The greatest college XC coach of all time was D2

Can he hold a candle to Al Carius from North Central, the real “best college cross country coach ever”?

19 NCAA Division III team national championships (national record, all divisions).
Including seven of his last 10 championships (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018).
16 national runner-up finishes.
Finished fourth or better at 42 of 47 Division III championship meets.
127 All-America awards, including eight individual national champions.

Joe also coached an Olympic medalist. Did the Al guy do that?

I'll refer you to your own title.

greatest "college coach"

I think the criteria for determining that should be accomplishments within the college ranks.

Great point.

when I was at Arkansas in our heydays ( which lasted 20 plus years) we PURPOSELY “ hid “ out in Division 1 to stay away from those scary D2 runners from Alamosa.

We were much happier facing Kennedy, Ritzenheim, Hacker, Eyestone, Goucher, Meb etc than whomever they had.

What prevented Joe from coaching D1?

This is gold.

Doug Consiglio?

I just finished reading Run for Fun and Personal Bests by Al Carius. Would recommend it to any coach of any sport or to any athlete who wants to get inspired.

Baby nationals?

This is true. I ran when Adams moved from NAIA to D2, those Alamosa boys ate nails for breakfast, and Vigil was nothing but class.

Both Vigil and Al Carious are great coaches who would have won championships on the DI level. Many of the best coaches aren't at the DI level, because they like what they do and where they are at.

How many sub 4 milers did Carius produce? Olympians? Sub 9 steeplechasers? Zero? Their best runner ever would not make some D1 teams.

He developed the talent he was given, it's impressive. You'll never be able to figure out who the "best coach" for all we know it's some schmuck in NY who turns 22 min guys into 16:00 guys in 4 years routinely, but you'd never truly know.

You do know that DIII doesn’t offer athletic scholarships, right?

No argument here!

A true legend both as a person and coach.

Siemers’s & mines. They coach students who also happen to be athletes. Some of them are pretty good now, none of they were any good in HS.

Hands down Tom Rutledge the Missouri Southern Cross Country Coach. The best there ever was!

When we try to overly praise coaching philosophy for T&F coaches and XC coaches at lower levels, there are issues to consider. Eg. D-3 coaches may swear there are no issues having (100 to 400)m athletes training on normal XC program. Issue: D-3 sprinters usually are in (10.9 to 12.2) 100m dash range. Many or most D-3 sprinters only believe they are sprinters. Same to a lesser degree, D-2 & N.A.I.A.

I’m so curious who the Tom Rutledge guy is. I remember running at the Southern course and that old man stopping me on his Moped.

Depends on how much weight you want to give the fact that success in any amateur sport is at least 75% recruiting.