As a former Aggie distance runner, I'm curious to see who Henry brings in. Hopefully it will be someone who can take the team back to XC NCAAs.
As a former Aggie distance runner, I'm curious to see who Henry brings in. Hopefully it will be someone who can take the team back to XC NCAAs.
Pat Henry does not care at all about distance running. If they do well it will be in spite of Pat Henry.
I know Pat cares about his sprinters. It would be nice to have someone who can do a lot with a little, though. What's weird about Henry is that he, in fact, was a distance runner himself.
Waters worked very hard.
Henry will hire some other "Yes" man.
I wonder if Henry will even hire another distance coach. He should do future A&M runners a favor and just get rid of cross country and distance running. It's better than a half assed program that ruins running careers.
A&M has alot of hardworking distance runners in the program. For operating on probably the smallest amount of scholarships for distance runners in the Big 12, they accomplish MORE than they are expected to. Besides, they don't just go there for the track/xc program, but because it is one of the top academic universities in the country.
Bring in someone who can run the team off of a couple of scholarships and who can recruit depth from the Houston and Dallas suburbs.
Everybody's university is one of the top academic institutions in the country.
[quote]Ags wrote:
A&M has alot of hardworking distance runners in the program. For operating on probably the smallest amount of scholarships for distance runners in the Big 12, they accomplish MORE than they are expected to. Besides, they don't just go there for the track/xc program, but because it is one of the top academic universities in the country.[/quote
With 2 scholarships and a very good coach, A & M should be a great distance program. The draw of talent that A & M can get is incredible. Many quality runners would go to the school as walk-ons if there was a history of improvement and a great atmosphere. I cannot comment on Waters, other than I don't recall him ever having a good record for developing talent. If you cannot buy your talent, you need to develop it. A & M has huge potential, even if they didn't get any scholarships.
A coaching mind wrote:
With 2 scholarships and a very good coach, A & M should be a great distance program
Uh, no, not when you're up against distance-only programs like OSU and Colorado putting 10+ scholarships into distance. They would get raped in the Big 10 with the top-heavy distance teams. Who knows how OU is getting it done, but it's cheap as hell to go there anyways. With 2 scholarships, you can only expect to have a few good individuals and some walk-on talent (who may or may not pan out to being conference scorers)-- never a competitive team at the conference/national levels.
I don't know where the idea that A&M cross country gets 2 scholarships came from. It's less... much less.
I never said they should beat Colorado or OSU, that is crazy. They could still be a great program, being consistently top 15 in the country, on name value alone. For those that don't know A & M has a huge cult like following in Texas that should allow them a huge base to recruit off of.
Going off TFRRS this is the breakdown of their men's track performances:
1500
3:51
3:52
3:53
3:54
3:55
5000
14:04
14:20
14:32
15:21
15:37
3000 steeple
9:10
9:16
9:57
No 10k times.
I used 2 scholarships as an example but also mentioned it shouldn't matter much at a school like A&M. Sure it would matter if you trying to be the best in the country but they have more than enough recruiting advantages to be a top 15 cc program.
There is no reason why A&M should not be able to get several 4:15 - 4:20/9:15 - 9:25 guys to walk-on. A good coach can guide several of those types to 14 flat or faster. The only excuse Waters could have at A&M is that there was a roster limitation to not allow him to bring in a bunch of those type of walk-ons.
Keeping all that I said in mind, I do still wish Coach Waters well at Alabama. It was probably tough working for a sprint-minded head coach. Now he gets the chance to do things his way.
Those times are for individual runners, meaning that none of those 3:5x guys ran the 5k, none of the 14:xx guys ran the 1500. If you look at their performances from the 3k indoors, they basically had everyone run that event. They had 10 guys around 8:40 or faster, so although they may not have the top end performers, they do seem to have some depth.
There will be a very, very good steeplechase coach that people will be shocked will take this position.
Hislop
3:55 guy ran 14:32.
Heard same thing. If it is who I heard, can't believe why he would leave current position to go be a whipping boy for Mr Sprints Henry
Brice Allen at Louisville?