Who the heck is this Joe Lynn whose name is listed next to the Southern Illinois Carbondale X-C Vacancy? I have been told by an authoritative source in the SIUC athletic department that a replacement for Matt Sparks has already been selected as their student-athletes reported to school last Thurs... but no public announcement yet. Is Lynn the replacement? If so, who is he? Also, still no announcement about SIUC's Sparks being definitely hired as ND X-C coach. Have I missed it somewhere? This is one of the most curious and mysterious hires in my recent memory. Sparks has had a solid record at SIUC in his 12 years there.... but only 2 individual male All-Americans... and could never get their X-C team out of regionals by beating OSU, OU, and Minn. But, he did well in the MVC Conference... which admittedly is a mid-major D1 conference... and not a X-C powerhouse. Not sure how many full rides he had to work with either as field event coach is director...and he could not seem to compete with other top D1 Midwestern powers for the best talent in Illinois. His most decorated distance runner, Jeff Schirmer , was a true "sleeper" from a high school very near me. Jeff did not run X-C early on in H.S. and bloomed late and under the radar of many other serious coaches.