Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

In a surprising move, Oregon has decided not to renew head T&F coach Robert Johnson's contract. Wonder if we'll ever find out why.

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Neither team finished in the top ten of the championship this year, is it more complicated than that?

Tray Dub wrote:Neither team finished in the top ten of the championship this year, is it more complicated than that?

Found an Oregon T&F forum where they were discussing rumors of him being gone last week and then found a tweet from a reporter at the NCAA T&F Championships who asked him about whether this was going to be his last season in Eugene. Obviously there were some things going behind the scenes that made them not want to retain one of the most successful coaches in program history.

Losing the Powells in 2018 was huge ( Andy was named track coach of the year for the west region this last week). And then there’s the female body shaming stuff so there could be several things that are harder to overlook when the team just had a very disappointing finish.

Tray Dub wrote:Neither team finished in the top ten of the championship this year, is it more complicated than that?

Pretty much sums it up in my opinion. Really disappointing end to the season.

Can't be due to performance as 14 NCAA championships can attest and the fact recruiting took a hit during construction. Losing this guy is hugely disappointing.

TheDrake wrote:Can't be due to performance as 14 NCAA championships can attest and the fact recruiting took a hit during construction. Losing this guy is hugely disappointing.

If he was let go for performance of this years team it would be the stupidest AD decision I can recall. I imagine something as shocking as this had to be run by Phil and be due to issues we are not yet privy to. Lets hope Mullins doesn't go out and get another Lombardi-esque hire.

Some names being thrown around are:
Bowerman Track Club coach Jerry Schumacher
Syracuse coach Chris Fox
Stanford coach JJ Clark
BYU coach Diljeet Taylor
NAU coach Mike Smith
New Mexico coach Joe Franklin
Alabama coach Dan Waters
Texas coach Edrick Floreal
Kentucky coach Lonnie Green
Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith

What they almost all have in common are being primarily distance running coaches, something that I'm sure certain Oregon alums and Nike people want in place at Oregon. Just think that's somewhat misguided as just about every team that has won indoor/outdoor nationals have been strong in the sprint and field events and needing to only be decent in the distances.

Edit: Rumors are that they'll possibly have a new head coach by early next week as this has been in the works for weeks.

greenyellow wrote:Some names being thrown around are:
Bowerman Track Club coach Jerry Schumacher
Syracuse coach Chris Fox
Stanford coach JJ Clark
BYU coach Diljeet Taylor
NAU coach Mike Smith
New Mexico coach Joe Franklin
Alabama coach Dan Waters
Texas coach Edrick Floreal
Kentucky coach Lonnie Green
Oklahoma State coach Dave Smith

What they almost all have in common are being primarily distance running coaches, something that I'm sure certain Oregon alums and Nike people want in place at Oregon. Just think that's somewhat misguided as just about every team that has won indoor/outdoor nationals have been strong in the sprint and field events and needing to only be decent in the distances.

Edit: Rumors are that they'll possibly have a new head coach by early next week as this has been in the works for weeks.

You don't even have to be decent in the distances. Perhaps Nike wants a few distance superstars and screw team championships. I could see where that would make sense for them. They promote individuals and not teams in running and there are vastly more recreational distance runners than sprinters so it makes business sense I suppose. Personally, I enjoyed the sprinters and loved winning PAC-12 and National team titles. I'll miss it if we are going back to the old days of Oregon Track.