His success at Stanford and William & Mary makes him look like one of the best coaches in the country. So why is he at a small program like George Mason?
His success at Stanford and William & Mary makes him look like one of the best coaches in the country. So why is he at a small program like George Mason?
No Medals
Small program?
Mason used to be one of the top programs in the nation.
One NCAA team title.
A few top threes.
Several NCAA Chapions.
Collegiate record holders.
Olympians.
Won the IC4A's 7 years in a row when that meet meant something.
I think that he would have been a good choice for UM which went to his former assistant Gibby.
at stanford you have to win medals or the weiner alumni gives you the axe. remember the power base of the stannweenie alum assn are centered up in medal crazed orange county and hollywood and not in palo alto or frisco.
Yeah but you would think he could get hired by a better program.
He is HEAD coach at a D-1 school. Was he assistant coach while at Stanford.
You'd be surprised by the number of assistant coaches at MAJOR prorgams who apply for ANY head coaching job simply because they do not have to listen to a moron head coach (boss) and always beg for distance scholarships.
to all you morons who don’t have an insight into why people do what they do, Gerard’s wife is from Virginia and they wanted to live there, not California, not Michigan, not New Hampshire. He applied for the George Mason job and was selected to be the Head Coach there. OK?
Alan Webb brought him there.
a reason wrote:
to all you morons who don’t have an insight into why people do what they do, Gerard’s wife is from Virginia and they wanted to live there, not California, not Michigan, not New Hampshire. He applied for the George Mason job and was selected to be the Head Coach there. OK?
Makes sense. That's the kind of answer I was looking for.
The Stanweiner Alumni Assn has zero patience and zero class. Axe, Axe, Axe. Floreal, Lannana, White, Gerard, Weir, Evans, Rembao, Plumer, ... Not that I'd ever be good enough of a coach to work at Stanford but God Damn what a meatgrinder!
As the evidence shows Stanford Track and Field, and Cross Country is THE most volatile program in NCAA Divisiion I.
Dose of Truth wrote:
Yeah if he was such a great coach, George Mason would be a hell of a lot more successful than they are. He has produced horrible results there.
George Mason won the men's indoor national championship not long before Gerard got there. They struggle to win the A-10 conference championship now in track. They are marginally better than Rhode Island in track - thanks to the sprinters that Gerard doesn't even coach.
His distance runners have been bad, and their men got 5th at XC A-10 championships losing to Dayton, La Salle, St. Louis, and St. Josephs of PA.
You do realize he coached a team to 24 points at NCAAs? A coach is only as good as the athletes he has to work with. And yes recruiting is a BIG part of the job but you are only going to get certain type of athletes at certain schools. My favorite phrase about coaching is, "How many NCAA titles did Mark Wetmore win at Seton Hall and how many did Urban Meyer win at Bowling Green?"
If it was only about how good of a coach you were, then people wouldn't leave small programs.
In track, some coaches don't care as there isn't big money in the sport, particularly when he took over at Mason. So he could probably make roughly the same at George Mason as Stanford but it's way cheaper to live and way less stress/pressure.
Unless you know the tuition cost, the out out state waivers and whether a team is fully funded, it's almost impossible to judge a college coach correctly.
Need another example from football. Here's one I like ouse from my Cornell days - George Seifert.
He was fired as the Cornell football coach after two years and a 3-15 record. Before his career was over he coached the 49ers to two Super Bowl titles and 5 NFC title games in 6 years.
rojo wrote:
Dose of Truth wrote:
Yeah if he was such a great coach, George Mason would be a hell of a lot more successful than they are. He has produced horrible results there.
George Mason won the men's indoor national championship not long before Gerard got there. They struggle to win the A-10 conference championship now in track. They are marginally better than Rhode Island in track - thanks to the sprinters that Gerard doesn't even coach.
His distance runners have been bad, and their men got 5th at XC A-10 championships losing to Dayton, La Salle, St. Louis, and St. Josephs of PA.
You do realize he coached a team to 24 points at NCAAs? A coach is only as good as the athletes he has to work with. And yes recruiting is a BIG part of the job but you are only going to get certain type of athletes at certain schools. My favorite phrase about coaching is, "How many NCAA titles did Mark Wetmore win at Seton Hall and how many did Urban Meyer win at Bowling Green?"
If it was only about how good of a coach you were, then people wouldn't leave small programs.
In track, some coaches don't care as there isn't big money in the sport, particularly when he took over at Mason. So he could probably make roughly the same at George Mason as Stanford but it's way cheaper to live and way less stress/pressure.
Unless you know the tuition cost, the out out state waivers and whether a team is fully funded, it's almost impossible to judge a college coach correctly.
Need another example from football. Here's one I like ouse from my Cornell days - George Seifert.
He was fired as the Cornell football coach after two years and a 3-15 record. Before his career was over he coached the 49ers to two Super Bowl titles and 5 NFC title games in 6 years.
Gerard inherited a stacked team in 2003. Donald Trump could have coached that team to sub 30 points at NCAAs. They got worse every year after that under Gerard.
Gerard has coached exactly ONE All-American in the distance events at George Mason. Chris Carrington in the 800 and he didn't even last all 4 years there.
There is no reason George Mason shouldn't be better. They are fully-funded with scholarships. In state tuition is extremely cheap at 11k per year in a state that has a lot of track and field talent. It's a pretty good academic school and you don't need crazy grades to get in. Remember their basketball team made it to the final 4 back in 2006.
rojo wrote:
Dose of Truth wrote:
Yeah if he was such a great coach, George Mason would be a hell of a lot more successful than they are. He has produced horrible results there.
George Mason won the men's indoor national championship not long before Gerard got there. They struggle to win the A-10 conference championship now in track. They are marginally better than Rhode Island in track - thanks to the sprinters that Gerard doesn't even coach.
His distance runners have been bad, and their men got 5th at XC A-10 championships losing to Dayton, La Salle, St. Louis, and St. Josephs of PA.
You do realize he coached a team to 24 points at NCAAs? A coach is only as good as the athletes he has to work with. And yes recruiting is a BIG part of the job but you are only going to get certain type of athletes at certain schools. My favorite phrase about coaching is, "How many NCAA titles did Mark Wetmore win at Seton Hall and how many did Urban Meyer win at Bowling Green?"
If it was only about how good of a coach you were, then people wouldn't leave small programs.
In track, some coaches don't care as there isn't big money in the sport, particularly when he took over at Mason. So he could probably make roughly the same at George Mason as Stanford but it's way cheaper to live and way less stress/pressure.
Unless you know the tuition cost, the out out state waivers and whether a team is fully funded, it's almost impossible to judge a college coach correctly.
Need another example from football. Here's one I like ouse from my Cornell days - George Seifert.
He was fired as the Cornell football coach after two years and a 3-15 record. Before his career was over he coached the 49ers to two Super Bowl titles and 5 NFC title games in 6 years.
His record is so bad at George Mason, his bio brags about bringing athletes to an all-comers regional meet.
"Gerard led the George Mason men's cross country team to its third consecutive top-three finish at the CAA Championships in 2008. The Patriots were one of two CAA squads to compete at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships. In addition to the men's success, two members of the George Mason women's cross country team - Karlyn Lockie and Samantha Fickel - ran at the regional meet as well."
There were only 8 teams in the CAA back then, and most of the teams didn't even belong to the southeast regional.
CAA results from 2008:
2008 Championship (Nov. 1 at Bull Run Regional Park - Manassas, Va.)
William & Mary 20
Georgia State 70
George Mason 92
Delaware 93
VCU 123
Northeastern 176
Hofstra 189
UNCW 210
rojo wrote:
Dose of Truth wrote:
Yeah if he was such a great coach, George Mason would be a hell of a lot more successful than they are. He has produced horrible results there.
George Mason won the men's indoor national championship not long before Gerard got there. They struggle to win the A-10 conference championship now in track. They are marginally better than Rhode Island in track - thanks to the sprinters that Gerard doesn't even coach.
His distance runners have been bad, and their men got 5th at XC A-10 championships losing to Dayton, La Salle, St. Louis, and St. Josephs of PA.
You do realize he coached a team to 24 points at NCAAs? A coach is only as good as the athletes he has to work with. And yes recruiting is a BIG part of the job but you are only going to get certain type of athletes at certain schools. My favorite phrase about coaching is, "How many NCAA titles did Mark Wetmore win at Seton Hall and how many did Urban Meyer win at Bowling Green?"
If it was only about how good of a coach you were, then people wouldn't leave small programs.
In track, some coaches don't care as there isn't big money in the sport, particularly when he took over at Mason. So he could probably make roughly the same at George Mason as Stanford but it's way cheaper to live and way less stress/pressure.
Unless you know the tuition cost, the out out state waivers and whether a team is fully funded, it's almost impossible to judge a college coach correctly.
Need another example from football. Here's one I like ouse from my Cornell days - George Seifert.
He was fired as the Cornell football coach after two years and a 3-15 record. Before his career was over he coached the 49ers to two Super Bowl titles and 5 NFC title games in 6 years.
agree with the the challenges in judging college track coaches--some limited by the programs/funding that they inherit...as for George Seifert--he can thank Bill Walsh for those loaded Niners teams..how did Carolina work out for him?
the 24 points had to do with running the thoroughbreds into the ground in the fall, everyone was fried come track season.
toro wrote:
Small program?
Mason used to be one of the top programs in the nation.
One NCAA team title.
A few top threes.
Several NCAA Chapions.
Collegiate record holders.
Olympians.
Won the IC4A's 7 years in a row when that meet meant something.
So true. GMU was a great program for many years. Like you say the IC4A's were a tough conference and GMU won many years in a row. They had some great coaches and athletes.
Gerard ended the success that George Mason was having. He is doing a bad job. I've heard this directly from George Mason alumni.
The program was deconstructed before he arrived. Not sure why. Too bad because GMU was outstanding for many years.
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