What then should a football coach be held accountable for, other than winning football games?
Whatever it says in his contract.
Generally, that will also include appearing at certain functions, television, radio, etc. etc; not running afoul of NCAA regulations; and whatever I'm not thinking of at the moment. He isn't their academic adviser; he's not in their chain of command.
By the way, and before the evidential facts are in, some of you are hammering on a coach who suspended his star fullback for leaving the field without singing Air Force's Alma Mater after a brutal and controversial loss. That doesn't seem like a "winning above all" move to me. And they indeed did lose the next game against Southern Miss.
If all the D1 FBS service academies cared about was winning for the sake of winning, they
would drop down to D3 and dominate. Check out the records of Army's and Navy's Sprint Football teams. I think that is the closest look you'll get as to what might happen.
Some of you are assuming facts not in evidence. Academically, Navy Football does fine (source NCAA):
6. Stanford 90% graduation rate
7. Army 88%
8. Navy 87%
9. Air Force, Wake Forest 86%
10. Vanderbilt 85%
The latest data I saw had Navy's overall graduation rate at 87% (all midshipmen), so I really don't see some huge problem here.
I think it is awesome that Air Force, Army, and Navy hold their own playing big boy football (well, not so much lately for Army) and we can watch them against the likes of Ohio State (Navy almost won), Oklahoma (Air Force almost won), and Stanford (good luck Army, you'll need it). When Navy beat Notre Dame in 3OT for the first time since Roger Staubach did in in 1962 or whatever; that was a major deal. Yes, it is a whole lot of ego. So what? Ego is a big part of the military. They are saying they aren't afraid to step out on a field of battle with the odds stacked against them.
It's great that D3 works out for USCGA and USMMA. But that ain't the case for the others. Football traditions there go back to national titles (Army), near misses of titles (Navy), Heisman Trophy winners (Army, Navy), and sustained excellence in a competitive conference over many years (Air Force, plus they have the most CIC Trophies).
And what is this magic D3 scandal protection spray you are alluding to?
Lots to Google if you want:
Start with:
http://www.militarycorruption.com/miller.htm and go from there.
All that said, this is a sad situation at USNA. Hopefully justice will prevail and I trust due process will rise above the media frenzy.