MIAMI – Florida International fired coach Mike MacIntyre on Sunday after three seasons, all of which the Panthers finished with 4-8 records.
MacIntyre inherited a program that was coming off a 0-5 season in the coronavirus-interrupted 2020 campaign and went 1-11 the following year, but the Panthers never made big strides in terms of wins. The program went 6-18 in Conference USA games under MacIntyre, 3-5 this season.
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Defensive coordinator Jovan Dewitt will serve as interim coach while the school searches for MacIntyre’s replacement.
“Coach Mac inherited a challenging situation three years ago, but he improved numerous areas within the program - from posting our highest-ever GPA to bettering the operations and budgets - and the culture shift has been evident,” FIU athletic director Scott Carr said. “This was a decision based solely off on-field results, and at this time I felt our program needed to go in a different direction.
“While we have been more competitive on the field each of the last three seasons, unfortunately our win-loss record is not indicative of those statistical improvements.”
MacIntyre was The Associated Press’ national coach of the year in 2016 at Colorado. He led turnarounds before - he turned struggling San Jose State and Colorado teams into 10-game winners in his previous tenures - but the same didn’t happen at FIU.
The Panthers rewarded MacIntyre after the 2022 season with a one-year extension that put him under contract through 2027. He was making $750,000 annually and is expected to be owed about $1.1 million in a buyout.
“You can’t control your circumstances,” MacIntyre said Saturday after FIU closed its season with a win over Middle Tennessee. “You always have to get up and keep moving and that’s what these kids did. I’m so proud of that, about how they kept doing that. And I feel bad that I wasn’t able to get them to a bowl game this year.”
FIU’s opening is the third in the state of Florida alone at the FBS level. FAU fired Tom Herman last month and UCF is seeking a coach as well after Gus Malzahn left following this weekend’s season finale to become the new offensive coordinator at Florida State.
FIU has finished with a losing record in 17 of its 21 seasons. The school had two winning years under Mario Cristobal, now the coach at Miami, and two others under former Miami coach Butch Davis.