UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

[jstadts]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

watcher, would you really want all the negative that went along with walsh `s recruiting violations?

[jstadts]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

watcher, I am just a summer time passer by on this thread but after your impassioned reply felt obligated to back track on this thread . after reading the posts and most of the interview it seems to me souza is in a bad spot that got worse when umile signed an extension. Looks like a promotion with no real change of job duties.Basically a yes man until he gets HC job. Regarding walsh and maine it seems odd that he started cheating after the program became successful. Logic seems to dictate as the program became successful fewer rules would have to be bent or broken

[Snively65]

watcher, I am just a summer time passer by on this thread but after your impassioned reply felt obligated to back track on this thread . after reading the posts and most of the interview it seems to me souza is in a bad spot that got worse when umile signed an extension. Looks like a promotion with no real change of job duties.Basically a yes man until he gets HC job. Regarding walsh and maine it seems odd that he started cheating after the program became successful. Logic seems to dictate as the program became successful fewer rules would have to be bent or broken

Just to review, we think what happened is that DU signed a lifetime extension back in the early 2000s to keep him from going to UMass. Then about a year ago, we think that DU signed a three-year "phased retirement" deal with the agreement that MS be signed as an assistant and DU's successor. There is also speculation that DU would like to reach 600 wins before he bows out, but that milestone is looking less and less likely with only two more seasons.

[UNH1932]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Geniuses

I appreciate your hockey acumen and maybe you can go back to calling local sports stations and complain about everybody, everything and everything about everybody. I might be mistaken, but I presume none of you Joebags have ever coached hockey above the high school level.

Icon coaches you seem to adore have more losing seasons percentage (under .500) wise than UNH punching bag Dick Umile with far better talent.

Sean Walsh 3/17= 18% , 64% winning percentage with legendary recruiting violations

Jerry York 11/45= 25% , 62% winning percentage with best players in country most years

Jack Parker 8/40=20%, 64% winning percentage with best players in country most years.

Dick Umile (most hated man on USCHO) 3/26=12%, 62% winning percentage with far less talent than the others during his tenure.

I presume when you compare yourselves to others in your chosen professions, you probably had some good years and some bad years and it is unlikely that your record is anywhere near Dick Umile's as a hockey coach.

I am very happy that Mike Souza is the coach in waiting and I think he might be on a list like the one above by the time he is done at UNH. Dick Umile has never had a lifetime contract at UNH. He has had long term contracts like most of the other top hockey coaches.

Thanks Mike for the great interview and see you at the games this fall. I hope the gang can become positive and maybe guessing lines and defensive pairings is more constructive than the constant beatings inflicted on a fine man from Melrose, MA and a future coach from Wakefield, MA. Sorry for going back on my word Hockey Ref but I will try to never return if the dingbats can be fans and not Angry Bill from the 2003 Red Sox season all day long. I do not know how the season is going to turn out but I will be cheering for UNH regardless. We have a lot of young talent and we will know soon if we can put the puck in the net and stop the puck from our defensive net. Dick Umile is leaving in 20 months as our head coach and I hope the recent classes will head us in a positive direction.

[Nifty16]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Now I remember why I don't come on here much. Mike as always thanks for the update and great articles. From reading everything guess I don't have to watch at all this year. Do I expect big things this year? No but I will actually wait to see what happens. But I guess I am not as over the top negative as most and will sit back and let things play out. Hope everyone had a good summer , and here is to another season for us who will go into the season with an open mind and have written off the team

[FiveHole12]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Icon coaches you seem to adore have more losing seasons percentage (under .500) wise than UNH punching bag Dick Umile with far better talent.

Hang a banner!

[HockeyRef]

But, Mike Souza is not the coach, and will not be until 2018-19, which is the bizarre part of this transition. Can anyone identify a transition like this one in college hockey history? When Shawn Walsh and Eric Lang came to Maine and AIC, respectively, they were both head coach from Day 1, which no doubt made it a lot easier for them to promote a plan. Lang played four years and assisted two years at AIC, before being a head coach for one year in Div 3 and assistant for four years at Army. I think that this coaching transition at UNH is completely dysfunctional, and that Souza would have been better off staying at UConn for three more years, and then pursuing the head coach position at UNH, assuming that DU was willing to step down without hand-picking his successor. And, the latter was BS35+5's job to make happen. What a mess.

Well I think for me at least, you have hit the nail on the head when you say he's not the coach! Newsflash folks; MS is NOT the head coach (yet) and how much he's actually able to do at this point is really anyone's guess.

What stands out for me in this interview (which if you are judging him solely on his comments here; it's just...an interview?!?) is his integrity and his obvious respect and love for the program. I don't/didn't expect miracles when he arrived and I look forward to seeing what his future holds. I don't know what anyone expected him to say? Geesh.

All I can go on is what I see when he's coaching, how he handles himself with the fans and what he's laid out as his vision when speaking to FOH and I like it. He doesn't need to be Sean Walsh (with all due respect).

[E.J. Smith]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

What's the worst that can happen? Does anyone really think BS35+4 is going to fire the hand-picked successor?

As long as whatever he does to *push* can be justified as something he sees as advancing the best long-term interests of the program that's been promised to him, I think that should carry the day with his boss(es). If not - then maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, and Souza can walk and do so with dignity, and not just be a "yes man" for two more seasons as the UNH program circles the drain?

Sure, you can say Souza's hands are tied ... but so are UNH's - this was their *genius* idea after all- and I think Souza needs to make it work for him. Firing the hand-picked successor before he even takes control is a BAD look for both Coach Umile and (especially) the uber-experienced, smartest guy in the room they both still answer to. I would ride that horse as early and as often as possible, if I were Souza. It's his long-term professional career that's on the line here ...

Exactly right in my opinion, and something Walshy would have understood instinctively - yeah, Scarano and Umile may be my bosses but they've invested an awful lot of their credibility in me, and moving on from me because I was pushing too hard to be successful isn't really going to be a good look, at all, for either of them.

I guess that touches on my concern in all of this. I want a person who gets that and uses it, because I think it reaches into all the other ways you run a program. Is Souza going to watch a kid play, say I want him, but when he gets to the locker room and sees Donato or Quinn standing there say "oh I guess I can't talk to this kid." Because that's the sense I'm getting from his interactions with guys who actually want him to be successful, let alone other coaches who don't.

Bottom line, he's not taking over a program that selects players, he's taking over a program that has to recruit players. You can afford to be a little congenial in the former situation, in that latter you need a pretty good degree of ruthlessness, drive, urgency, even ingenuity - none of which came across in that interview, or have been on open display over the past year.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Before we get to the main event, just a quick note to our summer visitor, who was wondering why Walshy only started cheating when his program got good ... let's be clear, he only got caught after the program was successful. I'm all for letting the man and his legacy (good and not so good) rest in peace, but I'd also surmise that when you take a program from the depths to the heights of D-1 like he did, he probably didn't change his battle plan along the way. I can be a naïve person at times, but do I think Walshy kickstarted the program by sticking to the rules, and then only changed his ways when he needed to sustain that success? That doesn't make sense. Just sayin'.

Now, on to UNH family business. I've always been in favor of an open airing of all kinds of viewpoints, so although I strongly suspect the more critical aspects of the preceding post were addressed at least in part to me, I want it on the record that we need this kind of point-counterpoint to make this a fun and invigorating place to hash out topics where we're not all in agreement (i.e. basically everything).

Geniuses

See, that's how I know this was directed at me. We're off to a good start ...

I appreciate your hockey acumen and maybe you can go back to calling local sports stations and complain about everybody, everything and everything about everybody. I might be mistaken, but I presume none of you Joebags have ever coached hockey above the high school level.

... and now a quick turn for the worse. For the record, my next call to a sports radio station will be my first, so at least it's not directed at me this time. BTW - what's a "Joebag"??

Icon coaches you seem to adore have more losing seasons percentage (under .500) wise than UNH punching bag Dick Umile with far better talent.

Sean Walsh 3/17= 18% , 64% winning percentage with legendary recruiting violations

Two D-1 trophies - one (1) even without an asterisk (*), against UNH in 1999 with a team that by most informed opinions included less talent than their opposition. And if there was "far better talent", I'm pretty sure they weren't going to Orono for the scenery or the broad array of social distractions on offer down in the Hub o' the Universe. Speaking of which ...

Jerry York 11/45= 25% , 62% winning percentage with best players in country most years

You do realize that among his five (5) D-1 trophies, he won his first at Bowling Green? Ohio?? And he started his career at Clarkson? If talent was going to those places ... well, see my comments about Orono above. Maybe they went there because he was a good coach, y'know? And like Walshy, he picked his BC program out of the depths of D-1. Maybe being near Boston was helpful (see how well that's worked for perennial powerhouse Northeastern, or even across the river at Harvard), but let's not be a naïve yahoo homer, please?

Jack Parker 8/40=20%, 64% winning percentage with best players in country most years.

He's got three (3) D-1 titles to his credit, right? While coaching in that craphole known as Walter Brown Arena, right? Offered and refused an NHL job as Bruins head coach, right? Yeah, good point, what a schmuck.

Dick Umile (most hated man on USCHO) 3/26=12%, 62% winning percentage with far less talent than the others during his tenure.

Have you ever paused to wonder why Coach Umile never attracted the talent that these other guys attracted to Bowling Green OH, Orono ME, or the Babcock St. bomb shelter?

I presume when you compare yourselves to others in your chosen professions, you probably had some good years and some bad years and it is unlikely that your record is anywhere near Dick Umile's as a hockey coach.

Fair enough. But let me point out a few minor details. One, Coach Umile has chosen to compete in his high profile profession, and part of that means he accepts the risks (i.e. public criticism, open discussion of your job status, etc.) along with the rewards (i.e. high pay, ego friendly fun work, and awesome retirement benefits *nudge-nudge*). Two, his job performance has been steadily eroding over the last 13 (going on 15) seasons, as his last great season was 2002-2003 (great, as in HE Tourney title, and loss in the D-1 Finals). Three, he has enjoyed the benefit of unprecedented patience from his boss - the source of which has been a focus of debate for some time now.

I am very happy that Mike Souza is the coach in waiting and I think he might be on a list like the one above by the time he is done at UNH. Dick Umile has never had a lifetime contract at UNH. He has had long term contracts like most of the other top hockey coaches.

Unless you are Coach Umile, Mrs. Umile, Judy Ray, BS35+4 or someone who's worked in the UNH Legal office, you have no idea what kind of contract Coach Umile had after his 2000 dalliance with UMass Amherst.

Thanks Mike for the great interview and see you at the games this fall. I hope the gang can become positive and maybe guessing lines and defensive pairings is more constructive than the constant beatings inflicted on a fine man from Melrose, MA and a future coach from Wakefield, MA. Sorry for going back on my word Hockey Ref but I will try to never return if the dingbats can be fans and not Angry Bill from the 2003 Red Sox season all day long. I do not know how the season is going to turn out but I will be cheering for UNH regardless. We have a lot of young talent and we will know soon if we can put the puck in the net and stop the puck from our defensive net. Dick Umile is leaving in 20 months as our head coach and I hope the recent classes will head us in a positive direction.

Do you have a problem with the open discussion of ALL issues pertaining to UNH Hockey? That's kind of what this forum is here for, it's not a UNH fanboy site, I'm sure you can find or create something like that elsewhere. If you don't like what you're reading, you don't have to respond OR you can choose to engage. You've chosen to engage, and frankly I'm happy that you have, and have done so in the past. Bravo. That's what makes this place more fun and more relevant. Fanboys and yahoo homers can contribute, and critical fans can add their two cents if/when we feel the need to. The "I'm going to take my toys and go home" approach is beneath you, and you're wrong if you think the caustic voices on board here are not every bit the same fan of UNH that you (and others) are.

Anyway ... just for some perspective, about 5-6 years ago (I forget) I wrote an "Open Letter to Coach Umile" where I advocated for him to take some of the transitional approaches then that he's just getting to nowadays. The letter was fawning with praise of him and what he'd done for the UNH program during his first 20 or so years in the job. But it's become increasingly clear and apparent that he's not as engaged in his job as he's been in the past, and other programs with more engaged leaderships have been zooming past UNH in recent seasons. If you could somehow track down that post, I think you'd see that I was firmly in his corner, while realizing that changes were going to be needed to adjust to where he was in his career. I can assure you that "hate" is far too strong a word to use how most of us feel about his continued presence in his still declining program. I'd probably go as far as "annoyed", but that's just me.

And I certainly hope this works out for Coach Souza, notwithstanding the serial blandness of his interview with C-H-C. We all know he's been placed - or more accurately, chosen to be placed - in a tricky spot right now. My recent posts have only built on keen suggestions by other posters that he (Souza) is going to need to push the envelope of what's happening with HIS program before he actually assumes full control in March 2018. And my caution there (and here) is that if he doesn't push for his fingerprints to be increasingly on all parts of the UNH Hockey program starting yesterday, then he's only making his chances of success in an already-challenging succession plan even more difficult. You can feel free to agree or disagree ... but let's not extrapolate that into anyone "bashing" Coach Souza. Thx.

P.S. - my liberal use of terms like "yahoos" and "fanboys" etc. is intentional, to point out the other side of the coin to the one where you attempt to belittle those of us with silly labels, because we dare to dissent from the "blue skies", everything is just fine and dandy, happy days are here again approach you'd prefer that we ALL take. So there.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Exactly right in my opinion, and something Walshy would have understood instinctively - yeah, Scarano and Umile may be my bosses but they've invested an awful lot of their credibility in me, and moving on from me because I was pushing too hard to be successful isn't really going to be a good look, at all, for either of them.

I guess that touches on my concern in all of this. I want a person who gets that and uses it, because I think it reaches into all the other ways you run a program. Is Souza going to watch a kid play, say I want him, but when he gets to the locker room and sees Donato or Quinn standing there say "oh I guess I can't talk to this kid." Because that's the sense I'm getting from his interactions with guys who actually want him to be successful, let alone other coaches who don't.

Bottom line, he's not taking over a program that selects players, he's taking over a program that has to recruit players. You can afford to be a little congenial in the former situation, in that latter you need a pretty good degree of ruthlessness, drive, urgency, even ingenuity - none of which came across in that interview, or have been on open display over the past year.

Bingo. I'll give him Year One (last season) as the apprenticeship, to learn the ropes, acclimate, etc.

It's got to be different going forwards, starting right now. It's not like the talent pipeline after this year's incoming class is looking all that great. The biggest mistake Souza can make is to approach 2018/2019 as his first season in charge, or to assume BS35+6 will afford him the same patience as has been afforded his mentor.

[NCAA watcher]

Well I think for me at least, you have hit the nail on the head when you say he's not the coach! Newsflash folks; MS is NOT the head coach (yet) and how much he's actually able to do at this point is really anyone's guess.

What stands out for me in this interview (which if you are judging him solely on his comments here; it's just...an interview?!?) is his integrity and his obvious respect and love for the program. I don't/didn't expect miracles when he arrived and I look forward to seeing what his future holds. I don't know what anyone expected him to say? Geesh.

All I can go on is what I see when he's coaching, how he handles himself with the fans and what he's laid out as his vision when speaking to FOH and I like it. He doesn't need to be Sean Walsh (with all due respect).

Ying and yang. Souza's pro-player positivism is useful and may attract one type of recruit. I would suggest (and you know how reluctant I am to offer my opinion) that with the limited approach to recruiting the Mike would benefit from a proven recruiter of his choice. Not only does Mike not have an ownership stake, but he doesn't even have an ally in the company. He should be allowed to pick his top recruiter. A good company would not just leave him alone without support - as hard as that would be for the guy pushed out to make room for Souza's chosen #2. Ciocco, Ayers, Mowers, hopefully someone with a bit more experience and connections. Because Umile really hasn't sowed such a guy, I hope Souza doesn't just rely on his or UNH connections. Hire a Ben Barr type. Someone who can sell Mike better than Mike appears able to sell himself. If Mike is under spoken and soft sell, he needs an aggressive salesman with the last part of the sale being an introduction to the nice guy to close the deal. Ying and Yang.

[E.J. Smith]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Geniuses

I appreciate your hockey acumen and maybe you can go back to calling local sports stations and complain about everybody, everything and everything about everybody. I might be mistaken, but I presume none of you Joebags have ever coached hockey above the high school level.

Icon coaches you seem to adore have more losing seasons percentage (under .500) wise than UNH punching bag Dick Umile with far better talent.

Sean Walsh 3/17= 18% , 64% winning percentage with legendary recruiting violations

Jerry York 11/45= 25% , 62% winning percentage with best players in country most years

Jack Parker 8/40=20%, 64% winning percentage with best players in country most years.

Dick Umile (most hated man on USCHO) 3/26=12%, 62% winning percentage with far less talent than the others during his tenure.

I presume when you compare yourselves to others in your chosen professions, you probably had some good years and some bad years and it is unlikely that your record is anywhere near Dick Umile's as a hockey coach.

I am very happy that Mike Souza is the coach in waiting and I think he might be on a list like the one above by the time he is done at UNH. Dick Umile has never had a lifetime contract at UNH. He has had long term contracts like most of the other top hockey coaches.

Thanks Mike for the great interview and see you at the games this fall. I hope the gang can become positive and maybe guessing lines and defensive pairings is more constructive than the constant beatings inflicted on a fine man from Melrose, MA and a future coach from Wakefield, MA. Sorry for going back on my word Hockey Ref but I will try to never return if the dingbats can be fans and not Angry Bill from the 2003 Red Sox season all day long. I do not know how the season is going to turn out but I will be cheering for UNH regardless. We have a lot of young talent and we will know soon if we can put the puck in the net and stop the puck from our defensive net. Dick Umile is leaving in 20 months as our head coach and I hope the recent classes will head us in a positive direction.

You use a lot of different words and spend an awful lot of time trying to find different ways of saying:

Dick Umile is perfect. The UNH program couldn't possibly be more successful. You guys are idiots for not recognizing that and wasting your time discussing ways that UNH hockey could be better, when it couldn't. Stop disturbing the belief system I've created for myself. And get off my lawn while you're at it.

So no thanks neccessary, just feel free to copy the above into Word doc or something and use it whenever you feel delusional rant mode kicking in. It'll save us all a lot of time - I mean do you even know how much time we've all spent reading each of your new posts thinking this will be the time he says something new and relevant, only to be disappointed each time?

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

... BTW - what's a "Joebag"??

Dickbag's nicer younger brother.

Has this thread sunk to the point where we are advocating hiring a Shawnnbag?

[Greg Ambrose]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

Ying and yang. Souza's pro-player positivism is useful and may attract one type of recruit. I would suggest (and you know how reluctant I am to offer my opinion) that with the limited approach to recruiting the Mike would benefit from a proven recruiter of his choice. Not only does Mike not have an ownership stake, but he doesn't even have an ally in the company. He should be allowed to pick his top recruiter. A good company would not just leave him alone without support - as hard as that would be for the guy pushed out to make room for Souza's chosen #2. Ciocco, Ayers, Mowers, hopefully someone with a bit more experience and connections. Because Umile really hasn't sowed such a guy, I hope Souza doesn't just rely on his or UNH connections. Hire a Ben Barr type. Someone who can sell Mike better than Mike appears able to sell himself. If Mike is under spoken and soft sell, he needs an aggressive salesman with the last part of the sale being an introduction to the nice guy to close the deal. Ying and Yang.

Watcher, I will agree with your last statement. You need a fire and ice combination, with the head coach (or head coach in waiting) having the ability to be a true closer. Think car salesman and sales manager I guess, although the thought of buying a car is pretty noxious.

The overriding point I want to make is how disengaged UNH Athletics seems to be with the hockey team. In prior years I would receive my invitation to renew season tickets in May, with a drop dead reorder date of late June. Here it is today, August 13th, and nothing. If UNH's hierarchy thinks so little of getting season tickets renewed, imagine what they think of the team. Really not expecting much this year. I'll go but my interest which, as many know, used to know no bounds, is at an all time low.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Wildcats 2016 Offseason Thread - Searching for Direction

The overriding point I want to make is how disengaged UNH Athletics seems to be with the hockey team. In prior years I would receive my invitation to renew season tickets in May, with a drop dead reorder date of late June. Here it is today, August 13th, and nothing. If UNH's hierarchy thinks so little of getting season tickets renewed, imagine what they think of the team. Really not expecting much this year. I'll go but my interest which, as many know, used to know no bounds, is at an all time low.

Hey, there's a brand spanking new football stadium to try to sell out, and a program that's a perennial national contender to play in it. Where did you expect their focus to be?

21 years ago, that was us - Hockey. Stinks to be the afterthought in the AD's offices ...