Joe Franklin leaves New Mexico for Louisville

This attitude harmonizes with my experience of Joe Franklin, a really nice guy who helps people outside the program as well as within at UNM.

so now it's Mazza-Downie, Flomena Asekol, and Allison Wilson all transferring to Florida. that's huge. their team didn't even make the XC NCAA Championship last year, now they're a possible Top 10 contender.

Interesting decision...going from a team with a crowd to train with to a team with almost noone who can run with her. Altitude and dry to sea level and hot/humid.

ah I forgot about Asekol!

If they are healthy top 5 is possible with 3 in top 20. NM also likely not a high team anymore.

FastTuohy, you must live to post on letsrun. How many posts in the last 20 min on this thread alone? Why don't you combine so you can pack all of your posts in one?

Huge news. 15:18 5k pr (technically) faster than Valby's. Does Palmer have more scholarships? I wonder of they will recruit anyone else to round out their top 5.

The women are not following joe for a reason. Id imagine he has been offering them big money to follow him but none will do so. Eating disorders were rampant on the team and he stopped just short of putting the women on a weighing scale. I dont believe joe really left by choice, it was friendly "its time for you to go" from the AD and compliance.

Holloway is fair. If you can bring in big point scorers, he'll give you scholarship money. Winning is winning.

Holloway has no problem with 9 scholarships being in women's distance if those athletes are scoring 35+ points at NCAA track championships.

Question. Will losing altitude benefit impact New Mexico transfers? Will they run as good away from altitude?

Finally someone said it. This move from joe franklin makes no sense and he is leaving behind a 13:13 5k guy likely an NCAA favorite. What coach in their right mind would do that. There are many rumors about about him being abusive and a bully maybe it finally caught up with him. There was already athletes transferring out of the men and women's team before he announced he was leaving.

FINALLY!!!! SOMEONE SAYS IT! My daughter had a terrible experience there. The toxicity of the New Mexico womn's team is built around a toxic coach. I hope all the girls get to transfer to healthier environments.

I'm confused, if Coach Franklin was the source of the toxic environment why did all the players transfer AFTER he left. shouldn't they be glad he's gone and stay?

With todays student-athletes, any program/coach can be deemed “toxic”. They just have to be unhappy about one thing and the word toxic comes out. Hell just cut a walk-on that isn’t good enough for your team and see how that can turn out (ask Wetmore). There will be athletes in all programs that don’t have a good experience for one reason or another. Bottom line, JF has had a great reputation for decades. And yes if he were such a terrible person the entire team wouldn’t be in the portal right now.

well she is bringing Elise Thorner with her

Being power five most likely opens the door in a lot of different ways, maybe NIL, budget, opportunities, etc. It also looks like his new title at Louisville is Director of Operations of Track & Field and Cross Country, which compared to his Head Coach of both at New Mexico could also mean an increase in salary, and who doesn't like a challenge?

The dude is in a flutter; understandably so.

He is not the Director of Operations man. He is the director of track and field/xc. Director of Operations is a totally different position that handles team travel and home meets...