I would rather take a Super Regional berth. Beating Michigan twice and losing to an average Kentucky team by a combined score of 18-0 is nothing to celebrate.

exceptions to the rule that the south and west dominate college softball. It's a fair argument to make that softball doesn't provide significant financial benefits for individuals beyond college or at least I don't think it does. Because of that, an education with potential for financial gain would seem to be more important. Thus, you could make the argument that ND should be able to get better results from a recruiting standpoint similar to how Muffet built the women's basketball program. Therein lies the challenge in that basketball is an indoor sport where it doesn't really matter if it is snowing outside. When you put it all together, I think our historical results have been pretty good considering all factors. Is pretty good enough? Different people have different opinions but you obviously have been riding this horse for a while which makes me wonder a bit about motives.

At this point, I'm not even dreaming about getting to the WCWS. Let's talk about getting to a Super Regional. Over the past 17 years, how many different schools have been to a SR? This is definitely not only about the results in 2018. If you think we need to give a coach more time (such as is suggested with Brey), how many years are we talking? 20 years? 25? 30? We were demolished in two games by the alleged 16th best team in Kentucky, and I don't see anything ever changing.

Who is better? Gumpf 17 years, every year making NCAA and winning records but never won a super regjonals. Overall record 731-310. 70,2% winning %. Ended 2nd to FSU in the Atlantic in the ACC tournament and made the NCAAs. Beat Michigan twice in the NCAA's who were Big 10 regular season champs. Lost to SEC team on their field twice.

Northwestern Coach, Katy Drohan, 17 years 570-345 62,3% winning %. Made NCAA's 12 of 17 years. Made CWS twice and won 4 regionals but missed 5 NCAA tournaments including 2016/17 with losing records (27-28 & 25-29). Was tied for 4th in Big 1o conference. For 2018 made NCAA's, Beat California twice but lost to SEC team on their field twice.

I think Deanna is better, even though they have fllen short. Northwestern to me is inferior the last 17 years.

She develops players and has coached on the big stage. Did her team get run ruled twice this weekend? She would be a great hire.

EDIT: The job she has done at Northwestern is truly remarkable. Northwestern is a much tougher place to recruit to than Notre Dame.

I would rather have Northwestern's record and make 2 WCWS. Whether you make the tournament 17 of 17, or 12 of 17 years doesn't matter to me. What matters is how far you go. Translate it to other sports - the NY Giants won 2 Super Bowls since 2007, but in no other season won a playoff game. And last year they were outright awful. Do you think they would trade their 2 SB wins in exchange for making the playoffs each year and winning one playoff game each year and never advancing to the SB? You are entitled to your opinion, but we obviously have different ideas on what constitutes success.

he does in baseball where a change is required. As for softball last 5 years have clearly been better for ND (194-87) with Northwestern (143-117) making only two NCAA tourney/no SRs in 5 years. NW's CWS/SR run was 12 years ago when the SEC wasn't so dominant (only 6 teams made it in 2006 vs 13 in 2018) and the Big 10 was a strong softball conference. The dynamics have changed and ND is currently clearly better than NW. Also Northwestern never won it all like the Giants, they just fell short later than ND back then and now are getting less chances toeven compete in the NCAAs than ND.

Edited to add more facts and historical perspective

is the only ACC school that keeps winning joining World Series Host state school Oklahoma as the only non SEC/PAC 12 schools moving on. The Big 10 despite having 5 schools make the NCAAs didn't make a super regional again, for the 2nd straight year. Michigan the last Big10 school to make it past the first round was knocked out by ND.

The strong conferences keep getting stronger in softball as all 13 SEC schools competing in softball made it to the tourney and the 7 of the 9 PAC12 softball teams made it. The other two Utah made it last year to the super regionals and Stanford, who could up their game if they wanted to with better educational advantages than ND in the other softball power conference. As we go to the super regional rounds 4 of the 8 hosting schools are from the PAC12. It's really all about the SEC and PAC12 when it comes to softball.

NCAA tourney records by conference

............... wins...loss....%...TEAMS Conf Tot % conf
PAC12.....19....5......79.2%.....7......9...............77.8%
SEC.........35....10....77.8%....13.....13...........100.0%
ACC........5......2......71.4%......2......13.............15.4%
B12.........7......6.......53.8%.....4......7...............57.1%
B10......... 8.....10.....44.4%.....5......14.............35.7%

So the ACC iis the only other conference with a +70% record this tournament but mostly because it only had two teams. Of course ND still can't get to the next level, but ND is the second best ACC school with 20 straight NCAA appearances....no other ACC school even made it this year. The conference has a long hill to climb to compete with the SEC and PAC12. That's makes it even harder for ND to succeed in SB.

Notre Dame has never been to a super regional much less the College World Series. They just got run freaking ruled twice by Kentucky. There is only one constant for the last 17 years. When is enough, enough? Nothing close to excellence will happen under this coaching staff. The demographics of softball players would appear to be in Notre Dame's wheelhouse but the current staff has failed to exploit this fact. In my opinion the softball program is in the same position that the volleyball program was under Brown. I have no hidden motive. I only desire the pursuit of excellence.

As I mentioned below if Notre Dame has conceded it cannot pursue excellence in baseball and softball because they are played outdoors, then stop the charade, shut them down and add women's hockey.

They don't have to practice indoors for several months if at all. They don't have to play half their schedule in weekend tournaments on the west coast or the south. They don't have to play their first several home games in 30 degree temps. Climate may not be the significant reason that ND's program can't reach the elite class but it is a contributing factor.

making the NCAA's every year? The education challenges have their advantages and disadvantages. We also have the Northern school disadvantage.

But let's say you got your way. I think the best comparison points to make to evaluate a change would be Duke and Stanford who are both worse than ND right now. This season, Duke had their first year in softball after hiring a UM 03 grad in 2015. They were 29-27 and didn't make the NCAA's. They were competitive against ND and will give us a run in the future as we are in the same conference. If Deanna can't stay ahead of them your argument may make sense. Stanford has a 2nd year coach and I give them a better chance to get to "excellence" since they are in Power Softball conference. Their current coach is a Stanford alum who was in the CWS in the early 2000's This year Stanford finished the season with a 24-31 overall record and a 3-21 mark in the Pac-12 which Stanford is celebrating since it was the most conference wins for the Cardinal since 2014.

Maybe you have other ideas but I don't see any that makes ND better in Softball than where they are now. If Duke and Stanford start doing better than us than you probably were right, although hiring those coaches would be a lot easier than replacing Gumpf now. I want us to get to the next level but I think our chances are better with Deanna (just like we were sticking with Brey) than riding a new horse. We will see.

get. The pitcher Holloway was rated by some as the best high school player last year and she gave up only 2 earned runs to Michigan which has dominated northern softball. Just like we need southern players to have a shot in football, you need them to have a shot in softball.