Sandon mentioned Duke coach John Kerr might be a candidate so let's start a thread to capture everyone's thoughts as to who should or might be included on this list. Granted it may be a bit premature to start with the teams still in the middle of conference play but why not.
Coach of the under performing team with the top recruiting 3-5 years running should be concerned. Whether there is reason to be concerned is a different story.
It's no secret you have a hard on for JS. Not that I disagree but two Final Four appearances in 5 years will probably undermine your argument. His kids graduate with decent degrees (I don't think UCLA offer's a social welfare major) and unlike UCSB stay out of trouble as well. And given the mediocrity of the school's revenue sports programs and the perceived ambivalence and low bar evaluation benchmarks of it's athletic director, I'm reasonably confident not a lot of heat is being felt.
Not sure much of your post makes sense, but I wouldn't be surprised if little heat is being felt. I instead thought it would be a good thing if there was. While few programs would be unhappy with the end of year rankings, I believe there is some terrible under-performance given the talent level. Difficult schedule or not, there is no excuse for 9 losses last year. This years team is loaded with professional level talent, yet managed to lose to struggling Duke and Cal Poly, didn't look very convincing against Fullerton and got completely blown out by Washington.
With nothing more than my own personal opinion I don't think Kerr is on any kind of hot seat. Duke is winning enough, the players are not getting into trouble, they are doing well academically, etc. Absolutely the results have fallen off in recent time however he is in the Duke hall of fame and unless he decides that he doesn't want to coach any more I don't see the Duke Athletic Department doing anything to change who is the head coach of the mens soccer program.
While it is true that Kerr is revered at Duke for what he did as a player and that the Duke AD probably doesn't spend much time worrying about the soccer team's record, it also can't be denied that five years is an awfully long time to go for an ACC program that was once a national power to go without making the NCAA Tournament. I mean, Duke is a school lacking nothing to make it a national power and it can't even be on of the top 48 teams once in five years. And that's all happened on Kerr's watch. As I've said many other times, if college soccer were like the revenue sports, a lot of these coaches would have far less job security. In many ways, that's probably a good thing. I mean, it's bullshit that Les Miles gets fired based on what he did at LSU or that Tubby Smith didn't have more job security at Kentucky. But at the same time, maybe less job security is what is needed to help propel college soccer to a higher level.
If college soccer coaches were getting paid the same millions of dollars that the football and basketball coaches were - and the millions that they still get paid when they're fired - then I'm sure they'd have no problem being held to those same standards of success. Notre Dame might still be paying Charlie Weiss on that 10 year $100M deal they signed him to!
or stated another way: if soccer were big business, coaches would be held accountable for their results. ended last year iirc.
How about Dan Donigan at Rutgers. winless and lost to NJIT 4-0 last night.. sorry but with all the talent in NJ Pa etc this can not happen.
Northern Illinois- have not made the tournament since 2011 Davidson- have not mad tournament since 2003, but did win 10 games in 2015 Michigan- Big Ten bottom feeders Duke- see above College of Charleston- no question that you can win there, beautiful city and campus but again underachieving California- good result last night @UCLA but still feel that they should be so much better than they are Thoughts??
Interesting list that I don't disagree with. I know that Davidson was working toward being fully funded, however they have historically not been. Wonder how many of those on the list are fully funded. If a program isn't fully funded how much heat can there really be on the staff. Just a thought.
Agree. Pitt was not fully funded, hence Joe Luxbacher's long service, in spite of poor results during long years. Now Jay Vidovich has got well more scholarships, the AD announced it in an interview at the time of the switch. He will surely have more pressure. How long will last the grace period?
Gardner Webb is another place I'd always thought could do better. I knew some former players, they aren't lacking in scholarships...at all.
Signing day will be interesting to see for Pitt. According to TDS they only have 1 commitment for 2017 however I suspect that JV will sign a good class. App state has 9 commits for 2017. That's the most I have noticed.
UCLA is 7-6-1 and 18-15-2 since the 2014 NCAA final. UCLA has more individual talent than any program in the country. As I've said before, UCLA's AD probably doesn't give a rat's ass about men's soccer as long as the team wins more than it loses, stays out of trouble, graduates most of its kids and makes the occasional Final Four. But... If the AD did happen to pay attention, he might ask why the Bruins, who won four NCAA titles in 18 seasons between 85 and 02, are looking at 15 seasons in a row without one, assuming they don't go on a good run in the NCAAs this year. For UCLA to not be in the top 30 and to be on the fringe of an at-large bid for a second straight season is an indictment of a coaching staff that isn't able to capitalize on all it has going for it. Probably not enough to get Salcedo canned, but perhaps it should be.
Kevin Grimes is lauded by a lot of people, both here and in the greater soccer community. And he has turned Cal into a program that is sometimes very strong and has produced several MLS players and a couple USMNT players. But for all that talent, he hasn’t won much. He’s never made a Final Four and this year his program is currently two games under .500. Assuming they don’t make the NCAA Tournament it will be the 5th time since 2008 that Cal has failed to make the post-season (09, 11, 12, 15, 16). Like UCLA, Cal gets too much talent to not be better. Given their athletic resources, academic reputation, recruiting base, tuition cost and conference, they should be a program that consistently makes the NCAAs so to miss them 5 of the past 8 years isn’t a sign of a coach doing a good job. Because this is college soccer, Grimes is likely very safe. But he should be very glad the expectations and pressure of his chosen profession are what they are.
Don't disagree. But with UCLA's two major revenue sports also in the tank, the UCLA AD most likely has bigger fish to fry. (A fair number of Bruin alums and fans think the housecleaning should begin with the AD Guererro himself. ) The irony in all this is that it's rumored that Salcedo interviewed for the Stanford job after UCLA's 2011 Final Four appearance that Gunn ultimately got. UCLA hasn't won a conference title since and Stanford has won the PAC 12 twice since as well as a "natty", the NC being something that has eluded Salcedo in the 13 years he's been at the helm. Clearly the Stanford AD made the right hire in this instance.
I'm particularly interested in this one--my son is going to visit Pitt in a couple of weeks. I hope that boys realize what an opportunity it is to get in at the ground floor of what could be something good.
Duke got a big win Friday night. Every program in the country goes through ups and downs. And Although Gunn has gotten great results, I can't think it's solely him. It is Stanford with ridiculous facilities, great academics, great campus, etc. etc. not too difficult to attract major talent!
Check out Stanford's record between 04 and 11. Also check out Stanford's record before Bobby Clark got there in 96. Also check out what Gunn did at Fort Lewis and Charlotte.