Keith broke this earlier this morning: Jonathan Morgan, a Pensky assistant has been elevated to head coach. The official dept. word is linked below. A couple of points on this:
-As our man POLY1967 pointed out, Morgan was probably Maryland's best chance at saving a stellar recruiting class brought in by Brian Pensky and rated by TopDrawerSoccer as the #5 class in the nation. No word yet on whether anyone has bolted, but the word was out that most of them were waiting to see who got the job in any case. The next week is going to be very important in this regard.
-Morgan has been involved in every aspect of the operation since he joined the staff five years ago. His background in youth soccer in the region goes back a very long way -- absolutely essential to the continued building of the program, and not just in terms of recruiting; this is also about the Maryland program reaching out to the community; Jonathan will make it happen.
-Although he has never been a head coach in D1, let's be very honest here: how much $$$ does Maryland have to aford somebody with that background? Plus, Brian Pensky was never a head coach either before he got the Maryland job. Morgan's background is remarkably similar to Pensky's in the sense that he has been deeply involved in regional youth soccer and has been an assistant coach at more than one very good Div. 1 school: Ohio State and Rutgers both have long traditions in this sport.
My conclusion is that Maryland has gotten lucky here. We had a guy in the house who already has the support of the athletes, has paid his dues, and they didn't have to break the bank to get him -- the bank is already broken anyway. Jonathan is a good man who has earned his shot -- probably is getting it sooner than he or the rest of us thought, but it says here we are lucky to have him.
This post was edited on 2/10 1:33 PM by Fekula
-As our man POLY1967 pointed out, Morgan was probably Maryland's best chance at saving a stellar recruiting class brought in by Brian Pensky and rated by TopDrawerSoccer as the #5 class in the nation. No word yet on whether anyone has bolted, but the word was out that most of them were waiting to see who got the job in any case. The next week is going to be very important in this regard.
-Morgan has been involved in every aspect of the operation since he joined the staff five years ago. His background in youth soccer in the region goes back a very long way -- absolutely essential to the continued building of the program, and not just in terms of recruiting; this is also about the Maryland program reaching out to the community; Jonathan will make it happen.
-Although he has never been a head coach in D1, let's be very honest here: how much $$$ does Maryland have to aford somebody with that background? Plus, Brian Pensky was never a head coach either before he got the Maryland job. Morgan's background is remarkably similar to Pensky's in the sense that he has been deeply involved in regional youth soccer and has been an assistant coach at more than one very good Div. 1 school: Ohio State and Rutgers both have long traditions in this sport.
My conclusion is that Maryland has gotten lucky here. We had a guy in the house who already has the support of the athletes, has paid his dues, and they didn't have to break the bank to get him -- the bank is already broken anyway. Jonathan is a good man who has earned his shot -- probably is getting it sooner than he or the rest of us thought, but it says here we are lucky to have him.
This post was edited on 2/10 1:33 PM by Fekula
