Does anyone know who the new Oklahoma CC coach is going to be?
Does anyone know who the new Oklahoma CC coach is going to be?
I've wondered too. From what I heard, they had to keep the position open for 2 weeks after July 1, and then they would make the decision soon after that. Obviously, the season will be starting soon, so they better make a decision, quick! Whatever they decide, they better not pick a cracker jack who knows s-hit about distance running and recruiting. They should also give more scholarships to the distance program (at least on the men's side)-- I mean, how can anyone work with 1.5 TOTAL MEN'S DISTANCE SCHOLARSHIPS???
Oklahoma has a lot to do to catch up to even be respectable within their region. Ok. State kicks their butt every year and I am sure the Oklahoma guys dont like that. Man, where I go to school we get less money than 1.5 scholarships for distance and our track squad has less than three overall to use between CC and Track so I know how it feels. You can still be competitive though, especially in the weak ass Midwest region, if you get a bunch of 9:30 two milers and work them hard for four years. Good luck fellas.
Maybe they should get Catrina Acosta...she's been know to motivate runners to run faster and farther away
The problem is -- you know OU has money, with the football and basketball teams pouring in money and them building new facilities left and right. BUT, with the 2 head coaches being a cracker jack sprint coach and a cracker jack jump coach, they don't give a dam-n about the distance program. No one on the team is doing crap, except the pole vaulters. Not even the men's 4x4 qualified for Nationals this year! OU is really in the worst shape it's ever been in.
If OU had a head coach (like OSU) that was mainly a distance coach, a good recruiter, and gave practically all the money to foreign distance runners, sure they could compete with OSU. But that's not going to happen unless they clean house on the coaches.
And no, Catrina Acosta is not the answer.
Ok, here's the word on the street (this is a real kicker!!!). Apparently they are going to sign a sprint coach because Rodney wants to make himself look good. He doesn't want to bring in a good distance coach because if the cross country team has success, it would make Rodney look bad (as a coach). Neither Rodney nor Jill could give a hoot about the cross country team. They are feeling the heat from the athletic directors because they haven't been performing up to par, now that nearly all of JD's recruits are gone. If they don't improve this next year, they're getting the boot. Get ready-- the cross country team is going to be worse (imagine that)!
There's also been a rumor for a while that either the men's or the whole cross country program is going to be dropped. Todd had pressure last year from the athletic director to achieve a top 8 finish for both teams at the Big 12, but it didn't happen. Rodney and Jill could care less if it goes to pot because that simply means they can build the track team of just sprinters, jumpers, and field event people-- that is, if Rodney and Jill don't get the boot! They don't know jack about distance running!
They're also cutting the number of male distance scholarships to 0.8!!!!! The reason why is because the football team is trying to recruit more scholarship football players, and it helps if they can get speedy track/football guys that can be 50% football/50% track scholarships-- it allows them to get more players. I know that Miami also did this with several of their players.
That's the latest scoop. Waiting to see a headline on it.
ps. Rodney is trying to save his butt from getting fired by building up the sprint program (what sprint program?!), but I predict they won't do much better than they did last year. If they do any better, it will be thanks to the new assistant sprint coach, not Rodney.
There are no partial scholarships in football; it's all or nothing, at least in the Big XII for sure.
>They're also cutting the number of male distance >scholarships to 0.8!!!!! The reason why is because the >football team is trying to recruit more scholarship >football players, and it helps if they can get speedy >track/football guys that can be 50% football/50% track >scholarships-- it allows them to get more players. I know >that Miami also did this with several of their >players.
Any athetlic aid that a football player gets from another team, is going to count towards the football team equivalencies of 85. So if someone gets 50%/50% it is going to count as full scholarship in football. I would find it hard to believe that OU does not have 85 full football scholarships and is going to want to split money with the track team on a kid. You can't have over 85 fulls in I-A football.
So i highly doubt what you are saying is accurate.
Just to reiterate what others have said, there is no such thing as a 50-50 football-track scholarship. A football team cannot have more than 85 football players on scholarship. Football, basketball, and a couple other sports are "head count" sports. That means every scholarship counts as one scholarship. Meaning that they can't be split up. If a Division IA football player receives a 75% academic scholarship and the football program only pays for the other 25% that player still counts as "1" against that 85 limit. If a football player did somehow receive 50% from track and 50% from football it would count as "1" for football and "0" for track.
Track and field and many of the other Olympic sports are "equivalency" sports. Meaning that you can divide the scholarships up to get to the limit.
On another note, I have always felt the set-up of having co-head coaches at Oklahoma was a bad idea. Oklahoma has the potential to be one of the best track AND cross country programs in the country. Just look at nearly every other sport at OU! They are amongst the nation's elite in nearly every other sport! I can't imagine the AD will stand for this mediocrity much longer.
I had never heard of an athlete getting a 50/50 scholarship for 2 sports until someone told me that's what they were trying to do. I could see why they can't do it to get more players cause football teams are always trying to figure out ways to get by. If they're allowed only 85 scholarship players (whether full or partial), I don't know what they're doing with the extra scholarship money.
Something else I heard that was interesting was there were apparently several former track athletes that were on the team under JD that applied for the job, but Rodney is jealous of JD's kids and didn't want to get someone with ties to JD or get someone that was successful under JD.
Rodney just wants to make himself look good to save his butt from getting fired.
It's great to know that everyone realised that 'Coach' Acosta is an absolute nutter, although it sounds like this isn't a new revelation, it just seems that it's only now that people are realy talking alot more openly about it. However, despite all the work that alot of us have put in, i.e. contacting newspapers and spilling all the dirt, i'm sure it will all be completely futile. Unfortunately the people in control often don't like to rock the boat too much and hope that it will soon blow over. I feel that if Matt T had in fact decided to press charges, or had at least threatened to, then it would have left the Athletic Direcor with no choice but to fire her big ol' ass outta there taking her partners in crime with her.
I don't feel that our efforts were to no avail however because we have caused our dear Catrina mucho public humilation, i just hope that it does not give the WHOLE athletic team a bad name as i feel that Coach Weis's proffessional manner could not be in more of a stark contrast to the aforementioned.
you'll have to explain the background of what you are talking about. interesting teasers you throw us, would like to know more.
here's a link to some previous stuff about acosta and oklahoma state.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1922&thread=1922
now back to oklahoma and the coaching dilemma... i wanna know if there's going to be a team next year!
Sorry, didn't mean for it to be a 'teaser'. In regards to the Matt T comment, what i mean't was that he shouldn't have told the press that he was not going to contact the police about the sexual harrassment. The fact that he admited this i feel was a fatal flaw which inadvertently supported Catrinas case It insinuated that Matt had not felt so threatened and 'psychologically traumatised' by the sexual harrassment and thus was not going to take legal action. I feel Matt should simply have stronly threatened legal action irrespective of whther he was going to do through with it, because by throwing such threats into the 'Athletic Crews' direction would have undoubtedly forced them into such an impossible position that they could only fire her ass. it's a damn shame she didn't come on to me cause she would have been long gone if she had, especially as i'm a female!!
I did actually advise Matt to go to the authorities months before he actually did but understandably he was worried about the consequences. At least he did eventually but amazingly it doesn't seem to have been enough!!!
What everyone has posted is absolutely true, Rodney and Jill could give a rat's ass about the cross country program at Oklahoma. It might even be a little bit of a comfort to know that the track athletes that they do bring into the University have talent, but aside from the vaulters, the "recruiting" that the Oklahoma track team does is pathetic. With the continued success of the other athletic programs at this University, one can only hope it's a matter of time until the running programs at OU can be turned around as well.
As for any other "rumors" that some of you have mentioned concerning the future of the cross country team, I'm just curious to know where you have heard this information? I don't want to call any of it true or false, just plain curious.
Yes, they do bring in some talented athletes/runners, but they tend to not improve much over the 4-5 years or get injured all the time. Getting a couple of "Jamaicans" isn't going to cut it. Definitely, they need a coach that is a great communicator, motivator, maybe somewhat talented in their specialty, and has connections AROUND the world. I don't see them getting someone like that-- they'll probably get some sprinter that was raised in Texas, went to college in Texas, and that's all they know (is Texas!).
I have connections in and around OU.
Practice starts in 2 weeks, does OU have a coach? Oh yeah, and when will their athletes get their summer training program?
My advice...let Bob Stoops be the coach on the side...he turned around the football team, taking them to a national championship in 2 years. He will be the first coach to show just how important defense is in cross country, he'll use box out strategies and stuff...revolution.
No coach yet, though they will have someone by the 20th. Might as well have Stoops coach cc too, can\'t do any worse, and he\'d be a hell of a better motivator. As for summer workouts, well, if you have any kind of sense about distance running than whatever you usually do beats whatever the current head coaches could give you.
But even when they do hire the new coach, has anyone there done any meet scheduling? Probably not too terrible of a task, but have to remember who is running the show around Oklahoma.
Any coach yet...