Okay, Letsrun, you're full of opinions, some of which divisive, so let's duke it out. We've had threads in the past debating who the best coaches in the nation are. So who do you think is the worst? What experiences have you had or heard of with a D-I coach that would lead you to classify them as a "bad" coach?
Steve Plasencia for the University of Minnesota has to be up there. He just got downgraded and is now on a year-to-year contract. The University of Minnesota is the only D1 school in a very good running state, so he gets probably 4 out of 5 of the top guys in the state each year. He's turned multiple state champions(~9:00 3200 guys) into over 9 minute 3000m guys. Absolutely laughable. With the guys they get out of high school, they really should be a podium contender in cross every year. Also, completely forgot to mention that he let his own kid on the team(77th at state cross his senior year in a 16:52) over guys in the top 20 who were also in the 4:15/9:15 range on the track. WOW.
RogueMoose wrote:
Okay, Letsrun, you're full of opinions, some of which divisive, so let's duke it out. We've had threads in the past debating who the best coaches in the nation are. So who do you think is the worst? What experiences have you had or heard of with a D-I coach that would lead you to classify them as a "bad" coach?
Was that a Freudian slip when you said "Duke it out"
Duke has to be mentioned...
SPAZencia wrote:
Steve Plasencia for the University of Minnesota has to be up there. He just got downgraded and is now on a year-to-year contract. The University of Minnesota is the only D1 school in a very good running state, so he gets probably 4 out of 5 of the top guys in the state each year. He's turned multiple state champions(~9:00 3200 guys) into over 9 minute 3000m guys. Absolutely laughable. With the guys they get out of high school, they really should be a podium contender in cross every year. Also, completely forgot to mention that he let his own kid on the team(77th at state cross his senior year in a 16:52) over guys in the top 20 who were also in the 4:15/9:15 range on the track. WOW.
To be fair he has had some success. One of his athletes won the ncaa steeple title last year, which is more then most D1 coaches can say.
SPAZencia wrote:
Steve Plasencia for the University of Minnesota has to be up there. He just got downgraded and is now on a year-to-year contract. The University of Minnesota is the only D1 school in a very good running state, so he gets probably 4 out of 5 of the top guys in the state each year. He's turned multiple state champions(~9:00 3200 guys) into over 9 minute 3000m guys. Absolutely laughable. With the guys they get out of high school, they really should be a podium contender in cross every year. Also, completely forgot to mention that he let his own kid on the team(77th at state cross his senior year in a 16:52) over guys in the top 20 who were also in the 4:15/9:15 range on the track. WOW.
He's not on a year to year contract ...lol get your facts straight before you post false information here. It invalidates everything else you said. Also that son of his is a 9:25 steepler. Not amazing, but calling him a 16:52 5k runner is misleading.
I mean just look at some of the bottom schools at the bottom conferences. Patriot League, A-10, and AEC....
I know for a fact some of these "fake d1" coaches have no clue and take moderately talented people and make them even worse.
I've heard the UConn coach is a tool
Is Mitchell still the head coach at Akron? I don't have experience with other people running DI programs, but he seemed pretty awful in my estimation. If he's even still there.
Keeps the hc employed at Asheville? Has anyone ever improved there?
Mitchell has done an incredible job at Akron. They have a great program that contends for league titles every year and has All Americans every year. Not sure what you are looking at?
notmyusualhandle wrote:
I mean just look at some of the bottom schools at the bottom conferences. Patriot League, A-10, and AEC....
I know for a fact some of these "fake d1" coaches have no clue and take moderately talented people and make them even worse.
To be fair, most Patriot League schools are in a rough situation. Tuition is over 70k, many have no athletic scholarships, and the admissions standards rule out 90% of high school runners. Ivy League poaches the smartest kids, schools with scholarships poach the recruits with the most potential. Then the academic rigors just crush some kids - I mean look at how many people go to Stanford and do nothing because the academic stress just destroys them.
I think the worst coaches out there are the ones in charge of fully funded programs that hardly ever sends athletes to nationals. They are either screwing up really talented recruits, or they are the worst recruiters. If you have all the resources you need and you still suck, that's unforgivable.
notmyusualhandle wrote:
I mean just look at some of the bottom schools at the bottom conferences. Patriot League, A-10, and AEC....
I know for a fact some of these "fake d1" coaches have no clue and take moderately talented people and make them even worse.
Hey, don't hate too hard on America East, a lot of that is funding issues not coaching. I do agree though, teams like St. Bonaventure, Hartford, Colgate, Lafayette make me wonder why they are even D1. It's like they're actively trying to make their teams worse. There are good teams there though, SBU, UML, Binghamton, UNH, and others have (had) good athletes and teams, but they don't have the money or reputation to pull athletes like P5 or Ivy schools.
These threads are misleading at best. Each poster can name someone who they "think" is a lousy coach, but most likely they don't know. Take for instance Dennis Mitchell at Akron. In fairness, I am not a fan of Dennis as a person, and can't stand being around his know-it-all attitude......BUT I have great respect for him as a coach. He turned a horrible, maybe the worst DI program in the country into a very, very successful team and has done it for a very long time. Each year he produces NCAA qualifiers, and he has personally coaches multiple NCAA Champions. The guy can flat out coach and Akrons' program is very strong.
Boujee wrote:
I've heard the UConn coach is a tool
Do tell
A real Division I coach wrote:
These threads are misleading at best. Each poster can name someone who they "think" is a lousy coach, but most likely they don't know. Take for instance Dennis Mitchell at Akron. In fairness, I am not a fan of Dennis as a person, and can't stand being around his know-it-all attitude......BUT I have great respect for him as a coach. He turned a horrible, maybe the worst DI program in the country into a very, very successful team and has done it for a very long time. Each year he produces NCAA qualifiers, and he has personally coaches multiple NCAA Champions. The guy can flat out coach and Akrons' program is very strong.
The relays are terrible though...
America East is okay wrote:
notmyusualhandle wrote:
I mean just look at some of the bottom schools at the bottom conferences. Patriot League, A-10, and AEC....
I know for a fact some of these "fake d1" coaches have no clue and take moderately talented people and make them even worse.
Hey, don't hate too hard on America East, a lot of that is funding issues not coaching. I do agree though, teams like St. Bonaventure, Hartford, Colgate, Lafayette make me wonder why they are even D1. It's like they're actively trying to make their teams worse. There are good teams there though, SBU, UML, Binghamton, UNH, and others have (had) good athletes and teams, but they don't have the money or reputation to pull athletes like P5 or Ivy schools.
You don't know what you are talking about either. Patriot League schools are funded even less. Most Patriot League schools have to fundraise the majority of their budget.
Take Colgate, for example - it costs just under $70,000 to go there. Up in the middle of nowhere in NY and it is really cold. No scholarships for the women and no scholarships for the men. Average SAT is 1310, which is 88th percentile. That essentially means only 12% of senior track and field athletes in the entire country could even get accepted. What % of those people can afford to spend $280,000 on their college education? I'm amazed they can even field a full team, let alone achieve what they have - several conference champions recently and some solid times.
Stony Brook has close to 18 women's scholarships. UMass Lowell is just about fully funded on both genders. Binghamton and New Hampshire have a decent amount of money too. All of the schools are extremely cheap and have low admissions standards. These America East schools SHOULD be a hell of a lot better than they are.
Sarah Haveman of Illinois. Incompetent, lazy, and overall a nightmare to work with. In 2017, under Stewart, the men's team finished fourth in the Big 10 XC championships. In 2018, they finished 10th- just ahead of Ohio State and Rutgers. Despite this, she has still convinced herself that she is the greatest coach of all time. When she started at Illinois, she said that her goal was to make the women's team (10th in 2016 and 8th in 2015 Big 10 XC coached by Jones), as good as the men's team. That she succeeded in- by making them equally bad. In 2018, both teams finished third-to-last in conference XC.
Greg Metcalf. I guess he isn't coaching anymore but he seemed like a pretty awful coach.
https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/08/03/washington-greg-metcalf-running-harassment
You would think he wouldn’t be coaching anymore, but that isn’t the case unfortunately.
Greogry wrote:
You would think he wouldn’t be coaching anymore, but that isn’t the case unfortunately.
Did he end up at OK State like was rumored?