I hate even having to say this as a former Bruin, because I was once genuinely proud of what UCLA built on the distance side. But heading into the final day of the BIG Ten Championships with zero points for the men’s distance group doesn’t score at all is hard to ignore and with no chance at points tomorrow as they didn’t make any distance final. Everyone understood Westwood wasn’t the ideal setup for distance running, but this goes beyond that. Right now it feels like the program has completely lost its direction, identity, and standard. For a school with UCLA’s history and resources, this simply shouldn’t happen. After the indoor conference championships, this is becoming more than a bad weekend it’s becoming the norm. That’s a tough reality for Bruins to watch.
I hate even having to say this as a former Bruin, because I was once genuinely proud of what UCLA built on the distance side. But heading into the final day of the BIG Ten Championships with zero points for the men’s distance group doesn’t score at all is hard to ignore and with no chance at points tomorrow as they didn’t make any distance final. Everyone understood Westwood wasn’t the ideal setup for distance running, but this goes beyond that. Right now it feels like the program has completely lost its direction, identity, and standard. For a school with UCLA’s history and resources, this simply shouldn’t happen. After the indoor conference championships, this is becoming more than a bad weekend it’s becoming the norm. That’s a tough reality for Bruins to watch.
Joanna Hayes has somehow managed to take a program from mediocre to completely bottoming out. I didn’t think she was a great coach before, but what’s happening now is honestly hard to comprehend.
yeah man when an entire squad of young guys with mostly freshman and sophomores aren't competing with the fastest guys in the NCAA, they MUSt be directionless and just terrible.
yeah man when an entire squad of young guys with mostly freshman and sophomores aren't competing with the fastest guys in the NCAA, they MUSt be directionless and just terrible.
The men finished 16th out of 17, and the women delivered the same disappointing performances we saw indoors. Joanna Hayes has somehow taken a program that was already mediocre and driven it completely into the ground. It would of been hard to do worse without trying to be bad
No he’s a problem, but not the main problem. Joanna needs to go
I know it would be a bit controversial, but Joanna Hayes should seriously consider bringing Brosnan back as the head distance coach at UCLA. If I remember correctly, Joanna never actually worked directly with him that was during the Avery Anderson administration when Brosnan was leading the distance program. Right now, Joanna’s problem is that she needs the other event groups to carry their weight, and the distance side simply isn’t producing points. You don’t have to personally like Brosnan, and yeah, he can come off cocky, but the guy can flat-out coach. He got results quickly at UCLA and proved he could elevate the program. No offense to the current distance staff, but it’s just not getting done right now. UCLA desperately needs distance points again, and whether people want to admit it or not, Brosnan brought relevance and results to that side of the program.
little ability for foreigners that are competitive in track
limited roster
limited scholarship
this is the result you get
In state tuition isn’t $85k about 30k! , plenty of programs have far less than that and still perform better too. This is a fully funded program with every resource imaginable, so there’s really no excuse for finishing last or second to last. I’m not saying Hayes is that terrible at coaching, but terrible at hiring coaches.
I find it amusing that an athlete involved in the whole Brosnan transfer portal episode won the women's 5000 title for Oregon.
How was she involved? She was already planning to transfer, but once Brosnan was out, she decided to go somewhere else along with several others. That’s exactly the point, athletes want to run for Brosnan because they believe in him and know he can build a strong distance program, unlike what UCLA currently has. All she did was choose a school with a proven distance coach after the coach she originally wanted to run for was gone.
No he’s a problem, but not the main problem. Joanna needs to go
I know it would be a bit controversial, but Joanna Hayes should seriously consider bringing Brosnan back as the head distance coach at UCLA. If I remember correctly, Joanna never actually worked directly with him that was during the Avery Anderson administration when Brosnan was leading the distance program. Right now, Joanna’s problem is that she needs the other event groups to carry their weight, and the distance side simply isn’t producing points. You don’t have to personally like Brosnan, and yeah, he can come off cocky, but the guy can flat-out coach. He got results quickly at UCLA and proved he could elevate the program. No offense to the current distance staff, but it’s just not getting done right now. UCLA desperately needs distance points again, and whether people want to admit it or not, Brosnan brought relevance and results to that side of the program.
Even if Joanna wanted to hire Brosnan, isn't he on a show-cause order from the NCAA for X number of years that he's trying to fight in court?
I know it would be a bit controversial, but Joanna Hayes should seriously consider bringing Brosnan back as the head distance coach at UCLA. If I remember correctly, Joanna never actually worked directly with him that was during the Avery Anderson administration when Brosnan was leading the distance program. Right now, Joanna’s problem is that she needs the other event groups to carry their weight, and the distance side simply isn’t producing points. You don’t have to personally like Brosnan, and yeah, he can come off cocky, but the guy can flat-out coach. He got results quickly at UCLA and proved he could elevate the program. No offense to the current distance staff, but it’s just not getting done right now. UCLA desperately needs distance points again, and whether people want to admit it or not, Brosnan brought relevance and results to that side of the program.
Even if Joanna wanted to hire Brosnan, isn't he on a show-cause order from the NCAA for X number of years that he's trying to fight in court?
No, according to the NCAA ruling, the show-cause order never included any coaching restrictions for Brosnan. I’m not going to get into all the NCAA politics behind why they handed it out, but from everything I just read, he’s been allowed to coach the entire time. The NCAA absolutely could have restricted him from coaching if they believed the violation was that serious, but they didn’t. From the report, it looks like until July 8th, if a school wanted to hire Brosnan they simply had to notify the NCAA and explain why they wanted to hire him. That’s basically just NCAA protocol with a show-cause. What’s strange is that the NCAA issued a show-cause without attaching any real penalties to it. As a former NCAA coach, that tells me the violation itself was weak and the NCAA mainly wanted to make it look like they were doing something without actually doing much at all. Situations like this are a big reason why I don’t coach in the NCAA anymore ( it’s been 11 years ) the whole system can be absurd. That being said, Brosnan has always been free to be hired, and afterJuly 8th it appears any remaining NCAA requirements completely disappear and a school doesn’t even have to acknowledge it happened . So as a Brosnan fan I would say being the man back to LA and get things back to the way they should be.
I find it amusing that an athlete involved in the whole Brosnan transfer portal episode won the women's 5000 title for Oregon.
How was she involved? She was already planning to transfer, but once Brosnan was out, she decided to go somewhere else along with several others. That’s exactly the point, athletes want to run for Brosnan because they believe in him and know he can build a strong distance program, unlike what UCLA currently has. All she did was choose a school with a proven distance coach after the coach she originally wanted to run for was gone.
She told the NCAA she wanted to transfer to UCLA to be "closer to home" and that they never even talked to Brosnan.
UCLA is a good academic school with great weather. Is its location within the city crap though? Is that why people don't want to go there? It seems like it could be tough to just go out your door for a training run, but for sprints/throws/jumps that doesn't matter. Are their facilities bad? Their football team sucks too now. Maybe their athletic department as a whole just can't keep up, it requires too much money to have good facilities in the expensive LA area.
Even if Joanna wanted to hire Brosnan, isn't he on a show-cause order from the NCAA for X number of years that he's trying to fight in court?
No, according to the NCAA ruling, the show-cause order never included any coaching restrictions for Brosnan. I’m not going to get into all the NCAA politics behind why they handed it out, but from everything I just read, he’s been allowed to coach the entire time. The NCAA absolutely could have restricted him from coaching if they believed the violation was that serious, but they didn’t. From the report, it looks like until July 8th, if a school wanted to hire Brosnan they simply had to notify the NCAA and explain why they wanted to hire him. That’s basically just NCAA protocol with a show-cause. What’s strange is that the NCAA issued a show-cause without attaching any real penalties to it. As a former NCAA coach, that tells me the violation itself was weak and the NCAA mainly wanted to make it look like they were doing something without actually doing much at all. Situations like this are a big reason why I don’t coach in the NCAA anymore ( it’s been 11 years ) the whole system can be absurd. That being said, Brosnan has always been free to be hired, and afterJuly 8th it appears any remaining NCAA requirements completely disappear and a school doesn’t even have to acknowledge it happened . So as a Brosnan fan I would say being the man back to LA and get things back to the way they should be.