The Nevada Sagebrush

As the Nevada soccer team played Oregon to a 1-0 loss on Friday night, Terri Patraw watched from the top of the Mackay Stadium stands instead of the sidelines.

When the week started, Patraw expected Friday’s game against the Ducks to be the launching point for leading her team toward a second straight Western Athletic Conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.

On Tuesday, though, she lost her job.

Patraw said at the time she was fired for telling athletic director Cary Groth some things she didn’t want to hear. Groth hasn’t said much at all.

Patraw’s lawyer is in discussions with the university, so parties are going silent.

For Groth to fire a tremendously successful coach on the eve of the season, it’s pretty safe to assume that any philosophical differences went much deeper than existentialism.

The fallout of this issue will speak strongly about Groth’s ability to run an athletics department.

Was Groth justified in letting go a loose cannon? Did she make a heated decision that sacrifices the players she’s supposed to facilitate?

Groth has done a tremendous job during her tenure up to this point.

She’s helped facilitate the men’s basketball team’s sustained success, she’s improved the emerging football team’s home schedule, and the university regularly receives great marks for its Title IX compliance. She’s been a gracious ambassador for the university, regularly spending time with fans at games.

She’s also proved to be adept at coaching hires, which was showcased last season by the Wolf Pack winning the WAC Commissioner’s Cup, an award based on every school’s all-sport success.

Nevada has emerged as one of the nation’s premier mid-major athletic departments under Groth’s watch.

But some of that was set in motion when football coach Chris Ault was still athletics director. It’s difficult to tell exactly how much Groth’s administration has contributed to the growth.

How this works out should reveal a lot about Groth’s leadership capabilities.

Groth calls Patraw’s replacement, Antoinette Marjanovic, a “rising star” in the soccer world.

That may be true, and here’s saying she’ll be a fantastic coach whether it’s this year or down the road, but Patraw was the rising star in women’s soccer.

She built Arizona State into a top-25 program from nothing in less than five years and she was doing the same thing at Nevada.

When she arrived in Reno, the women’s soccer program was one of the worst in the nation. Now, it’s on the verge of top-25 contention.

Firing that kind of winning coach is questionable.

Firing her on the eve of the season is borderline ridiculous.

Patraw is passionate, demanding and outspoken, so it’s not hard to imagine she could be tough to deal with, but this move potentially derails what the Wolf Pack’s student-athletes have worked hard to build.

So far Groth has had pretty smooth sailing. Coaches say all the time that it’s not the adversity, it’s how you respond to it.

In Groth’s case, we’ll see.