Story: Adam Nelson (@HD_DirtKing)
In Friday’s 60 Second Update, I put the over/under on D1 openings for the weekend at 3, and that was the number – with Florida Gulf Coast, San Diego, and Omaha all opening. So…3 was a push for all of the bettors out there. Due to the many emails, texts, and DM’s, I will now make sure my O/U’s have a .5 so we can have winners!
But seriously…FGCU was definitely a bit of a surprise. Michael Fly led his team to a 21-win season, which is after averaging just 11.3 wins/season in the previous three seasons. This is also a trend that I’ve been talking about a lot this March – COVID isn’t saving jobs any more. This will be really apparent at the lower levels. Stay tuned.
Most people believe that Drake assistant Marty Richter will be involved at FGCU – before being hired at Drake in 2018, he was the head coach at Florida SouthWestern (56-10 in 2 seasons) He also spent 4 seasons as an assistant at FGCU (2011-15), and was part of the Eagles 2013 Sweet Sixteen run. Really, really early here though. Will also be interesting to see if AD Ken Kavanaugh wants to stay away from the Enfield/Dooley success, or find someone with ties to the glory days.
A few search firm updates…Collegiate Sports Associates is running the Lafayette search, TurnkeyZRG has UMass, and Parker has Milwaukee.
Speaking of UMass, obviously early there, but some names making the rounds are Carmen Maciariello (Head Coach – Siena), Mark Schmidt (Head Coach – St. Bonaventure), Bashir Mason (Head Coach – Wagner), and Jared Grasso (Head Coach – Bryant), and John Becker (Head Coach – Vermont). However, it is so early here, I expect more legit names to surface next week.
Word on the street is that a pretty good D1 JUCO out west has opened. Working to confirm that one now. Also, there have been a ton of JUCO’s & NAIA’s that have opened without official statements yet (those are all in the DIRT SECTION) – I have at least two more NAIA’s on the West Coast that will be added there shortly.
Today will be busy, and will get busier as the week goes on. O/U on D1 jobs opening today is 2.5, and O/U for the week is 15.5. If you missed it last week, I set the O/U on the D1 off-season changes at 58.5. The 2016-19 average is 53. 2020 was a COVID year with only 27, and 2021 was a but higher with 61. I think this year will be a bit higher than the 53 avg, but not quite what last year was. I will set by D2/D3/NAIA O/U later this week – expect high numbers there.
