Instead of wearing his tracksuit and joining the rest of his coaching staff in putting the players through their paces ahead of the start of the season, the Rangers manager has been donning a suit and accompanying Charles Green to a succession of crisis meetings.
Now though, and not a minute too soon for McCoist, he must be allowed to focus all his efforts on the rebuilding of his depleted squad and finalising their pre-season preparations with the new campaign less than a fortnight away.
Although not completely clear, the waters are no longer as murky as they once were. There is at least some sort of clarity in the sense that Dundee have been promoted into the top flight after SPL chairmen met at the National Stadium yesterday.
Also, the immediate backlash to the decision taken by Scottish Football League clubs to force the Ibrox club to work their way through the lower leagues appears to have subsided over the last few days with the clamour for an SPL2 seemingly not so urgent.
McCoist now knows his team's first competitive game of the season – in fact, it could even be their first game with no pre-season friendlies on the horizon – will take place against Brechin City at Glebe Park on Saturday.
This time last year he was embarking on a mission to qualify for the Champions League.
A year down the line the target is to progress in the Ramsdens Cup – a sobering thought for all connected with the Ibrox club.
That, however, is where Rangers are right now.
They have a state-of-the-art stadium which holds 50,000 supporters, a plush training ground that is up there with the finest in Europe and remain a club with a worldwide following.
However, they are now a Third Division outfit; that is the harsh reality of gross financial mismanagement at the Ibrox club.
For McCoist, the quest to lead his team through the divisions now begins.
He has already watched most of his top stars walk out of the door and might be forced to accept the departure of more. Essentially, the only experienced first-team players he could end up with is Lee McCulloch, Lee Wallace and Neil Alexander.
With budgets set to be cut further, it would be ridiculous to expect Rangers to continue to pay some players more than £10,000-a-week to operate in Scotland's bottom tier.
There are some important decisions to be taken. None more so, from where McCoist is standing, than the possible transfer embargo and when that might come into effect.
Quite simply, without the opportunity to sign players before the end of the transfer window, the so-called formality of gaining promotion from the Third Division at the first attempt will be anything but.
When Alloa's Paul Hartley embarked on the same quest this time last year, he was forced to practically build a new team from nothing.
He inherited just one player and had to wheel and deal and it worked out wonderfully well, winning the championship.
McCoist must now do the same. The suit has been replaced by a tracksuit. Boardrooms and conference suites have been swapped for the training pitch. He might, just might, feel as though he's a football manager again.
