This is a distance-dominated site. Just so you know, Hoyt is not an "average 'Jack of All Trades.'" You are welcome to ask his multi-event people, Harry Mara, Dan O'Brien, Fred Samara, Sharon Day-Monroe, Ashton Eaton, Kevin Reid, Kip Janvrin, etc.
It can be hard for the average distance person to appreciate expert multi-event coaches and what they bring to the DI powerhouse table. Let me assist.
In the case of Coach Hoyt, most of his time as Assistant Coach of Field Events under Terry Crawford the scholarships went to distance and sprints. It's harder to make a name for yourself when you are busting tail developing walk-ons while a different part of the franchise has the full ride athletes.
Here are two Cal Poly examples:
1. Sharon Day. Okay, she was a full ride athlete. But she was half soccer, half high jump. She began high jump training after soccer season ended. She broke her foot as soon as she started training with Hoyt. It could have been a career-ending break, as it was her plant foot, and she is 5' 8" and jumped 6' at the time (most 6' jumpers are over 6' tall, so… she has a thunderous plant to launch her vertically…). But Hoyt guided her rehab over two surgeries and a year and got her jumping again. It was quite an accomplishment to spare her career, get her to Nationals (after soccer), with strep throat - she didn't win, but she did MAKE THE OLYMPIC TEAM in the high jump a month later. Hoyt also slid in a couple weeks of heptathlon training in events she had never attempted before - completely not part of the scholarship deal - and got her a whole new career started in the heptathlon, for which she was never recruited for. Four years later, she MADE THE OLYMPIC TEAM in the heptathlon. She's been #1 in the US in the heptathlon for a couple years now.
2. John Prader, Pole Vault, jumped 15' 6" in high school. Did not get a big, fat, juicy full ride scholarship to attend Cal Poly for pole vault. In two years, while coaching Sharon Day to the Olympics and all the other men and women in all the other field events, Hoyt coached Prader to jump 17' 6.5" in the pole vault. Two feet in two years. Amazing. Hoyt left for UCLA and Prader went on (crediting Hoyt's coaching) to jump 18' 7" the next season. You see, Hoyt has to develop decathletes from multi-sport athletes who sometimes have never pole vaulted before, so he knows how to coach the vault to beginners in a very technical and efficient way. Efficient, because decathletes have to learn to vault on only one practice every week or two.
To compare, Mike Woepse vaulted 17' 6" in high school and nice, ripe scholarship to UCLA. An awesome athlete. After two years at UCLA, he jumped 17' 6.5". That's when Hoyt was hired. Hoyt oversees pole vault and personally revamped Woepse's technique. His best is now 18' 5.25"
Coach Curran still works as a volunteer pole vault coach and runs the camps. After the first year working as Hoyt's assistant he stated, "The best part of this year was getting to work with Coach Hoyt."
Hoyt is a vault guru. He's a high jump guru. He's a hep guru, he's a dec guru. Heck, he coached a 5' 8" 140 lb. power woman to run 2:09 800 m. and she's still smoking the 100 meter hurdles. There's nothing average about this coach. Maynard knows exactly what he's doing.
"You sound like you are some sort of Deca or Multi-Event coach that thinks that there is VALUE in being an average "Jack of All Trades" at the D-1 level and that THAT is the kind of business model that produces TEAM championships.
What you forget to mention is WHO Mike Maynard just replaced Coach Curran with. It's not like Maynard went out and hired a Dan Paff, Dan Steele, or Harry Mara.
He hired a "Jack of All Trades" guy that has never had an NCAA Champion. Not one.
Meanwhile, Coach Curran just had a Sophomore that was runner-up at the NCAA's and scored 8 of the teams 17 points for UCLA's 9th overall in Des Moines.
Flight 1
1 Jack Whitt JR Oral Roberts 5.65m 10
2 Michael Woepse SO UCLA 5.55m 8
3 Derick Hinch SO Arizona State 5.50m 6
4 Nico Weiler JR Harvard 5.50m 5
5 Cale Simmons JR Air Force 5.40m 3.5
5 Kolby Shepherd SR Liberty 5.40m 3.5
7 Joe Davis SR Virginia Tech 5.40m 2
8 Chase Brannon SO Tennessee 5.40m 1
9 Andrew LaHaye SR Florida State 5.40m
10 Kyal Meyers SO Texas Tech 5.30m
10 Sam Kendricks FR Mississippi 5.30m
12 Michael Viken SO East Illinois 5.30m
13 JJ Juilfs FR Washington 5.30m
14 John Prader JR Cal Poly 5.30m"