Not really. Neither one of them was doing much of anything in the last few years of their tenures. Excepting 1967, the Gophers were a poor-to-mediocre Big Ten team during the last 9 years of Warmath's career. And, although Bierman's 2nd tenure was respectable, it was pretty obvious that he had lost "it" (winning percentage .819 1st tenure vs .565 2nd tenure), and ended his 16th and final season at the helm with what was then the worst record in school history (1-7-1). You can only live off past successes for so long. And, moreover, if firing them was such a mistake, why were they not hired by anyone else after their respective terminations? Both were still relatively young (Bierman 56, Warmath 59) for someone, anyone, to give them a chance if their respective firings were such cataclysmic decisions.
