Coaching. Leaman had success at Union and brought that experience to PC. Yale had a long time coach and had a great assistance in Red Top. Who the following year took over at Maine and started their comeback. Much of the team that Barr initially started with were recruits from Gendron.
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UNH- How Far West Do We Go?
- Thread starter norbert
- Start date
Couldn’t agree more. There are so many recent examples just within HE (Barr at Maine, Carvel at UMA, Leamen at PC) all within the last 10-15 years. Heck I’d even throw Borek in that group as he has gotten Merrimack to punch above their usual weightclass the last few years.
There is so much evidence for the AD to draw from to show just how much good coaching can make a big (and sometimes rather quick) difference.
I saw a great post on X over the weekend regarding coaching success in the NFL (posted by Josh Dubow of the AP). The post showed that off the 32 NFL coaches that have won a SuperBowl who were hired after the era began, the breakdown of what year they won their first title went as follows:
1st: 4
2nd: 8
3rd: 4
4th: 7
5th: 5
6th: 1
7th: 1
8th: 1
14th: 1
Now one may take this as “teams should be more patient and give their coaches time to cook” but I look at this as evidence that good coaches change the culture fast, start winning quickly, and bring home championships. For Pats fans, just look at how quickly Vrabel righted the ship after the debacle that was the end of the Belichick era and the one year Mayo experiment. Kraft came out saying it was financially unsound to move on from Mayo so quickly, but I bet he would make that decision 10/10 times to be back in the SB as quickly as they are…
Maybe Souza will be that coach who wins it after 14 years, but the evidence appears stacked against him thus far…
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
I love posts like this ... raise a topic, review the data, and debate the conclusions. I'm not sure the NFL has a lot in common with NCAA D-1 Hockey, but the goal in both places is to run a successful winning program. And if you don't win OR move towards winning quickly in the NFL, there is a lot of money and prestige on the line when you're challenging for a Super Bowl. The patience to allow a head coach more than five (5) seasons to get there is pretty rare.
The 14 year guy BTW is the Steelers' Bill Cowher, and like his predecessor and successor, he fielded winners consistently over the course of his career, and combined with the Rooney family's patience - three HC hires in the last 56 seasons speaks to patience and good judgment - that explains why he got as much slack as he did. I'm sure if you put Cowher on truth serum, he'd concede he was lucky to last so long without winning the big trophy. As a counterpoint, the Buffalo Bills gave Sean McDermott nine years, and even if his team was supremely unlucky this postseason (getting jobbed in Denver, which probably led to the Patriots advancing, where a loss to Buffalo this past weekend would have been probable), that still ended up costing him his job. It's a tough business.
Now ... we slide on over, and we consider Coach Souza, and what (if anything?) he has in common with either Cowher or McDermott?? Pretty much nothing, actually. Those two guys were consistent winners, even when they were coming up short a combined 22 times between them. Heck, UNH wrote the book on riding with a consistently winning coach who never quite got there (Umile) ... but while he was consistently winning, his successor has consistently been a loser.
The college setting is certainly a more forgiving scenario for underachieving coaches who ingratiate themselves with their schools for other qualities, but I'd love to see you do a deep dive on D-1 coaches who have managed to make it through an entire decade with just one (1) winning season. I'm going to be very surprised if, in addition to our very own man of the hour, there are more than 2-3 tops who survived that long on such a sparse CV.
And once again, it is none other than Scotty B. who ambles into town with his Merrimack Warriors to apply the kill shot to the kid who stole his job at UNH ...
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
I'd be very careful with that line of approach anywhere near the UMaine thread, Norbie. By all accounts a nice guy, but some coaches are born assistants, and I think Red fits that bill. Using your logic here, then Carvel was lucky to inherit some of his guys too (including Makar) from his bet-you-can't-remember-his-name coaching predecessor? Bottom line, if you're in charge, it's your job to win, and if you whip up a championship team with some new ingredients and some leftovers, you're still a champion. And if you don't make steady progress in that direction, then thanks for your services, and good luck at your next destination (just not here, g'bye).