Pat O'Hara Out as Preds Head Coach, Could Be Headed To VooDoo
Adam Markowitz
Monday August 1, 2011
Just days after the team's 63-48 loss to the Jacksonville Sharks, the Orlando Predators parted ways with Head Coach Pat O'Hara. The announcement was made by the Preds on Monday night.
O'Hara was the shortest tenured coach in the history of the team, lasting just two seasons after the rebirth of the league in 2010. Before becoming the head coach of the Preds, O'Hara was named the head coach for the Los Angeles Avengers during the week of ArenaBowl XXII, though that never came to fruition due to the league's absence in 2009.
This was a rather disappointing season for an Orlando team that many thought would be one of the best in the league. The Preds went 11-7, finishing three games behind the Sharks in the postseason chase. This was the first year that the team scored over 1,000 points in a season, and it came in a year in which both QB Nick Hill and QB Collin Drafts played.
On the flip side of things, the Predators defense allowed 933 points, easily the most that the team had ever allowed as well. Even by average, the 51.8 PPG allowed was one of the worst in team history.
O'Hara finished his time with the Predators with a 19-15 mark in the regular season and a 1-2 mark in the playoffs. Seven of those losses came at home, which, to put things in perspective, was one more loss than the Predators had at home from 1992-97, which was six of the seven seasons in which Perry Moss was the head coach.
O'Hara becomes the second coach to be let go in the offseason, joining the Philadelphia Soul's Mike Hohensee. It would make just as much sense that Hohensee, a man who has been in the AFL since its inception in one form or another, would be interested in the Orlando opening.
There are definitely a lot of other potential candidates out there as well. Tim Marcum, who parted ways with the Storm just before this season, will certainly be a name kicked around, but it doesn't make much sense for him to join Orlando after years of mocking the city and its fans.
Instead, perhaps Les Moss becomes a likely candidate. The man in charge of Jacksonville right now lives closer to Central Florida than he does to North Florida, and he was a coordinator for the Preds for a number of years both under his father, Perry, and under former Head Coach Jay Gruden.
UPDATE (9:30 ET) - Billie O'Hara, wife of Pat O'Hara posted on her Facebook page on Monday night, "It's amazing to wake up one morning the head coach of one football team and go to bed the coach of a new team. Goodbye Orlando, hello New Orleans."
ArenaFan placed phone calls to the New Orleans VooDoo about these developments, but at this hour, the VooDoo could not be reached.
ArenaFan correspondent Jason Lucas contributed to this story.
Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.
