I guess I was confusing, but Jager is a college sophomore. He is going to college and is a sophomore, but yet as a 20 year old he has no association within his college. No team, no community there. Just going to college and then being a track athlete aside from college.
I was a D1 runner at a good university and a post collegiate runner at a professional training group. That sense of team and purpose in college was immediately lost upon graduation and I was 23, not a youngster. A lot of the guys I trained with admitted to that feeling, and the problem was we ended up beating eachother up more often than not trying to prove ourselves than actually help eachother achieve goals. In a lot of cases this is what happens with professional training groups. The alternative is to go with a small group or alone, and that certainly doesn't work for everyone.
Again, I think this is why you see so many top college runners fall off after college. For a 20 year old like Jager to leave his college team and experience, and yet still complete his courses as a regular student, well it's just not something most college runners would be too excited about. For him to train and hangout with guys 5-8 years older than him, that's kind of strange as well. Married guys, possibly with kids. For him to adapt to it and come out rocking like he is, to me that's really impressive.
Ohh and FYI, there are a lot of college programs that have exposure to working out with professionals, so for those of you who think that in and of itself is some major advantage it isn't.