And is the coach at risk of losing his/her job. Granted, I know little about women's VB, but I don't ever remember us being this bad.

It's hard to be sure, because the BIG EAST was basically a mid-major in volleyball, and the ACC is (I think) a clear step up, but they were losing out-of-conference matches against mediocre teams.

ND should be able to attract top talent for VB, but year in and out they cannot make it through the NCAAs. I have no idea what sort of catastrophic event it would take to find a new coach for the team.

But the volleyball situation underscores just how outrageous it was that Swarbrick fired Tracey Coyne from Women's LaCrosse.

Coyne had been to the final four, won the Big East championship -- which is actually a big accomplishment unlike volleyball -- was a consistent top 10, top 15 team, yet was fired for not being Northwestern, which is like Penn State in volleyball.

Debbie Brown has never come close to the success Coyne had but Brown keeps her job because her husband works under the dome.

Debbie Brown certainly doesn't deserve her job. But I'd be willing to venture that Swarbrick might not have complete autonomy to make decisions on Brown's employment.

Regarding your other point, I think the market has spoken in terms' of Coyne's relative merit. It seems you are too personally vested in Coyne to make any objective opinions regarding Swarbrick or Coyne.

It is completely objective. Notre Dame had never fired an Olympic Sports coach before, and then Swarbrick fired one who had built a program from scratch and took it to the Final 4.

If Swarbrick doesn't have complete autonomy over Brown, he shouldn't have fired Coyne. That's not a good way to manage.

I'm reasonably sure ND has let non-FB and BB coaches go before.

He was canned a year before Coyne.

by all accounts other than yours, the women's lacrosse team was stagnating while the game itself was taking quantum leaps forward nationally. ND made a move in an attempt to upgrade the program before the train left the station. You didn't care for the hire--we all get that. You didn't care for the way that Coyne was dismissed--we get that too. That said, do you think it was a move out of spite by Swarbrick or was it an effort (however misplaced in your opinion) to upgrade a program to keep pace with other programs and a game that was growing logarithmically nationally? The problem with many of these jobs--coaching, AD etc.--is that you perform your job in front of 300 million folks many of whom have strong opinions on just how you did it wrong and how it could be done better.

I don't think Swarbrick is infallible but on balance I have no complaints about the way things have gone. Now, if Volleyball and Baseball continue in their current state and there is no change made we can revisit this.

if the women's lacrosse team making the NCAA tournament in five of Coyne's final seven seasons was "stagnating," how would you describe the volleyball program which will be at two NCAA appearances in the last eight seasons when this season is in the books?

If Melanzana's argument stopped at the Brown-Coyne comparison, I too might see some validity.

But in other posts he's disparaged Halfpenny as a horrible hire, and then again with Romagnolo. Neither has been a bad hire.

For whatever reason he's been on a crusade to clear Coyne's name and indict everyone else in the athletic department. On its face, I agree with him that Brown deserved to be fired over Coyne, but if you've followed Melanzanz at all, you'd know that isn't the gist of his rub.

Nobody would defend the volleyball program performance as of late. Is that the defense for not removing the lacrosse coach or otherwise evidence that Swarbrick did wrong?

As to the program stagnating-Lacrosse had a fraction of the teams playing 10 years ago when Coyne started that 5 in 7 year run that you reference in your post. Does anybody posting on this subject believe that she had the goods to take the team to a final four in the current environment with over 100 teams now playing women's lacrosse? I don't. By way of example the UF team was formed in 2010 and already has a more prominent history in the game than does Notre Dame despite the fact that ND had a big jump on the gators in when the program started, in recruiting in the east and mid Atlantic. This game is moving at light speed nationally (USC has team). Teams need to keep the pace or prepared to be passed by the new kids on the block. You can decide for yourself whether you think Coyne was or could keep the pace but there was a lot of evidence out there that she could not.

IMO Coyne's situation is not too dissimilar to Chris Petrocelli's who too got caught in a game that was growing faster than he could keep pace and with that he soon found himself over his head. Petrocelli won a title at ND in 1994 when there were few teams playing women's soccer and when he had a big jump on the field. He left for Texas in 1999 and after a decade plus of doing next to nothing in Austin he was canned. Petrocelli was the right guy at the right time at ND when the program was in its infancy and is a good guy by all accounts but nobody thinks he is a top flight coach and one that can succeed at the highest level in a game that now fields 300 plus division one teams. He is currently at SMU and his 2014 squad finished 7-14 against uneven (and I'm being charitable here) competition. In his case, Texas did the firing and it is questionable as to whether ND would have done the same had he stayed and started a similar run of mediocrity at ND but the parallels to this situation are there.

I read this page fairly consistently, but rarely post as I don't think I have much to add.

I'm generally aware that Melanzana has posted often about Coyne's treatment. My post was not to defend his position there, but to wonder why Swarbrick felt it proper to make that move while not addressing more promptly or effectively the volleyball program.

I think it's fair and appropriate to wonder whether teams and coaches throughout the program are being held to consistent standards. That doesn't necessarily mean "identically," whatever that would even mean. So I do appreciate your thoughts about the trajectory of the lacrosse program against the trajectory of the sport.

That provides useful information in attempting to evaluate the Coyne decision. It doesn't help much in trying to understand the Brown situation, especially given her earlier success at Notre Dame. Her long run of NCAA appearances preceding the current drought suggests a similar trajectory of Notre Dame's program being passed by.

I'm also mindful of the reality that D99 and others have pointed out. Given our stated claim of competing for championships in all sports, given the downward trajectory of that program and given the decision that Coyne's trajectory was unacceptable, somebody's got some explaining to do.

There are a lot of talented communications specialists in the world. The price for retaining one shouldn't be at the expense of compromising our obligation to our volleyball student-athletes.

There is a stronger case now for a change of direction in the VB program then there was for lacrosse 2-3 years ago. In that regard the order of events is surprising.

I do however take issue with a suggestion (and not saying you are suggesting this but others have hinted) that Coyne had the program poised for greatness as evidenced by her early success and final four appearance and that she just needed more time. She did do a good job bringing the program up to prominence from its inception but beyond that I think it was a program that was losing ground on the field at not an insignificant pace. The fact that no other olympic coach had been removed prior to that does not make the move an incorrect one. In the words of Jeremy Folley that which needs to be done eventually should be done immediately.

I don't think Swarbrick's move was incorrect even others think it may be been misguided and poorly handled and even if there were less deserving coaches that have been retained prior to and since then.