It's all the training facilities, too. Not that I know all that much about it, but the weight rooms, locker rooms and all that are said to be well below par. Granted, schools that football crazy have upped the ante to what I consider a ridiculous degree, with the nicer-than-NFL weight rooms and so forth. But that's another thing the new coach will have to deal with.
Yes. They're criticizing him for only giving him 2 years; saying any coach deserves 3-4 years. Also, criticizing the fact that the school has consistently been saying for the past many years that they were going to improve the facilities and they haven't yet. We (Baylor) have been able to turn our program around, and so has TCU. TCU has a new stadium, and ours is currently under construction. We're both much smaller than CU, and (probably) have fewer alumni with a deep pockets. Not to say that BU and TCU don't have alumni with deep pockets, just fewer of them. If BU and TCU can do it, why can't TCU?
CU boosters are delusional. They expect a great team, but don't want to pay for it. When was the last time CU renovated their stadium? The AD should have been the one fired, not Embree. I don't know if Embree was a good coach, but how is a coach supposed to be successful when the best QB options are a KU reject and Texas' 4th stringer? And if Embree was so incompetent, why was he hired in the first place? I am hoping the freshman QB, who is redshirting, is next season's Brett Hundley. Hopefully Jim Mora Jr. is not involved in it though.
Off the current topic, today the MLS Best XI was announced. Only six teams are represented (SJ, SKC, NYRB, LA Galaxy, Seattle, and DC) ... very odd. Is it just me are is that messed up? I'll give them Wondo, Keane and Alonso but unsure that Henry, Neilsen and the others were deserving. Seems like they are fixated on a few teams.
Neilsen was good this year, but yeah, I'm ready for MLS's Henry fixation to be over with. Dude's got skills, but that's it. I mean, he's FRENCH...
Henry personally accounted for 27 goals (15 g, 12 a). The only player to account for more this season was Wondo. Cooper and Saborio may have scored more, but they assisted on way fewer. I don't love his actions and his shrinking in the moment against the better teams, but it's hard to argue with his output. Nielsen had one of the best statistical seasons for a GK in MLS history - in terms of GAA, Save Percentage, Wins, etc. The only other player I think could have been considered is Gruenebaum. My only personal question mark, oddly enough, was Donovan. Statistically his season ended up pretty well, but that one 4-assist game he had skews the stats. I felt like this year was an off-year for him and the injuries limited his form. I'd rather have seen Brad Davis, Martin Chavez, Mauro Rosales or David Ferreira.
I assume you meant CU there at the end. Matt pretty much has the answer: Though I don't know about expecting a great team. Just not a horrible one. I don't know about numbers of alum with rich pockets in comparison to TCU and Baylor (maybe CU has more by virtue of having more students, but then again it is a public school as well). But the budget has been a problem. Embree and his staff were on cheap contracts. I don't know that CU's sports are very well supported in general. (Men's basketball has both been weak and poorly supported historically.)
So was BU basketball until Scott Drew (great recruiter, horrible coach). And then there was the whole player murdering another player thing...
Big difference for me between CU and TCU/ Baylor is Texas a huge Football state, keep in mind this is coming from a Big Ten guy. They need to do well in football to drive enrollment. I think several Texas HS's have better stadiums then Rapids DSG. Funny CU went same direction as my Michigan when hiring a coach (Hoke & Embree) in 2010 (Both Alumni groups wanted someone who came through their respective programs). Anyone else hear about some group(s) calling for the ending of football program there? Not sure Pac-10 or whatever their name is liking that much. Will be interesting to see where CU goes from here
Neither one had that, Embree came from NFL assist coach positions and Hoke was (34-38) at Ball State although 12-1 in final year and (13-12) in 2 years at San Diego State. Alumni wanted Les Miles and most were against small time college coach Hoke. But this is neither here nor there. Time has come for CU to decide if they want to be a competitive football school or not and the price tag that comes with that choice.
I'll take father over son any day of the week. Jr. failed as a coach of the Falcons and Seahawks. He did manage to win the Pac12 South, but everyone else is either rebuilding (CU, U of A, ASU), dealing with the NCAA (USC), or snakebitten by injuries (Utah, Jordan Wynn). He also seems like a terrible person (saying he'd leave the Falcons during a playoff run to coach U-Dub, stories about him treating staff poorly). When Neuheisel's recruits leave, UCLA will flounder, if not sooner. I didn't realize until last year that boosters aren't always alums. When ASU was looking for a new coach to replace Erickson, it came out in the news that one of ASU's big boosters, an SMU alum, wanted June Jones.
Well to be fair Mora only got 1 year to run the Seahawks before Carroll became available and they dumped him overboard. Really bad timing for him as he had accepted the Seahawks job and the U-Dub job became open in the '08-'09 offseason. Then he gets dumped a year later after Sark took the U-Dub job. I think Mora's probably a better college coach than pro coach, but we'll see what happens.
I think it has to do with exposure. Not living in an MLS market or being rich enough to buy DirectKick (wait, it was only $80?), I only see the games on NBC Sports, ESPN, or what I can find online. I don't remember seeing the Revs or Crew more than once. 80% of the games seemed to involve NYRB, the Galaxy, Portland, or Seattle.
SBI's most improved players: More diversified but still no Rapids (Not that I expected any) http://www.soccerbyives.net/2012/11/sbi-mls-most-improved-best-xi.html
If there was an underperforming or most regression XI, I bet we could get some guys on there. Hopefully, it all just means it will be easy for Rapids to make these lists next year when they out perform expectations. (The glass is half full, the glass is half full...)
Mark Mangino for CU. Really? Seriously?!? As soon as I post that, John Henderson tweets Mangino isn't on CU's list. I hope he is right.
co mtn... do you frequent allbuffs.com if not you should... also not true regarding embree he was a positon coach with no coordinating or hc experience and hadnt been coaching in 2 years after he left his nfl job
mangino wont... my gut is it will be a combination of gary andersen from utah st and bob stitt has oc or maybe a deryuter and stitt or dream world charlie strong and stitt
Hey I have michigan no need for CU but I used to work with 3 dedicated alumni's and still in contact with them so I hear stuff through them. Anyways, your dead wrong on Embree- he went straight from TE coach Redskins to Buffs. Colorado (TE) Player1993–1994Colorado (DE)1995–1998Colorado (TE)1999–2000Colorado (WR/kicking)2001–2002UCLA (assistant HC/WR)2003UCLA (assistant HC/TE/passing)2004–2005Kansas City Chiefs (TE)2006–2008Washington Redskins (TE)2010Colorado Head Coach2011–2012
FC Dallas did not resign Kevin Hartman... that makes me sad :-(. I always liked him, we had some personal correspondence when Henry took his cheap shot against him. He's certainly been one of the good guys in the league.