Bob Braman comes out of retirement to coach at Lenoir Rhyne

Great for Bob. I'm so pleased to see this.

He has always extremely nice and generous in his time with me. I think because he spent so much of his time at South Florida he didn't have the inflated ego of so many of these power 4 coaches.

As for retirement, I don't think he wanted to leave Florida State. It was my understanding one of his assistants got the ear of the AD and got hired as the head man by the AD. Everyone talked nice and called him a legend but really it was a classic knifing in the back.

This new job just confirms what I heard.

I always wondered what happened there. Never believed the retirement story. There was something weird that happened with one of the women's cross country coaches Kelly Phillips back in 2021. She also left very abruptly. Then a few years later they announce Barman's retirement which made no sense.

I must say, I'm surprised he will be at LR. Would have expected him to take a more prestigious coaching position but I guess you nailed with the whole no ego thing.

Bob learned from Jerry Slaven who is now or was at the University of Tampa.

Slaven retired a couple of years ago. His old assistant (also a USF alum) is coaching the men and another guy is coaching the women.

Braman has long owned a home less and 1 hr from Lenior Rhyne in Blowing Rock. It's an area he's spent time in for years. And yes, no ego. Great person.

Dror lives not far from me...or lived...he may have moved. Coached Shane Cohen at UT.

Braman is a great guy.

Most all of this information is correct. I ran for Braman at USF, hence the username. I'm not going to post all the details that I know regarding his departure from FSU other than to say he wasn't ready to quit coaching. He got the itch to coach again and Lenoir-Rhyne is in a great city and have great facilities. The university administration really wanted him there and he their full backing. As mentioned before, he also has a house in Blowing Rock

Hope he makes a difference. I ran for them quite a while ago and holy cow was it a mess. Hickory COULD be a good town for running but when I was there it was an absolute cluster. Good community at the school but wouldn’t run there again if I could go back.

I was really surprised to see Braman leave/get sacked at FSU. He was kind of making a McDonnell, Holloway, Henry kind of legacy at that university.

Surprised he's heading to a DII. Is he smart considering the new rules on rosters/scholarships?

This guy is a track and xc lifer. He found the location and created FSU's Tallahassee cross country course that is being used for World XC and has already been used for NCAA and US nationals. He runs the popular FSU summer xc camp. He will hang out at the Sunday long run location in Tampa on occasion to see his old athletes. I'm sure he wasn't happy to see how USF had fallen, especially in xc, after his departure. This is reminiscent of Vin's departure from Stanford to Oberlin. Maybe he'll stay at Lenoir to build them up to D1 or maybe he'll just take a year or two there before taking on another big time program. He will succeed anywhere he goes. Right now, LR looks like it would be a good D3 program if not for the long distances where their top times in track are 16:10 5000m (men) and 9:52 steeple (men). They did have a guy run 30:59 at D2 nationals in xc last year. In the sprints, they look like they will be pretty good for D2 with his coaching. The 46.x 400m guy is probably going to drop into the 45s next year if he's still there, and some of the guys who run mid to high 10s in the 100m will be dropping to the low to mid 10s.

Honestly, I’m shocked Breyman came back — and to D2, no less. The guy’s a straight-up legend! I still remember how he took FSU to the top, and now suddenly Lenoir-Rhyne? Come on. But on the other hand, if he’s living in Blowing Rock and just wants to chill and enjoy coaching without all the politics — mad respect. After everything I’ve heard about how he left FSU (that shady assistant situation), he’s earned the right to do his own thing. With his background and level, it’s like Jordan deciding to coach a high school team — just ‘cause he can. Wishing him luck, but I’m really curious to see if he can turn LR into a real contender.

I did not know about the house in Blowing Rock, but that makes tons of sense.

I actually wonder if this will be a trend. Experienced coaches who just enjoy coaching and not the current mess that DI has become. They are financially secure, but still want a job and some income. By pedigree they give a smaller program credibility instead of a constant turnover of entry level head coaches.

He should take the Arizona job.

He’d have them top ten in something in 3 years and top 5 in something in 5 years.

He coached me while I was at FSU 20+ years ago. Being a middle distance runner trying to hang with the cross country guys was fun with Braman. He was always a stand up guy that loved what he did. I'm glad to see he's back. He didn't really talk too much about his USF days, probably out of respect for FSU.

Braman is a funny guy, no doubt, but to say he has no ego is wild. Possibly one of the most egotistical people I've come across in my life, talk to some of his former assistants about how he treats his GA's

Not saying you’re wrong, but that’s pretty baseless. If you’re going to come at a guy like that in a thread where the sentiment is overwhelmingly positive you should have some evidence or at least provide an example.

Again, I don’t know the guy. I also don’t know any of his former GAs so I won’t be talking to them. Always heard good things from guys that ran for him though.