Cole Hocker on going pro: "Honestly, I’m just having fun right now in college.. The pros are always going to be there.”

I know he is tired after a long indoor/outdoor/trials campaign and rest is probably the best thing he could do, but would have loved to see him race a fast 1500 like Monaco to see what he is really capable of.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

utter nonsense wrote:

What does that mean? Is it like an adjustment for altitude? Is there some sort of formula to adjust the real time for "quality"?

Centro won the gold against a high quality field. Shouldn't his 3:50 be adjusted down to reflect that? Hocker is not a 3:32 runner until he runs that time in a race.

A sizable negative split means a faster time would have been run with an even pace. Centrowitz is capable of 3:32, Engels ran 3:33 this year and Hocker beat them both. Hocker's mile time also converts to 3:33.

Not running a time trial this Spring does not detract from his OT win.

No one is detracting from his very impressive OT win. But that doesn't mean you can make up some conversion factor based on who he beat.

Centro beat Kiprop in the Oly final so what does that 3:50 convert to? 3:26?

Coghlan ran USAs? I thought he was Irish?

I think Cole Hocker has it backwards...college will always be there, this moment may not be. He should take advantage of his current athletic marketability.

adamaitis wrote:

I think Cole Hocker has it backwards...college will always be there, this moment may not be. He should take advantage of his current athletic marketability.

Exactly. You can ALWAYS go to college, you can't always be a pro.

Toss out a quote like that and next thing you know there's some injury, then a coaching change, then an illness, then... pretty soon LR is starting a "remember Cole Hocker, What happened to that guy?" threads.

Cole Hocker is using the Art of the Deal method to negotiate a better contract. Always be prepared to walk away from the table.

adamaitis wrote:

I think Cole Hocker has it backwards...college will always be there, this moment may not be. He should take advantage of his current athletic marketability.

Alternate take: I don't think he's going to that much cachet ever if he crashes out in the Olympic Heats or Semis. If he opts to return to Oregon, he could build out the legend status further with a strong XC run and more indoor titles (and college records at the mile and 3k). Going pro after indoors, he and his new coach/Ben Thomas could then reset with the WC Trials and such as top priority without really harming his prep for that. He'd still be turning pro at a young age, and he'd deliver more hype with indoor exploits in the NCAA than he would in the pro circuit indoors. While an NCAA athlete he'd still have a big platform that he can monetize.

I think this is a pretty viable route for him to get more of the college experience if he wants while optimizing for next year's home World Champs.

utter nonsense wrote:

No one is detracting from his very impressive OT win. But that doesn't mean you can make up some conversion factor based on who he beat.

Surely you understand that a guy who has run a 3:50 mile and just won a championship in 3:35.2 with a 52 second last lap should have no trouble dispensing with someone who is only capable of 3:32 fresh on a perfect night with even splits in a rabbited race. Championship racing isn't and never has been settled by a comparison of PRs.

Beating someone who is capable of 3:28 to 3:30 is another matter. But it should be fun finding out if he can hang with a hot pace and still unleash some of that nastiness on the home stretch.

Oh, and I agree with the folks who think he's mistaken about pro contracts always being available and college being available only once. He can stay at Oregon and enjoy most of what he loves about it while getting paid multiple millions. Maybe he can even compete for Oregon as a pro under the new rules -- though it sounds like he'd have to go to court to test the legality of the Nike contract with Oregon.

I also find it hard to believe that he hasn't gotten any offers. Obviously he would get many if he announced himself on the market, but maybe he has scared off suitors before the contract stage by saying he has zero interest in going pro right now.

He has so much confidence that you could imagine he thinks his stock will only go up after he medals in Tokyo. It's a gamble, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's right -- even if he just makes the final.

rojo wrote:

Occam wrote:

No way he's getting a 7 figure deal. NOT once chance. He runs a niche event in a niche sport. Most people don't care which Americans won the 1500 and many runners don't even know that Centro won the gold in 2015.

Now you have a kid who hasn't even run the standard and made exactly 1 Oly team (he got in on a technicality) and won exactly nothing. There is a 1500M champ in the NCAA every year.

To find his combination of speed and endurance is pretty much unprecedented.

The more I think about it, he's a generational talent.

Well there is nothing unprecedented about his combo of speed and endurance. Certainly Joe Falcon had that combo. It is easy to become caught up in recency bias as Hocker is an interesting talent BUT let us see how he fares against the world’s best. Centro is a bit past his prime at 1500 now so that scalp is not as meaningful as some think. Hocker is a great talent and he benefits greatly from training with Teare, as does Teare with Hocker, not to mention Hunter and the others. Plus have you forgotten about the super spikes? When Conner Mantz runs 3:37, Hocker’s 3:35 loses a bit of its luster. Yes I know Hocker likely can run 3:33 for sure but let’s pump the brakes a bit until we have more data.

Wow only took you going back what... 30 years to find someone with that combo. Ill never understand why people on this board are so obsessed with diminishing the accomplishments of american runners who they should be praising. Loser.

Exactly! Runners have a certain window of opportunity to be great! Why not just keep you're same coach..take classes at Oregon? You're friends will always be there but opportunity?

johnne wrote:

Well there is nothing unprecedented about his combo of speed and endurance. Certainly Joe Falcon had that combo.

I feel like the Falcon thing is interesting. Falcon's a lot like Solinsky though, his career year (1990) didn't match up with a championships and he suffered a devastating injury that basically ended his career. Falcon also did this at age 22-24 during/after an amazing college career. Hocker is much younger and rawer. The 1991 World Championships 1500 was so pathetic behind Morceli, it's a bit sad to think about actually:

xcfan97 wrote:

Wow only took you going back what... 30 years to find someone with that combo. Ill never understand why people on this board are so obsessed with diminishing the accomplishments of american runners who they should be praising. Loser.

If you were smarter you would know that I can find similar talents much more recently. I am not diminishing his accomplishments. If you were smarter you would recognize that I should be speaking the truth and not “praising” anyone.

adamaitis wrote:

I think Cole Hocker has it backwards...college will always be there, this moment may not be. He should take advantage of his current athletic marketability.

Maybe he's predicting the student debt bubble will end college in the US as we know it. Is he trying to tell us something that we don't know???

I believe the year Alan Webb made the Olympics he didn't get out of the heats.

I’m confused why he has to choose. The new rules are clear, he can turn pro AND remain at Oregon/running for Oregon. If he’s not a Nike pro, then I would imagine there would be some difficult negotiations over what he wears and when. There might also be difficult negotiations about his competition schedule, but I would think it could all be worked out. I also don’t get the economics. Hocker is a great takent, but what’s it to Nike if he flames out? We are not talking signing Lebron or Tiger or Serena. The money given almost every pro runner is less than nothing as far as Nike is concerned. Why not make him an offer he can’t refuse? They have literally nothing to lose.

The Original Rastus wrote:

I believe the year Alan Webb made the Olympics he didn't get out of the heats.

I just watched that race again. What an awful performance. He never set foot in lane one except for about five steps on the last turn. If he had run like Hocker did at Trials, or even like Centro, he would have gone through easily. Instead, he came through 1100 in 5th at 2:45, a few tenths off the lead, and could only manage a 56 second last 400. All in all he ran a good 1530 meters.

The Dirty Duck wrote:

The Original Rastus wrote:

I believe the year Alan Webb made the Olympics he didn't get out of the heats.

I just watched that race again. What an awful performance. He never set foot in lane one except for about five steps on the last turn. If he had run like Hocker did at Trials, or even like Centro, he would have gone through easily. Instead, he came through 1100 in 5th at 2:45, a few tenths off the lead, and could only manage a 56 second last 400. All in all he ran a good 1530 meters.

But you know, Hock didn't exactly run a smart race either. If I remember he was stuck behind guys in lane one with about 150 to go and he got lucky a little space opened up and he slipped through to the outside. Prior to that he nearly had a guy fall in front of him and he had to force his way by in lane one to get up near the front.

In a heat with guys that are slower you don't want to be stuck behind them and waste energy getting around them when the hammer drops. You need to be right there at the front with no one in your way.