Wetmore out at CU! Who replaces him?

CU COULD (not saying they will or have) consider 2 different paths.

1. Become good in all event areas, and maintain/return to distance prominence

2. Go all in on distance and continue to minimize other event areas

Culpepper, the Garys, Fox, Santos and Dunbar would all likely be under the #2 option, though Santos could conceivably support a more balanced approach.

JD is a distance guy, but has supported other event areas at Fresno, doing what he can with what he has to work with.

The Malones could oversee a balanced team, and with the right distance hires, make a splash in that area as well.

If I were the AD I would strongly consider hiring a director that could both (a) handle the administrative/organizational juggernaut that is college coaching (and its becoming more challenging each year) - and that person would coach event areas other than distance; and then (b) hire two distance coaches (one for men, one for women) that are outstanding at their craft and let them focus on coaching/recruiting.

This would enable the other event areas to potentially flourish simultaneously as the distance area. The best HSrs in CO ought to be headed to CU in all event areas. Instead, the best usually head up north to CSU or out-of-state. CU could own the state in developing all event areas AND recruit national caliber distance runners from outside the state. They could be competitive within the Big 12 on the T&F conference meets and be nationally competitive in distance at Nats.

Going all in on a distance director without regard to other event areas, especially one who has little to no collegiate coaching experience, is a shaky proposition.

The magic wizard is the right guy for the job.Had been thrilling to see him swing his magic wand.

Sounds like you're describing the Malones almost to a T. If I'm the AD, I tell them to make the lead distance coach an associate head coach, and let that person hire the second distance coach. Whether the Malones go for that as a condition of being hired is another matter.

I also think that JD would be a solid hire, though I'd make him retain the Malones as a condition of being hired (again, whether the Malones go for that is questionable).

The Malones would have to go for it as they have no back up plan and Wetmore(s) did not advocate for them.

Colorado needs a big name distance coach program. It’s about optics and vision. It’s why they hired Deion. You don’t hire a sprint coach at CU.

Actually I think it would be peak CU Prime Time era to hire a big name sprint coach. CU will finally attract good sprinters. They will not be allowed to compete outside of Colorado. Instead they will race only ik Colorado and achieve flashy early season world leads because they will be the only decently level sprinters racing at altitude. Then they will fail to advance to the ncaa finals.

In true prime time style, that will get social media likes and attention early in the year, then be exposed when they face real competition.

Colorado indeed is a distance coach’s wet dream. But to say they need a head coach that is a big distance name is close minded. What they need is a coach who understands the importance of distance at Colorado. So make the right hire. Holdon is right, free up the distance coaches to recruit and work with the athletes.

Plenty of examples of non-distance head coaches having success in XC. Nuttycombe at Wisconsin had Smith, Schumacher, and Tegan.

Oregon under Johnson, Georgetown right now, Ole Miss, Florida, Texas, etc.

<yes, I am gloating as I called the Franklin thing a while ago>

The incel's go home devastated.

Ha! Diljeet AND Franklin said no. I will say it again, there is NO WAY that CU is offering to fully funded program that would entice a hire at Franklin's, or Diljeet's level. Any and all the quality people can already know the sh*t-show that is CU running.

Cold calling them like an LDS Elder selling Kirby vacuums and Mormon-ism: "Hi, this is Rick, can I talk you about coaching at our school. Oh, sorry, this is Rick George, with CU Athletics, I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment about... oh, I'm sorry, are you sure? Yes, Okay, I understand. Thanks for taking my call."

Bwahahahaha. Lamers.

Still, I hope they get someone good...

Agreed. It is a question of what is important to them. If its all about being distance - then go that direction and forget the majority of other T&F events. But if they want to be good at distance AND all the other events - then leadership needs to determine what combination of coaches works towards that end.

There is no one "right" answer but a few possibilities. Two that do NOT work is a T&F head who doesn't "get" distance or a Distance head who doesn't "get" the other T&F events - if CU wants to be good all-around.

I would agree Johnson at OR "got" distance (i.e. gave distance coaches room to do their thing) and it worked for them.

I'm not sure I would put Ole Miss, Florida and Texas in the same category as OR - and I'm not familiar enough with Georgetown to comment.

Connie, Mouse and Floreal all seem to "read the room" to different degrees and put resources where it can best help the team because they want to win instead of being married to only one team-construction strategy. I don't think any love distance, but if they can get production out of the events better than what they can from the power events on a given year or cycle, they are open to supporting it.

For example, Florida has NOT been highly competitive as a team/group of distance runners for the majority of Holloway's tenure. They've had individuals that could score on the track and that has been their strategy - getting a few key points from that event area - but certainly not fully supporting a team of distance runners for consistent high XC success.

Now recently on the women's side that has changed. They have a moment in time that they can be good as a team - and they will likely explore that option as long as it is viable. When it becomes less viable, resources will likely switch to another team-construction strategy to better position for T&F winning.

The fastest collegiate 4x100m relay ever run by a college from Colorado was actually by UCCS at 39.46 in 2023.

School records for D1 schools in Colorado.

AFA 39.53

CU 39.47

CSU 39.56

UNC 40.19

The Malone's are great people and coaches that would do a great job managing the team overall. They know the history very well being CSU Grads, as well as being raised in Colorado. They would Hire a Head CC and Associate Head Assistant distance coach to preserve the distance tradition. They would also retain the great Sprint Coach Brock. You don't have to be a head coach to have success as a Distance coach.

The Malones would be good directors of the program. Good leaders are smart enough to know their strengths and I think they’d make the correct hires for XC/Distance. I don’t necessarily think it has to be a big splashy name but it needs to be someone who really wants to grab this program by the balls and bring it back to where it’s supposed to be. Remember, no one really knew who Mark Wetmore was until he arrived to CU. Granted he built the program into a powerhouse pretty quickly by landing Goucher and having some talented upperclassmen (Culpepper, etc) to immediately work with when he took the helm.

The same can be said for Jason Drake. A CU grad who also coached at Colorado, and also had stints at Washington State, University of Washington (where he built up the indoor meets), and is the Director at Fresno State, where right now they are doing better in the throws and sprints because that's where their strengths are. The Malones and Drake sound like the best choices at this point. My educated guess is it is probably down to those two.

It seems like whoever gets the job would be well served to focus their attention on distance, but keep the non-distance event coaches because they have had recent success at both the conference and national level. The Malones and Bockman have done well with the resources they have been allocated under Wetmore and would also keep some semblance of normalcy for the team. Reinvigorate the distance groups via the 3 open positions, and you could have a well balanced and successful team.

Well look who's at it again. Still bitter about being overlooked in recruiting twenty-some years ago. Tell your therapist about it, not us.

JD Pro - Distance-Oriented Alum who has some administrative chops to presumably oversee a full program (if they go that direction).

JD Con - CU Alum that may find it challenging navigating the "Loyal to Wetmore" and "Distancing himself from alleged training practices" factions.

JD Questions - Does he know the Colorado HS recruiting scene? He's been distance only until Fresno and has supported other event areas (see throws this year); can he do that on a wider scale? If going all in on distance, is he "the guy" that can relight the fire? What other coaches would he need to hire to elevate the program? Lastly, realizing he may have been hampered with less that full (12.6/18) funding at Fresno, but even if he were, as deep as CA distance running is; how is it that he doesn't have larger D #s and higher quality?

Malones Pro - Know CU and presumably* are somewhat connected to CO HS recruit pathways. Familiar with CU procedures and with good distance hires could have a broad program.

Malones Con - If they don't hire good distance coaches they don't have enough T&F capital to attract solid recruits in the power event areas. They've been there for a good # of years, and while a few individuals have done well in their event areas, it hasn't been an overwhelming show of development/performance. This could be due in part to lack of available scholarships within their event areas.

Malones Questions - Do they have a plan for scholarship/resource allocation for all event areas? If not, will they choose a Distance/Power Event Area focus and not worry about other Power Events? Who would they envision leading the distance teams? *Because they haven't historically had large #s in the Power Events, how strong are their in-state recruiting ties? Are they tied in anyway to the "alleged training practices" and if so, how can they distance themselves from that?

Any who read this, please don't interrupt the above in a negative way towards JD or the Malones. These are simply pros/cons I see and some questions. I think both could be viable solutions.

Jason Drake is well liked, very well liked, he might be voted "coach favorite in the NCAA." But if CU is going to return to anywhere close to the Goucher and Ritz days of old, even coming close to competing with NAU, he will NOT get them there. JD has to be 53 or 54? And he cannot claim on single indivdual that he has coached to anything notworthy. The successful coaches out there today are not training like JD or the Wetmores of the world do, 20 mile long runs at 'MAGS" and 10 x 500m won't work anymore, and while Wetmore has had a few glimmers (only women, usually in the steeple) JD has shown ZERO noteworthy. Name a single individual that JD has coache to do anything. The sport has completely changed, coaches are pricking fingers, double thresholds, cross training, the sport is not the same. If CU is going to return to being a national class program they need a young coach who keeps up with the progression of the sport, Cornfield, Smith, Vanhoy, Gibby. But if Jason Drake is heading the distance workouts the team will go backwards. Jason is jolly fun, but that is about it.

Were any of these coaches mentioned above or those of similar pedigree even contacted about the job?

It seems with the presumed candidate list that’s been posted recently either all the high caliber prospects said no for whatever reason or CU doesn’t actually care about being competitive at an elite level.

Thank You. Well said.

This thread is hilarious. While we're at it, why not Mark Coogan as the next HC? Hell, why not Brad MF Hudson? He coached and lived in Boulder for a while, is steeped in the Wetmore Lydiardesque philosophy without being a direct branch off Wetmore's coaching tree. Makes as much sense as most of the names trotted out on here.

To all you Quiller Era apologists, please list all the Olympians to go through CU during those years. Sure, it was a solid program and Wetmore didn't lack a foundation to build on, but don't get confused about who it really was that got the results which put the program on the map at the top of the heap. It's like saying Hayward made Oregon a powerhouse, not Bowerman.

As for the Boulder running community, are we talking about the same collection of spastic delusional narcissistic clowns who got the Fairview High track completely locked up? Yeah, I'd tell them to keep away, too. It's not like the program went nowhere without support from the powerful, wealthy runners of Boulder who will tell you all about their Bolder Boulder AG win that one year.