Liam Murphy join Swoosh Elite Flagstaff

MattHatter wrote:

jk0 wrote:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Mike Smith decided that he was coaching a cross country team for 2026… Tallahassee world championships. OK I get it Strand, Murphy, these guys are super speedsters. But in college cross country teams are always made up of power houses who have someone like Nico plus some milers who do magic at NCAA’s in spite of supposedly being in over their head with the long-distance horses.
Plus, I imagine it would be very cool for these guys, making it like college again, a real team instead of everybody just competing for whatever individual PRs they can get on the track. Ok, the PRs and fast times are cool too.

But who doesn’t want to see a powerhouse US team at World Cross?

@MikeSmith, bring home the title!

@THOUGHTSLEADER… you’re a locked in guy of the sport, what do you think? Is this a weird fantasy? Would Smith care? Would the athletes care? Would Nike care?

If they did, could these guys plus a couple from other groups (Grant Fisher, Graham Blanks) bring home the world title?

a Nike XC group of Nico Young, Parker Wolfe, Grant Fisher, Luis Grivalda, Abdi Nur, Woody Kincaid, and Charles Hicks. not even sure who would make the Top 5 for this team.

MattHatter wrote:

jk0 wrote:

Wouldn’t it be cool if Mike Smith decided that he was coaching a cross country team for 2026… Tallahassee world championships. OK I get it Strand, Murphy, these guys are super speedsters. But in college cross country teams are always made up of power houses who have someone like Nico plus some milers who do magic at NCAA’s in spite of supposedly being in over their head with the long-distance horses.
Plus, I imagine it would be very cool for these guys, making it like college again, a real team instead of everybody just competing for whatever individual PRs they can get on the track. Ok, the PRs and fast times are cool too.

But who doesn’t want to see a powerhouse US team at World Cross?

@MikeSmith, bring home the title!

@THOUGHTSLEADER… you’re a locked in guy of the sport, what do you think? Is this a weird fantasy? Would Smith care? Would the athletes care? Would Nike care?

If they did, could these guys plus a couple from other groups (Grant Fisher, Graham Blanks) bring home the world title?

a Nike XC group of Nico Young, Parker Wolfe, Grant Fisher, Connor Mantz, Abdi Nur, Woody Kincaid, and Charles Hicks (if he runs for US). not even sure who would make the Top 5 for this team.

THOUGHTSLEADER wrote:

no long term wrote:

This is a great point. They all run the same events AND they are all very young.

They probably don't have room for someone like Gary Martin or Marco Langon next year.

They might have shot themselves in the foot by filling their roster up so much this year. No room to sign someone like Kerr if he wants to leave Brooks.

Those two guys have NILs with different brands in Brooks and Diadora respectively. Those brands will have a leg up, though Diadora would be a new entrant I guess. I can see Nike not allocating much into them with Spencer also being on the roster it seems. Rocky Hansen has an ON NIL so that’s the other prized target along with Habtom Samuel (Hoka) and Brian Musau (unclear where his head is at). The Kerr thing seems irrelevant, as he signed a lifetime deal with Brooks.

coaches are slow wrote:

yay marxism wrote:

He has talked about it before. His athletes at NAU had a fairly large range in mileage/intensity depending on what they did.

All that talent and “individuality” and how many points did they score on the track at NCAAs in the last couple of years?

I think a deep country twang voice and an Oregon Project budget is only going to get that program so far. Especially when the athletes start cannibalizing each other. I don’t see Nur, Grijalva, Young and Kincaid being A-ok with this after a while. I think Nike is half heartedly trying to replicate something that no longer should exist - because Nike is no longer a company with new ideas. Look at what’s happened to On Boulder, BTC and NB Boston.

This model was great 15 years ago when American distance running was in the toilet, but things have changed and actual individuality is king. Every decision needs to be made solely on what’s best for the athlete, not the footwear company. That is the new model. When athletes don’t get that and they see someone taking their spot, they have options.

This program will absolutely thrive over the next 24 months, but come LA, there will be splinters and the athletes that make the National Teams will not be a part of Swoosh TC.

Downvote all you want, but I’ll be reminding you of this in July 2028.