Northwestern head swimming & diving coach Katie Robinson took the associate head coaching gig at Stanford last week, which opens up yet another big Power 5 position this summer. Initial returns indicated that this would be a relatively-calm trip around the carousel, but it has turned into kind of a wild ride.
We’ve run through all of the ‘usual suspects’ in so many articles, so for the Northwestern gig, we’ll focus in on three possible hires that don’t feel that wild.
The focus is heavily on people with Big Ten experience. The ‘it thing’ to do in the Power 5 lately seems to be to hire head coaches with experience in a conference, and so that will guide a lot of the speculation below.
In no particular order:
1. Kristy King, Associate Head Coach, Wisconsin
Wisconsin is where Northwestern wants to be. A few NCAA Champions, rising in the conference, making lots of noise at nationals, and King is credited with a big chunk of that, especially on the women’s side, where most of the national success has been.
Big Ten experience and overlapping recruiting circles with “Chicago’s Big Ten school” makes her attractive. Northwestern has also done well with “female head coach of a combined program” as a differentiator, so the administration might want to keep that rolling.
There was a lot of speculation that King was heading to Stanford. There are still lots of rumors circulating that King has definitely found another job (it’s not clear where), and Wisconsin posted an opening for an assistant two weeks ago (which is kind of when Robinson was pretty sure she was leaving Northwestern). With teams able to expand coaching staffs, postings for assistants doesn’t mean what it used to, but there’s some smoke here.
She’s a Green Bay native, went to school at Wisconsin, and has coached at Michigan, Iowa, and George Mason. She’s got deep Big Ten and midwestern roots, and if she wants a head coaching job close to home, this might be an opportunity too good to pass up for her.
King and Northwestern seems like the serendipitous pairing here.
2. Dr. Josh White, Associate Head Coach, University of Michigan (for now?)
When Dr. Josh White didn’t get the head coaching job at Michigan (Matt Bowe did), it was clear that it was time for him to move on, if he ever wants to become a head coach. I’m sure Matt Bowe would love to keep on such a qualified distance coach, but White should be looking at all available jobs (including Bowe’s old job at Cal).
But what about Northwestern? His reputation in the conference is solid, he’s got tons of experience at a high level of coaching, and Northwestern has taken a lot of chances in hiring before. The Wildcats have a lot of good pieces and some great recruiting classes coming in, so a White hire could capture some of that momentum before it escapes back into the marketplace because of familiarity.
3. Byron Tansel, Associate Head Coach, Louisville
The widespread speculation is that Tansel will be joining his former Ohio State colleague Bowe at Michigan. But that was before this Northwestern job opened up.
Tansel has experience in the conference and was an associate head coach at a program, Louisville, that finished 4th at NCAAs last year on the women’s side and 13th on the men’s side. There he jumped into a similar spot, having to quickly fill in holes on a staff that had several coaches leave for bigger jobs last offseason, but still had plenty of talent and quality that it needed to capitalize on.
It feels like Tansel is coming back to the Big Ten one way or another, though.
What about J Agnew from Ball State?
J is not leaving Ball State
Two notes:
1. Northwestern= NU
2. “Northwestern has also done well with a ‘female head coach of a combined program’ as a differentiator, so the administration might want to keep that rolling.”
Katie has done an amazing job at NU (she is awesome!) but this statement is bothersome. It shouldn’t be so rare to have a female head coach of a combined program and I hope we get to a place where we don’t talk about it as such a unique idea that “the administration might want to keep rolling.” We can do this- it’s good for everyone!
Bret Lundgaard—same profile school and has had some really good success so far. Head coach with SEC assistant coach experience.
Is Northwestern really a significant step up from Princeton? I mean, yes power 5, but Ivy’s get great recruits and send kids to NCAAs. Plus you’ll be in the mix to win a conference championship every year.
NU would be an opportunity to coach combined vs women only at Princeton. Guess it just depends on what you want.
Ex-Ray Looze swimmer and current WSU Women’s coach Matt Leach. Guy is doing a lot with not much up in Pullman. Bring him back to the Midwest and NW will thrive!
Seems like WSU has been improving for sure. I’d give him a real hard look over White. Josh is a fine coach but doesn’t seem like the personality to be a great recruiter. If Matt can sell WSU, Northwestern has to be an easier product.
Matt Leach can sell a red popsicle to a lady wearing white gloves
No chance Ignacio goes back?
No
Not so fast my friend. Nacho would be a great pick up for NW. No real reason he wouldn’t be interested/a candidate.
A good name that I probably should have thought of.
I think the other three people on this list are probably slightly above him in that pecking order from an outside observer perspective, but if he developed a good relationship with Northwestern admin during his time there, that could make him an attractive candidate.
I think Dave Peddie would be a good fit for the job. Gotta go with the absolute out of nowhere wild card to keep take the Big Ten by storm
Nacho gayo
Tansel is going to Michigan…delete #3…
any update here?