Since 20-year University of Florida head swimming & diving coach Gregg Troy announced his retirement from collegiate coaching in late April, a cacophony of rumors have grown that the program would be split, with one head men’s coach and one head women’s coach. Most people we spoke to believed that those selections had already been made – explaining the predisposed notion that Troy would be allowed to remain on deck to coach his pro group.
A lot of that was turned on its head late last week when the University Athletic Association (the corporate name for Florida’s athletics department) posted a job listing on the NCAA Market Place and their own website seeking “a head coach.”
At the risk of reading too far into a single posting, the late timing of May 4th, 10 days after Troy’s departure was announced, and the listing for “a Head Coach for University of Florida’s Swimming program” could both be read together to mean that there was a plan in place, and that plan changed. Or, the rumors could have been wrong altogether, but the 10-day gap before posting the job seems ominous when many of the country’s top candidates are already taking other jobs.
Sources close to the program tell us that Florida is “keeping its options open” in terms of splitting the programs or not, depending on the candidates that apply for the job.
The posting closes on May 18th, meaning that we’re at least two weeks away from learning who will take over this generational-type position. The posting requires a coach to have at least 2 years of experience at the collegiate level, and prefers a Master’s degree and “successful experience coaching elite athletes in a highly competitive swim program.”
Frank Busch was all wired to go, but negotiations fell flat when he was told he could not bring his entire family to coach.
Who are SwimSwam’s guesses for this job?
Is there some Sharia thing going on with the women ? Not allowed in the lane or something – how does a program get away with such disparity in outcome?
Augie Busch……
Could we get a Busch father-son head coaching duo?? UF would be unstoppable for years…
I wouldn’t be surprised if there are budgetary factors at play. Swimming programs don’t generate enough revenue to pay for themselves, so it seems logical that schools are being more careful with coaching staff costs. Having a head coach for each of the men’s and women’s programs would probably require a bigger budget.
There is sooo much money in SEC and especially at UF!
The UF program has many endowed scholarships thanks to the many supporters of Gator Swimming and Diving…not an issue.
I think that quite a bit of the scholarships are paid from the UAA and not the state.
I think the entire athletic budget is paid by UAA. Nothing comes from University or State!
Could be a number of reasons why they haven’t announced anyone yet but I doubt any of them are money. Florida’s pockets are as deep as anywhere in the country.
I love how all the comments are about Dean Farris and completely unrelated to the article.
As is tradition
SAVE FARRIS!!
Braden,
Most likely a hire within for this one?
That was what we were hearing for a couple of weeks. But, the ‘tune of that orchestra,’ so to speak, seems to have changed dramatically over the last few days.
It’s probably just a formality. Many companies post a position up to give the illusion of it being open to all interested candidates even though they’ve really already selected their ideal person and just haven’t announced their selection yet.
As a public university I believe they are required to “post” the position.
I’m sure they don’t have their guy yet.
They might. It just might not be who everyone expected
who does everyone expect?
They probably have to post it, since they get public money.