So who is the best coach if posters bash every one?

stl wrote:

"Hansons blow, their overrated. Warhust recruits, doesnt coach."

I hate to break it to you but.... recruiting in college is huge. You're not going to bring in a bunch of guys that can't handle your training or help you win on purpose. That doesn't mean that you aren't going to try to take some athletes that aren't as good and make them better. That happens all of the time, but many coaches jobs depend on how their team performs. Therefore they bring in athletes that can help them compete immediately.

He was obviously summarizing the Hansons, Wetmore bashing of the past for the sake of the thread. Stay on track.

Hadd is up there. Don't know who he coaches or anything about the dude, but his thread was so clear and made so much sense.

I'm a Hadd fan too, from a nuts and bolts point of view.

It is a lot different when you are actually tring to coach a team, develop the type of team success that attracts talent, and are put in a position where you are under the magnifying glass every year.

Give Hadd one great athlete that bombs and his stock would plummet.

Personally, I wish I'd been coached by Einstein.

Not in any order:

Martin Smith

Rick Watkins

George Watts

Paul Pilkington

Doug Clark

Chad Myers

Jason Vigilante

Stanley Redwine

Bill Lawson

Rodney Price

Jim Faes...

You are in the Twilight Zone. Here are some coaches who are not only associated with consistently winning programs but have also produced numerous national champions, All-Americans and Olympians

Dennis Shaver - LSU

Irving (Boo) Schexnayder - LSU

John McDonnell - Arkansas

Lance Brauman - Arkansas

Wes Kittley - TTU

Don Hood - TTU

Steve Silvey - TTU

Ron Allice - USC

Pat Henry - TAMU

Tony Veaney - UCLA

Eddie Nuttycomb - Wisconsin

Jerry Schumaker - Wisconsin

Mark Napier - Wisconsin

And there are more. I suggest you research:

Top 10 teams at NCAA's last 2 years

Coaches who have won conference and national titles consistently

Coaches who are consistently coaching athletes to NCAA champions and All-Americans

Regardless of what may be written about these men on this site they are all great and have achieved success consistently wherever they have coached. People doing the bashing are usually jealous wannabes who would have given all they owned to have been associated with any one of these programs. In other words, action/accomplishment speaks louder than words and a winning record speaks volumes.

If you are talking distance, Jack Daniels is the greatest coach in history. He created the system half of the coaches you are talking about use. Not even debatable

everyone is forgetting Vin

or gags.

M. wrote:

I agree 100%. To take an average highschooler and make him a decent runner (15:00-14:30/5k) who understands the principles of training and can on continue on his own with running after the college, is in my view far better coaching. Any idiot can "coach" 9:10-8:50 2miler to run 14:00-13:50 during college. The thing is, that the guy will almost certainly quit after graduation b/c is not good enough to make living out of it and is discouraged b/c he had much higher expectations during HS.

The best coach understands that your best years come in seasons AFTER the college. I have seen only few of these coaches in the U.S.

do people forget that coaches like wetmore and gagliano and mcdonnell were h.s. coaches before - and coached some great h.s. runners? then they moved up, and coached great college runners. finally, they trained post-collegiate guys to a high level of success.

tough to argue with guys who have had success at every level they've coached at!

I agree- I was just outlaying a profile of a good coach in general. The one who teaches you to know yourself and guides you to self-sufficient and wise planning.

Some runners look for the best program assuming that it means you'll get the best coach. That may be so, or may not.

That may be the best coach at building a program, not at bringing out the best in you. That isn't a knock on high profile coaches - but there are excellent low profile coaches.

Dan Ireland at Yale has brought the men's team from nothing to pretty good - and without a lot of national level recruits. If he was at a big name (recruiting and scholarship) school he'd be putting up big name results.

I think Pat Henner at Georgetown is one of the top coaches in the country. If I were a high school senior (knowing what I know now) that would probably be my choice of schools. He gets good talent but nothing like some other schools and guys in his program consistantly improve from year to year. He also doesn't have many guys that fall off the map when they go there.

That's good news about GT. My S-I-L is the volunteer coach there. He raves about the program.

FRANKLYN SANCHEZ ?????

No, and you only get one more guess

I think when you are talking about great coaches you have to include Joe Vigil. He doesn't coach at the collegiate level anymore, but his accomplishments are unparalleled. He didn't rely on recruiting already-developed foreign athletes, he did it the old fashion way.

Sky wrote:

He didn't rely on recruiting already-developed foreign athletes, he did it the old fashion way.

Check your facts there -- Adams most certainly had some international guys.

It is rough wrote:

FRANKLYN SANCHEZ ?????

I don't think you can blame that one on Henner. The guy had academic problems and then didn't want to run.