Wetmore out at CU! Who replaces him?

Everything is changing in D-1 athletics. CU has moved to the Big "12" but they must give up millions of TV dollars per year to help pay the athlete settlement, then they have to put up several million dollars to pay the new employee athletes... and they have to pay whatever crazy stuff Deon wants to do. Wetmore became a luxury they couldn't afford. Being an old guy he is easy to cut. So we have to see whether or not there will even be men's programs or just women. I see this a pure economics. I would like to see Wetmore start a club with a good sponsor.

I think it is a mistake for coaches to get too involved in body composition coaching and precise form implementation. It assumes having so many (hundreds) variables figured out that we simply don't have figured out. Human beings are immensely diverse, and some things work better for some than others do to differences in any one of hundreds of variables.

Forcibly changing someone's foot plant, for example, rarely works out well, likely because that person's optimal landing is determined by so many individual metrics that most coaches or scientists can't know them all. Forcing anyone into a mold or stereotype contains many physical and mental risks.

We are best off teaching some basics about good body position (run tall, hips up, relaxed shoulders/arms, good cadence/rhythm) for efficiency and ensure proper range of motion and strength and strength ratios between muscle groups, and use of proper equipment (shoes), then let the body naturally gravitate to what works best for them through hundreds of miles of runs and workouts. Weeks and months of good solid training and mileage does wonders for helping the body find what is most economical for it.

Same goes for body composition. Teach good nutritional basics, especially around hydration and refueling, and let the physical training do its thing. Individuals, due to genetic make-ups may carry a little more muscle or mass in certain areas, forcing them into a pre-established mold or stereotype will lead to frustration and potential eating disorders and loss of confidence.

Not every elite can and should have a prototypical elite runner body. Seko didn't look like DeCastella, who didn't look like Virgin, who didn't look like Rono, who didn't look like Salazar. If we think Carlos Lopez had the prototypical elite body and tried to force any of the aforementioned runners into it, only Virgin probably would have come out ok.

Accept and celebrate diversity in bodies and focus on the training.

Realistically, Dion will not stay at CU for long. The school's football team will realistically never be a perennial powerhouse competing for playoff berths or top bowl bids.

I don't know what the ultimate direction of NCAA Olympic sports will take, but I would be extremely surprised if CU cut cross country.

CU's tangible and intangible resources can allow it to thrive as a distance program, almost regardless of who's coaching. It's by far the school's most successful sport. The campus is in an ideal location to attract top tier talent. There are world class training facilities in the area, and a lot of world class exercise science endurance research is conducted by the school and in the region.

I believe their ski team just won their 20th or so national championship, quite a few more than cross country has. That isn't to say their cross country teams haven't been wonderfully successful; they have - but skiing has won more national championships.

It's also a mistake to pretend that body mass composition isn't a component of performance. Further, it's also a mistake to say nothing nor give any guidance to 18-22 year olds coming to college straight from Mom & Dad. Leaving these athletes with no guidance or tools regarding diet choices and health deprives them of the knowledge and experience they need as athletes and healthy human beings. Mental health, body image, top performance and overall health are not mutually exclusive.

Today's Young athletes need to be able to overcome the discomfort they're confronted with regarding mentally and emotionally challenging situations. ...They are not exactly experiencing the same level of trauma as say an orphan in Ukraine or an 18 year old in Gaza.

The thing that those with inferior emotional intelligence don’t understand is that you’re actually hurting your athletes development with this hyper focus on various metrics that may or may not increase performance. Even in an all other variables being equal setting.

Who would want that job? You spend 29 years becoming the most successful coach at the school (in any sport), elevate the level of US distance racing and a disgruntled walk-on finds a sympathetic ear at Runners' World and you're out on your ass. Think it can't happen to you? CU forced out the previous coach under similarly sketchy circumstances.

You are acting like a coach and team nutritionist are unable to keep an athlete healthy, fueled and fit without knowing their exact body composition data. Having a healthy body composition is the result of the diet choices and health that you mentioned. If the athlete is being properly educated in diet and nutrition and is being properly trained their body composition will be where it needs to be. The extra data point literally does nothing for them that many many other data points have already told them. As of a runners world article on the subject last year BYU, NC State, UNC at least dont utilize this info or these tests at all and those 3 programs all are doing just fine without it. On top of that there are many schools that are only using DEXA scans for bone density information and not body composition as a whole.

Or gymnasts or wrestlers...

I'm not sure why our sport is so susceptible to mental instability (defined here as inability to cope with the rigors of the sport). Nature or nurture? Who knows.

To be an athlete at a P4 school requires a certain level of mental stability. It could be, like many here have postulated, that our sport is failing its athletes in providing mental support.

Let's take gymnastics for example. When I see gymnasts competing there is constant positive reinforcement regardless of the result. I'm guessing the majority of those individuals didn't get tough all on their own. They were brought up through age group competitions on supportive teams with years upon years of experience. I'm sure the washout rate in gymnastics is far greater than running. We do hear from the athletes who didn't make it from time to time, but somehow I don't hear of P4 gymnastics programs firing their head coaches as much as running does.

Tough sports require tough individuals. Running is one of those tough sports but it is also very individualistic. Talented runners are usually presumed to be mentally tough and can be pushed past their ability to handle the pressure/sacrifice it takes to wring every second out of that talent. Runners who aren't as talented have an even greater pressure to become something that doesn't come naturally and are certainly susceptible to degradation of their health and self worth during their competitive years.

The easy answer is to recruit better but that's not easy to do when a coach needs to fill out a roster. Bringing in a bunch of walk-ons is problematic because its likely they won't be contributing members of a team or make the travelling squad. That can lead to the Colorado situation; a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario.

All that being said, some coaches are thriving in this environment and some aren't so the blame has to fall on the coaching staff. It can be done but coaches need to be more introspective as to their own abilities to avoid a Colorado situation.

Ryan Hall is too religious for a secular school to hire him. He also has not had big name success with athletes he has coached outside of his wife. He is more of an influencer for synthetic t now and would not want to move and grind out coaches hours. He has never had a 9-5 (more like 0600-1800) in his life and he would not be the one to pick for a prestigious D1 distance program.

Well the pendulum has swung so far that it's now taboo for coaches to speak of nutrition to their athletes at all.

And let's not lose track of the fact that despite new ARs being broken, US distance runners, both collegiate and pro, lag far behind Japan, African countries and most European countries in XC, Marathon and 10k. ...and these foreign athletes are significantly smaller than most US athletes.

Fact

They haven’t been competing with NAU for a while, NAU is much better. And any good coach could make Colorado good it wasn’t all Wetmore that’s crazy

Agreed. In college, my coach came to the dining hall a few times early in the year to make sure we were eating properly. He told us stories of runners who moved off campus and ate hot dogs and cereal and fell apart. Told us to "feed the furnace" but eat real food. Once there was a body fat test that was voluntary and I don't remember it ever being discussed in practice by the coach or ever hearing him tell someone to get thinner. At 85mpw, that just happened.

Discussion of form? Never. Run. A LOT! Strides and drills everyday. Efficiency just happened.

Our team was top 10 at NCAA D1 one of my years.

Given how he was let go, I would say the next head coach will be a Woman regardless of qualifications

My contacts tell me that Wetmore checked out a few years ago and has been mailing it in. He simply didn't have the fire any longer and it had become obvious. Burroughs was described as "a walking, talking eating disorder" by one former CU athlete. Both have lost credibility with their athletes and a growing number of alums. The program needed a change and the investigation gave the university cover to clean house by non-tendering Wetmore, Burroughs, and Wicen.

Fox was one of the first names that popped in my head. Surprised it took 8 pages to get there. Though I think Siemers or Weese would be great too.

Al Sal had Caine accuse him.of fat shaming and gets hammered. Wetmore had a dozen or more and no sanctions. Guess Kara has pull

I've known quite a few people who went through the program, including three who were featured in RWTB. I don't think it's accurate to say that for the most part his athletes "adored him." Of the people I know who ran for him, more ended up disliking him than liking him. I think anyone who has been around Colorado running and the CU program knows that Mark has always been a polarizing figure, for many reasons other than his approach to weight. But he was good to his star athletes, that's for sure. The man knew where his bread was buttered.

God I hate feeding trolls, but CU men won 3 pac 12 titles in a row. You think that's when wetmore should have been let go?