On paper, Stanford will have one of the best pools of returning offensive talent in the country. Dersu Abolfathi, Adam Jahn, and Zach Batteer are all former U18 national team forwards, and Felipe Noguerol was one of the best scorers in the DA. It's a long time ago now, but TDS actually rated Abolfathi as the #1 recruit in the country. Will be very interesting to see what the new coach is able to put together.
There were glimpses of that attacking talent this season proven by the 3+ goals against some formidable teams. But a consistent plan or strategy was often missing as shown by the lackluster result overall. This should come from the coach. Stanford has had the players, but will still fall short if there is no tactical guidance or leadership. With the selection of a new quality coach (and continued aggressive recruiting), the outlook for the Cardinal is promising.
VT and Briz I heard from someone close to the Tech program that Briz's contract was up after this season. Is this correct or did I get bad information? If it is true, gotta think they will (and should) make a change. VT's AD is not in good health at the moment, however, and has always been very conservative with his hires. Lots of internal candidates have gotten jobs on campus including WBB and WSoccer coaches.
Re: VT and Briz While I dont know any of the candidates mentioned for Stanford and dont know anything about the VTech program, I do think its safe to say 1) this Bezerra guy helped recruit many of the players who did not win after he left, which is not good for him and b) BOTH jobs are head coach hire type jobs, as I think it would be tough for an assistant to jump into a Pac 12 or ACC head job....regardless of who you are.
Re: VT and Briz If this is true and Briz is does not come back. It will be interesting to see who would be in line here. If I recall, Weiss had trouble with foreign recruits and recruiting foreign talent may be an issue. Who is successful now with American players? And can VT be successful in the ACC with only Americans?
Re: VT and Briz I will try to repost what I had previously deleted regarding the VT program... Brizendine is not going anywhere. He is still in the process of cleaning up the disaster that Weiss left behind. He left the program in absolute shambles because of his international recruiting and the NCAA violations. One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that Weiss was the coach of the 2008 team- and had recruited the entire 2009 team as Brizendine did not take over until June 2009. Sandon had some stats in a previous post- Here is Weiss's 2008 record to compare to Brizendine: 5-13-1, 0-8-0 in the ACC. Lost the Tarantini Invitational 3-1. 47 goals against for a 2.39 GAA. And this was BEFORE the NCAA came down on him for the recruiting violations and took away his pipeline of international players. Brizendine is dealing with the leftovers from that mess- and is not allowed to recruit overseas because of Weiss's actions. People will say all they want about an ACC team not needing to recruit internationally- but VT is not a typical ACC school. When competing with the facilities and history of Virginia, Maryland, Duke, Wake, Clemson, UNC- who do you think the top US recruits are going to pick? Now take away the option to "beef-up" your team with international players and you have to expect that they will struggle getting results. The ONLY reason the VT 2007 team made the kind of run they did is because they had a special goal scorer in Nyarko and a team of 24 year old Germans behind him. The results this year were not what any VT fan would want to see (and there is NO excuse for losing to Howard, NJIT, Radford this year). However, the team is much improved. Every loss (with the exception of 2-0 to Maryland) was by 1 goal. 4 of those losses came in OT. They cut their goals against in half over the previous year. With a competent goal scorer, the results could have been much different. Ultimately, Brizendine is making progress with the team. And given the sanctions against the program, the administration is patient enough to give him the time to truly build the program once the sanctions are lifted. I am clearly an apologist for the VT program. I am local and have followed the team for years. I have read these boards for some time and have finally decided to chime in. However, I am not necessarily a big Brizendine fan. He won't be fired this year and will be given a fair chance to build the program back up.
Re: VT and Briz North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Wake Forest, UCLA, SMU, Indiana, Louisville, California, Notre Dame, Northwestern...
Re: VT and Briz I meant, 'Who is successful with American players and would be a candidate for VT?' But HokieDokie is pretty certain there will be no change and I think makes some good points. I am willing to put that to rest unless something becomes official. Any rumblings of Kentucky's next coach?
This is a follow up to HokieDoxie telling Sandon there hasn't been a lot of players leaving on Briz watch. Since Briz took over in 2009 there has been 20 players including Campbell that have left program by either their own choice or with Briz's foot. That is a fair amount of turnover. Briz had a big hand in 2009 class so to say it was all Weiss is unfair. Of the 20 players only 5 were prior to 2009 class. The team did lose more respectfully this year, but a loss is a loss. Especially when you lose to the powder puffs you put on to help win/loss record. He is tight with associate AD so he will probably get one more year, maybe. He does or rather did have restriction on international player (3 yr hold) maybe he should open the door again. Jed Prater (Aussie) has been good for them. Fact is players from this years team are now leaving that he recruited, so this isn't a good sign.
Bid&Offer- I went through the VT website to try to figure out the 20 players, so going through the statistics, here is what I found along with the number of games they have started in 2009 and 2010. I have no idea about kids leaving this season, so I have left off the 2011 team. A couple of these kids were on the 2008 team, but I did not take that season into consideration as we are just discussing Brizendine's tenure here. Charlie Campbell- started 19 games. Graduated and played his 5th year at Louisville. Luis Yamashita- Started 0 games. Is from Miami, and transferred to UCF. Greg Cochrane- Started 35 games. Transferred to Louisville. Alistair Moore- Started 1 game. Transferred to D3 Emory. Patrick Ryan- Started 1 game. Is from New York and transferred to Buffalo. Patrick Huang- Started 5 games. Transferred to Louisville but have heard he is trying to transfer back to VT. Adama Wakai- Started 1 game. Transferred to UNC-Wilmington. Heard he had off-the-field issues and was not welcome back. Cody Thayer- Started 2 games. Is from Omaha and transferred to Nebraska-Omaha. John Snyder- Started 18 games. Transferred to Georgetown. Vaughn Bandy- Started 3 games. Quit soccer and am not sure what he is up to. Thomas St. Germain- Started 1 game. Quit soccer to try to join the football team. This is all I can find, but I am sure you will let me know of the other 9. Where they have had some turnover and lost a few kids who were contributors, the others that left were not exactly top performers on the field. Every program has some attrition, and for a program at the bottom to rise to the top, you have to replace your kids that are not contributing with kids you expect to contribute in the future. Don't get me wrong- losing 11 kids in 2 years who have played some minutes for you is a lot, but with the exception of Cochrane and Snyder it doesn't look like the other guys were going to figure into the long-term plans.
Of the other 9 there were 3 who played significant minutes under Briz. Koen Oost started 29 gms played in 36 between 2009/2010 seasons. Didn't want to play for Briz this yr went home to Holland. Craig Burnell between 2008/2009 seasons started 25 gms played in 37. He decided to stay at VT for senior yr (2010) but quit team. Emmanuel Akogyeram between 2008/2009 seasons started 15 gms and played 36. Briz forced him out after 2009 season. The other 6 came in fall 2009 class. All but 1 were red-shirted. They all quit/pushed out. 3 still at VT, the other transfer (not playing) and other transfered playing at College of Charleston. The final one Roman Pieroth started 5 gms in 2009 before getting ill and return to Germany. Last with respect to Yamashita. He started 11 gms and played 18 in 2008 as freshman. In 2009 in got injured and red-shirted. Briz asked him to leave. Hope this helps, but if other key starters begin to leave this won't help VT going forward.
So if I'm Stanford, I'm looking long and hard at luring Adam Cooper from the East Bay to the South Bay. It's not just St. Mary's quarterfinal run (and counting, perhaps) this season but the fact that they've steadily improved, going from a four win team in his first season in 2006 to three straight seasons with at least 10 wins and two NCAA appearances including this year's run. Keep in mind he's doing this at a private school with slightly less than 4,000 students and far less resources than most schools in the Bay area, let alone nationally. He also knows the Pac-Whatever from his days as a player at UCLA, where he was part of their 87 NCAA championship team. Given his success and his proximity to the area, he seems like a natural fit and I can't imagine Stanford wouldn't be able to offer more money than St. Mary's.
It's no surprise given his age and the downward trend his team has been on, but Seton Hall's Manny Schellscheidt is retiring. http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_...ad-coach-ending-historic-coaching-career.html While he probably stayed a little past his sell-by date, there's no denying he dedicated his life to American soccer and made some very positive contributions to making American soccer better.
I've seen no confirmation of it by the school, but I'm told Buffalo is seeking a new head coach. Long-time head coach John Astudillo took a medical leave of absence in August and assistant Dave Hesch ran the team this season as interim head coach. Supposedly Astudillo is not coming back but there is nothing official about it, or Hesch's status going forward, on the team's official website.
Here's the updated list of schools that officially have announced a vacancy. Code: SCHOOL HEAD COACH REASON REPLACEMENT Appalachian State Shaun Pendleton (rip) deceased Matt Nelson (interim) George Washington George Lidster retired TBA Kentucky Ian Collins let go TBA Seattle Brad Agoos let go TBA Seton Hall Manny Schellscheidt retired TBA Stanford Bret Simon “resigned” TBA Again, if I'm missing any official announcements, please let post them or let me know via PM.
A couple names to throw out are Bryan Davis at Wright St for the GW gig. Former assistant at GW. Does he like the Dayton area better than DC? Frank Speith (Ohio St Asst) for Kentucky. Don't think he is leaving unless it is a very good situation, but UK might just be that.
Have known Speth for a long time. Would be a great fit for KY. Not sure he is looking to leave columbus though.
GW has already hired a coach, their assistant coach. Not sure Davis' career record of 21-30-?? record really qualifies him for too many jobs. Needs to do a little more where he is first. Frank is a great coach and great guy. Always thought of him as an OSU lifer.
Completely missed the GW hire as well. As for Speth, I don't think he leaves Schmuck-Eye country unless it is a great opportunity. Kentucky could be just that. I am not super familiar with UK, but I have seen their facilities (excellent) and they have an obvious national name recognition. Also in a very solid soccer conference. Just speculation about Speth, but would seem to be worth talking to if UK.
Wow, a season after going to the Final Four. I know there were rumblings about him being on the hot seat a couple of seasons ago but I thought the Final Four run would have bought him some time. Interesting to see where they go for a replacement. Does Paul Snape come back after one season at Butler? Do they gamble on a well-regarded assistant coach, like one that is from Michigan and played at a Big Ten school where he's now on the staff? Or do they look for a coach with more experience? As for Burns, he had his shortcomings but he also, literally, built that program from scratch and in an era when schools are dropping men's soccer he should be commended for helping get one of the bigger athletic departments in the country to add the sport and then for making the program a national contender in a pretty short time.
Wow! Didn't see Michigan making a move one year after a final four trip. I wonder if there are other circumstances (personal, etc.). Let the speculation begin? I doubt it will happen, but the Blue and Maize should give a call to Gary Parsons (former Oakland coach).
Here's the update list based on current info. Code: SCHOOL HEAD COACH REASON REPLACEMENT Appalachian State Shaun Pendleton (rip) deceased Matt Nelson (interim) George Washington George Lidster retired Craig Jones Kentucky Ian Collins let go TBA Michigan Steve Burns resigned TBA Seattle Brad Agoos let go TBA Seton Hall Manny Schellscheidt retired TBA Stanford Bret Simon “resigned” TBA
Based on the trend of the UM athletic department, they are going to pursue successful Head Coaches (Beilein, Rodriguez, Hoke). Maybe some of those candidates will be people with Big Ten ties (for example the Xavier HC or West Virginia HC?). This is a school and athletic department that has a tremendous reputation in the midwest and on the national scale, so I think they'll try to find a HC with proven success and recruiting prowess. At this point, though, can't say there is any ideal candidate to fill the spot... they'll have to their research.