Re: UNH Wildcats 2017/2018 - Umile's Last Stand - The Grand Finale
You guys who have been here for the duration certainly have much you can be proud of...for new fans, maybe not as much. The losses when it counted in the Big Dance linger and that's always going to be the issue I imagine for many. That is understandable. And...I hear you about the past few years; tell me about it; I'm sure I'm in the 'red' when it comes to wins/losses.
Watching those HE championships/Regional wins on the 'tron last night sure made me yearn for one...here's hoping in the next few years. The torch has been passed, it's time to move on. I am hopeful the new regime receives the support they deserve to bring UNH Hockey back into the forefront of HE and beyond. That is not going to happen overnight.
That being said i do not regret one bit following this program, the awesome people I've met, and look forward to the future...whatever it holds.
I enjoyed reading a lot of the feedback and I'm frankly ambivalent about the events of the last couple of evenings to honor Coach Umile. There were so many good years and great experiences he brought the program through - not the least of which was the transformative construction of the Whittemore Center in the mid-'90s, which only happened when it did because of the upswing in the program that kicked in once Coach had been in charge for a few seasons. In retrospect, I'm sure it was going to happen at some point ... but to those who were not fortunate enough to have experienced those years, it's hard to explain the game-changer that The Whitt was at the time. BU was still playing in WBA, Conte (BC) was always predominantly designed as a basketball arena (as was Mullins in Amherst), and Tsongas was just coming on line a year or so after The Whitt. Places like The Gutt, Alfond and Mathews Arenas, and the North Andover High School Arena are still in place, and The Coffin a/k/a Scheider was only recently renovated. So maybe The Whitt wasn't as inevitable as some of us might think? And maybe Coach deserves more credit for that having happened?
But the one sentence I highlighted in HR's post just highlights the daunting task that lies before Coach Souza and his staff, as we look ahead to the future of the UNH Hockey program. A lot - LOT - of Coach Umile's goodwill built up over the first 20 or so (give or take) of his career has been squandered in this decade. In fact, there's almost nothing left of it. Everything is in a downward spiral. And even the first couple of years where Coach Souza should enjoy a "honeymoon" period, that's really non-existent. He's already been here for the last three seasons, and those seasons have without question coincidentally (or not) been the longest (arguably only) extended truly down stretch during Coach Umile's 3 decades in charge.
So I guess my point is, I'm not sure Coach Souza
deserves anything more than he works to produce himself. And the early returns have hardly been encouraging. As much as we want to criticize (and even vilify at times) Coach Umile for staying around too long, and (apparently) insisting on having a say on his successor ... it takes two to tango, and to reiterate a point that I think others (including Dan) and myself have been making over and over in recent seasons, Coach Souza knew the deal coming in, and Day One of being head coach will not be September 2018. It was back in June 2015 when he was hired. And if he showed too much deference to his former coach by not putting his imprint on the program sooner ... then shame on him. To revisit a term overused during the offseason ... Coach Souza doesn't get a "mulligan" for the last three seasons. That was supposed to be his springboard. Patience for him and his future staff should be curtailed accordingly. Besides the fact that Coach Umile hand-picked Souza as his successor, I'd be tempted to say that Coach Umile himself arguably is the most aggrieved party for Souza's lack of success on the recruiting trails. If that's not prototypical boomerang UNH ironic "karma", I'm not sure I can think of a more apropos example.
Final thought, and I'm sure 'Watcher and some of the other long-timers who raised criticisms of the process will have picked up on this already, given the timing of things ... Coach Josh McDaniels just recently walked away from a really good coaching opportunity to stay on as an assistant with his professional "alma mater", so to speak. There was no proclamation or announcement during all the publicity about how the mentor was going to basically open the book to his institutional knowledge and methods to the protégé that McDaniels was guaranteed diddly squat when the mentor eventually decides to "go fishing". I think his only REAL guarantee is that he'll get the last first interview AND a second interview. Query why this was not the way our esteemed uber-experienced AD played things with Coach Souza in June 2015? Especially after the way the last three seasons have only seen the program wallowing in a deeper state of mediocrity, when the recruiting experts among us were talking about how Borek had the pipeline looking so promising that deep tourney runs were predicted in 2017 and/or 2018?
The idea that a national search is apparently NOT going to happen here, and that Coach Souza - who frankly has done little over the last three seasons to show he is ready for this HUGE challenge - is just going to walk into the head coach's job, is disappointing. I'm willing to see what decisions are going to be made to fill out his staff, whether Coach Stewart stays, and what comes of some of the interesting candidates' names that have been posted on this thread, or discussed in more discreet places. But the Souza Era will be starting on a short leash, at least from this corner. JMHO.
