personal opinion is he is a good coach and will do well there. Did a very good job at Northwestern State. Troy isn’t an easy place to be successful
The Sun Belt has been stronger than the Big Sky, although by how much depends on which rating system you are looking at. For 2025, the NCAA RPI has them as #8 and #24 and the KPI has them at #9 and #23. On the other hand, Massey has them at #12 and #13 and the Balanced RPI at #10 and #13. However, using one game as a basis for comparing conferences is not good, to put it mildly. For example, this particular game was at Troy in the middle of August, the first weekend of the season. So Eastern Washington had to fly diagonally across the country to play in high humidity, which is something virtually never see in eastern Washington, which is very dry (although it can be hot). Plus the game was the first weekend of the season, when teams can be playing at quite different levels than when they get to conference play, so looking at where Eastern Washington in the latter half of the season doesn't tell a lot about how the conferences compare. Plus soccer is a game that experiences plenty of upsets since scoring margins ordinarily are very thin.
A top coach from the A10 and a top coach from the Big East are the two finalists I'm hearing. You can probably figure it out from there.
Must be great in an interview. "There were a lot of jobs open. I only applied for jobs that fit me in terms of the winning culture. I wasn't going to chase conference logos. I don't think that will fulfill you." Let's be honest, he applied for every open job available D1, D2 and even an NAIA role and was knocked by everyone. Finally one stuck.
The guy won a national title at NAIA level at a program he started and then took a Division 1 program to the NCAA Tournament. What more do you think a program with 13 current players could get? Based on past experience, I think he should be just fine.
He did win a national title and credit to him however, do some research on the players that were recruited to a tiny school in lima ohio and how illegal they were.
OPEN: Sacramento State (12/19) Southern Utah (1/??) Iowa (1/27) St. Bonaventure (1/28) Arkansas Pine Bluff (1/??)~ FILLED: Bellarmine - Steve Bornhoffer (Northern Kentucky assistant; ??/??-7/22) Central Arkansas - Derek Nichols (Central Arkansas associate head - 7/28) Long Island - Jim O’Brien (Mitchell College head; 7/11-8/6) Arkansas Pine Bluff - Emanuel Stephens (club coach; ??/??-8/7) UNC Charlotte - Sinead Byrne (INTERIM; April 2025-10/17) Northern Iowa - Alex Place Thomas (UNI interim, former Wartburg assistant and HS coach; INTERIM 6/20-11/10) New Mexico - Karley Nelson (UNM associate head; 11/5-11/12) McNeese State - Alexsis Cable (North Texas assistant; [2025 INTERIM] 6/17-11/20) Texas - Margueritte Bates (UCLA head; 11/24-11/25) Louisiana Tech - Matt Lodge (Murray State head; 11/10-11/25) Ole Miss - Todd Shulenberger (Washington State head; 11/10-12/1) Drexel - Shannon Grogan (Stony Brook associate head; retirement 10/28-12/3) USC Upstate - Sam Odell (Shepherd head; INTERIM 9/30-12/4) Southern Miss - Danny Owens (William Carey head; 11/5-12/5) Florida - Nick Zimmerman (Miss State head; 11/12-12/5) Mississippi State - Kevin O’Brien (Lipscomb head; 12/5-12/7) Texas A&M - Bobby Shuttleworth (Florida State associate head; retirement 10/28-12/9) Central Michigan - James DeCosemo (Western Michigan assistant; 11/3-12/10) UNLV - Kacey Bingham (Western Oregon head; 11/4-12/10) Akron - Maggie Kuhn (Akron assistant; INTERIM-12/11) Troy - Jake Wyman (Montevallo head; 10/30-12/11) UCLA - Gof Boyoko (UCLA associate head; 11/24-12/12) Washington State - Chris Citowicki (Montana head; 12/1-12/12) St. Thomas - Gretta MacDonald (St. Cloud State head; 10/27-12/17) American - Phil Casella (Wagner head; 11/10-12/19) Old Dominion - Will Roberts (Louisiana Monroe head; 12/3-12/22) Nevada - Jeremy Evans (Lake Tahoe CC head; 12/4-12/22) Murray State - Ben Madsen (Auburn assistant; 11/25-12/23) Lipscomb - Dr. Kathleen Paulsen (John Brown head; 12/7-12/23) Fresno State - Gabriel Bolton (Stanislaus State head; 11/18-12/24) Le Moyne - Taylor Van Fleet (Binghamton assistant; 11/17-1/8) Louisiana Monroe - Antony Blackburn (LSU assistant; 12/22-1/17) Michigan - Dave Dilanni (Iowa head; 1/8-1/27) UTRGV - Nataki Stewart (Uni of St. Thomas head; 1/6-2/4) Wagner - Fred King (Penn assistant; 12/18-2/6) Montana - Stuart Gore (former Troy head; 12/12-2/10) ~ I don't usually like to post "unverified" postings, but with the reputation of this program/department, plus additional information, it seems legitimate.
What he said about his last job at Troy: “Tough league, especially when competing in the sport isn't a department's priority. "That wasn't my culture," said Gore, who stepped down from his position at Troy after the 2025 season, after three years of trying. "I thought everybody wants to win and not everybody wants to win." Way to talk down of your last employer. Not the classiest statement. Release also says Troy were underfunded in the fifth toughest conference in women’s soccer. I can agree with that as Sun Belt is below the P4s but now nudged its way ahead of Ivy, AAC, Big East, and WCC. Some notable exceptions like Georgetown, Pepperdine, Xavier, Memphis, etc but as a conference Sun Belt has done really well recently with Old Dominion, James Madison, Texas St, ULM, and South Alabama.
Was it honest? If so, he did potential Troy coaches a favor. I don't think he did himself any favors with the statement. Maybe it's best for him to keep those comments for those who reach out to him about the Troy job.
Just like Sean Fraser, Stuart Gore seems like someone who knows how to present and package himself well, especially to administrators who may not be familiar with the soccer world, and probably just equate his British accent to soccer knowledge. As far as I can tell, there’s no verified evidence that he played for the England national team at any level…but I could be wrong. His playing career, including competing at the Division II level in college, makes it less likely that he had that type of international or professional background. To his credit, he did a good job reframing what some might view as a his main résumé blemish(Troy situation). He turned it into a positive and at the same time sent a subtle message that institutional support matters. It almost felt like he was pointing at Troy while also signaling to Montana that success requires resources and alignment. That’s a smart way to shape the narrative. That said, Montana will be a tough situation. The location alone presents recruiting challenges. On top of that, he’s stepping into a program that has already experienced success. When a program has reached a certain level, expectations change. Small improvements are not going to impress people. At some of his previous stops, taking a team to the NCAA Tournament was seen as a major breakthrough. At Montana, getting to the NCAA will still be meaningful, but it won’t carry the same “turnaround” impact because the bar is already higher. I also think people outside of soccer sometimes oversimplify roster building. It’s not just about adding 15 players to a group of 13 and assuming that fixes everything. You need real impact players. If most of the returning group isn’t ready to elevate, then realistically you might need close to 18 to 20 strong contributors to compete at a high level. That’s difficult to assemble quickly, especially this late heading into 2026. He will likely need a strong first year to get full buy in to his culture and approach. I genuinely wish him well. I just think this job will be more challenging than some people expect. And the Northwestern reference was interesting. It felt like a subtle way of showing he has already succeeded in a geographically challenging place, which parallels Montana. That was smart positioning.
NCAA DII… Tuskegee: Emanuel Stephens has been hired as the program's inaugural Head Coach after serving in the same role at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (DI) in 2025
Nope, not the #5 conference. In 2025, #8 per the NCAA RPI, #9 per the KPI, #10 per the Balanced RPI, and #12 per Massey. PS - And, Texas State is leaving the Sun Belt for the re-constituted Pac 12.
guys I don’t think he wrote the article, That write up is journalist doing journalist do. tweak things to get clicks.
Thanks for this CpThomas. I will say this though. Of the conferences that they compete with, Sun Belt does quite well at the front end. Sun Belt has 5 teams in the top 70 RPI (Texas St leaving though). Big East only has 3, American has 3, West Coast has 3, and Ivy has 0. That is a very competitive conference, and while no 1-2 dominant teams are in there (like a Georgetown, Memphis, Xavier, etc. in the other Tier B conferences etc) they did have 5 excellent sides that could compete for a conference championship and play at a high level.
Yes, I'm a fan of the upper Sun Belt teams, they seem to have high quality programs. There's a problem, however, that may account at least in part for why the NCAA RPI and the KPI rate the Sun Belt significantly higher than Massey and the Balanced RPI. The problem has to do with the extreme weakness of SWAC, with a conference that weak being unique to the southern region. The Sun Belt benefits from that weakness, in both its teams' winning percentages and in their opponents' winning percentages -- in fact it gets the second most benefit of all the conferences (just behind the Southland). On the other hand, the Ivy League, Big East, and West Coast conference are at the other end of that spectrum, getting virtually no benefit from SWAC games. (As crazy as it may seem, I've actually studied this problem,) An effect of this and other factors is that most (not all) of the Sun Belt teams, in non-conference games, have slightly poorer winning percentages in non-conference games than their ratings say they should have. On the other hand, the Big East and West Coast Conference teams mostly have better non-conference winning percentages than their ratings say they should have. The Ivy League, however, is more in the boat of the Sun Belt. An effect of this is that the NCAA RPI can't do a good job of rating the Sun Belt, Ivy League, Big East, and WCC in a unified system. Sorry all, for the diversion. Back to the hot seat. With Montana having lost almost all of its top players to Washington State, I think Gore is going to have a very hard road ahead.
I'm assuming this is because they don't play SWAC teams so wouldn't the Ivy League and Big East get the benefit of playing NEC teams? Or do they not play them either?