"It's business."
Those are the words of Ken Owen, executive director of media relations at DePauw, explaining Sunday's dismissal of head football coach, Robby Long. He said so on WGRE's Tiger Talk on Wednesday night immediately after interim head coach, Scott Srnka left the studio and said what happened to Long was just a part of what happens in the football world.
Srnka is the fifth head football coach since 2003, and Long is the third-straight coach to leave with little explanation from administration officials.
"That's the nature of the beast," Owen said on. "If you went to any corporation in America and there was a situation like this, unless it's something that cuts to the core in what the company is about, that would not have been elaborated on. But this is really behind the scenes stuff involved in what he does in his everyday job.
"Bottom line is - everyone has a right to privacy in this country, and DePauw University respects that."
Owen reiterated what Stevie Baker-Watson, DePauw's athletic director, said Sunday: the reason for Long's dismissal was strictly a personnel issue, not anything dealing with the wins and losses.
"People need to realize there's been a lot of conjecture as to what had happened," Owen said. "It had nothing to do with the team or the way the coach treated the team or players. It was something that built over time that began in the spring with the coach not adhering to university policy."
When asked about potential damage to the university image, Owen said the dismissal is a "distraction" to what the university's true image is.
However, Owen is hoping - along with other alumni - that stability can return to the football program.
"When we hired Bill Lynch in 2004, I really felt we had a football coach who would lead this program for the next 15 years, and we were going to clobber everybody," he said. "It's going to get better...our alums are a little perplexed and are wondering what's ahead."
Lynch was hired after Nick Mourouzis retired in 2003. He went on to take the offensive coordinator position for Terry Hoeppner at Indiana University. He assumed the head coaching position when Hoeppner died in 2007 and was fired in 2010. He now works for Butler University in a fundraising role.
Owen said Lynch could be a candidate for DePauw's head coaching position.
"It would be premature to conjecture about anybody," Owen said. "(Lynch) is one of the names that have come up. The alums that I've heard from have overwhelming told me they want someone in this job with a DePauw connection of some kind, someone who understands the program and traditions and the legacy."