Jerry has obviously has had a lot of success in the past. But he deserves scrutiny for how poorly he's doing at Oregon (and at Bowerman these days), and he deserves scrutiny for how little he races many of the most talented athletes in the country.
He may have done a great job at Bowerman for many years, but he's objectively terrible for the sport. His athletes race less frequently than any training group that I am aware of. BYU, NAU, Ok State, OAC, Kenyans, Ethiopians, the Norwegians--they all manage to work on their base fitness while still racing. I mean, racing is the point of the sport. There's no reason that Jerry has to hide his athletes under rocks for two years before he lets them race, and even then, race them less often than anyone else.
I view him as a dying breed of guru coaches who thinks that success depends on not communicating openly with the press, not racing athletes much, preventing open discussion of training, and just generally having an adversarial relationship with the worldwide running community.
I mean, I don't have any personal bone to pick with Jerry. I'm totally ambivalent about whether Oregon is good or not. I'm just a fan of the sport who would love to see people like Simeon Birnbaum run a race once in a while.
Jerry's had a great coaching career. But he sucks for the sport. And I think that's why people are eager to cheer when he fails.