Northern Iowa's Dan Steele leaves Panthers for Asst. position at Iowa State

Staff stays, will search for head coach next summer so they can get some good candidates

yeah, UNI has REALLY hit the skids in track since they last won an indoor/outdoor MVC title in 2009. And they really haven't even been competitive in the team competition. Sad to see since they were so dominant through the 2000s. Will be interesting to see who they hire.

The funding at UNI was cut significantly since Bucknam left. Nobody is winning there now. Shame since the facilities are really good.

Capp Timm wrote:

The funding at UNI was cut significantly since Bucknam left. Nobody is winning there now. Shame since the facilities are really good.

Really? In what way? Their operating budget is $232,300. I can't imagine it being more 5+ yrs ago. Sure, not a major conference school/budget, but you should be able to do just fine with this amount of money.

not exactly. wrote:

Capp Timm wrote:

The funding at UNI was cut significantly since Bucknam left. Nobody is winning there now. Shame since the facilities are really good.

Really? In what way? Their operating budget is $232,300. I can't imagine it being more 5+ yrs ago. Sure, not a major conference school/budget, but you should be able to do just fine with this amount of money.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d31353430393526796561723d323031332673656172636843726974657269613d33343364323734393431323732363732363437343364333732663331333832663332333033313335323033313331336133333337336133333330323035303464267264743d372f31382f323031352031313a33373a333020504d

That is far from a large operating budget.

so the operating budget is not far removed from what Martin Smith's salary number is. (apple to orange I know). Don't see how in this day you can expect anything on a national scale with that budget. It is more a credit to Bucknam than a slam on UNI. That was a special era. Highly unlikely to be replicated given those numbers.

Former runner tells me that the program is not even fully funded for scholarships

maybe you can tell me if that is wrong

Not Really wrote:

That is far from a large operating budget.

Yes, as I clearly noted that it's not on par with the major conference schools, but it's also not small either. The other poster mentioned it being significantly cut from in the past, so what was it before? I find this hard to believe. Any decent coach should be able to perform well with a budget like this.

How would an operating budget of this size break down? Travel, equipment, recruiting, etc?

Salaries aren't included, are they? If so, that's small.

Chris Bucknam was a great coach at UNI and did fantastic things, both recruiting and coaching. Everyone around the country knew UNI was a well coached team that came after you. Bucky leaves and they hire a "name" who had never done a thing coaching-wise. Just because you are on staff at a place like an Oregon doesn't mean you know what you are doing. Enter Steele……..the real problem with Steele was and is his ego. He thinks he is better than anyone else. Problem is his teams at UNI regressed to what Bucky did. Anyone with an IQ above 10 could look at the program and see the results.

Not Sure wrote:

How would an operating budget of this size break down? Travel, equipment, recruiting, etc?

Salaries aren't included, are they? If so, that's small.

No, operating budget does not include salaries or scholarships.

Wasn't there a guy in between who really screwed UNI over by not recruiting and leaving almost immediately. I guess you can blame Steele for that if you don't like him tho.

My understanding is that the program went from fully funded in scholarships to not being that way. Kind of hard to continue doing great things when you are not fully funding scholarships. If the program was running at 3/4 funded, you just don't have depth. That is my point out of all of this.

Capp Timm wrote:

Wasn't there a guy in between who really screwed UNI over by not recruiting and leaving almost immediately. I guess you can blame Steele for that if you don't like him tho.

Travis Geopfert.

He actually recruited me in his one year leading the program at UNI. I remember thinking to myself then "no way this guy is here all 5 years of my career."

Bingo on ego.

Dave Paulson will take over program. Confirmed.