Sorry your cherished Texas teams didn't land Randy, at least in your eyes. I'm also guessing other than a visit, you haven't stayed in South Bend for any significant period of time. Pretty easy to throw stones from a distance - keep throwing, we'll just keep winning.
My cousin chose to live there. I thought it was fine. My daughter kinda liked it too - she can only take so much SoCal beach. Anyway - anybody have a game report?
Twitter Leprechaun Lou@NDLeprechaunLou Congrats to the ND women on pulling out a 2-1 victory vs Haiti in an intense game! Thanks to everyone who made my first game such a fun time
I do know he missed some games as he was doing his recruiting job. Sure - SoCal is nice as is Texas this time of year, but you can't say he doesn't pick up a few good recruits along the way.
Let's not put all the recruiting on Randy. I have heard he is gone a lot with the u-23 national team. His next job is not in college, it's the full national team job.
He's not gone any more than some other college coaches who have also worked with youth national teams, such as Steve Swanson at Virginia, Jill Ellis at UCLA and Kazbek Tambi at Seton Hall, and even a former senior national team coach like Anson Dorrance at North Carolina.
Randy Waldrum is a good coach. In the top 3, IMO in women's college. However as a ND fan who has followed the Irish since Chris Petrucelli was the coach, and to those Irish people, fans, parents, players who do read these posts, it does irk me a little that he was looking elsewhere last offseason. ND is a top tier women's soccer program. Second only to North Carolina. Coaches should be in line for this job. and if South Bend doesn't fit your needs on a daily basis, get on the toll road and head to Chicago 90 miles away once in a while. Actually, RedBlueDevil may have a point.
Second only to North Carolina.....maybe in National Championships but not Women's Soccer Program. I think Stanford has passed up UND. Take a look at Stanford's record the last 5-10 years and how many times they were in the finals the last couple years. Maybe overall your beloved UND can make a case but I take Stanford hands down as my Number 2 and believe will move to Number 1 over the next decade.IMHO. Question for you, with 18 returning rostered players why the need for 2 graduating Seniors to play in the Haiti game? And why no substitutions? UND only played 11 players(2 were graduating seniors). Now, I know the injury bug is the obvious answer.....but with 9 players/substitutions sitting on the bench, maybe 3 injured. That leaves 6 players unaccounted for. Also, in a recent announcement it looks like 2 more GK will be joining the Irish in Fall. Something just isn't right....my guess is transfers, some are not returning, playing time, scholarship money, irked, etc??? What's UP? http://www.und.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/042712aab.html Also, if Coach Waldrum goes to SMU. Ken Nuber would be my choice for many reasons. Lastly, maybe Coach W. has had enough of ND and he and his wife want to move closer to their son. Anyway, I would agree that UND with the combination of Academics and Athletics would be the TOP job in the country but with Coach W. interviewing elsewhere things are not as they seem.
This may not be the thread to discuss parity once again, but since you mentioned "the top wonen's program".... I would argue that while one can make a good case for any one of several teams, women's college soccer is now to the point that any of the top 5 to 10 teams are for all intents and purposes equal in quality. No team or program is in a class by itself as once may have been the case. There are a group of top teams (which include Notre Dame) who on any given day could be beaten by another in the group and no one should consider it an "upset". Baseball has this figured out. In their heyday, for instance, the Yankees were considered in the top echelon year after year, and yet no one batted an eye when they lost 20% of their regular season games, sometimes to bottom-rung teams. Everyone still acknowledged that they were a top team. So should it be for the top women's college teams in today's time. Here's my list of the "not-an-upset" teams for 2012. Stanford, Duke, UCLA, Notre Dame, UNC, Boston College, Florida State, Wake Forest, TAMU, and Virginia. I could very easily extend this top 10 with 5 more teams (Oklahoma St., Penn State, Florida, Maryland, and Santa Clara) and even then there arguably more teams that for 2012 will prove their "top echelon" status. So, IMO, talk of the top program simply does not make sense any more. Notre Dame is a top program. So are some others. Calling any one program THE top program is un-supportable in any dispassionate rational manner.
Lots of stuff! I love it! ND is still above Stanford over the past 8 years. 2-1 in championships, 4-3 finals, 6-4 in college cups. BUT Stanford has the momentum and it looks like tides they are a changing. As far as the spring, 18 is not true anymore. 3 of them are keepers so 15 field players. Brown quit the team and Leon was dismissed after the season. Twining is in some sort of trouble since was a ball girl at the purdue game and don't forget Laddish has been in and out of the u-20 camps. That leaves 10 field players including 4 players who didn't really play at all last fall. They have the top class coming in this fall and what this spring tells me is that they ALL will play in the fall. I'm excited to see a young team full of freshman and sophomores. I agree Waldrum needs to recommit to ND. Why does he want out so bad, TCU, seriously? Will he look at SMU so he can hire his son? I want him in South Bend, he is the best coach in the game today I just hope the full team doesn't steal him. Would ND hire Nuber if Waldrum leaves? I think it's smart but would they think they need a big name coach? Would love to hear your reasons SoccerHunter.
It was Tokonta who was promoting Nuber, not me. But you are right to wonder why. .... Just what is the relationship of success to "Big Name Coach" and/or to "Top Level Program"? I personally think that it is unknowable. In addition to a list of minimum qualifications, administrators have hunches when they hire. Sometimes their "Big Name Coach" is a dud at a new school (Petrucelli, any one?) Sometimes the "no name" assistant coach surprises everyone, but more often not. The reputation of the school and program may be the big driver for future success so long as the new coach is at least half decent. (Think Notre Dame football.) Nuber probably has all of the tools from what I have heard and could be quite successful. If Randy does leave ND (I doubt he will), his replacement may provide some answers to my conjectures about hiring. Certainly when Anson and his staff retire in perhaps 5 years, we'll get an even better read.
I think I asked this a long time ago, but does Randy have a grandchild in Texas? Grandchildren exert an almost irresistible gravitational pull.
Folks are putting an awful lot of stock in the posting of one guy on here stating that it was a rock-solid certainty Randy had been offered and accepted the TCU job (and thus by extension he HAD to be a candidate for SMU). Does anyone have any sort of supporting evidence of this other than this one guy's statement? I didn't see anything about this in any media outlets. Year after year, people insist Randy is looking to leave, but I have yet to see anything other than message board rumor-mongering about this. I'll be happy to acknowledge this if and when I see Randy say something about it - otherwise, I go by what I've heard from Randy which is that he is very happy at Notre Dame and very excited about his future there.
What? I didn't know Leon was dismissed. Why? Look I like Randy Waldrum as head Coach of the Irish. But to me ND comes first. If Waldrum, just like Petrucelli, wants to leave, then leave. Don't put the team, players, player's parents and potential recruits through stress and wondering about your comittment. It's not professional and also IMO eats at your reputation.
Yes I know for certain he interviewed and was offerred the job at TCU but they would not le him hire his son so he declined the offer. I heard TCU has a nepotism clause but I don't know if that was actually why he wouldn't be allowed to hire his son or the spectacularily bad decision making that occurred the last time his son worked for him. Or a combo of the two?
Sorry, it's a two way street. If coaches can be let go for not winning enough games then they get to keep their options open at all times. Getting fired is part of the profession but so is looking at other opportunities if a coach so chooses. It could become a problem in recruiting but that's a part of that choice. Too often people only want the aspects of "professionalism" they like and ignore others that don't agree with their sensibilities. I don't quibble with what you view as loyalty, but to claim it lacks professionalism isn't right.
Like I said, I would be happy to see Coach Waldrum at ND till he retires. But if he leaves, I will remain a fan of Notre Dame, I will not follow him to TCU or SMU or wherever else he may go. I'll wish him luck but that is as far as it goes.
I too will alway be an ND fan. That said, what you've just said here is not quite the same thing as saying Waldrum is unprofessional for considering other opportunities.
I was talking in general. Not pointing at Coach Waldrum personally. What rubs me sometimes is coaches that look for other opportunities then when they don't get that job they come back to their school like nothing happened. I'm not saying this is Waldrum, just saying in general. All I know is what I read on the blogs. Again, I think Randy Waldrum is an excellent coach and would want nothing more then for him to stay at Notre Dame till he retires, but if he leaves or wants to leave then just like with Petrucelli, he can go. I will remain a ND fan.
So they wait around to be fired? Or if they don't get a job they go for or even decide not to go for one they check out they should resign? That just doesn't make sense, especially not in general. The upward mobility in the profession is almost exclusively by moving from school to school, mobility (I'm defining by title, salary, resources, quality of life and prestige) is extremely limited by staying at one place forever. Some people don't want mobility, preferring stability. Most, however, do want to climb the ladder until they reach a height that's comfortable. That requires looking other places. It's a fact of being in coaching, just as much as someone canning you because you've not met a certain standard of success on the field or off. I'm curious to find out how you see a coach wanting to look at other opportunities doing so in the best, most professional way.
Look, RedBlueDevil brough up the subject that Randy Waldrum had interviewed at TCU, not me. All I know is what I read on these boards and I respond to it. Although this isn't the first time this subject has been mentioned. All I'm saying is that if a coach puts time, effort and emotion into interviewing for another job and fans, players, school officials of his current school where he/she has been success at, hear about it, it may be expected that the act alone may irk some of these people. Ask Kansas fans how they feel about Roy Williams. Ask Tennessee fans whether they feel Lane Kiffin's departure was professional or not. In this January 2010 ESPN article both Tennessee fans and players had some choice words in that matter: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4821378
That's true, I only took issue with saying looking for other jobs was unprofessional. Being popular/well liked and being professional are often not the same thing.
Often players and maybe even player's parents will stay loyal to a coach that has left their school. That's understandable. Players create a personal relationship with that particular coach that recruited them and coached them. Jen Renola followed Petrucelli to Texas and became his Asst. Coach. Kate Markgraf stayed in touch with him, etc. As just a fan with no other connections it's a little different, IMO. Our loyalty is to the school whose sports team we support, not to any particular coach. Once Petrucelli left ND for Texas, he now became a Texas man not a UND man anymore and I could care less what he did after that.