Caryl Smith-Gilbert just hired David Freeman to coach the USC women's cross country team and middle distances during track season. Freeman has just a few of years of coaching experience with no real results. So we don't really know if he will do a good job or not.
To me, it looks like Smith-Gilbert is tossing away everything above 400 meters, and trying to win with the other events. You need to be more balanced than that in order to win Championships.
Walsh has a reputation as a very good middle distance coach. He had good success with 800 and 1500 types at USC over the years. I may be wrong, but I doubt USC ever put any real money in the women's distances to have a good cross country program. And I think that trend will continue with Smith-Gilbert. It should be interesting to see what happens at USC.