Jay Heaps after 5 years: still the right guy for the job?

The Revs have found a formula in which blame consistently falls somewhere between cheap ownership, incompetent FO and worn-out "ra ra" style coaching (as opposed to a true tactician).

So no one winds up solely responsible for failure.

Heaps must go, but at the same time, who's gonna fire him---Burns? The guy who should be pushed out even harder?

What's needed is a whole housecleaning, but Kraft is either too cheap or too indifferent to do it.

Firing Heaps alone would be a half-measure, just like the Quakes did in firing John Doyle and leaving Kinnear in place to continue the staleness.

And that's exactly what the Revs' product is---STALE. At least San Jose has a beautiful new stadium.

 

I voted yes because I think Heaps and Burns ought to be treated as a singularity. No way Burns should be allowed to fire Heaps. When this ship goes down everyone needs to drown.

 

It's laughable that Heaps was retained and Burns said that the team was just "unlucky." Back in the dog-days, various media "pundits" were asking whether winning the Open Cup was enough to save Heaps' job. Then it was making the playoffs. Well, niether one happened, so therefore... we were just unlucky.

Whether it's Heaps, Burns, Bilello or someone else (hey, they did fire Nick Downing), it all comes down from the top. The Krafts set the tone that below mediocre performance with little hope for improvement is acceptable, so why should we expect anything else?

 

Great stuff. One other thing I noticed was the amount of automatically protected players under the expansion list - we only had 2 (Caldwell and ZH). Looking at all the other teams - it seemed like the majority of teams that had more, were the stronger teams in the league. It is not exact, but it does show how the Revs compare to other forward thinking entities and which young players view which teams as a "destination" for them to grow and develop and ones that may be a place to stagnate/regress. Not sure how we could track/compare that, but I found it interesting.

Did they definitely fire him? If they did, the one thing I always noticed at the games - before and halftime. Downing was talking with different players, they were both smiling and clearly engaging with each other, doing some guy handshakes/routines to get them fired up - it clearly looked like the players enjoyed him as a person based on how they interacted with him at the games.

 

I voted "yes", but don't think it will happen between now and the beginning of the 2017 season. 10% chance of it happening during the 2017 season.

 

Nice analysis by the OP. My only quibble is with "still". That implies he was EVER the right person for the job. I agree that a complete housecleaning is in order, though. I'm not holding my breath.

 

You're right, good question. As usual, the Foxboro Kremlin didn't say anything, they just photoshopped him out of the team photo and erased all traces that he ever existed.

Whether he himself decided to "pursue other opportunities outside the organization," we don't know. No news of him joining another team. Too bad if the players as a group felt he was a valuable resource and he won't be around anymore.

 

Charlie Davies has tweeted a few off-season working out videos this week and a picture with Nick. Now sure what Nick is up to?

My man! 👊🏽 @DowningNick works with me every day making sure I'm a beast in 2017 #BeastMode #WatchOut pic.twitter.com/aKItb24Weg

— Charlie Davies (@CharlieDavies9) December 13, 2016

 

Heaps, still the right guy for the job?

He never was the right guy for the job.

 

It's true that it's not the question, but I don't think it's too unreasonable to complain that the whole premise of the question is flawed. It's a bit too "When did you stop beating your wife?"

 

"Still the Right Man for the Job?"..... Hmmm..., how to put it delicately and keep to the spirit of this Holiday......how about this?
"Jay Heaps , as much the right man for the job as he ever was!" ?

 

Heaps probably doesn't cost an arm and a leg so that makes him the right guy. This team is NEVER going to spend the money necessary to have a shot at the title again. And why would they? This is a business to the Krafts. They draw fairly well even when fielding crap. Its a cheap event for families. Meanwhile the value of the franchise continues to rise, even as they spend as little as possible.

So send Heaps and Burns off on scouting missions. Doesn't matter, they wont sign anybody. Every year..same talk, no action. BUT Heaps tolerates our broken system while a real coach wouldn't. Thats the second reason he's the right guy for the job... in the managements eyes. He doesnt rock the boat

I havent been to a game in 3 seasons and see no reason so far to change that. I do watch every week on TV but what I see does not make me want to spend the time and $$$$ to go. I would always go to any NAT game but we are far off that list these days. Turf = no NATS.... bringing in grass costs money we know what our cheap owners think about that

 

Oh I think it's pretty clear he was the right guy for the job, especially, when you consider the options the Revs had. The general measuring stick for any new coach in MLS is you get 3 years to put together a team that can compete for a championship and Heaps not only did that, but he did it by putting together a team that was one of the most fun to watch. However, since 2014 the team has been going down hill so the OP is asking the right question.

So my 2 cents is, the Revs have a strong core of good young players so I get why he was brought back for 2017, but that only makes sense if they invest in the coaching staff around him. If he can get a strong tactical assist coach then I think he can still be pretty successful here, if not I think he will struggle.

 

Well we just hired Llamosa as an assistant coach, so maybe this is the plan.

 

So theres an article on Ives about the first MLS Coaching license class

Eight of the 22 coaches in Major League Soccer were a part of a class that made history over the weekend, as they completed the first U.S. Soccer pro coaching license course.

The Columbus Crew’s Gregg Berhalter, Real Salt Lake’s Jeff Cassar, Philadelphia Union’s Jim Curtin, Orlando City’s Jason Kreis, the Colorado Rapids’ Pablo Mastroeni, D.C. United’s Ben Olsen, Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes and 2016 MLS Coach of the Year Oscar Pareja from FC Dallas were a part of the initial class of 13.

And yet Heaps, who is lucky to even have a job, was not part of this while coaches with better records than his .... were. Maybe the Revs FO didnt want to pay his tuition or expenses? Or maybe with his vast experience in coaching, didnt feel it was necessary. All I know is I am tired of reading the news and seeing what other teams are doing while the Revs sink lower and lower

For those that think it would be good if the Kraft's dumped the Revs ....I think its a long shot the team would even stay in New England if that happened so we're stuck with a poor product, with poor management, coaching and owners that dont care or nothing at. What a choice.

 

My guess is that Heaps was busy scouting during this license class.

 

Maybe. But you can always arrange a scouting trip around other "fixed" commitmments in your schedule. I mean, he had the entire playoffs to go scout when all of those other guys were busy...

 

Here is a link to the article on Soccer By Ives

It looks like the course was offered over the course of this past year. I was surprised to see some of the other names that completed this course as well.

I wonder if Jay participated in any of the course/sessions along the way, but just was unable to finish? There could be any number of reasons why Jay could not complete the course. I hope that Jay does take the next session offered or is able to complete the course if he did start it this year.

In the end, the license is just a piece of paper and there were some coaches in the class that I consider successful in MLS who are doing just fine without a license. That said, I do feel like Jay (and all MLS/domestic coaches) would benefit from this program.

 

Not sure of the wording on the last part but Heaps was not in the class and his record stinks. There are coaches that are doing better than Heaps that still attended and without JJ helping a lot during his stay, I think Heaps would be gone by now. Heaps should have attended and I would think that he that with his record, he would de everything possible to improve himself instead of "scouting" players we will never sign

 

I agree. The wording just meant that there are MLS coaches who are doing well without a license.

Is this another case of Jay having so many different things to focus on that some things have to slip?

I wonder how many current MLS coaches have attained this license?

 

If I were to pick one, this would be my guess. The problem is having one guy responsible for the things that other teams have 3-4 people doing means that some things just don't get done. Whether they thought they actually were going to sign New Player X, and deemed it a higher priority than licensing, I can understand that. But if niether thing happens and our only new players are draft picks and waiver-wire scrap heap pickups, that is going to be a real problem.

Even if Burns does think we're "on the cusp" of winning MLS Cup...

 

Because the Revs are never the "first" to do anything in MLS. Measure nine times, and all that...

 

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