ran 13:22 in what would have been his sophomore year
if he had stayed and had one redshirt year, he'd be graduating right now
ran 13:22 in what would have been his sophomore year
if he had stayed and had one redshirt year, he'd be graduating right now
He could have watched Killer Cam run away from him on the final lap of races.
He wouldn't be running the steeple, that's for sure.
If Jager had stayed, that 13:22 probably wouldn't have happened, at least not when it did. He wouldn't have had as good of a coach or training partners. Plus it would have been eating him up inside that he turned down Jerry's offer to get paid to run and get free Nike shit.
He'd have done a lot more and had more victories in-between his struggles. I think it absolutely would have been better to have gone through the NCAA program and at the very least gain some confidence, and experience.
All things considered, I think I agree with you. Being thrown in with Bairu, Tegenkamp, and Solinsky one year out of high school is an incredible opportunity but he definitely wasn't ready for it. He may have been ready for it in terms of being able to keep up, Jager is an incredibly talented kid. But he wasn't ready for it in terms of volume. That part makes me wonder about Schumacher. Jager talked about how he hadn't done much of any mileage in high school, then he did 70 per week at Wisco, then he was upwards of 100 right out of the gates in Portland. Yeah, it's what he had to do to be able to compete with his teammates but how does Jerry not have his long term development as a priority? Or did he bring him out with the intention of just being a workout guy for the others?