I suspect it helps that Lolla is the U-15 National Team Coach. He has been with Akron for 12 years, but they are not exactly a powerhouse.
Re:Worst Coaches What happened at Bowling Green this year? 0-18 70+ goals against! Not a sterling first year job. They had problems last year, looks like the bottom fell out. anyone know the story on that story season?
Re: Worst Coaches New coach who apparently benched all the senior starters (most of whom were defenders) for "rules" violations, and fielded a team comprised largely of the freshman he recruited (including the diminutive Perea twins, younger brothers of former Dukie Trevor Perea).
Best coaches: Those who let the players solve the problem. Worst coaches: Those who can't resist micro managing the game.
If you mean a national powerhouse, they certainly aren't, but is it realistic to expect that? Not too many kids want to go to Akron. What Lolla has done is win 7 conference championships in his first 11 years there. So if you pit Akron against comparable schools (plus Kentucky), they've actually done very well.
Rob MCcourt, former asst. vcu coach, new head coach @ Monmouth. Give him two years there, and see how they stand. Just look at the team history, I believe he tied the last coach's most wins/best season in his first year.
Sort of my original point. But for Lolla, Akron is pretty much Cleveland State, whose demographics and campus are pretty similar (and CSU even has the far nicer stadium). There are few, if any, D1 schools that manage to maintain the regional and national rankings year-in, year-out the way that Akron does, with as little going for it as the coach.
Does anyone have any comments on Mike Seabolt at WVU. He looks like he is turning that program around. He went from 5-10-3 last yr as interim coach to 11-6-1 this year as head coach and is graduating only a few seniors. I think that WVU will be a team to reckon with in the Big East next year. Any Comments??
As something of a fitting postscript to this, Kentucky actually came out to play against 95th rated Western Michigan University in the MAC semis, and lost 1-0, ironically on a Kentucky own goal. Notably, this is Kentucky's 3rd straight early exit from the MAC championship. How's that for coaching? Collins, class guy that he is, couldn't even be bothered with a quote in his last ever MAC game. Maybe they'll be better off in Conference USA. Score: WMU 1, UK 0 Shots: WMU 7, UK 9 SOG: WMU 2, UK 1 Corners: WMU 7, UK 3 Fouls: WMU 21, UK 16
Yeah man...don't you know all those C-USA coaches are just thrilled to have Collins joining their league.