2014 Notre Dame

Still no coach (as far as I know), but recruits still coming. Announced on twitter yesterday that 95-born, forward, Karin Muya (England) will be joining the 10 who recently signed NLOIs to attend ND in the fall.

 

And the wait continues....sigh.

 

Really infuriating not to have a coach 62 days after Randy resigned. Seriously, this is futility at its finest. Let's have a sense of urgency and hire someone, and that person ought to have a pedigree that is compatible with the prestige of the program or else I'll seriously question the competence of the folks conducting this 'national search' for Randy's replacement.

 

Who are your candidates of the people not under a good contract somewhere?

 

Unless there is a substantial buyout penalty, contracts have never stood in the way of coaching mobility, if you know what I mean. It is a most unusual situation where a coach takes another job just as her contract is expiring.

And so I won't mention names but I've heard of three highly credentialed candidates who have interviewed at ND (and, yes, one was Jerry Smith).

Bottom line--Notre Dame, you have the resources and you owe it to this program to aggressively close on an experienced coach. Enough already, spring practice is not far off and the 2015 recruiting still needs to be topped off and these things require a coach. You've got 11 kids committed in '14 and they still don't know who their coach is going to be, not to mention the 23 returning vets. I'm good with a meticulous and careful vetting process and search, but any AD worth his/her salt would have had a short list already developed before Randy resigned. So there's really no excuse that I can conceive of for this to take so long.

Of course, I suppose your implied message that ND is shooting too high and needs to aim for the lower hanging fruit could be accurate. Call me delusional, but I think ND should be attractive to a Top 35 coach.

 

I don't know if they are shooting too high. They SHOULD shoot high.

But getting a highly ranked coach requires highly ranked salary and incentives, doesn't it? Expectations will be high. ( how high? Is anything less that a championship in 5 years not good enough?) For a coach, that's part of the equation. And I'm not sure they are willing to give any but top 10 prospects five years.

I just don't see that ND has gone for a top coach like that in the past in Olympic sports. They seem to go for up-and -comers after first testing the field. And they apparently didn't match Petrucelli Texas offer.


I still think that's the pool you have to be thinking about. So yeah, if you think it is a no brainer for a top coach to go there, well, I'm not convinced.

The only harder sell will be the guy who follows Anson when he retires..

Can you name the guy that followed John Wooden? I can, but only because it is a trivia question.

 

Without Googling it, Cunningham, maybe?

Joe Cunningham?

 

Haha. Gene Bartow. You owe me a beer

He got fired with an .852 winning percentage.

(Gary) Cunningham was next, and HE got fired with an .862 winning percentage.

No UCLA coach has done as well since. (Looked it up -- .756) and both the guys who followed Wooden were better than his .808 winning percentage.

 

Dang it. Wrong again, honey.

 

I wouldn't want ND to rush just to save a single recruiting class.

 

I don't know why it has taken so long, but it may simply be that nobody on the short-list (if there was one) wanted the job. Once you move past names that everybody can agree would be excellent hires, you enter a zone where reasonable people can disagree about what they want in a new coach.

 

I would not make winning a title the expectation. Even great teams come up short on that scale. Being capable of doing so once every 4 or 5 years seems more reasonable. To put it in more measureable way, I'd say a reasonable high expectation would be a Top 4 finish in the ACC in almost every year.

 

Fair enough. Doesn't that eliminate UNC this year? Seems harsh.

And is that ND's expectation?

Most of the very top candidates already have career paths until they retire.

 

Maybe it has something to do with ND being ranked on this list? (and for the record, I am not a hater!)

http://www.weather.com/news/americas-25-snowiest-college-and-universities-20140225?pageno=17

 

2 names I keep hearing: Izzo-Brown from West Virginia and Hale from Arkansas. I don't really have any real sources but those are the 2 names I keep hearing.

 

Those were just my notions of reasonable expectations. I have no idea what the ND administration's actual or reasonable expectations are for women's soccer. I'm reasonably certain, though, that (like many schools) the administration would expect no recruiting violations and a graduation rate in line with the rest of the student body.

 

There ya go. I'm reasonably certain that the Holy Cross community puts that or better academically above any championships. Those same priests have made that crystal clear at UP.

 

Check out Izzo-Brown's twitter feed and tell me if she's not 100% committed to WVU soccer.

 

I know, the snow up here on the southern tip of Lake Michigan can be brutal. It seems like it hasn't stopped snowing since November. As a matter of fact it is snowing big-time now. Sucks.

But, my question is if top college recruits can come to Notre Dame year after year, why can't a good coach?

 

The weather point is a stupid one. If you have facilities, $, and can offer a world class education that is what matters. Michigan and Boston College went to the Elite Eight and contend with the same issues but have the amenities and draw otherwise. Big conference programs can afford having a good indoor facility. Notre Dame has obviously been able to get great players and should always be able to, regardless of Indiana winters. Only thing that would hurt Notre Dame is if they make a poor hire and their recruiting drops off.

On a separate note anyone else hearing Notre Dame players not doing so well at national camps? Heard that was the case with one of the youth national teams, wondering if that is the case with some of the others. Doesn't sound like they are having a good spring on or off the field.

 

Well, considering the fact there's currently no ND player on the U23s, I can only suspect you're referring to the U20s. In that case, Roccaro and Naughton have been that team's starting center back combo since the CONCACAF qualifiers in the Caymans and have played virtually every minute of every game. As for Andrews, she started early on the Caymans and is coming off the bench now, so maybe she's struggling a little, but that would not be the multiple "Notre Dame players" you hint at in your statement.

 

Not to mention the fact that Roccaro is the captain of the u20's, so she must be doing well in the national camp training.

 

Anyone hear anything? Anything?
How long has it been since Waldrum resigned? Three - four months?

 

I've got answers for two of your questions: Randy Waldrum officially resigned on Fri., Jan. 3, 2014. So, ND has been without a head coach for little more than two months.

As far as your first two questions are concerned, most of the buzz occurred in January. Now, even the rumor mill has dried up!