I'm not sure our AD is committed to winning; more concerned with revenue and LHN.
If you look at her last few hires, they raise some questions about her priorities/requirements for a head coach:
Soccer: Angela Kelly. Was on a downward trend her last few years at Tennessee. Her first two years at Texas resulted in no NCAA tourney invite. Third season, at-large bid to NCAA tourney, and one win. That means we are a Top 32 program.
Swimming: Carol Capitani. She was an assistant coach at Georgia. She was able to maintain Texas as a Top 10 national program her first three seasons at Texas; so, didn't lose ground on what her predecessor, Kim Brackin, had established. But, she is not the elite recruiter Brackin was. Unless she can start signing those "elite" swimmers who become NCAA champions, we won't be a Top 5 national program competing for NCAA team championships. She retained diving coach, Matt Scoggin. If our diving program wasn't so good, I'm not convinced we'd be finishing in the Top 10 nationally.
Golf: Hired an assistant coach from the men's golf program. Completed first season; just missed out on advancing to final weekend of NCAA tourney play.
Rowing: Hired the very successful head coach from Cal-Berkeley. I applaud this hire.
Softball: Connie Clark is the only coach we've had; hired by Conradt, I believe.
The last 3 seasons she's gone from a Top 4 finish, to Top 32, to Top 48. Is that the right direction? And, prior to the 2013 season, her team flopped at home in super regionals and regionals. So, basically, she's had one great season in the last 5-6 years.
Without an elite pitcher like Osterman or Luna, she's just not gonna get it done consistently. She's basically Rick Barnes (who hit a similar jackpot with TJ Ford and then Kevin Durant); look how that turned out. She's headed in the same direction as the program is stagnant, and regressing.
Just look at what Auburn did in their second season under Clint Myers; granted, his level of coaching success doesn't grow on trees, but a quick turnaround is definitely possible if you hire the right head coach. Perhaps the head coaches at 'Bama or Mizzou would be interested in being able to have the state of Texas as their recruiting back yard.
Sadly, the best high school players in Texas are leaving the state to play college softball. They aren't even going to A&M or Baylor. No team from the state of Texas hosting a regional this month is pretty telling.
Connie Clark isn't going to overtake OU's Patty Gasso as the best coach in the Big 12; so, the best we'll be shooting for with her at the helm is second-best in the conference. I sure hope those aren't our standards.
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