JJ Clark is a great coach of middle distance women- this is an undeniable truth.
Clark was within his right at the director of the program to fire Elliot and Watts. Right or wrong, Clark needs to take a good look in the mirror at his abilities.
Clark outside of being a middle distance women's coach has been a struggle. When the UT women were at their best, Carol Smith was the sprint coach. She was competent as a coach, produced results and was a great recruiter. Smith was more than happy to be free of Clark.
Clark's hires since then have been been "yes" people who Clark can micro manage and have no fear of them being equal to him as a coach. Most are former elite athletes, who have zero coaching experience at the collegiate level. Few and very few and far between is the elite athlete who makes an elite coach.
At some point Clark will have to come to grips with his ability to run a program, not just a troop of 15 distance runners. He has fired or run off more coaches in his time than all the other coaches in the SEC combined.
SPRINT COACHES in past several years after Smith:
Pauline Davis- hired with ZERO collegiate coaching experience. JJ fired her after 2 or 3 years.
next came Heather VanNorman- hired with many years collegiate coaching experience, but recognized universally as a poor coach. She lasted less than a year.
next came Sharon Seagrave Couch- current assistant- hired with zero years of collegiate coaching experience.
OTHER Coaches:
Kathy Erickson- former throws coach- Clark hired and then canned after several years.
Jerome Romain- Current jumps coach- hired with 4 years of experience at the powerhouse (sarcasm) of Brown.
John Frazier- current throws coach is the only one on staff with any real previous coaching experience at the collegiate level.
Watts and Elliot are gone, with their many years of experience. So what inexperienced, former elite athlete will Clark hire to replace them?