The 2017/18 Coaches On The Hotseat (or should be) thread

I can't think of a better candidate for the OSU gig than Mais.

He's from the Midwest (Michigan).

He played in the Big Ten (at IU). He had a great college career (Hermann Trophy, two Final Fours).

He played not just in MLS but in Columbus (9 seasons) winning two trophies (02 USOC, 04 Supporters' Shield).

He played in an Olympics (96) and a World Cup (98).

He coached at the youth national team level (U17 and U20) so he has extensive national contacts.

He has been a collegaite assistant coach for 10 years at two powers in neighboring states (Louisville, Indiana) giving him great knowledge of the local recruiting scene. And he has won a national title (2012) and been to another title game (2017) as an assistant coach.

The only thing he doesn't have on his CV is being a head coach.

But some of the best coaches in D-I, both now and historically, had never been a head coach when they got a gig at a pretty big program and went on to do some pretty good things. Sigi Schmid, Bruce Arena, Caleb Porter, Carlos Somoano, George Gelnovatch, Elmar Bolowich, Jay Vidovich, Mike Freitag, Jim Launder and Steve Sampson didn't have previous head coaching experience when they first became D-I head coaches and all of them managed to do OK in their first head coaching gigs.

 

Updated list....

DARTMOUTH - Chad Riley, resigned; Bo Oshoniyi, East Tennessee head coach.

DePAUL – Craig Blazer, asked not to return; Mark Plotkin, Colgate assistant.

EAST TENNESSEE STATE - Bo Oshoniyi, resigned; David Casper, Kentucky assistant.

GONZAGA – Einar Thorarinsson, retired; Paul Meehan, assistant coach promoted.

NOTRE DAME – Bobby Clark, retired; Chad Riley, Dartmouth head coach.

OHIO STATE - John Bluem, retired; Brian Maisonneuve, assistant coach, Indiana

OMAHA – Jason Mims, left for Colorado Rapids academy; Bob Warming, out of "retirement."

OREGON STATE – Steve Simmons, contract not renewed; Terry Boss, Virginia assistant.

PENN - Rudi Fuller, moved to administration; Brian Gill, assistant coach promoted.

PENN STATE – Bob Warming, "retired;" Jeff Cook, Philadelphia Union academy coach.

St. FRANCIS (PA) – Paulo Neto, not sure what happened; Frank Olszewski, Davis & Elkins head coach

SAINT LOUIS – Mike McGinty, contract not renewed; Kevin Kalish, local youth coach

SAN DIEGO – Seamus McFadden, retired; Brian Quinn, assistant coach, promoted.

SETON HALL – Gerson Echeverry, resigned; Andreas Lindberg, CW Post head coach.

STETSON - Kyle Gookins, resigned; Cristian Neagu, UNC assistant coach.

TEMPLE – Dave MacWilliams, contract not renewed; Brian Rowland, Maryland assistant.

 

I believe this is the first time in many, many years that no we've had an off-season where no Brits or Irish got D-I head coaching gigs.

Brian Quinn is from Northern Ireland, originally, but he is a naturalized US citizen so he counts as American. The only foreign coaches are from Romania, Sweden and Canada.

In some strange way, this feels like progress. That said, no Hispanic or Asian head coaches were hired and Bo Oshoniyi is the only black head coach hired so there still feels like there's a long way to go on that front.

The coaching hires in no way reflect the playing pool as only one of the 16 head coaching hires is of color and its fair to say the playing pool in NCAA D-I is was more diverse than that.