The program has already become lukewarm...will it ever regain it dominance?
The program has already become lukewarm...will it ever regain it dominance?
Maybe...Maybe not. Give Bucky a chance.
Arkansas will not win again, unless Chris Bucknam gets smart fast and fills both men's staff positions with former Arkansas Assitant Track Coaches. These former coaches were in the trenches before helping the HOGS win those the 42 championships. This group of coaches worked with the Sprints/Hurdles/Relays/800 meters.
Don't overlook the fact that this area has also scored points at the NCAA indoor and NCAA outdoor meets for Coach McDonnell.
The choices are:
===============
Doug Williamson 1984 to 1987 "9"
Stanley Redwine 1987 to 1994 "14"
Steve Silvey 1994 to 2000 "13"
Doug Williamson 2001 to 2002 "0" **
Lance Brauman 2003 to 2006 "6" ###
Kyle White 2006 to 2008 "0"
** Second time around (fat and Lazy)
### Tyson Gay Scandal
If Bucky hires Doug Case, you might as well kiss the NCAA
level good by. Their is only so much that 65 year old Dick Booth can do with the jumps.
Geb's coach is the greatest. Johnny Mac is only a college coach.
What about Danny Green? I hear that guy can hand out shoes like the best of them. Plus he made how many National XC Teams in his time?
LS
Chris Barnicle is already gone to UNM... Did they get any recruits this year?
Chris Bucknam never even coached his self proclaimed best athlete at UNI who ran 3:49.2 at 18 and 13:26 after leaveing UNI. Read the link - Biography. Bucknam is not a distance coach and has no business coaching track in the SEC. Arkansas will get 3rd or worse in Cross for the first time in 35 years (longest cross-country conference winning streak in NCAA history), 3rd or worse indoors, and 3rd or worse outdoors, mind you the SEC. John McDonnell never finished behind 2nd in his SEC history.
This is with Coach McDonnell's athletes. When they get to Bucknam's athletes and he only coached 14 in UNI history who could score in the SEC, the greatest Collegiate track program in NCAA history will be just that - ALSO RAN! Bucknam has already lost 2 full scholarship recruits and a few guys will transfer by semester when they see that Bucknam thinks 60 miles a week is high mileage (maybe for a 9th grader!).
Jeff Long may have made a decision here that is as negative as Frank Broyles decision was great in 1972 to hire a young guy. Buckbnam has coached in a conferenc for 30 years where the All-Stars (top 3 in each event in the entire conference) simply could not get top 5 in team scoring in the SEC.
See the link:
http://www.csillagbalazs.hu/biography.html
Oh, and when all the UNI folks defend Bucknam, let me know how many NCAA qualifiers he has had in the 10,000m outdoors and 5,000 m indoors as these are the guys who have been the backbone of Arkansas (UNI School Records - 10,00m 29:39, about 40th or 50th at Arkansas All Time, Indoor 5k 14:25 - Does not score in the SEC - and about 7 of John's guys could do this any given year from 1987 to 2008)!
Oh, how good is he as a Cross Coach. Arkansas will miss NCAA in cross by 2009 for the first time since 1975, why, Bucknam is in over his head and it will show in this second year when the Strangs, McClarys, and Forrests are completely done. Barnicle is the first transfer, Phillips (if he's smart goes to Texas if he wants a post collegiate carear and same with everyone who is young) Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Florida, and Tennessee benefit the most from Jeff Long's decision. Singing Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long - When a 35 year streak ends and Auburn kicks your ass in Cross, the Fayetteville fans will feel it. This is reality and Bucknam is a JOKE!!!!
See 30 years of history (1979 to 2008) does mean something. The FSU coach did not come to the SEC (by far the best track conference in the US) and Bob has NCAA Champions individual on the track (1992-1993 5k Champion John Dennis and 4 NCAA Qualifying teams in Cross Country, so try not to compare a competent recruiter and decent coach with this Chris Bucknam idiol!
If you're asking if the next head coach will win 42 national championships...my guess is probably not. It's doubtful we'll ever see another coach collect as many rings as McDonnell did. We'll probably never see a team win 30-something consecutive conference titles in a sport, either. In that sense, the new coach is in a no win situation. There's no way he'll be as successful as McDonnell. Does that mean they're "doomed to mediocrity?" If you consider not being the winningest coach in NCAA history to be mediocre, then I assume so.
Bluebonnet Betty wrote:
The program has already become lukewarm...will it ever regain it dominance?
So, you argument is that runners who are not coached by John McDonnell are doomed? Interesting. Obviously he was a great coach (and recruiter), but no one is doomed.
they have many new recruits coming in this year. their region is a joke. they'll be in terre haute.
Bucky won't be worth a crap unless he starts making some changes in the way he's coaching. He needs to really work with the returners and the new guys. He's not made that great of an attempt to get with/talk to the returners or incoming frosh, this will ruin they're respect if he doesn't do it soon.
I especially didn't mean that individuals runners in the program are doomed to mediocrity and not even the program itself. I was just posing a question as to whether you thought the Arkansas program could ever return to its former excellence in spite of having lost its famed coach and its recent drift towards relative mediocrity. By that, I mean maybe a top 20 to 25 program but not a perenially top 10 program.
Bucky and Doug Case said over a few cold ones around the 4th of July Holiday, "We will soon take Arkansas to the next level"
Wow!!!!! What does that mean?
Bucky and Case will be failures, as they just want the big check and to say they coaches once in the SEC. If a UNI kid won his conference in 3:53 and then got 2nd at NCAA s, how does that translate when he needs to double in the SEC for team points and runs 3:46 prelim and 3:43 prelim to score and a 5000m race. DFL at NCAA s I tell you. Especially when Buckingham Palace and Dipshit Case think that 60 miles a week is hight mileage. Wow, if you are an 11th grade female!! The next level will be win less in the SEC.
A previous poster was correct, there will be no comparrison to John, but these are 11 alumni including Danny Green, Rio Reina, David Welsh, Brian Baker, and a few more who applied and could win SEC championships. Yes, any coach is doomed, but very few will do as poorly as Mr. Buckingham Palace - as he is currently in a dream world and so far over his head that this could actually be seen as mental retardation. When Dick Booth retires in 3 years from being tired of losing, the program will be where the Footbal program is now, LAST IN THE SEC. Congratulations Jeff Long, as this is more a Jeff Long failure than Bucknam's fault!!
check out the u of miami's football program since their big-time coaches left.
I think there will still be a few highlights this year for the hogs:
1) This year they'll take home a Penn Relays wheel for the first time in a couple of years.
2) With many current mid distance stars and the addition of Dorian Ulrey they win the indoor NCAA dmr.
3) With the jumpers, vaulters, J-Mee Samuels, and distance runners they will have a decent shot at a NCAA title.
Go Hogs!
Miami won football NCAA recognized titles under 4 different coaches:
1983 Schnellengerger
1987 Jimmy Johnson (later won Superbowls at Dallas)
1989 Erickson
1991 Erickson
2001 Coker
I am at a loss for how you have proved my point again and again with the reference to Miami. See the AD there had a skill at getting great NFL talent in terms of the gene pool in Miami and getting the best coaches off the block as each one before them left for the NFL. There is no way Miami would have hired a UNI coach who basically works with a Division I AA or II track team with a two 800-1500 guys (coached by his assitant), a decathalete (coached by his UNI replacement), and 3 pole vaulters (coahced by his assistant) that are actually Division I A athletes.
If the Miamia AD in the 1990s were to have replaced a legend like John McDonnell, he would have went after the big shots, not the ridiculous - this is where Jeff Long draws the distinction. In football he went after the Big East coach who could not make it even one semester in the NFL! Miami won 5 titles with 4 coaches, and did not play in a conference like the SEC - which at the time may have cost them NCAA championshps.
Why not Louis Quintana or An Arkanasa Alumni like Dan Green or even a Ruben Reina? All of the above mentioned would do twice the job Bucknam can do!! These are the questions Jeff Long will one day have to answer!! Mr. Bucknam is just the unfortunate man who did not know how to say no to the job he shoud not have taken! Time will tell and if 30 years of "less than desired results - quote from his own athlete, is relavent - Arkansas will have to wait for the "next" great coach!
trailer ras
NICE DREAMS! That was once a movie, NO??
How about hiring Artie Huff the drinking bud of Danny Green to coach the distance runners. AQrt knows all of the answers!!!!!
How about hiring Artie Huff the drinking bud of Danny Green to coach the distance runners. Art knows all of the answers!!!!!
Hog Historian wrote:
Arkansas will not win again, unless Chris Bucknam gets smart fast and fills both men's staff positions with former Arkansas Assitant Track Coaches. These former coaches were in the trenches before helping the HOGS win those the 42 championships. This group of coaches worked with the Sprints/Hurdles/Relays/800 meters.
Don't overlook the fact that this area has also scored points at the NCAA indoor and NCAA outdoor meets for Coach McDonnell.
The choices are:
===============
Doug Williamson 1984 to 1987 "9"
Stanley Redwine 1987 to 1994 "14"
Steve Silvey 1994 to 2000 "13"
Doug Williamson 2001 to 2002 "0" **
Lance Brauman 2003 to 2006 "6" ###
Kyle White 2006 to 2008 "0"
** Second time around (fat and Lazy)
### Tyson Gay Scandal
If Bucky hires Doug Case, you might as well kiss the NCAA
level good by. Their is only so much that 65 year old Dick Booth can do with the jumps.