The ironic thing about all this is Gerard is f***ing Gibby like Vin did to Gerard!
When Vin got bounced out of Stanford for his 'creative recruiting' I don't think Gerard knew what was going on. Vin handed him a sweet ass xc team (Vin had to be jammed to give that up)but didnt even finish on the podium this year...even with 2 sub 13:20 guys!
No secret Gerard was bitching about not being able to get anyone into Stanford anymore, then finding out that Vinny was going back to coaching....at a school in the same conference even. What a dick move by Vinny.
When Gerard rolled to Stanford, he thought he was going to be Vinny. Problem is Vinny still wants to Vinny. Nike is totally behind the Oregon thing, and job #1 is to shutdown Stanford and get everything up to Eugene. Athletes, coaches and meets. Nike will pull its funding from the Farm Team and all those Stanford meets will now be Oregon meets. Nike knows Alberto can never pull all this off, but Vinny can.
Nike (Phil Knight) is throwing down 25 million to get the Trials at Eugene and part of the deal for Vinny is if he comes to Oregon and does all this, they'll (Nike) will get him the Olympic Head Coach title he always wanted.
So Gerard finds all this out, has a piss poor recruiting year this year for Stanford's standards and the Vinny f***s him again and doesn't bring him Oregon or makes him Director at Stanford.
Vinny not being a dummy knows he needs a little color up in Duckland that he can trust and I'm guessing he'll pluck Robert Weir out of Stanford and make him head coach.
Deena saw the writing on the wall, she had a tough year as it was and got out. Gerard, seeing all this too decided to jump ship as well. Too bad, I personally would of liked to see him tough it out as the underdog and take UO out.
Now Gerard goes to GMU and its fully funded program. Back to the small confines of the CAA, back to the same conference he left to coach against Gibby and WM. The same shit Vinny did to Gerard, Gerard is doing to Gibby. I just hope Gibby has more balls and doesnt jump ship.
Unless Gerard brings guys from Stanford to GMU (I can't see any of those guys downgrading their education just to run for Gerard)WM and JMU will have no problem with Mason. WM arguable has a top 5 team in the country baring no food poisonings and injuries.
Gerard will have more to worry about than winning the caa's the first year or so. GMU is a totally different environment where Gerard has ever coached or ran before. Colgate, Dartmouth, Stanford(twice) and WM are not the most ethnocentric schools or programs, not like the sprint/Jamaican program GMU has had for years with Cook and Norm Gordon on the chicks side of things.
Gerard has never had to start a distance program from scratch either. (WM had a good team before he got there..Hyde and Vandagrift were 3:35 and 3:37? runners)
Does he can the sprint and field side of things and go after xc? Mason was last in the caa's last year, anyone can certainly do better than that. Or does he build around the track and try to get more bodies out there to win the conference in track (CAA's for some reason scores through 8 places.)
Gerard track record is far better in XC than on the track, I'm sure it will be distance dominated and mirror the program at WM, and what it was at Dartmouth and what it was at Stanford.
Good luck to to you Andy. Either way, GMU or Stanford, it isnt going to come easy.