Smith fan 2 wrote:
Smith is a good guy so is Cornfield. But Cornfield doesn’t have the coaching chops or personality to draw the top men and women.
Good luck to everyone
I think a key concept is missing from the discussion of Mike’s decision and it’s this.
PEAK NAU has already occurred.
The men got beat by OK state last year and are likely to get wrecked this year.
If Mike stayed at NAU, he too would struggle to replicate what he did when he started. And that’s not meant as an indictment on him - not human being on earth would be able to replicate it.
No way in hell particularly given all the changes in college athletics It would NAU win 5 titles in 7 years - he might not win 5 the rest of his career. And that would be frustrating. So now he gets a pay raise and way less work and travel. Congrats Mike, you deserve it.
I don’t think people realize what all of these scholarship changes mean. Rich state schools like Oregon, Texas, Florida, Alabama can now if they so choose do 15 distance scholarships plus pay kids on top of it with NIL. How in the world is NAU going to compete with that?
When I retired from college coaching at 39, people asked me all the time if I missed it. I said, “I miss the kids. I don’t miss the lifestyle. It’s terrible for someone with a young family. Do you like working 35-40 weekends a year for 35-40k a year? (Yes I know Mike makes more than that). The best way to get back into it would be as a pro coach.”
Pro coaching isn’t as much fun as you don’t have the team scoring and you aren’t working normally with 18-year olds (although that’s changing) but you don’t have to spend hours recruiting either or go to every race they run.