Everyone slams Jerry for taking on too much with Oregon and BTC. So how does Mike Smith manage?

fortune 500 CEO wrote:

Being the Director of Track and Field at Oregon is like being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You have to manage tens of millions of dollars of budget, hosting NCAA and WORLD championship meets, fundraising millions from alumni, working with Nike, etc.

Mike Smith only has to do a fraction of that while only needing to be competitive in 1 season (XC) while Oregon is trying to win XC, Indoors, and outdoors.

Mike Smith has 2 full time assistant distance coaches and 2 grad assistants. Oregon has Jerry, plus only 2 full time distance coaches. So Mike Smith has a bigger staff working with his distance runners than Jerry does at Oregon.

Additionally, Mike Smith has more scholarship money put into distance than Jerry. Oregon's money is much more spread out among all event groups. Recruits don't care about the history of UO anymore, they would much rather be at altitude than run on the same trail that Pre ran on.

By every metric, Mike Smith has a much easier job than Jerry.

fortune 500 CEO wrote:

Being the Director of Track and Field at Oregon is like being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You have to manage tens of millions of dollars of budget, hosting NCAA and WORLD championship meets, fundraising millions from alumni, working with Nike, etc.

Mike Smith only has to do a fraction of that while only needing to be competitive in 1 season (XC) while Oregon is trying to win XC, Indoors, and outdoors.

Mike Smith has 2 full time assistant distance coaches and 2 grad assistants. Oregon has Jerry, plus only 2 full time distance coaches. So Mike Smith has a bigger staff working with his distance runners than Jerry does at Oregon.

Additionally, Mike Smith has more scholarship money put into distance than Jerry. Oregon's money is much more spread out among all event groups. Recruits don't care about the history of UO anymore, they would much rather be at altitude than run on the same trail that Pre ran on.

By every metric, Mike Smith has a much easier job than Jerry.

fortune 500 CEO wrote:

Being the Director of Track and Field at Oregon is like being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You have to manage tens of millions of dollars of budget, hosting NCAA and WORLD championship meets, fundraising millions from alumni, working with Nike, etc.

Mike Smith only has to do a fraction of that while only needing to be competitive in 1 season (XC) while Oregon is trying to win XC, Indoors, and outdoors.

Mike Smith has 2 full time assistant distance coaches and 2 grad assistants. Oregon has Jerry, plus only 2 full time distance coaches. So Mike Smith has a bigger staff working with his distance runners than Jerry does at Oregon.

Additionally, Mike Smith has more scholarship money put into distance than Jerry. Oregon's money is much more spread out among all event groups. Recruits don't care about the history of UO anymore, they would much rather be at altitude than run on the same trail that Pre ran on.

By every metric, Mike Smith has a much easier job than Jerry.

fan of the sport wrote:

You have some valid points here but a few misses. You really think jerry is in charge of fundraising etc. I am sure there is staff for that. You think Nike doesn't have huge behind the scenes staff working on the championship meets etc. Also they have grad assistants on the OR team they just don't list them on the website. The fact you think OR staff is smaller than NAU is kind of funny.

Also the NAU team competes through all 3 seasons, not to the success that Oregon has but they still travel and compete all the way through.

Lastly recruits DO care about flashy stadiums and tons of Nike gear, shoes, clothes and cameras following them around with tons of social media posts and vidoes, NAU doesn't even do photo shoots with recruits and uniforms etc when they visit. Smith doesn't put emphasis on the flashy. In fact up until the last few years they barely had a nice athletic center, no underwater treadmills etc. Only within the last 2 years did they build the high performance center. Oregons facilities blew NAUs out of the water and if you don't think the current youth don't care about that kind of stuff you are wrong. They may not care about Pre's trail but they def care about all the rest.

fan of the truth wrote:

fan of the sport wrote:

You have some valid points here but a few misses. You really think jerry is in charge of fundraising etc. I am sure there is staff for that. You think Nike doesn't have huge behind the scenes staff working on the championship meets etc. Also they have grad assistants on the OR team they just don't list them on the website. The fact you think OR staff is smaller than NAU is kind of funny.

Also the NAU team competes through all 3 seasons, not to the success that Oregon has but they still travel and compete all the way through.

Lastly recruits DO care about flashy stadiums and tons of Nike gear, shoes, clothes and cameras following them around with tons of social media posts and vidoes, NAU doesn't even do photo shoots with recruits and uniforms etc when they visit. Smith doesn't put emphasis on the flashy. In fact up until the last few years they barely had a nice athletic center, no underwater treadmills etc. Only within the last 2 years did they build the high performance center. Oregons facilities blew NAUs out of the water and if you don't think the current youth don't care about that kind of stuff you are wrong. They may not care about Pre's trail but they def care about all the rest.

Fundraising is in his contract:

Link:publicrecords.uoregon.edu/documents

When they host NCAA meets, Jerry is 100% in charge of organizing those meets. He will have his assistants do a lot the work but he organizes and supervises and if anything goes wrong ultimately the buck stops with Jerry.

For events like the World Championships, Jerry absolutely will play a role in putting the meet together, even if an IAAF person is in charge.

To a distance recruit - altitude and endless trails are more appealing than having a barber in your outdoor track complex. Flagstaff has a much more favorable climate, while in Oregon they get rain every day.

fan of the sport wrote:

fortune 500 CEO wrote:

Being the Director of Track and Field at Oregon is like being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You have to manage tens of millions of dollars of budget, hosting NCAA and WORLD championship meets, fundraising millions from alumni, working with Nike, etc.

Mike Smith only has to do a fraction of that while only needing to be competitive in 1 season (XC) while Oregon is trying to win XC, Indoors, and outdoors.

Mike Smith has 2 full time assistant distance coaches and 2 grad assistants. Oregon has Jerry, plus only 2 full time distance coaches. So Mike Smith has a bigger staff working with his distance runners than Jerry does at Oregon.

Additionally, Mike Smith has more scholarship money put into distance than Jerry. Oregon's money is much more spread out among all event groups. Recruits don't care about the history of UO anymore, they would much rather be at altitude than run on the same trail that Pre ran on.

By every metric, Mike Smith has a much easier job than Jerry.

You have some valid points here but a few misses. You really think jerry is in charge of fundraising etc. I am sure there is staff for that. You think Nike doesn't have huge behind the scenes staff working on the championship meets etc. Also they have grad assistants on the OR team they just don't list them on the website. The fact you think OR staff is smaller than NAU is kind of funny.

Also the NAU team competes through all 3 seasons, not to the success that Oregon has but they still travel and compete all the way through.

Lastly recruits DO care about flashy stadiums and tons of Nike gear, shoes, clothes and cameras following them around with tons of social media posts and vidoes, NAU doesn't even do photo shoots with recruits and uniforms etc when they visit. Smith doesn't put emphasis on the flashy. In fact up until the last few years they barely had a nice athletic center, no underwater treadmills etc. Only within the last 2 years did they build the high performance center. Oregons facilities blew NAUs out of the water and if you don't think the current youth don't care about that kind of stuff you are wrong. They may not care about Pre's trail but they def care about all the rest.