Is Mark Wetmore the greatest D1 NCAA XC coach of all time??

jimmy bobby wrote:

Pretentious D1 Coach wrote:

We've seen him do a lot with a little, a lot with a lot, and seems to always be in the mix on either the women's or men's side every year.

He gets great talent to come out, which is something most coaches can't always do, but his success with recruiting is a direct result of his success as a coach.

I don't know if he's the greatest D1 XC coach of all time. There are certainly guys with more wins:

http://www.ncaa.com/history/cross-country-men/d1

. But, to me, Mcdonnell and Banks did it in an era when XC was less competitive. Now, there's a ton of parity.

I do think he's the best developer of D1 XC male (and female?) talent in this millennia.

Ok, I'll bite. How in the world do you consider xc less competitive during John's era?

show us the proof, mr certainty.be calmer, and more people might listen to you....get a life

It smells wrote:

Wetmore is better than Bowerman. He also competes against foreign athletes and does not dope his athletes. Oregon has been a doping school for decades.

Bowerman is the GOAT wrote:

Doesn't come close to what Bowerman did. Bowerman worked with athletes of all talent levels and got the best from them. Distance, sprints, field events.

Bowerman would piss on Wetmore. (Had to include this to circumvent the person who always posts about Bowerman pissing on people in the shower whenever a Bowerman reference appears on LRC).

Wetmore is a wonderful coach, but you must judge ALL coaches based on their track and field success and you must TOTALLY ignore their cross country success.

Cross country is a sport, at the scholarship level, is won by the teams that tend to disregard the other track and field events, and invest the track and field scholarships almost solely in distance runners, and then reap a reward in the sport of cross country.

When you cut the field of competition to only 10% of NCAA D1 that choose to ignore the other track and field events and almost SOLELY invest in distance, then OF COURSE, you will do well perennially in cross country.

Wetmore is great, Dave Smith is pretty good, NAU coach is pretty good, Iona coach is pretty good. But show me a team with a throws all American, a jumps all American, a relay team that is All American , AND wins an NCAA championship and then I will show you a great coach.

He is bipolar.

I'll then show you a team with some sneaky ways of getting around athletic scholarship limits.

Maybe you should research a little about how well rounded NAU is as a program.

You're absolutely right, but that is not what this thread is about.

I respect that Wetmore develops American talent and he certainly knows his stuff. It's tough to argue with the success of others mentioned here, though. Vin and McDonnell accomplished a lot.

In answer to the original question, though, I go with "no" if only because he shacked up with one of his former athletes pretty soon after she graduated. The coach-athlete relationship is a special one and that smacks of taking advantage of that (not to mention the age difference, which potentially plays into what I just mentioned as well).

I'll put it this way, if one of my college coaches had done that I think we would have lost a lot of respect for him. And yes, as a 39 year old man I get that 22-23 years old women are physically attractive.

He's on the list and in the discussion regarding who the top coach is. It's not an easy sport to be the best at. Training takes many years of progression and personal exploration as to what the limiting line is. Wetmore manages the process of developing runners very well. He also has many seasons of great results.

running of the pigs wrote:

Wetmore is a great coach, but do his numbers top John McDonnell at Arkansas?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McDonnell_

(coach)

Fascinated that this thread continued after this post.

John McDonnell. Greatest Ever. Case closed.

when someone wins as many titles as McDonnell did, it usually means the era was less competitive than it is now.

This is the equivalent of comparing John Wooden and Coach K in college basketball. Wooden has many more titles, but did it at a time when it was easier to dominate.

It's not XC specific exactly, but just look at qualifying for the indoor mile in the 90's and now.

On a tangent, when was the last time Wetmore had a black XC athlete on his team? I just thought of it randomly. Maybe so few because he recruits colorado kids mostly.

My guess would be last season with Moussa?

CWRP wrote:

I love Wetmore but his dynasty didn't start until Vin and John left coaching. He was outside looking in for years while the Cardinal and Razorbacks dukes it out. Colorado starting building at the end of their rein but the best thing that ever happened to Colorado is when those two coaches left.

I love Wetmore, but his dynasty did not start until Vin and John left Coaching. He was on the outside looking in for many years while the Cardinal and Razorbacks duked it out.

Colorado started building at the end of their reign, but the best thing that ever happened to Colorado was those two coaches leaving.

Wetmore didn't get to CU until 1995. It only took him like 3 years to win a title.

I'd consider Wetmore if he left Colorado and was able to replicate this success at another program. Much like a Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. Get out of your comfort zone, your bubble, the Boulder mecca, go to a big city and try to win it there. Then he would sky-rocket. I place John McDonnell ahead of him, as well as Vin Lannana.

Who?

Is he going to complain when he loses loses this year again. Last year he threw a fit when he lost to Syacuse and complained about them not having all 'american' runners.