It about that time of year !! Who's in - Who's out in college coaching !!

I think Pitt will give Joe one more year to see if he can actually recruit students by showing off their new soccer stadium. If not they will probably tell him to retire and name the field or something after him. Joe's saving grace always was 'well look at where we play' 'i can not recruit student to play here' Now with the new stadium he should have no excuses.

 

For the record, most Patriot league schools are close to full-funded (6-8 or more). Patriot schools also offer some of the best financial aid packages in the US.
There are few schools, if any, in D1 soccer that have 2.2 or less unaccompanied by hefty financial aid packages.

 

Pitt has played in the new stadium for 2 years and he hasn't recruited anyone of note since. For what I've been told he doesn't want to recruit. He cares little about selling the program or the school to potential recruits. The players do not like him, and potential recruits are aware of the poor coaching at Pitt. It's time for this coaching staff to be shown the door. This would be a desirable job for a lower current head coach or a top assistant at a big-time program. ACC plus a top notch facility should attract much interest. I'm not sure about the $$$ or scholarships available.

Its time for Coach Lux to go!!!

 

URI is open
http://www.gorhody.com/sports/m-soccer/index

 

Rhode Island used to be a good program and with the improvements of the A10, they should be able to sell that.

Not a lot of programs out there can claim a World Cup veteran (Andy Williams) and a current EPL player (Geoff Cameron) among their former players so that should be a selling point, too.

 

Well. lux has had a year to,prove he could do something in the new facility aat Pitt. And he had a worse record. 0-8 in conference. his Assistant wasn't any help. Great, he may have been a player 30 years ago, but hasn't been a coach in over 12 years.time for AD to let him go although hard as it may be. Time to being in two or three new coaches. wow- cant imagine AD wanting to go into ACC with this lack of coaching. take your retirement, Mr. lux.Last winning season was over 10 years ago. Football and basketball coaches would be long gone. Disservice to the university's sports program at Pittsburgh.
Try someone new, can't be worse
OSU ....will probably get rid of Bluehm, LIU also.

 

I think Clemson Coach Noonan has another 2yrs, Adiar left that program in shambles . I would say that V-tech coach is on the hot seat for sure.

 

I wondered if VTech coach Mike B would be summarily fired and left in College Park if he would have lost the #8/#9 game.

 

At what point is the Indiana coach on the hot seat? Freitag was given 5 seasons but he won a National Championship. Yeagley has only a regular season B10 title in his 3 seasons...

 

That depends....how old are Yeagley's kids?

 

Bada-bing! Try the veal, tip your waitresses.

 

I think he should be on the hot seat now. His best seasons so far were with the players that were already there. But his last name is Yeagley and we all know that Yeagley Sr had a lot to do with Frietag''s demise and everything to do with Yeagley Jr getting the job.

 

Wonder if Kevin Grimes at Cal might be feeling a bit of heat?

Could the shellacking today by Stanford start that discussion?

Given Grimes's salary level, and two consecutive seasons now without post-season participation, you gotta wonder.

I recall Cal squeezing by and winning the PAC -12 title by a single point in 2010 when a very young Bruins team left points on the table by a couple of conference ties. And when his senior laden 2010 team beat the Bruins in Westwood, despite still not having won it, he proceeded to prance and gloat in front of the UCLA parent bleachers post match under the pretense of playing "soccer" with his young son. That episode really irked a lot of Bruin parents and alumni if I recall! Especially as those bleachers are totally across the pitch. it appears Karma really is a b*tch.

Stanford and Cal.....two programs going in opposite directions IMHO.

 

Watz, after the ordeal today, I was thinking the same thing about Kevin Grimes and his future. Seriously though, he is not one to gloat or boast at all. I don't know him personally but just from what I see from the stands, I think and wish he would be a little more fiery but its really not his personality to yell and scream or yell at his players or the refs or what have you. I don't know what took place at UCLA in 2010 but I do know he goes on the pitch and kicks the ball around with his kid after every game. Still don't know what the future holds for Grimes. He is a good guy so I wish him the very best.....

 

I witnessed the incident....perception is reality!

As for the direction the Cal program is heading....the Bears seemed to falter all during conference play. Compare that with how Stanford improved over the course of the season. I think the Cal team is paying the price for a subpar 2011 recruiting class. And IMHO, neither Fitzpatrick nor Munoz contributed much over their careers. I know u chalk this year up as a rebuilding year but I think there is a dearth of talent on the Cal roster with some significant gaps. I felt for your cousin not having the talent around him the past two seasons. So either Grimes cuts his losses and jettisons some of the dead wood and brings in some JUCO studs and freshmen to shore things up, or IMHO the Bears could be in for some lean years ahead especially with Washington and Stanford emerging.

 

Here's another that might be on the hot seat...Cam Rast at Santa Clara?

 

Well maybe so. I wasn't there so I can't judge either way but it doesn't really sound like his character.

I also wonder about Cam at Santa Clara and Gary St. Clair up the road at San Jose State. It seems these guys get to keep their jobs forever even though they continue to lose on a yearly basis. Guess most AD's don't care or know enough about soccer to really care all that much if their coaches are losers or not.

 

Actually, that seems to be a common theme among most of the WCC schools.

 

Between these two and Lunt, they had three senior forwards combine for seven goals. As you say, not much.

2011 was a rebuilding year, but I tend to think that 2012 would've been a very good team if they hadn't lost an All-American in Birnbaum.

 

I liked Fitzpatrick a lot and he seemed to be highly recruited out of high school. When he was a sophomore on the 2010 team that went to the final 8, I thought he was going to be a force his Jr & Sr. seasons but it wasn't to be. I had heard he had broke up with his girlfriend and was going through some other personal things but he shouldn't have allowed that to hinder his game. Munoz had a quiet season and Kyle Lunt also was a major disappointment. He supposedly had a blow up with Grimes because he was not playing and he hit the post against SDST but still hadn't been producing and forwards who don't produce on any level in my opinion are just not any good. They played him a bit at center defense and I thought that would have been a great position for him but he didn't want to play there. He has aspirations for going pro but I don't see it. Maybe in the USL or PDL and he could be a late bloomer but I don't see him in MLS....

Another loss was when Ted Jones went down injured early on. I think that hurt the team. The loss of All-American in Birnbaum was definitely a blow. They are saying he is red shirting this year and coming back next year. but I do think he can play in MLS so I'm not sure if he wants to come back or not.

From what I witnessed, the team lacked vocal leaders both from coaches and players and I think that was another reason on why they ended up poorly....

 

Kevin Grimes would be the first to tell you his team under-performed this year. But if Cal fired him, he'd be the most sought-after candidate in college soccer this season.

Grimes has a great rep in college soccer circles and it's well-deserved. That doesn't give him a lifetime pass, but I think Cal would be hard-pressed to replace him with a better coach.

That said, he better be back in the NCAA Tournament next year.

 

I agree with the Cam Rast questions.

Santa Clara has gone backwards since he became head coach. Between 89 and 03 they went to 5 final fours, played in 3 finals and shared a national title.

Now they can't win a one-bid conference. In fairness to Rast, he took Santa Clara to the Final Four in 03. But his currently seniors will finish their having gone to the NCAA Tournament once in four seasons, just as last year's seniors did.

A program like Santa Clara shouldn't be missing the NCAA Tournament 4 of 5 years.

Of course, as someone else noted, most of the entire West Coast Conference is populated by underachieving head coaches.

Bill Irwin was once a camp counselor of mine so I'm partial to the guy, but Portland is a shell of its former self. Granted, Clive Charles is a tough act to follow but the reality is Portland isn't nearly as competitive on the men's side as it was under Clive.

Erik Visser at San Francisco? Makes Rast look like Caleb Porter.

Paul Krumpe has a nice pedigree as a player but LMU hasn't done much the past few years.

Einar Thorarinsson at Gonzaga? This guy has been riding the "I coached Brian Ching in college" wave for a decade. The Zags are almost always one of the worst teams in the league.

Hell, even Seamus McFadden seems like he's way past his sell-date, but his team got hot the second half of the season and it's tough to a can coach after he wins his conference, even if his team has an RPI around 100.

The only coach in the whole damn conference who doesn't seem to be under-achieving is Adam Cooper at St. Mary's.

 

Yeah I don't think they will fire him although he may want to leave. Another loss to this group was Chirs Ortega. Like his Cal teammates Tony Salciccia and Steve Birnbaum, Ortega played for the U.S. U-18 national team in 2008 and 2009. He left school this year I believe because of grades which also didn't help the team. I believe if Grimes had all his seniors he was supposed to have available, he could have had a good team. Instead, he has been faced with many holes to fill. Don't know about any JR college transfers or any recruits on the horizon and I hope I'm wrong but I don't see them in the NCAA Tournament next year with this bunch.

 

With jobs starting to open up I have decided to put together my list of assistant coaches that would be in line to take up head positions. Here goes (no particular order)

Brian Maisonneuve Indiana
Mario Sanchez Louisville
Stan Anderson Marquette
Paul Souders New Mexico
Johnny Torres Creighton
Michael Brady Duke
BJ Craig Notre Dame
Jeff Negalha UNC
Matt Chulis Virginia
Brian Reed Cal Poly
Zach Samol Georgetown
Brian Johnson WVU
Jeff Matteo St. John's

Who would you add?

 

Michael Brady of Duke and cousin Oliver as his assistant ?