Arkansas hires Cale Wallace as Men's XC Coach

The Kenyan train is coming to Fayetteville

Who?

it was already there, but it's about to get much bigger.

Transfer portal about to be full of Razorbacks.

I have to wonder if not an alumni, does he get this job. Crazy what “going to that school” can do for a career. People were mad when Bucky took over and he literally had turned a mid major into an ncaa power. While this guy isn’t the head guy he is the head coach of one of the most storied distance programs in ncaa history. For as much talk as Sean Carlson gets on these boards, for reasons other than just coaching I know, he coached Yared Nuguse. He’s had multiple NCAA champions. I thought Arkansas would draw someone with those credentials, not an alumni hire.

Carlson is the head coach at Colorado. This is an assistant coaching position.

while you are absolutely not wrong that an alumni hire can go poorly if they aren't ready, it does give a sense of permanency to a coach when a kid they are recruiting knows they ran at the same program they are recruiting you to. Its much less likely a coach is going to leave the school they ran at for just any new job even if they are only an assistant at the current job.

Great hire, one of the best coaches under the age of 35 in the NCAA!

He’s an alum, but far from a great coach.

Wallace is an Arkansas alum and well versed on what it takes to be successful in the SEC/NCAA in 2025, recruiting overseas and hitting the portal, as he's been the assistant at Iowa State the last few years. He's a former 8:41 steepler who was the SEC runnerup in 2016.

He's from Texas originally.

When Jonathan and I were at NCAAs, we asked Bucknam who they were going to hire as Arkansas has such a rich distance history it's important they have a distance coach, and he said he couldn't tell us but he was very excited about the young coach they had found and thought it was perfect.

Here is Wallace's Arkansas bio as an athlete is here:

https://www.tfrrs.org/athletes/4066678/Arkansas/Cale_Wallace.html

His NCAA stats are here:

https://www.tfrrs.org/athletes/4066678/Arkansas/Cale_Wallace.html

ISU got worse after Rudolph left and he took over.

$100k at ISU. How much at Arkansas?

Being an assistant doesn’t make you a great head coach, that part is obvious. If the plan is just to keep buying Kenyans, nothing really changes. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but his track record as a coach isn’t impressive. Good luck to him at Arkansas, hopefully he’s better there than he’s been in the past.

Cale is a good dude and a great coach. Happy for him. I'll be interested to see how well he recruits Texas.

Cale doesn’t know jack snip about running so he will be perfect for the recruiting Kenyans and not coaching philosophy. If they HAD to get an Arkansas guy it should have been Gabe Gonzalez… someone who actually performed for the razorbacks

He ran an 8:40ish steeple and he doesn't know anything about running? Huh?

so you're telling me the arkansas head cross country coach made this salad?

Should have called Dahl from lady if the lake

Where is Gonzalez coaching currently? Wallace seems like he’s got some good experience and knows a thing or two.

Wallace will bring the epo to Fayetteville maybe! They will now have a chance to place top-10 in XC despite the coaching. Who replaces Wallace in Ames?