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UNH 2024/2025 Goldberg Edition

It's not as if the names of top candidates is unknown. From my February email to AD Rich:

In the event that UNH wants to field a competitive Hockey East team, I would repeat my December 2022 suggestions:

An additional name you may want to keep your eye on is Dan Muse. Dan Muse, who took over as Head Coach of the USA National U18 team, and therefore has good respect and knowledge within the USA hockey community. He also won NCAA championship as an assistant at Yale (and recruited well for an Ivy), won a USHL championship with Chicago, then was NHL assistant for Nashville past three years before taking over USA job. He is a local, having grown up in Canton, Mass, and still is only 40 years old.

This is in addition to the regular names of candidates you should at least consider: Casey Jones, Mike Ayers, Dane Jackson, Peter Mannino, Kevin Dean, Jared DiMichel, Anthony Noreen, Fred Harbison and Joe Dumais.
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In the subsequent three years, most of these candidates have been vindicated. Cornell has hired Casey Jones. Miami-Ohio hired Anthony Noreern. Fred Harbison will be head coach of the major junior Penticton franchise.
DiMichel won a championship with U.Mass, and remains the top recruiter for Michigan State, last year’s Big10 champ and this year’s #2 PWR team.
Joe Dumais won championships with Quinnipiac.

Both DiMichel and Dumais have track records akin to Ben Barr’s when hired by U.Maine. ...UNH is now at the lowest rank for rebuilding, with 12 years of ineptitude meaning the relevant hockey community only knows it as a bottom-feeder: the Ferris State of the east. DiMichel faced that in rebuilding U.Mass and Michigan State from their falls into the league basements. Dumais helped build Quinnipiac, a long, heavy slog.

Please excuse any snarkiness in this note. While Coach Souza’s performance this past decade has almost completely removed my affection for the program, some still remains. Seeing the trainwreck coming, and having tried to warn you as you came upon the scene, has left a bitter taste in my mouth. With you having cast our lot with Coach Souza, I don’t expect any changes. But if you do, please reach out to these candidates.
 
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Souza should be thankful for the new rule allowing The OHL and QMJHL players being allowed to play. I'll have to say all 4 players UNH has coming in are solid players. If it wasn't for this rule UNH is a cellar dweller next year. Hopefully he brings in the right recruits next year and loses the mentality that you have to be 20 or older to play college hockey.
 
Robert Balin said:
Souza should be thankful for the new rule allowing The OHL and QMJHL players being allowed to play. I'll have to say all 4 players UNH has coming in are solid players. If it wasn't for this rule UNH is a cellar dweller next year. Hopefully he brings in the right recruits next year and loses the mentality that you have to be 20 or older to play college hockey.
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You're not wrong.

This new pool of players available to transfer in must be manna from Heaven to Souza.
 
NCAA watcher said:
It's not as if the names of top candidates is unknown. From my February email to AD Rich:

In the event that UNH wants to field a competitive Hockey East team, I would repeat my December 2022 suggestions:


In the subsequent three years, most of these candidates have been vindicated. Cornell has hired Casey Jones. Miami-Ohio hired Anthony Noreern. Fred Harbison will be head coach of the major junior Penticton franchise.
DiMichel won a championship with U.Mass, and remains the top recruiter for Michigan State, last year’s Big10 champ and this year’s #2 PWR team.
Joe Dumais won championships with Quinnipiac.

Both DiMichel and Dumais have track records akin to Ben Barr’s when hired by U.Maine. ...UNH is now at the lowest rank for rebuilding, with 12 years of ineptitude meaning the relevant hockey community only knows it as a bottom-feeder: the Ferris State of the east. DiMichel faced that in rebuilding U.Mass and Michigan State from their falls into the league basements. Dumais helped build Quinnipiac, a long, heavy slog.

Please excuse any snarkiness in this note. While Coach Souza’s performance this past decade has almost completely removed my affection for the program, some still remains. Seeing the trainwreck coming, and having tried to warn you as you came upon the scene, has left a bitter taste in my mouth. With you having cast our lot with Coach Souza, I don’t expect any changes. But if you do, please reach out to these candidates.
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Well said (snarky is sometimes required), particularly coming from one with a lot more experience and knowledge than those who received the email.....Dumais has some Maine ties I believe, played HS hockey at St. Doms then went on to play at and then assistant coach at Quinnipiac. His stay there has been long but they eventually got it done and continue to have a top notch program. Sounds like the kind of guy who stands behind his commitments.

Is Pecknold anywhere near hanging it up and if so would Dumais be the guy? One other thing, is Souza the last potential candidate with ties to Umile? Would Umile have any say so in any future coach selections, or is he too many years out now to be relevant?
 
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‘Watcher: nice to see you posting after a long hiatus. Yours are consistently excellent.

My guess is Rich didn’t replace Souza last year primarily because she’s unable to get a handle around a vision for the program. UNH is playing in an elite conference with substantially less resources than the winning programs. What does an AD do without appropriate resources? Being the little engine that could makes for a nice childhood story but is nevertheless fiction.

A new coach may get the team to 6-7th place before leaving for a better program. Therefore sustainable success does not seem foreseeable,

UNH basketball is in a lousy, low budget conference. It may be the worst in D1. Well, that fits nicely with UNHs vision for basketball. It’s a good fit. Firing the coach made sense because a new coach in that conference could make a difference.

UNH is playing hockey in the hockey equivalent of the ACC basketball conference. There’s nothing cute about an underfunded program with second rate facilities and no ambition being amongst the big dogs. It makes no sense. There’s no TV contracts or traditional university relationships binding the programs together.

It’s time for UNH to determine where to go with the program for the next 10-15 years. Without much money to play with, much can be ruled out on the upside. Replacing the coach will likely have no sustainable impact long term. If the program cannot increase its budget to compete with the top half of the programs and improve the facilities, leaving Hockey East makes sense.

As for where to go, UNH is most competitive with the AHA programs, although the fit is awkward. ECAC initially seems like a better fit with UNH taking the old UVM spot. I do wonder about academic fit though. Quinnipiac is no Ivy but it brings a strong national hockey program. Whst does UNH bring? Little to benefit the ECAC.

Replacing Souza is just kicking the can down the road. UNH doesn’t have much vision in n general. Just look at the admissions rate.

I have long thought eliminating football was a key step. Focusing on student life with improved athletic amenities (robust wellness and intramurals) and choosing a few programs to excel at that are favored by the students and public makes far more sense than playing 1AA football.
 
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amkirby10 said:
So, not to be taking over your thread, but if I may offer my thoughts, genuinely in good faith and not intending to troll...

When I look at UNH Hockey in 2025, I see Gendron-era Maine written all over it. A coach with a low ceiling, connected to the glory years, sufficient but not spectacular facilities, who rode a strong goalie performance to his best season as a coach, which was an outlier among the rest of his body of work. Both guys can and will do enough to not have his team be completely pathetic, as in single-digit wins on a regular basis, but if your goal is postseason performance and national relevance, he's not going to take you there. I remember Maine fans having similar types of conversations as you guys are right now; about the school dropping to D3, Orono losing flagship campus status, that they can't compete and it's over for them, that the facilities aren't good enough and that's why they can't win, etc. However, this isn't football or basketball, where the same small collection of schools are always going to be the ones to dominate. I truly believe, especially in hockey, that any team in D1 (aside from maybe an AHA member) can become a national title contender, even in this upcoming brave new world of unlimited transfers and NIL money, with the right head coach hire. And that leads into what I guess is my overall point; from an outsiders perspective, Mike Souza is very clearly not going to be the coach that gets UNH back to the national picture and attending the Garden and potentially Frozen Fours again. We at Maine are very fortunate to have found a guy who appears that he can do just that, but in my opinion it all starts at the head coach position. Hockey East and the college hockey world more broadly would be a better place with UNH as a nationally competitive program, but I just don't see the current guy in place as the one who will be able to make it happen. But I do think it could happen if you can find that guy.

Just my personal thoughts.
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Amen brother!!!
 
I disagree with Potluck. If you get THE coach very soon, everything else can and likely will fall into place, hence no need to step away from Hockey East. Having to endure 2 more years with minimal results though might put the last nail in the coffin of that happening, unless someone with Walshy-like energy and vision happens on your doorstep.

Buy him out...there must be someone over there with brass ballz and very deep pockets
 
Talking about a lack of resources as a reason for UNH's struggles in hockey is so braindead. They consistently lose to schools who invest less! It isn't resources!

Anyone who considers themselves a "fan" of UNH hockey and wants them leave Hockey East is a total idiot.
 
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Potluck said:
I have long thought eliminating football was a key step. Focusing on student life with improved athletic amenities (robust wellness and intramurals) and choosing a few programs to excel at that are favored by the students and public makes far more sense than playing 1AA football.
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I've been preaching the elimination of the football team for years. With only five home games a year, is the best use of university funds? UNH has historically been a hockey school and, let's be frank, does anyone really care about I-AA football?

I live 15 minutes from campus and haven't attended a game in over 30+ years. I'd rather that budget be shifted to the hockey program and have the school concentrate at being good at handful of sports rather than mediocre in a lot of sports.
 
2013hockeyfan said:
Talking about a lack of resources as a reason for UNH's struggles in hockey is so braindead. They consistently lose to school who invest less! It isn't resources!

Anyone who considers themselves a "fan" of UNH hockey and wants them leave Hockey East is a total idiot.
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Agreed.

I doubt that the ECAC would have interest in taking on UNH and/or taking back UVM to keep their travel partner schedule intact anyway.

If people think that resources are a limitation for UNH, then those people are clueless in thinking that Atlantic Hockey, the original “cost containment” conference, would be a good fit for UNH.

This year the entirety of Atlantic Hockey postseason games are being played at member campus facilities, with Sacred Heart hosting Bentley and Holy Cross hosting Army tonight in the semi-finals. Then the higher seed regular season, semi-finals winner will be hosting the AHA final tourney game next Friday night. And, of course, the winner of that game will likely play BC in the Manchvegas regional, which UNH only can dream of ever doing again with MS7 as head coach.

I am still predicting single-digit wins for the next two seasons as there simply will not be enough cupcake OOC games going forward, as going 8-1-1 in those cupcake games this past season was an anomaly. For example, there is no way that UNH could have beaten Bentley, Holy Cross, or Sacred Heart this past season, nor most ECAC teams other than Princeton and RPI. Yeah, I know, we got lucky and split with Quinnipiac, which is what propped up our PWR for most the season.
 
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Snively65 said:
Agreed. I doubt that ECAC would have any interest in taking on UNH and/or taking back UVM to keep their travel partner schedule intact. If you think resources are a limitation for UNH, then you are clueless if you think that Atlantic Hockey, the original “cost containment” conference, would be a good fit for UNH.

This year the entirety of Atlantic Hockey postseason games are being played at member campus facilities, with Sacred Heart hosting Bentley and Holy Cross hosting Army tonight in the semi-finals. Then the higher seed regular season, semi-finals winner will be hosting the AHA final tourney game next Friday night. And, of course, the winner of that game will likely play BC in the Manchvegas regional, which UNH only can dream of ever doing again with MS7 as head coach.

I am still predicting single-digit wins for the next two seasons as there simply will not be enough cupcake OOC games going forward, as going 8-1-1 in those cupcake games this past season was an anomaly. For example, there is no way that UNH could have beaten Bentley, Holy Cross, or Sacred Heart this past season, nor most ECAC teams other than Princeton and RPI. Yeah, I know, we got lucky and split with Quinnipiac, which is what propped up our PWR for most the season.
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Do you think its possible with the influx of CHL players next year to build a team of ringers that can move the needle just enough to raise the profile of the team and into 7th or 8th place?
 
TheGrouchyCat said:
I've been preaching the elimination of the football team for years. With only five home games a year, is the best use of university funds? UNH has historically been a hockey school and, let's be frank, does anyone really care about I-AA football?

I live 15 minutes from campus and haven't attended a game in over 30+ years. I'd rather that budget be shifted to the hockey program and have the school concentrate at being good at handful of sports rather than mediocre in a lot of sports.
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Agreed. Split the funds wasted on football between hockey and soccer and upgrade the training facilities in the Whitt, if you must because the Digregorio scam had too many strings attached.
 
Snively65 said:
I am still predicting single-digit wins for the next two seasons as there simply will not be enough cupcake OOC games going forward, as going 8-1-1 in those cupcake games this past season was an anomaly. For example, there is no way that UNH could have beaten Bentley, Holy Cross, or Sacred Heart this past season, nor most ECAC teams other than Princeton and RPI. Yeah, I know, we got lucky and split with Quinnipiac, which is what propped up our PWR for most the season.
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UNH beat Bentley in OT to open the season w/o Cy & Jensen.
 
Snively65 said:
Agreed. Split the funds wasted on football between hockey and soccer and upgrade the training facilities in the Whitt, if you must because the Digregorio scam had too many strings attached.
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Turn the football stadium into the new soccer "stadium" eliminating the need for another major capital expenditure. Shift budget, as required, to prop up the soccer program and ensure that it doesn't once again fall into obscurity since Hubbard's departure.

Speaking to a friend who is a civil rights attorney, she mentioned that UNH eliminating football will never happen. Not to get political, but she said with the lack of diversity on campus, the football team delivers a large percentage "non-white" players/students. This is important since the minority student population is only +/- 17% of total enrolled students at UNH while the national average is closer to 45%.

I've been curious with our AD f/k/a SB's background in compliance, if this issue is at top of mind and is preventing her and the school from even exploring the possibility of winding down the football program.
 
TheGrouchyCat said:
Do you think it’s possible with the influx of CHL players next year to build a team of ringers that can move the needle just enough to raise the profile of the team and into 7th or 8th place?
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Maybe if no other teams pick up any CHL players, but do you really believe that UNH will be only school bringing in these players?
 
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