nate edelman!!! what a stud!!!!
YesJo wrote:
Nate Edelman was pretty much nobody in high school, running around 9:30 in a middling state for distance runners (TN). Now he's a freaking stud. Clearly Rojo can do something with average talents, turning them into studs. Maybe he's onto something.
He recruited one of my runners and did a great recruiting job on him. He ended up going somewhere else because the cost of the school was so prohibitive.
What did this quote have to do with supporting Ryan Hall? Why was it even in the article? Has anyone answered this?
Buss Driver wrote:
adaquate will hunting wrote:I can not believe he would throw his kids under the buss like that
I was wondering what you meant by this, so I looked up the word "buss" on my computer's dictionary. Apparently "buss" is an archaic verb meaning "kiss." I'm somewhat perplexed as to what it might mean to throw someone under the kiss and why you are using Middle English slang.
Here's another usage of the word "buss"-
To quote from my favorite troll fighter:
“All these dudes come on this board hiding behind alias names and couldn’t buss a grape in a fruit fight, like you are built like that to say random bs to folks. Lamo! Some of these dudes in here are truly comical but a lot of them are only badasses when they are sitting behind a keyboard – when you see them in person, it’s like “what the #*(&!?”
The problem isn't academics. Schools like Notre Dame, Cal, Stanford, Princeton, and Dartmouth seem to do ok with roughly similar academic standards. And yeah those schools can get super talented people all the time. So the answer maybe money (I have no idea what Cornell's financial aid packages are these days) but coaching/tradition are also important. If you were choosing between Dartmouth and cornell, few people are picking cornell from an Xc point of view.
Friendo wrote:
my gf has a whooty! wrote:It was a slam. Cornell can get the talent if Rojo knew how to get them. I know because I was recruited to Cornell and although I chose not to go (Rojo was not the coach at that time), I understand that many kids in my situation (I consider myself in my prime as an "above talented runner") would go if properly approached, key emphasis on properly approached.
If Rojo thinks he doesn't have the tallent, it's his own fault because an education like Cornell is a huge pull for anyone who can get in and the athletes aren't going there not because of the school, but more than likely because of how they are approached. Be a salesman and sell an ice cube to an eskimo!!!
You aren't super talented though. Is there really any shot of Cornell getting a Solinsky/Rupp/German Fernandez type talent? No.
Rojo and Cornell have a huge recruiting tool in LetsRun. Isn't that why Rojo was hired by Cornell in the first place? Rojo can reach out to every high school kid in the country...in the world. Can Barry Whatshisname (see what I mean) at Dartmouth do the same?
Rojo can sing the praises of Cornell & Ithika (sp) with any keystroke on his computer. Rojo can recruit nationwide without leaving his condo office.
Rojo has gotten good runners in Bruce Hyde, Jimmy Wyner, Sage Canaday....so why did Rojo have Canaday messing with the marathon....in college?????
To be fair, the Cornell runners don't have "super talent" in the coaching department, so it's about even.
Too much credit... wrote:
Its funny that the one thing you give him credit for is writing the workouts, when really its all Kellogg...
geez, i don't know if he's a good coach or not, but we all got our stuff from SOMEONE.
As a former athlete of Rojo's I will tell you that he cares a lot about the distance team at Cornell and their success and improvement in the sport. He'd let the less talented guys that would have been cut at any other Ivy stay on the team and do workouts. As a person, he truly cares about improving all of his athletes.
How much "talent" did we bring in? Well as far as the distance team goes (when I was there) we had 3 guys who were 9:10-9:05 in hs (Luff, Krause, Dannemiller). We had our big talent in Wyner (4:11). Hine was a 4:17 guy and i was a 9:25 guy....good, but not "great." Hatch and Kimple were good milers (4:07, 4:14), but didn't adjust quickly enough to the 8k distance. Luff initially had some non-running related health issues and Krause got injured if he ran more than 60 miles a week. That was the probably the most "talent" (based on hs times) we had in Ithaca all at the same time. It's hard to get talent out there....Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere and it's cold! The academics aren't easy...the suicide rate is high.
In Rojo's first year they got 2nd to LAST at Heps in xc....by my senior year we got 2nd to Princeton (which had 2-3 footlocker finalists, plus Maag who ran like 8:23 for 3k in hs and a stud in Nightingale). That was a good year for us!
We also got 4th at the regional meet in xc my sophomore year with 4 guys in the top 25. In the history of Cornel xc, those were really good performances!
That spring Hine and I went 1-2 in the 10k at Heps; the year after that it was Hine and Edelman who went 1-2 in the 10k.
In indoor track the mid-d guys scored more points at Heps than a lot of the entire teams in the league. We all seemed to peak and race well when other teams with better talent under-performed..that was something Rojo instilled in us.
As far as the comment about me running a marathon in college- that was all my idea. Rojo didn't really want me to do it- but he was flexible with his runners and would respect an individuals input.
As a final point, I'm sure that his current roster of runners aren't insulted at all with the quote.
Heps shmeps. Regionals get you to nationals, which is what Rojo's wishful thinking was centered on.
Thrown under the bus wrote:
Wejo,
I thought you may be right. I tend to be shallow around lunchtime, so I re read the article.
My inital reaction was fed in part by the highlighted quote of the day on the home page. In fairness, the editorial comment under the quote indicated that Rojo "gives his 'excuse' reason as to why he has not yet built a top 10 team at Cornell.".
I take the blame 100% for the headline. I am the one who came up with it and highlighted it. It was a catchy headline and not totally related to the main point of his article.
Rojo mainly is saying recruiting is more a part of being really super successful (top 10 NCAAs) than he thought. A lot of coaches may not want to say this but it is true. My main point is so what, go out and recruit better or do better with your kids. Rojo has done a really good job at Cornell in my opinion. On a national stage in XC he's done less than he wanted but he's been a very successful coach. Could he do better? Of course, we all can do better at everything we do.
Remember when Rojo said he would quit coaching if he couldn't take the team to top 10 at nationals a few years ago? Why hasn't he quit yet?
that's something we dont' frequently hear on letsrun, someone accepting the blame for a mistake they made?
i'm not even sure how to react!
a_daisy. wrote:
nate edelman!!! what a stud!!!!
Best post on this thread.
In_Ithaca wrote:
As a former non-talented(852 hs 3k) member of Rojo's squad I can say this article is not throwing the guys under the bus.
If you had to bet on the outcome of a two team race, one team having a roster of 8:50 high school two milers and the other having a roster of 9:10 guys, who would you bet on?
Would you change your bet if the 9:10 team had Mcdonnell as a coach and the other had a random top 50 NCAA d1 coach?
I'd still bet on the team of 8:50 guys...
You would lose. Idiots like you forget what McDonnell did with 4:20/9:15 types. He made them into monsters, guys that you would WANT to go into battle with at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Some say that even though he had his super star athletes like Falcon, Reina, Boit, Cragg, etc, the athletes that developed the most in the system and who really MADE the program were athletes like Cooper, Hallock, Lincoln, Baker, & Summerside etc. Look it up, you might be surprised
Perhaps this question has been asked already... but wouldn't a more appropriate quote of the day have been "how many all-american's did Vin Lananna coach at Dartmouth?"
looooool wrote:
Remember when Rojo said he would quit coaching if he couldn't take the team to top 10 at nationals a few years ago? Why hasn't he quit yet?
It's not like Rojo is trying to hide from what he said since he commented on it in an article and linked to it.
He didn't say he'd quit coaching. He said he'd offer Coach Taylor his resignation.
And I think I was there when Rojo offered coach Taylor his resignation. Coach Taylor didn't accept it. I think he's pleased with 7 of 8 outdoor conference titles (previously they hadn't won one since 1985) and 5 of 8 indoor titles (they previously hadn't won one since 1978).
Nothing wrong with a coach aiming high and publicly stating it.
Rojo did preference his comment for the top10 team with "Maybe I'm on crack" but I like to see him thinking in those terms. If you don't try and become a top 10 program you'll never be one.
Prior to his arrival at Stanford, Lananna directed the men's and women's cross country/track and field programs at Dartmouth. In 12 seasons with the Big Green, Lananna's team appeared at the NCAA Cross Country Championships every year - including two straight runnerup finishes for the men's team in 1986 and 1987.
You would lose. Idiots like you forget what McDonnell did with 4:20/9:15 types. He made them into monsters, guys that you would WANT to go into battle with at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Some say that even though he had his super star athletes like Falcon, Reina, Boit, Cragg, etc, the athletes that developed the most in the system and who really MADE the program were athletes like Cooper, Hallock, Lincoln, Baker, & Summerside etc. Look it up, you might be surprised
We could argue all day about who would win in my hypothetical, stupid race. I just want to clarify one thing, I chose McDonnell as an example because I consider him the greatest coach in NCAA history. I didn't mean any disrespect at all. He's the gold standard.
No, he's trying to hide from what he said, maybe even hoping to deflect from it, by writing an article with comments referencing it and appearing to be slightly accountable and not facing the legit criticism of his comments in said article. He instead sends in you to do the dirty mop-up spin work. Cowardly, which is exactly what his "aiming high and publicly stating it" was. Coach Taylor can't stop him from quitting if he really wanted to stick to his word. If he's been trying to become a top 10 program then he's been doing it wrong for the past 8 years.
I admire and respect all that the Johnson brothers have done to promote and advance the sport. That is why i was dismayed and disappointed to read Rojo's juvenile and pot shotted piece.
Good coaching requires trust, respect and inspiration. Rojo's comment means he doesn't respect his athletes' talent sufficiently to believe they are "super talented" enough to be a top ten team. If the coach doesn't believe in his athletes then how can he expect the athletes to believe in themselves. I doubt even a sycophant would find inspiration in Rojo's comment.
He also betrays their trust because he publicly questions their talent in order to excuse himself from boasting about but not obtaining top ten status.
Also, I found juvenile and unbecoming and unexpected of someone of Rojo's intelligence, that he would call Terrence Mahon "a guy who was best known for being the husband of Jen Rhines". Sure Rojo acknowledges later that he isn't calling Mahon a bad coach but really, what was the point of dismissing Mahon's accomplishments before he coached Hall.
Finally, rather than taking needless potshots at accomplished coaches and publicly questioning his athletes' talent, perhaps Rojo should spend some time learning from Cornell's wrestling coach who's team is ranked Number 1 in pre season polls. What is he doing that Rojo isn't?