Who takes over at Arizona? That place can be so good...can they afford a winning coach?
What makes you think they can be "so good"? Just that they're a Power 4 school? Not sure why people think that automatically makes a school a good destination for track and field. Plenty of mid majors have more appealing setups than they do.
weather, resources, power 4. A good coach with all that can do amazing things. go back to when Maynard was there...field events and sprints powerhouse.
They can be a field event/sprint school. But if a distance head coach wanted to go all in on foreign talent it would be cheaper and they have previous success with Kenyans into Coach James Li
They can be a field event/sprint school. But if a distance head coach wanted to go all in on foreign talent it would be cheaper and they have previous success with Kenyans into Coach James Li
Ah, the classic "pour all your money into Kenyans and pretend that makes you good at coaching". Any school can do that, it doesn't mean they're doing anything impressive.
They can be a field event/sprint school. But if a distance head coach wanted to go all in on foreign talent it would be cheaper and they have previous success with Kenyans into Coach James Li
Ah, the classic "pour all your money into Kenyans and pretend that makes you good at coaching". Any school can do that, it doesn't mean they're doing anything impressive.
Devil’s advocate. If it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it? How many times has someone won doing that?
They can be a field event/sprint school. But if a distance head coach wanted to go all in on foreign talent it would be cheaper and they have previous success with Kenyans into Coach James Li
*job opens up* LetsRun users: “they should cut their entire team and put all their money into kenyans, then they’d win ncaas!”
It doesn’t matter if they can’t afford a winning coach. Chances are they promote the female coach that’s on staff already and continue what they have been doing.
This all comes down to how you define coaching. It’s a different skill for sure but finding, recruiting, signing, getting admitted, working through agents, documents, paperwork, is a part of coaching. I can imagine places like New Mexico or Oklahoma State are up to their eyeballs in the logistics and nuance to not only get top athletes but make sure they are eligible to compete, not professional (remember how hard it was for Rupp?). It’s different bringing an athlete from Kenya vs. the US or even Canada. So while it may not be classic coaching it certainly wouldn’t be easy.
This all comes down to how you define coaching. It’s a different skill for sure but finding, recruiting, signing, getting admitted, working through agents, documents, paperwork, is a part of coaching. I can imagine places like New Mexico or Oklahoma State are up to their eyeballs in the logistics and nuance to not only get top athletes but make sure they are eligible to compete, not professional (remember how hard it was for Rupp?). It’s different bringing an athlete from Kenya vs. the US or even Canada. So while it may not be classic coaching it certainly wouldn’t be easy.
This is a very reasonable way of looking at it, and a lot of good points made. A lot harder to land those athletes and guide them to their goals than those on the outside realize. There’s a reason not every star pans out.
Who takes over at Arizona? That place can be so good...can they afford a winning coach?
What makes you think they can be "so good"? Just that they're a Power 4 school? Not sure why people think that automatically makes a school a good destination for track and field. Plenty of mid majors have more appealing setups than they do.
Realistically, it would take an established Power 4 coach about $200-230k for someone to take the Arizona job (last known public record showed Harvey's salary at about $150k), plus a decent assistant coaches pool. That said, I don't know if Arizona can afford it with the mess they have with the athletic department's financial situation.
Arizona can be relevant in the distance events, as Dave Murray was able to do in the 80s and 90s. Despite James Li's propensity to recruit foreigners, his women's team did finish second in the 2013 NCAA cross country championships. In the short term, they'll probably have to go in on the transfer portal. I think that if they hire a sprints/jumps/throws type coach, that head coach need to hire a distance coach who has the connections with both the high schools and foreign coaches/agents, and can use the transfer portal.