel page.