🏈 I think Coach Moore has knocked another one out of the park with the new hire for track and field...

[TerryP]

...women's and men's.

To replace Harvey Glance, Dan Waters is taking over the program. He was an assistant last season at Texas A&M whose track teams are coming off of back to back national titles. He's been there seven years and literally built that program, along with his boss/HC of course, from scratch.

Heck, seven years ago A&M didn't even have uniforms. We, on the other hand, have a foundation in place as it is...bodes well for his future.

Does the A&M program, and their staff, know what it takes to win championships? Their head coach, Pat Henry, has almost 25 championships on his resume...he's the one responsible for building the LSU track program into what it is today as well.

Yes, it is an assistant. But, one that couldn't have come up under a better tutor.

I'll have more up on Waters in the next 24 hours or so.

 

[ElephantStomp]

I think the hire of Dan Waters for track and field is equal to hiring Saban for football. Coach Moore has probably doen the best job of any AD in the country in the choices for coaches of the different sports.

 

[TerryP]

I think the hire of Dan Waters for track and field is equal to hiring Saban for football. Coach Moore has probably doen the best job of any AD in the country in the choices for coaches of the different sports.

Saban? yes.

Grant? yes.

Wendall Hudson? I think yes but that's still left to be determined. He needs some more time IMO. The recruiting (talent) has definitely improved over the last couple of years under Hudson which paints the future in a brighter light than we've seen in awhile.

Dan Waters? I think yes again but I'm also counting on Pat Henry's ability to develop quality assistants. He has in the past at LSU and in his seven years at A&M. Certainly looks promising!

Gaspard? It's impossible to give Moore credit for the entire story of Mitch returning to the Capstone. Moore did have his eyes set on one guy, Gaspard, and he got his man again.

Then we get to Murphy, eh? He's enjoyed some success.

Jay Seawell was a hell of a hire for men's golf and hell, we've got a guy already in the Hall of Fame coaching our women who've enjoyed a lot of success the last few years. I think Mic is entering his seventh season?

Soccer coach Todd Bramble has a good resume' behind him as he enters his third season. That team is improving and should be able to reach the level of success Bramble enjoyed at Clemson when he was taking that team to the NCAA's, Sweet 16's, etc. on a regular basis.
Stephany Smith? no.

Mike Price? I still firmly believe we would have had a lot of success under Price especially with the defense we saw Kines field for those years under Shula. I good football hire, but there's no way anyone could expect a grown man of 50+ years old to mature over-night. I'm also still firmly of the opinion you never can tell how a person will handle success—getting the HC job at Bama for football is a major career success—as clearly evidenced by Price. He couldn't handle it.

Franchione? Solid football hire. But once again, we have another example—Price, Curry, Shula,—of a coach that couldn't handle the responsibilities that come with the position of HC at Alabama.

Shula? As a stop-gap measure I'll give Moore a passing grade. As a HC Shula lacked the disciplinarian traits required for the position and we saw that manifest itself on the field.

I don't really know a lot about our other major sports. Rowing was just started in the middle of last decade. 2006 maybe? That's building a program.

Men's Tennis? I know about as much there as rowing...well, maybe a little more. Billy took over that program just after the turn of the century. He was one of the first hires Moore made. Like I said, I don't follow tennis that closely but I do recall we finished the '09 season ranked somewhere around 15th in the country and we're becoming a mainstay in this sport.

Right now, out of our major sports, there are only two coaches on staff that weren't hired by Coach Moore: Jenny Mainz for women's tennis and Coach Patterson for gymnastics. Bockrath hired Mainz who has been to the NCAA's six or seven years in a row. 2009 was their most successful...finished in the top 20 in the sport. She's been with us 14 years.

Of course we are left with Coach Patterson who was hired by Coach Bryant. No need for details here...

I don't think I've missed anyone in my long diatribe here...but, overall, you can see the Athletic Department is in pretty darn good shape.

 

[LBS]

T&F program has a long way to go, from a novice's perception. Having moved to T-Town in the mid 70's, it seems that the track complex was the one element on campus that has not changed noticably. I was always the underwhelming structure stuck over behind the Football practice fields and the railroad track. One could get the feeling that they would be worse off still if Coleman wasn't next door to offer up some unused space in the basement.With so many other programs undated and refreshed, T&F could be on the verge of a rebirth. Let's hope so.

 

[TerryP]

T&F program has a long way to go, from a novice's perception. Having moved to T-Town in the mid 70's, it seems that the track complex was the one element on campus that has not changed noticably. I was always the underwhelming structure stuck over behind the Football practice fields and the railroad track. One could get the feeling that they would be worse off still if Coleman wasn't next door to offer up some unused space in the basement.With so many other programs undated and refreshed, T&F could be on the verge of a rebirth. Let's hope so.

I read this last night and didn't quite get the gist of the point you were trying to make. So, I'm going to guess. :shock:

Let's go one point at a time, or one "thought of yours" at a time.

T&F has a long way to go? As far as winning NC's, I don't see us that far away in some of the facets/events.

In my diatribe going over the programs and which ones are successful—as in Coach Moore's hires, etc.—the one thing I didn't address was the state of our T&F program. So, let's delve into that sport for a second.

We sort of have to separate this sport into two different divisions (for lack of a better term) because even though Waters is considered the head coach. I'll get more into the role that Coach Kane has (new hire also, brought in as an assistant coach under Waters.) To quickly sum it up, Waters will serve as head coach, recruiting coordinator (likely, he had that position at A&M,) and long distance coach. Kane, on the other hand, is known for his sprinters ( one won NC last season) and for his hurdlers (one won the Big12 last year.) Much like position coaches in football, there is more responsibility handed down to assistants because of added responsibility. It's as if they have a team of their own.

Breaking that down even further...

While there is a "team award" for the T&F program, most of the NC's are awarded individually. At the end of the season there is a "program of the year" award which went to FSU last season.

Harvey Glance has been our T&F head coach since Sept. of 2007. If you don't recall, we hired him from Auburn where he had had a lot of success there as well. He's had eight national championships won during his tenure in Tuscaloosa along with 41 SEC champions.

This past year the Alabama program finished ranked #10 in the nation for the program of the year award. To define that a little more...for a program to qualify to be in the running for that award they have to have qualify for the NCAA's in all three "divisions:" indoor and outdoor T&F and cross country. Since that award has been established we've never finished lower than 12th in the nation. Our highest ranking was 7th which I believe was in 2007 when we had 15 All-Americans on our team.

So, to say the least, while we haven't been at the same level as the LSU's and Arkansas's in our conference or on the same level as the Texas A&M's of the NCAA we've been competing with them consistently.

Facilities. Yes, we NEED new facilities. It's an eye sore now and it's been that way for decades. Yes, it does serve the purpose...but good lord, in a manner of speaking it reminds me of the "Old Gray Lady."

Just as a note to you—and others if you don't know—there is no unused space under Coleman now. Instead of building a separate basketball facility they remodeled the basement for the basketball team. There are a lot of offices, work out areas, training rooms, etc., down there for the basketball team along with gymnastics.

I'm pretty confident this was a solid move by Moore. If these two new coaches resumes' translate to the same, and even greater success, at Alabama we'll be well on the way to moving up one more level nationally.

I'll have an editorial up soon on Waters and the program...just haven't finished it yet.

 

[LBS]

I read this last night and didn't quite get the gist of the point you were trying to make. So, I'm going to guess. :shock:

Let's go one point at a time, or one "thought of yours" at a time.

T&F has a long way to go? As far as winning NC's, I don't see us that far away in some of the facets/events.

In my diatribe going over the programs and which ones are successful—as in Coach Moore's hires, etc.—the one thing I didn't address was the state of our T&F program. So, let's delve into that sport for a second.

We sort of have to separate this sport into two different divisions (for lack of a better term) because even though Waters is considered the head coach. I'll get more into the role that Coach Kane has (new hire also, brought in as an assistant coach under Waters.) To quickly sum it up, Waters will serve as head coach, recruiting coordinator (likely, he had that position at A&M,) and long distance coach. Kane, on the other hand, is known for his sprinters ( one won NC last season) and for his hurdlers (one won the Big12 last year.) Much like position coaches in football, there is more responsibility handed down to assistants because of added responsibility. It's as if they have a team of their own.

Breaking that down even further...

While there is a "team award" for the T&F program, most of the NC's are awarded individually. At the end of the season there is a "program of the year" award which went to FSU last season.

Harvey Glance has been our T&F head coach since Sept. of 2007. If you don't recall, we hired him from Auburn where he had had a lot of success there as well. He's had eight national championships won during his tenure in Tuscaloosa along with 41 SEC champions.

This past year the Alabama program finished ranked #10 in the nation for the program of the year award. To define that a little more...for a program to qualify to be in the running for that award they have to have qualify for the NCAA's in all three "divisions:" indoor and outdoor T&F and cross country. Since that award has been established we've never finished lower than 12th in the nation. Our highest ranking was 7th which I believe was in 2007 when we had 15 All-Americans on our team.

So, to say the least, while we haven't been at the same level as the LSU's and Arkansas's in our conference or on the same level as the Texas A&M's of the NCAA we've been competing with them consistently.

Facilities. Yes, we NEED new facilities. It's an eye sore now and it's been that way for decades. Yes, it does serve the purpose...but good lord, in a manner of speaking it reminds me of the "Old Gray Lady."

Just as a note to you—and others if you don't know—there is no unused space under Coleman now. Instead of building a separate basketball facility they remodeled the basement for the basketball team. There are a lot of offices, work out areas, training rooms, etc., down there for the basketball team along with gymnastics.

I'm pretty confident this was a solid move by Moore. If these two new coaches resumes' translate to the same, and even greater success, at Alabama we'll be well on the way to moving up one more level nationally.

I'll have an editorial up soon on Waters and the program...just haven't finished it yet.

I'm honored by the sheer number of key strokes in you comment to my comment Terry.

Me stating that we have a long way to go is not a comment about how close we are to the bottom, but how far we are from the the top. Consistantly "Top 10", as I think you implied, is great but not were Coach Moore aims. There are programs with mountainous traditions that will be difficult to overtake. THIS is the long way.

To that end, I'm not smart enough to judge the quality of the hire Coach Moore made. The one area that I commented on (beyong the "long way" comment) was facilities related. I understand your "Old Gray Lady" comment, but I'm concerned that "Old" and "Grey" are more of a liabiiity at this point. That said, considering the facilities moves that have been made in recent years, this program may be due.

The "unused space in Coleman" comment was intended to paint a picture that the Track program had to borrow from the Basketball program for a place to get dressed. I know Coleman's multi-use history (Coach Bryant's office, football lockerroom before the Moore Building, still home numerous others), but for the Track program to have it own would be one of those big steps forward. (BTW, was in the basement of CC this spring..."Gucci")

 

[TerryP]

I hate doing this—making an analogy to football—but it seems like an easy way to describe how I picture "our place" in this sport.

In football, we've got basically three tiers. If we look at this upcoming season, we'd have to use teams like Ole Miss, Vandy, maybe Kentucky to represent those in tier three. A little success here and there but not anything to show for it.

We've got tier two—Arkansas and South Carolina fit—and then the top tier where we have these teams with rings, trophies, etc., over the last five years.

In that top tier I'd put a program like Texas A&M. We, as a program for T&F, are in that second tier. I look at our "place" in standings / programs and I'd make a comparison to...South Carolina? They've made it to the SECCG last season, but can't get over that proverbial hunt. They assumed SOS would put them over the edge. He's got them there, but not to that goal as of yet.

Same with us. When Harvey Glance took over the program 13 years ago we were a lot like Texas A&M seven years ago. Hell, the Aggies didn't even have official uniforms to wear to Big12 events. Literally, we are talking '98-'99!!! Look where that staff has that team now.

Bockrath, when he "stole" Glance from Auburn, was hoping for that type of turn-around. Glance had as his goal to make our program nationally respected, a program that would be one of the top programs in the nation.

He's got us to the edge...but not there yet.

And yes, Gucci. I haven't had the chance to get to Foster since its been remodeled. I hear the same comments about that facility.

Just as a side thought:

Now that the volleyball team has moved to Foster, I wonder what's happening in "The Cave" in Coleman. Anyone know?

It's got the square footage—more than enough I'm sure—to house that program in terms of locker rooms, offices, physical rehab facility/training rooms, etc. Perhaps that is their intent in the future?

With more and more attention being forced on women's programs hopefully we'll hear/see news on this soon.

PS: You caught me at the right time for track and field. And, it all started with Murphy going to LSU, looking at their women's programs which led me to former LSU head coach and the current Aggie head coach and Waters.

I'll say this. I have a hell of a lot more faith in this hire than I did Stephany Smith's. I suspect a few AD's and academic leaders were told to "stay out of this new hire process."

 

[TerryP]

Damn, another log diatribe... :smile: