Southern Utah

hate is bad wrote:

SUWHO? wrote:

You are correct, Houle has been there over 20 years. In that time span he's sent one cross country team to the NCAA championship and coached three all-Americans. I'd say he's not a good coach and will never have a good program. My definition of good program is the ability to either consistently get teams to the NCAA championships, or to consistently have all-Americans. He's had his fair share of good high school runners that never amounted to much under his program.

Why so inflammatory? You seem to have some kind of serious vendetta against SUU. Do you have something to lose if SUU is well spoken of on here? I wouldn't take the word of someone who seems to be very close to another program and has nothing to say but slander.

Here's where your logic is flawed: you claim that the success of a program is based on 2 criteria, 1) NCAA appearances and 2) All-Americans. Now, how hard would it be to rack up a list of both of those if you took over at Oregon? You could do a terrible job and STILL get a lot of both. Now, what happens when you take over at an under-funded, small regional university with no history of success whatsoever? Most small schools out there are absolutely stoked to just be top 5 in their small conference, anything to do with the NCAA meet is out of the question.

The signature of a great coach at a small school may not be in accumulating a huge quantity of AAs or NCAA berths. But if a coach takes a bad D2 school from absolute obscurity to the point where his team wins the Mountain region, gets a local kid to finish 3rd at the NCAA XC meet, all the way to having another kid win the BOWERMAN and 2 NCAA titles, then you know something very good happened over the past 20 years to make that change.

The true measure of a program is by looking at what the individuals do from entrance into a program until after they graduate. That's seriously the only objective way to look at it. Claiming that NCAA berths and AAs is what verifies a program is the way big-name universities cover their butts. Now, you can tell I'm a fan of what SUU has done but to come on here to just rip an up-and-coming program just shows insecurities in your own investments. This goes for all small schools out there; look what they have done with the guys they have brought in.

To the guy asking about Cedar City itself, I've always liked the place. Small town, not too small. 2 hrs from Vegas. College town feel which is cool. High elevation has to be a big selling point for them, being significantly higher than all the other D1 schools in Utah.