ALEX GIBBY FIRED - confirmed by Michigan 6/16/14

There's a good chance the people on here bashing Gibby do not know him very well. They may have never even met him at all. If you've spent any amount of time with him then you would know he's a great guy. I also know guys who ran for him and they have never had a bad thing to say about him & those are the people who are/were around him as much as anyone. That says enough right there. I don't know where all the anti-Gibby stuff comes from, but it is surely based off of perception and not reality. The Gibby that some people are describing on here is certainly not the one I know. I hope he lands a great job and I have no doubt he will be successful no matter where he ends up.

Don't understand this one at all. When you read the press release you get a strong sense of a guy building a solid Big10 program and the believable reports are that his athletes respected and trusted him. Why let him go? Looks bad on M.

Head coaches have expectations weighing on them so they want to pick their own guys. It doesn't mean Gibby was doing poorly. Why is this so shocking?

I'm sure Alex will land somewhere just fine.

In michigan sasd wrote:

Gibby's job is fine. The OP is just a troll probably. He helped pick the head track coach for god's sake.

Are you sure?

One of the big problems with Michigan is that it is hard to recruit star sprinters to a school this far north. I realize that some other Big 10 schools have had some success with this; but overall, the programs built with sprinters are in the south. Who is the last star sprinter that went to high school in Michigan? The fastest kids usually end up playing football, not running track. It will be very hard to build Michigan back up with sprinters. Field events and distance runners are probably going to have to be the core for the school. Ron was able to recruit STAR athletes (Brannen, Forys, Webb, Willis, Woods, O-Lionard, North, Mcnamara, etc)---some developed, some didn't; but his coaching, reputation and his success with big-name runners led to additional star recruits. Michigan was a "destination" school under Ron. I'm hoping Clayton can hire a big-time assistant and start getting the exceptional recruits. If he really wants to limit roster size, he's going to have to get major recruits which is not easy in the state of Michigan.

Its not neccessary to recruit stars, but you have to at least pick up points from the 600,800,and mile. It's not hard to get guys to run 1.18, 1.49, 4.02. These guys are dime a dozen around the country. These are the sort of runners you need to pick up an additional 20-30 points at a conference meet.

I don't think there is any reason that Michigan couldn't recruit sprinters competitive at the B1G level, since they all have to deal with that location problem. Not necessarily All-Americans, but better than what they have done. Or just steal some football guys.

From what I understand UM is in process of building an unbelievable Indoor Facility and updating its' outdoor one?

They should hire someone with UM ties. No one can sell the place to go, like someone who was oersonally invested in that institution at some level.

Thank you (Stop the bashing) for your comments. You are absolutely correct and I know for a fact as that all of the guys that ran for him loved him and that is how he got the recruits he got. He is a great coach and really cares for his runners. He was NOT planning on going anywhere and was planning on staying to UM to build and win a National Championship!!! I am very upset with Michigan right now for doing what they did to Gibby. Really makes me wonder where the program is going.

They already know. Here is the official notice.

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-track/spec-rel/061614aaa.html

They already know. Here is the official notice.http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-track/spec-rel/061614aaa.html

m.kl wrote:

For the love of God - Gibby has a family. Imagine his mom and dad reading this or his wife or his daughters one day. Back the hell off, seriously. Anonymous comments cause great pain. be careful what you type.

Many who speak negatively of Gibby only have the impression that he's a bad guy because of supposed trash talking the previous program. While I never heard it, I can sort of understand how trying to distance yourself from the previous program could make sense. Maybe he didn't go about it correctly, but I don't see anything horrible about it.

I can tell you, almost everybody that runs for him loves him. Yeah of course not every athlete that comes through a program is going to fit in well with the system and there are a few around that didn't enjoy it.

But Gibby really cares about his athletes, and poured everything he had into coaching the Wolverines. He stuck around when we finished one of our lowest Big 10 and Regional finishes ever his first year and just a few years later lead the team to a regional title.

Ron is a great guy, but the upperclassmen were very poor leaders and discipline/outside of practice actions were not kept in control at all during his final years and with him stopping recruiting classes with more than 2 people, this ultimately led to him being able to be thrown under the bus easily.

Gibby will get a great job somewhere, now we have to wait and see if somebody great will replace him. Otherwise, I don't believe an SEC style team will work at a school that has academic standards that can't get everybody in, winter for 7 months of the year, and a distance team that is now going to resent the other half of the team.

as someone who was talked to gibby as a recruit he was nothing but respectful to me and my parents. He was really committed to u of m and I am surprised he was let go. The distance runners are the only good part of the track team for god's sake. Their mid distance does not just suck but so does their sprinters, hurdlers, and field events. Gibby will find a good job.

What's amazing is that UofM already has one of the best collegiate distance/mid-distance coaches in the country in Mike McGuire. I don't understand how they can't incentivize him to take over the men's coaching duties as well? I know he has never coached men, but he obviously can coach everything from the 800 to the 10k.

Why didn't you go there?

Gibby To Mizzou ????

They need to hire Kevin Sullivan. Cutting the distance squad is ridiculous. I realize that many of them will never score a point, but this is not football or basketball,these are kids paying their own way to go to school. Michigan is a school that lives on their huge endowment. These runner types are the ones who donated to a Michigan later in life, and they won't be doing that when they get cut from the track team,

Does Sullivan have any formalized coaching experience other than helping his wife at FSU? I can't imagine Sullivan leaving to coach Michigan while Harvey is still coaching at FSU.

is it true that Gibby and Pete Watson are trading jobs and watson is heading to Ann Arbor