So whomever takes over at UCLA will have a clean slate. Probably a good thing, honestly.
It's a quality school soon to be in the B1G so whomever takes over will have some rebuilding to do but it can be done.
I guess now they can take their time to find a replacement and hire someone good... not a stop gap.
Lol ignoring that whoever takes over is getting canned by 2024 XC season once they jettison Avery, that job is going to be radioactive for years.
They will get zero quality recruits knowing that a bunch of good runners just got deceived (whether it was the upper management or Brosnan) and probably ignored good options to attend this dumpster fire. As long as everyone stayed, they could have tried to compete this year as a team with a stopgap coach, as at least the girls had the numbers to contend for a nationals spot at least. The fact that everyone is fleeing the site shows that it was Brosnan and not the location or school that brought in people.
Only locals and most the bottom of the D1 level barrel will go there unless they get a seasoned coach, and none of those will sign up knowing the upper management is willing to burn it all to the ground at a moment's notice. Presumably, there is little money for distance anyway, so any good coach that comes is going to be strapped for much beyond a bare minimum XC team once 2024 rolls around.
I predict they'll hire a <30 former student with minimal experience to hold the fort for a few years until they can show prospective students and hires that the program is more stable than a house of cards.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
So whomever takes over at UCLA will have a clean slate. Probably a good thing, honestly.
It's a quality school soon to be in the B1G so whomever takes over will have some rebuilding to do but it can be done.
I guess now they can take their time to find a replacement and hire someone good... not a stop gap.
Lol ignoring that whoever takes over is getting canned by 2024 XC season once they jettison Avery, that job is going to be radioactive for years.
They will get zero quality recruits knowing that a bunch of good runners just got deceived (whether it was the upper management or Brosnan) and probably ignored good options to attend this dumpster fire. As long as everyone stayed, they could have tried to compete this year as a team with a stopgap coach, as at least the girls had the numbers to contend for a nationals spot at least. The fact that everyone is fleeing the site shows that it was Brosnan and not the location or school that brought in people.
Only locals and most the bottom of the D1 level barrel will go there unless they get a seasoned coach, and none of those will sign up knowing the upper management is willing to burn it all to the ground at a moment's notice. Presumably, there is little money for distance anyway, so any good coach that comes is going to be strapped for much beyond a bare minimum XC team once 2024 rolls around.
I predict they'll hire a <30 former student with minimal experience to hold the fort for a few years until they can show prospective students and hires that the program is more stable than a house of cards.
I believe Avery just got a contract extension but I'm not sure.
Yes. It will take a while to build the program back up after this episode for which the former coach is at least partly responsible for.
I suspect Brosnan was anticipating that UCLA’s joining the Big Ten there would be money in the budget for scholarships. He had no other cards to play to creat a successful program.
Why would moving to the big 10 mean more scholarships? UCLA is already a fully funded program; they just choose to use them for sprints, throws, jumps, hurdles & multis.
Good question, UCLA’s athletic dept was over $100million in the hole because of Covid.
Non-revenue sports were on the cutting block to save the dept.
Being in the BigTen means huge TV revenue from NCAA (Google NCAA realignment)
Lol ignoring that whoever takes over is getting canned by 2024 XC season once they jettison Avery, that job is going to be radioactive for years.
They will get zero quality recruits knowing that a bunch of good runners just got deceived (whether it was the upper management or Brosnan) and probably ignored good options to attend this dumpster fire. As long as everyone stayed, they could have tried to compete this year as a team with a stopgap coach, as at least the girls had the numbers to contend for a nationals spot at least. The fact that everyone is fleeing the site shows that it was Brosnan and not the location or school that brought in people.
Only locals and most the bottom of the D1 level barrel will go there unless they get a seasoned coach, and none of those will sign up knowing the upper management is willing to burn it all to the ground at a moment's notice. Presumably, there is little money for distance anyway, so any good coach that comes is going to be strapped for much beyond a bare minimum XC team once 2024 rolls around.
I predict they'll hire a <30 former student with minimal experience to hold the fort for a few years until they can show prospective students and hires that the program is more stable than a house of cards.
I believe Avery just got a contract extension but I'm not sure.
Yes. It will take a while to build the program back up after this episode for which the former coach is at least partly responsible for.
It’s a public university and with a little digging you’ll find Avery Anderson’s contract is up this coming June. I’m going to say with confidence he’s not getting renewed.
This is more of a reason to stay away from the Trainwreck of UCLA. They will continue getting sub par athletes. Especially after all the top distance athletes transferring when Brosnan did not get renewed.
I don't understand this revisionist history that Brosnan was the only savior to bring a lowly program to national notoriety.
UCLA doesn't emphasize cross-country, but even with that, during the Forest Braden years they went the following at NCAAs on the men's side: 2016 15th 2015 14th 2014 18th 2012 13th
So a consistent top 20 program for a stretch (including 2017 where they were 21st in the new regimes first year).
Things fell off as Anderson shifted emphasis. And maybe they were going back to that with Brosnan, but let's not act like Brosnan is the only coach who could do this. There are dozens upon dozens who could get them there again with a little scholarship.
All these posts about University of California at Los Angeles distance runners. I guess I missed all those NCAA titles in distance racing and cross country.
They hired a high school coach. High School. He got fired after one year. Move on, nothing lost or gained.
Ok, so Brosnan is done at UCLA. I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere. I'm a bit surprised by how many people look at him as such an amazing coach. Yes, he coached some phenomenally talented kids in high school and one year in college. What else has he brought to the table? I'm not saying he's a bad coach, just saying that outside Lex/Leo and Aaron/Colin, what's all the noise about? He doesn't bring in any noteworthy personal running success, and nothing with any pro runners. Am I missing something?
Using Uncle Phil's money, do we think that the Oregon coaching staff looks like this soon?
Jerry Schumacher - Director and Head Coach of TF/XC (coaches Bowerman Pros as side hustle but not the Duck kids)
Shalane Flanagan - Women's Head Coach (specializes in XC plus women's 5/10/Steeple athletes)
Chris Solinsky - Assistant Coach (specializes in XC plus men's 5/10/Steeple athletes)
Sean Brosnan - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator (actively coaches the men's and women's middle distances)
Are you insane or just such a Brosnan fan that you don't understand how dumb this is or I guess a troll and I missed the sarcasm?
Brosnan was a completely pitiful recruiter at UCLA outside of the 3 recruits that allegedly got him fired because he recruited them unethically. So, Schumacher, Flanagan and Solinsky need to upgrade their ability to recruit by hiring Brosnan? That is so laughable.
To top it off, the current Oregon coaches who have coached some of the best in the world, defer to Brosnan who coached some really good high school kids?
The Bruin ladies going to Oregon was not their preferred choice. Their just making the most out of an unfortunate situation where coaches colluded to get their coach out. They were the causalities of this. Quite impressive they’ve chosen to laugh about it and move on.
UCLA will be fine. They will terrible during their final PAC-12 season. Once they enter the B1G, they will have the advantage of recruiting at home and from across the Midwest. Hire the right coach with good connections, then start poaching kids that would have settled for Nebraska, Indiana, or Illinois.
I don't really get why a recruit would care about conference... *maybe* you'll get to run a conference championship close to your family at some point in your 4 years if you're from the midwest. you also might just not if you go to UCLA "for the big 10" and then conference meets are at colorado, ucla, usc, oregon, washington, rutgers, maryland, etc during your 4 years
it's not like basketball where you *know* you'll be playing close to home 1-2 times a year. even that seems like a stupid basis for a decision, though
Do not make excuses for this mess. Forest Braden built a solid program that the new regime wrecked with the rest of the team. It is completely believable that the admin thought the name UCLA would keep these athletes and they were wrong just like they were wrong 7 years ago when Avery Anderson was hired and Forest was let go along with the rest of the staff. There was a mass exodus of talent them and there is one now. It is a failure of vision and a lack of understanding of the job. UCLA cannot keep talent, athlete nor coach. 1988 is the last title. I cannot tell you when the last time they won a single trophy on the mens side. Bad management means bad hires means bad teams. Brosnan is just the latest and his athletes are just the new batch of transfers. Sadly this is expected of the program now. Everyone just says UCLA does not care about the program.
Do not make excuses for this mess. Forest Braden built a solid program that the new regime wrecked with the rest of the team. It is completely believable that the admin thought the name UCLA would keep these athletes and they were wrong just like they were wrong 7 years ago when Avery Anderson was hired and Forest was let go along with the rest of the staff. There was a mass exodus of talent them and there is one now. It is a failure of vision and a lack of understanding of the job. UCLA cannot keep talent, athlete nor coach. 1988 is the last title. I cannot tell you when the last time they won a single trophy on the mens side. Bad management means bad hires means bad teams. Brosnan is just the latest and his athletes are just the new batch of transfers. Sadly this is expected of the program now. Everyone just says UCLA does not care about the program.
I would bet good money that UCLA XC never, ever fully recovers from this. It is more likely XC gets eliminated at UCLA eventually than they are ever a top 20 team again. And I don't think Avery cares one bit if this is true.
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