Hey everyone.... I don't post on here very often but if you use the women's swim team as a model of what exactly the men's team should be doing....then you have to get the head coach hire correctly. Jay Holmes is the nicest guy in the world and does a great job with what he has had to work with. I swam with him for 4 years there. He is very organized and an extremely hard worker. He just really isn't a true blaze the trail head coach. He is the stable one the rock solid guy...but recruiting wise most likely won't bring in the big names. I said the same thing about Klenicke (spelling?) womens head coach of tennis just had moderate success in all the years here...then they hire Joffe and look where he has taken them (I don't like all the foreign players...thats another topic) Steve Bultman has done it the right way get a few good recruits in early years develope all the others around them...have some success, see the progress and continue to build the team...it becomes contagious. Now he can go after almost anyone he wants...and get a few gems like Breeja that turn out to be true studs. Just need a Head coach that can turn heads when he walks into the living room of a recruit....to land the big ones. This team was nearly top 10 for 5 or 6 years before the coach change....and have slowly slipped to the barely top 25 status....by the way....don't know Mr. Boyd never met him....but I feel that for what ever reason he is gone(where did he go?) this team is better with out him...just my gut reaction.

Kordell - you are courageous for posting what you did. I think there are a few here who think what you posted is blasphemous.

In a few years I will probably lose my connections to age group and college swimming and diving as my kids, their friends, and relatives in the sport grow older. And of course I have been following the S&D teams for many years now.

I'll just say that I think A&M needs to do something different in the mens program if they want to be a worthy of the top half of the SEC. We have gotten faster just about every year in the post-Nash era. Huge improvements in some areas, especially 200 free. Guys like Balasz and Dalton have been amazing. But we don't have enough of them at one time to push us into a near-top 10 NCAA team. And I think that our primary problem is that we can't convince enough elite kids, especially American, to come to A&M. I don't want to hear that a) we are trying, or b) that Eddie takes them all. I don't care about a) and I don't think b) is true.

There are zero reasons Missouri should be better than us. SMU shouldn't be close. No one should choose Baton Rouge over College Station.

Maybe, just maybe, Mallum can make something happen from an assistant position.

Spicewood
It is correct that some might resent what I said here but for someone like you who knows swimming in and out....I think you know I said some things that are factors for where we are today in the mens program. Sometime the truth hurts but you have to visit and evaluate every so often in life..chemistry is everything in programs and maybe this new associate head is the answer. I'm not sure who you are or if we have even met....but email me @ kreid@marionkay.com and we can chat some more there if you like....have a great day

The new assistant seems like a solid hire and a great developer. Give him a good year before we go setting expectations aflame.