I think this is right on. Plus, unless a person is a superb evaluator of talent who has seen each of the very good players play many times, there's even less basis for saying someone is "the best."
Significant and well-deserved recognition (from a top newspaper). Shaw got stiffed by the stiffs who vote on the Mac Hermann award, but hey.... https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ootballer-of-the-year-2018-khadija-bunny-shaw
A big part of the College awards is the marketing done by the colleges themselves. Shaw is a rare talent. I hope she continues to do well.
She is phenomenal and deserving of this honor but to say she got stiffed by the Herman voters isn’t right. The Herman trophy goes to the outstanding collegiate player of the year. Hard to consider a player that missed more than a quarter of the season for international duty. The same could be said for Mace and Fleming
Yeah, it really is. Obviously. And what does "two years ago" have to do with it? They're YNT kids, that's when you recruit them.
From your opening post, this is remarkably accurate based on a project I just completed. The only team you're missing is West Virginia. This has the teams in order based on their Massey ranking trends mostly over the last 12 years (the trend system is a little more complicated than that), but I don't take the exact order too seriously. Stanford UCLA Southern California North Carolina Georgetown West Virginia Florida State Duke Virginia South Carolina Penn State
This debate or discussion about UVA and Swanson is kind of silly. He's a great coach at a great school and has consistently been a contender in a great P5 conference over many years. Is he coaching in the USWNT program? Yes Are those contacts helpful in recruiting? Yes Does he recruit heavily from the USWNT program? Yes Does he also take chances on local/less known talent? Yes Does his association with the USNT staff help his players, or players he knows well? I assume also, Yes Anyone who's worked with or seen Swanson coach knows a few things. He relates well to players and he works his arse off. I've seen him fly back from a NT event and go right to a field to watch a local kid. This happened at CASL just a few weeks ago. Now - if you want to have a debate about whether college coaches concurrently working within US Soccer is a conflict of interest or a vested interest, that's another debate. Presently, that coaching is permitted by NCAA rules. Should the USNT staff be more "professionalized" and not be using college coaches?? Again, another debate for sure. But UVA passes the "kid test". Would I send my kid there, or my niece there, to play for Swanson - absolutely. And be thrilled about it. 2 cents
Ok. So in your opinion has he underachieved or not? You have summarized what has already been said. You also ASSUME it helps his players by him working with the full team. Please. All i want is some evidence of this. I see none whatsoever.
Since you asked.....Not sure what metric you're using but underachieved in terms of winning titles, sure. Every coach that has a top-25 or so team that realistically thinks they can win a title should be pissed when they don't. But, it's a bit ridiculous to say that every coach that doesn't win it has "underachieved". How many great coaches are out there at every level that didn't "win it all". My HS coach is in local halls of fame because he won about 10 games a year for 25 years (12-14 game schedule) but never won a State title. Examples like this at every level. I mean in college women's soccer shouldn't Stanford win every year? So, on the one hand, if you made a list of the best coaches in D1 WS that have NOT won a title, you'd have to put Swanson in that top 10 for sure. But, if you were the AD evaluating him (or a prospective player), I think he's awesome. Great academic school and successful students, facilities, long term success (in NCAAs every year), has won the ACC, good experienced staff, producing drafted pro players, but yes, never won the big one. BTW - IMHO Dave Nolan is the Coach of the Year (again) for what he's done at Georgetown. Very unique place but a school/program I would send any good player in an instant that may never win a title. It's all relative. I mean Florida has won a title and I'm sure Becky Burleigh would say she 'underachieved' this year but I'm pretty sure she's a good coach.
Ask the people who say he has underachieved. The ones who say he has an inbuilt recruiting advantage because of his part time involvement in the full NT. The ones who say because a domestic training camp was held at UVA in 2016, he has an edge. I think he is as good as it gets . period. Has had great success and continues to do it the right way.
What if nobody is arguing to the contrary? You can be an excellent coach running an excellent program *and* benefit from your involvement with the national teams. In fact, you'd have to be the world's worst coach *not* to find a way to benefit from it.