2021 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

Let’s be honest ADs care about NCAA and conference titles. THATS IT! It’s some coaches that are on their way out

Dean Hayes 56 years at Middle Tennessee State- 29 OVC titles, 18 Sun Belt championships, and 20 NCAA Top 25 finishes

Rollie Geiger 37 years at NC State- 32 ACC Championships



Pat Henry 17 years at Texas A&M 17 years at LSU 3 years JUCO- NCAA Championships (36), SEC Championships (22), Big 12 Championships (14)



Amy Deem 31 years at the University of Miami- 0 team titles



Grover Hinsdale 41 years at Georgia Tech 27 years as head coach – 0 team titles

Gary Pepin 40 years at Nebraska 3 Women's Indoor National Championships (1982, 1983, 1984), 73 Career Conference Team Titles (43 Indoor, 30 Outdoor)

James Henry 36 years at Michigan 33 as head coach- 2 NCAA Championships podium team finishes (3rd outdoor in 2007, 3rd indoor in 2008) as head coach, 8 NCAA Championships top-10 team finishes (5 indoor, 3 outdoor) as a head coach, 17 Big Ten Championships team titles (9 indoor, 8 outdoor) as head coach

Fred Harvey 34 years at Arizona 19 as head coach- 0 team titles

Lance Harter 31 years at Arkansas- 6 NCAA Titles 40 SEC Titles: Cross Country (21), Indoor (11), Outdoor (8), 1 National Triple Crown, 6 SEC Triple Crowns


Dennis Shaver 26 years at LSU 13 years JUCO- 1 national title, 8 NJCAA National Championships, Coached Barton County CC to first NJCAA "Triple Crown" in history, winning the cross country, indoor and outdoor national titles during the 1990-91 season, 12 Jayhawk Community College Conference Championships, 12 national championships while serving as an assistant coach for nine seasons from 1996-2004, won a total of seven Southeastern Conference championships

Brett Halter 26 years at University of Missouri- 0 team titles

Curtis Frye 25 years at South Carolina- 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championship crown, In addition to the team title in 2002, his teams earned the silver medal in 2005 and took home the bronze in 2003 and 2006. On the men's side, Frye's team placed in the top-25 nationally indoors on 12 occasions and in the top 20 nine times outdoors.



Leroy Burrell 23 years at Houston- 41 team conference championships to the record books

Wes Kittley 21 years at Texas Tech- 9 Big 12 Team Championships

Steve Rainbolt 21 years at Wichita State- 33 Conference Championship Teams

Dave Cianelli 20 years at Virginia Tech- 16 ACC team championships, 4 top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships

Mike Holloway 19 years at University of Florida- 9-time NCAA Division I National Champion, 15-time SEC Champion (12 track & field / 3 cross country), 23 Top-2 Finishes at 34 Men’s NCAA Championships, 21 Top-3 Finishes at last 22 Men’s NCAA Championships


Dave Smith 19 years at Oklahoma State- nine straight Big 12 team titles from 2008-16 


Kevin Robinson 18 years at Memphis 14 as head coach- 1 Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship (men)

Bob Braman 18 years at Florida state- two NCAA Championships – among 12 top-four finishing trophies, the Seminole men have lifted the Atlantic Coast Conference championship trophy 23 times, adding their 12th indoor title in 2020 to go along with 11 outdoor title celebrations. Meanwhile, the women collected their fourth ACC outdoor title in 2019 to go along with three indoor titles.Their resume includes a pair of ACC Triple Crowns, sweeping cross country, indoor and outdoor team titles in 2008-09 and 2013-14.



Andrew Valmon 17 years at Maryland- 0 team titles

Darryl Anderson 17 years at TCU- His teams have won three Conference Championships


Kurt Craft 16 years at ECU-Six Conference Championships



Steve Keith 15 years at Vanderbilt- 2017 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships to Vanderbilt for the first time in school history

Karen Dennis 15 years at Ohio State- 10 Big Ten titles, including women’s indoor (2011, 2015, 2019, 2020) and outdoor (2011, 2012, 2019, 2021) crowns as well as men’s indoor and outdoor championships in 2018, their first in 25 years.



Dale Cowper 15 years at Louisville- 0 team titles

Ron Helmer 13 years at Indiana- 15 BIG EAST TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS POST ?

I don’t know the point but I stopped reading after it stated Amy Deem at University of Miami had no team titles…smh…she has had titles in the Big East and ACC.

okkurrr wrote:

thinkaboutit! wrote:

The UGA men's distance team has zero scholarships. Hard to make something out of nothing. Given that, third at the SEC meet is a miracle.

Maybe 3rd was a miracle to you but I don’t see it that way. All of these schools get 4:15 guys to just walk on drooling over the school, so as a coach you have the ammo to build a very capable distance team off of walk ons. Why else would you have mid majors that can qualify for NCAAs in XC. These are essentially the same exact guys that walk on to P5s but instead had enough sense to take the scholarship and not be enamored at the football team or name of the school. So do not cut these coaches any slack, aren’t they suppose to be the best coaches or am I wrong?

I hear you and you're not wrong...but the reality on the ground in a lot of these situations (P5 track and field program that doesn't bother with distance...because it wins track and field championships) is that it's been made clear from the director that the distance athletes don't matter (yep, it's the same way in all those mid-major's who put everything in distance, just reversed). They're just there because they technically have to field a XC team (and Title IX compliance). It often doesn't take long for these 4:15 guys (who may have used their PR's just to get in & yes, just wanted to go to the big name school for the parties anyway) to lose motivation when they're never traveling and last in priority for everything (and of course they're not on money). That's still on them (they should have known what they were signing up for - if this is a surprise)...and sure a great coach can do a lot to keep morale up, but it's still a very difficult job & one that could potentially put the XC/distance coach at odds with their boss/the director. So the dutiful distance assistant keeps their head down, does what they can without ruffling too many feathers/rocking the boat, and then gets to keep their SEC salaried (big $ for doing what they do) job for another year. Cunniff seemed to dutifully do this for years exactly how he was supposed to...so here's to hoping he lands on his feet. And assuming Jebre takes the head cross country coach job - his job will NOT be coaching cross country. Obviously.

Need to look at your numbers again bud.

All good points!

Ahh, you’re not wrong, but I have witnessed many 4:15 guys get a chance to travel and compete. Home meets also of course. Let’s keep real, If the coach knows how to develop the 4:15 kid will run 4:0X out the gate and not have that issue of not traveling let’s stop cutting them slack. Why covet these power5 coaches and then not expect them to be able to develop. No they will not knock them all out the park but hell you made it clear you deserved that position so show us Neanderthals what you’re capable of. It’s just a cop out to say they’re serving the head coach, why wouldn’t he want a walk on to travel and score points do you know how much respect that earns you to have a walk on score at a P5 conference? Stop giving these guys with 20+ years coaching experience excuses.

The solution is cross country only scholarships. And that track and field scholarships can run on the cross country team, but cross country scholarships can run on the track team.

But distance coaches hate the idea because:

A. They want to spend more than 5/6 scholarships on distance

B. When everyone has the same to spend in XC, then the coaches can't hide.

Something big going down in big ten?

UNF has an assistant job posted for anyone with a Master's degree who wants to work for 28K a year and live in Jacksonville. Enjoy that.

................................. wrote:

The solution is cross country only scholarships. And that track and field scholarships can run on the cross country team, but cross country scholarships can run on the track team.

But distance coaches hate the idea because:

A. They want to spend more than 5/6 scholarships on distance

B. When everyone has the same to spend in XC, then the coaches can't hide.

I don't think this is a "solution" unless the cross country athletes aren't allowed to also compete in track (to be clear, I'm not in favor of this). Otherwise, it's just going to make the LSUs and USCs of the world stronger. I like the way it is now where, with some exceptions, the schools that win cross country national championships are generally not the same schools that win indoor and outdoor track championships.

Maybe at Michigan.

How does it make sprint schools stronger? They will have 5/6 scholarships to spend on xc, just like Portland and Furman.... That is ALL that can run xc.

Xc scholarships will produce xc championship results.

Then each school can use their track scholarships however they want. If furman/Portland type schools still want to spend on distance, so be it, it just won't help them in xc because track scholarship kids can never run xc.

It doesn't change LSU type schools other than giving them $ for xc runners they don't currently spend on.

Is Michigan finally going to clean house? Very underperforming staff.

Some of these are valid!

Grover Hinsdale 41 years at Georgia Tech 27 years as head coach – 0 team titles

Fred Harvey 34 years at Arizona 19 as head coach- 0 team titles

Amy Deem 31 years at the University of Miami- 4 big east titles

 And what else???


Brett Halter 26 years at University of Missouri- 0 team titles

Curtis Frye 25 years at South Carolina- 2002 NCAA Outdoor Championship crown, In addition to the team title in 2002, his teams earned the silver medal in 2005 and took home the bronze in 2003 and 2006. On the men's side, Frye's team placed in the top-25 nationally indoors on 12 occasions and in the top 20 nine times outdoors.


Kevin Robinson 18 years at Memphis 14 as head coach- 1 Conference USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship (men)


Andrew Valmon 17 years at Maryland- 0 team titles

Darryl Anderson 17 years at TCU- His teams have won three Conference Championships


Steve Keith 15 years at Vanderbilt- 2017 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships to Vanderbilt for the first time in school history


Dale Cowper 15 years at Louisville- 0 team titles

Jake Malm leaves St Mary's MN after 1 year to return to his old job as asst at Dubuque. That must be a terrible job environment.