Southern Illinois U hired their guy. Will be announced Monday (Tomorrow) or Tuesday. It will open up another D1 school he coached at. A bit of a step up for him, better University and funding.
Perhaps a step up and better university, but Grambling State University is a fully funded program with a good field for SWAC standards. Craig Roberts will do a good job at SIU - he is a good coach - but he is coming from one of the best funded programs in the swac.
OPEN Southern Illinois San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) Southeastern Louisiana (2/24) UTRGV (3/2) Sam Houston State (3/2) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC)
True one of the better funded programs in the swac with 10.5 scholarships to offer, but still went 0-7-1 while he was there against non swac competition, winless in two years. So not good enough to compete with the ULM's and Northwestern States, and other better funded schools nearby. Most GA/ECNL programs discourage their better players away from HBCU's I've heard. Its a tough challenge to get the top athletes to go there. Similar to what Deion Sanders is experiencing in football at Jackson State, but he's starting to break the trend and lure a few big dogs against the grain to go play int he SWAC. I hope more of that happens and with all sports. GSU, They took second in swac both years, on par with how they've been doing for awhile. I think Craig will do well though at SIU and improve their program, get them competitive and respectable. I think within three years he'll have them close to .500. You are correct from what I've heard on the hire though.
Holy Cross open https://goholycross.com/news/2022/3/14/womens-soccer-bak-steps-down-as-womens-soccer-head-coach.aspx
OPEN Southern Illinois San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) Southeastern Louisiana (2/24) UTRGV (3/2) Sam Houston State (3/2) Grambling State (3/14) Holy Cross (3/14) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC) Southern Illinois - Craig Roberts (Grambling State HC) Grambling State has officially announced. I've gone against what I've stated earlier that not announcing publicly until it's public...but, it's public enough and Southern Illinois is official.
The 1-15-1 was only part of the story. He had gotten in trouble for his treatment of the players. I think he was suspended/put on notice for it. This was coming.
UNC Charlotte open https://charlotte49ers.com/news/202...ecnl-director-position-with-independence.aspx
39 jobs have been filled this cycle, when including a couple interims moving to full. With UNC-C now open there are 11 current openings. So there will have been at minimum 50 head coaching jobs filled this cycle. That’s a historic number and I don’t mean that in a good way necessarily. Means for every 7 jobs 1 became open.
I wonder if some of the change has to do with what one could call the Great Covid Awakening -- I have had time and space to actually think about what I am doing, and I do not need to be dealing with this any more, other things are more important.
I always liked reading your thoughts and input. If you decide not to post here anymore or not do any of your analysis, it will be missed. But thank you for what you have done in the past. It was appreciated.
I think he means in a more general sense, like “i evaluated how i spent my time and eliminated things that weren’t worthy” not specifically his work with w college soccer. that’s how i read that. But yes, thanks for all your insight. and yes I do think Covid has shuffled a lot of priorities and we are seeing it in womens college soccer. The sheer number of open jobs plus lack of robust number of applicants for “big” jobs are telling.
OPEN Southern Illinois San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) Southeastern Louisiana (2/24) UTRGV (3/2) Sam Houston State (3/2) Grambling State (3/14) Holy Cross (3/14) UNC Charlotte (3/15) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC) Southern Illinois - Craig Roberts (Grambling State HC)
Come on people CP is referencing the thought processes behind coaches maybe thinking about stepping away, not actually stepping away from these posts. Hiring Roberts is a risk in my opinion for SIU. He was known for breaking rules and being a total asshole to everyone in the program at Ball State, but if he is to be judged by wins and losses no matter what the methods were to get there the program should see an improvement.
I think you have that happening in multiple career fields. I admittedly had a conversation with my stock broker late last year asking "can I pull it off?". Just need to get my youngest through college and you will likely see me welcoming you at the 1st tee of a nice Northern MI golf course!