The Journey of a Distance Coach: A Conversation with Dave Smith, Head Coach at Oklahoma State UniversityJoin host Mike Cunningham on the Gill Athletics Connections Podcast for an inspiring episode ...
I knew someone who ran at OSU for him about 7 years ago, and I tell ya, he had NOTHING nice to say about Smith. Everything I heard indicates that he's a nightmare. I guess several distance guys walked out on him during this time. Apparently the nice guy routine is just a narcissistic smokescreen in front of the media and he really doesn't care about the athletes as people and he's unbelievably selfish and cares only about himself and winning. My source stated that as some have suggested, he's really just an administrator and barely communicates with the athletes on an individual basis. He only speaks to them as a group, where he sounds like a guy giving a pre-programmed phony speech in a TV commercial. He pushes the athletes too hard in training, and the approach is far too qualitive with many getting injured every season. When an athlete gets injured, he just ignores them. He's such a petty jerk that he held up my source's transfer for stupid reasons, though he did eventually back off.
This guy is an overgrown baby. All he cares about is himself and getting attention. This is unless he has changed substantially in the last few years, in which case I am only referring to the past, and if he isn't like that now I apologize. It's just I feel that he RUINED my friend's running career at OSU. He was very talented and with a better coach would have been more motivated and would have kept at it instead of hanging the spikes up early.
I was told that after several distance guys decided to walk out on him that he confronted one of them and asked, "Why are you guys all leaving?", to which the runner replied, "because nobody likes you" after which the runner just walked past him without saying anything else. Priceless.
Why is it that a thread titled "Sean Carlson is a bad coach" gets posted outlining the poor performances of his athletes and it gets taken down within hours, while, a thread bashing Dave Smith based off of rumours gets left up?
Isaiah Given - 3:55 Miler - 127th Simon Kelati - 13:34 for 5k - 159th James overberg - 28:38 for 10k - 160th Grady Ruba - 7:56 / 13:54 - 221st
Seriously? This guy had a lineup of 5 solid guys and hit on one of them running well. Dean Casey, a 28:39 freshman, ran what you'd expect him to run. The rest of them - horrible. If you're a recruit, avoid CU and Carlson at all costs!
Yaseen Abdalla while running for Pete Watson came 32nd at NCAA cross. When he ran for Carlson he came 187th at NCAA cross. Now he's running for Chris Bucknam and came 4th at NCAA cross.
Natalie Cook came 7th at NCAA's under Dave and ran 15:24. Cook came 46th in the Region under Carlson.
bad example. shes coming back from a severe injury that kept her out over a year. that injury, by the way, happened under Dave Smith and was the reason she transferred.
Natalie Cook came 7th at NCAA's under Dave and ran 15:24. Cook came 46th in the Region under Carlson.
bad example. shes coming back from a severe injury that kept her out over a year. that injury, by the way, happened under Dave Smith and was the reason she transferred.
You don't think underfueling through HS has anything to do with future injuries?
I have spoken to quite a few of Dave Smith's former assistant coaches. Not one of them said anything good about him. The main thing everyone said was when something is successful he takes all the credit, and when something goes wrong he blames everyone around him and takes no responsibility. I have spoken to him many times and that is exactly as he comes across. But I do think his coaching philosophy is sound.
Isaiah Given - 3:55 Miler - 127th Simon Kelati - 13:34 for 5k - 159th James overberg - 28:38 for 10k - 160th Grady Ruba - 7:56 / 13:54 - 221st
Seriously? This guy had a lineup of 5 solid guys and hit on one of them running well. Dean Casey, a 28:39 freshman, ran what you'd expect him to run. The rest of them - horrible. If you're a recruit, avoid CU and Carlson at all costs!
Dave has been a great coach. He was an awesome runner in high school and college. But, I just lose respect for coaches that go out and just get international runners. He had 1 US Runner in his top 7 for guys and 3 on the ladies side. Sorry, I just lose respect when going out and buying runners outside like this. He is good enough not to have to do that. I guess more and more it is the win now, bring in every top runner in the world you can to win or try to win.
BYU, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Oregon Vill, Washington, Furman, Carolina all do with 5-7 US Kids on their teams.
Dave Smith's public persona shows a lot. This year he appeared nervous and scared in every interview. On multiple occasions he all but publicly shamed Laban Kipkemboi, a clearly incredibly talented freshman who is likely still adapting to life in the states, for going out too fast in races. A good coach stands up for his team and sings their praises in interviews, Dave Smith was almost exclusively critical. I get the idea of trying to keep your guys's egos low but public facing put downs are not the place to do that. I'm not saying this is easy, but a good coach would work to channel the teams confidence into something productive, not cut it off. He also would regularly say they are not the favorites to win - what purpose does that serve?? In my mind it is indactive of a shaky leader who was not prepared to win.
At the end of the day our man Dave is clean and drug free. That’s all that matters. I would rather a coach that criticises harshly an athlete in public than one that panders to them by feeding them drugs.
on the other hand, you could get a coach like maybe Ed eyestone who is very diplomatic and tactful and says the right things in space and time but maybe just maybe, and I do mean a small possibility, he feeds drugs to all his athletes OR pretends he doesn’t see when he knows his athletes are on one.
im just giving an example and not meaning to accuse whoever of doping but you get the point. 👍
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Of course Dave is a master tactician and exemplary motivator. He commands a lot of respect from his athletes both Kenyan and American 🇺🇸! And not to forget he is a comedian thoroughbred!! He knows how to loosen the mood and inject humor, fun and laughter into the team on race day and day before race.
I would say only Mike Smith comes close to Dave’s personality and skills! But Mike is a bad comedian!! ❤️❤️
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I have spoken to quite a few of Dave Smith's former assistant coaches. Not one of them said anything good about him. The main thing everyone said was when something is successful he takes all the credit, and when something goes wrong he blames everyone around him and takes no responsibility. I have spoken to him many times and that is exactly as he comes across. But I do think his coaching philosophy is sound.
Seriously that’s still not like saying Dave is feeding drugs to his athletes. My point is so what? Is it really that bad in a day and age where coaches are having immoral sexual liaison with female athletes and high school athletes are binging on banned drugs?
Seriously I would be happy if my coach blamed me for screwing up my race because that’s better than a coach that sleeps around with his athletes or feeds them drugs? 🤔
I knew someone who ran at OSU for him about 7 years ago, and I tell ya, he had NOTHING nice to say about Smith. Everything I heard indicates that he's a nightmare. I guess several distance guys walked out on him during this time. Apparently the nice guy routine is just a narcissistic smokescreen in front of the media and he really doesn't care about the athletes as people and he's unbelievably selfish and cares only about himself and winning. My source stated that as some have suggested, he's really just an administrator and barely communicates with the athletes on an individual basis. He only speaks to them as a group, where he sounds like a guy giving a pre-programmed phony speech in a TV commercial. He pushes the athletes too hard in training, and the approach is far too qualitive with many getting injured every season. When an athlete gets injured, he just ignores them. He's such a petty jerk that he held up my source's transfer for stupid reasons, though he did eventually back off.
This guy is an overgrown baby. All he cares about is himself and getting attention. This is unless he has changed substantially in the last few years, in which case I am only referring to the past, and if he isn't like that now I apologize. It's just I feel that he RUINED my friend's running career at OSU. He was very talented and with a better coach would have been more motivated and would have kept at it instead of hanging the spikes up early.
I was told that after several distance guys decided to walk out on him that he confronted one of them and asked, "Why are you guys all leaving?", to which the runner replied, "because nobody likes you" after which the runner just walked past him without saying anything else. Priceless.
This is absurd. Dave is an honest and straight in your face guy. He knows what it takes to succeed cleanly. And all these young kids think they know better and try to bargain for mercy from Dave only to be criticised by him. That’s the correct way to do things otherwise how would these kids think they were going to succeed? Drugs?
it’s hard work and commitment and above all discipline. These little kids are just whiners and fed with a silver spoon! They can’t withstand the dedication of Dave, that’s what it is 🤭
OSU 2023 did it with 5 non domestic athletes in their top 7. As for teams with no foreigners: Colorado 2001, Stanford 2002+2003. There are plenty of them. Colorado and Stanford had minimal foreigners(especially Colorado).
Now the argument is with "minimal" foreigners. The goalposts have been moved. Gotcha.
How do you feel about West Virginia's 2nd place finish with 4/5 being international? What about Providence's 3rd place finish with 4/5 being international? On the women's side - every team other than BYU, Virginia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, & Texas had international athletes in their lineup.
Enough of the international athlete/team whining. If you don't like competition and want things handed to you, go partake in your local run club.
I meant that over the years Colorado has had minimal foreigners so you could check their past NCAA wins to find teams with no foreigners. Same with Stanford. This thread was about Dave Smith and someone asked for teams that had won with no foreigners.
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