Hot Seat 2023-24

Penn State's coach had previously spent close to 20 years as a D1 coach at Dartmouth & Cincinnati - with a lot of success at both

Lindenwood's coach had been in the Division 1 college game with great success for years too

South Carolina & GCU seem to be the only two that have hired someone without the previous D1 experience

 

Kieffer recruited domestic players from out of state pretty well, just not a lot of them ended up setting foot on campus. Jose Gallegos, Kobe Franklin, Jahon Rad, Kaveh Rad, and Jeremy Garay all were committed at one point but didn't make it to campus. This is something every decent school deals with but Keiffer didn't seem to have an answer. Having 13 other D1s in state (and Duke/UNC having first choice at kids from the Triangle) doesn't help with local recruiting. He also had a low hit rate on his internationals.

 

The Rads were local before they went out to Sporting. They both played for the Railhawks academy team and Kiefer did some coaching there (as did Somoano). Their older brother Cyrus was a walk on at NC State.
Kiefer drew right many from the academy over the years--some seemed to be more of a wink and a handshake--boys who never played at all. Obviously the Rads would have been different but they skipped college altogether.

 

Looks like he just didn't meet expectations based on this part of the release.

"The GCU men's soccer program has a rich history of success. The Lopes qualified for three NCAA tournaments between 2018 and 2021 — one of only 24 schools to do so — and also won three WAC titles in that span. GCU went 23-6-1 in the 2021 calendar year and was one of six colleges to have multiple first-round picks in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft."

 

Thought the Mount should have gone with a young coach with something to prove rather than an old guy like Teach. Said he NAIA coach of the year in 2000.....23 years ago. I would have preferred a young hungry ambitious coach with solid international links who is using the mount as a spring board to a potential top div1 job. A guy like that will work his backside off. Much like Mark Metrick did. He did very well as the mount, recruited some good local talent and top British lads who they wouldn't have been able to get if they were American. Got them to NEC playoffs consistently then got the Loyola job and was there best coach in there history. Hope I'm wrong but time will tell. Not sure what happened to Cunningham but this Mount team gone was one of the worst I've seen.

 

Teach is a good coach — no idea really about his ability recruiting at this stage in his career though he certainly has some good relationships. I do agree though that at a place like the Mount you have to be willing to turn over all the stones you can.

 

I think older experienced coaches offer something different to young coaches--plusses and minuses to both sides. It is a huge assumption that an older coach won't be ambitious or work hard. It takes years to build up networks and to really understand all the elements of coaching and handling a team well. Don't know Teach but to me he looks to be a safe respectable hire on paper...

 

I just think the mount needs to give a young coach a shot. As in we are giving them a shot not the other way round. I'm sure Teach is a good coach but let's be honest with his age this is his end game......is he going to work as hard/travel as much round the world as someone in there mid thirties in the 1st div 1 head coach job? I would ideally want a young guy in who has ambitions of coaching at the top level and sees mount as a stepping stone which is a win-win for both party's. If you can do well at the Mount you can do well anywhere and you will get a shot at the big-time as it's a tough job. As mentioned earlier Metrick is prime example/blue print of what I believe mount should be doing. Agree with the earlier post.....Teach maybe the safe option but I would rather roll the dice and take a risk on an unproven hungry ambitious coach.

 

College hoops and football hire the best candidate available regardless of age. College soccer almost always hires candidates that are between the ages of 35-45 years old. Not 100% sure why but probably because they can pay them a bit less than an experienced head coach or they falsely think that a coach that age automatically brings more energy and enthusiasm. In the end, it's usually about the money--hoops and FB need to win so they hire the best candidate available whereas soccer doesn't bring in the money so they hire an inexperienced guy and hope for the best. Teach is a little different because he's an older guy who hasn't been a head coach for awhile, but he has a reputation of being a really good guy who's a really good recruiter. I think it's a good hire for the Mount.

 

Hope your right, not the route I would have gone down for the reasons stated earlier. A huge part of it will be his overseas recruiting network. Mount are in the DC-Baltimote hub so are competing with schools like UMBC, Loyola, GW, American similar or better academically and soccer wise but are located in/near a major city rather than emmitsburg which historically are more appealing to US based players. Metrick was extremely successful with his British imports, Ryerson to a lesser extent. Chris Wheeler was probably ACC level and the best mount player in recent memory. The only way Mount are getting that level of player is recruiting overseas.

 

I agree with the primary positions of this post. Furthermore, VCU has been getting players from Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina, Senegal, Costa Rica for quite a few years. If you look at the VCU coaching group, Lucas P was originally from Argentina who was recruited by Teach while at Tusculum and transferred for his final year (s?).

Nothing is guaranteed with any coaching change, but I think the argument that Teach isn't hungry as some mythical younger person is fallacious and specious. Just my opinion.

I do hope the Mount is able to recruit successfully and build a competitive team. Additionally, I hope that the Mount funds the program appropriately which we may not know. I like the Mount stadium, but the artificial turf, distance from the city (as the OP stated) and the lack of culture hurts the team.

 

Jeff Cook is a 20 year college coach who took some time to coach in the academy as a part of professional development. The Lindenwood Coach, Kris Bertch was the coach at SLU. South Carolina and GCU are the two examples. I just think it is a different mindset in terms of recruiting, development and winning. I would not go that route if I were an AD.

 

Kris was the Assistant at SLU?

 

I don't think two is a big enough sample size to conclude much of anything, one way or the other.

 

As I said, if I were an AD, I would not hire an academy coach with limited or no college experience to be a Head Coach at the D1 Level. If the model proves me wrong, I will be glad to change but in this case, I need to be shown that the model works before I buy into it. There is a difference between the college coach who takes a short-term break to grow professionally working in the academies (Cook, Kevin Kalish, Bertch) and the guy who has only or mostly been an academy coach. Again, my opinion. Time will prove me right or wrong.

 

This makes sense

https://unfospreys.com/news/2023/12/5/davies-named-third-head-coach-in-unf-mens-soccer-history.aspx

 

I don't see Vidovich at 63 taking another job to do another rebuild. He took the Pitt job in 2016 at 56 and it took him 4 years to get them back to the NCAAs at Pitt, their first NCAA in 53 years. Given about the same path he would be 67-68 before he would have his players in place at NC State to be competitive. Most likely around the time he would be thinking about retirement. If not before as Vidovich has been coaching 41 years already. He started his coaching career in 1982 at Denver.

 

Like someone from the same town as Mickey Mouse?

 

I’ve heard someone from outside college soccer which means one of us is hearing bad information or it’s all true and nothing has stuck during the interview process.

 

Would Tab Ramos consider the job in an effort to return his Alma mater to prominence?
I have no information to suggest this, just a thought.

 

Caleb Porter?