has been at ND?
These numbers from the Michigan Softball Wiki page, 2002 thru 2022.
Jack fired women's lacrosse and volleyball coaches, and now look at both programs.
No program does less with more than ND women's lacrosse. Top 10 or higher recruiting classes every year with little to show.
Volleyball is on its third coach after Brown was let go.
I'm not saying a change at softball isn't warranted but Swarbrick isn't the person to make the new hire.
...for as long as he remains behind the wheel of the clown car, I would rather risk having a program hit rock bottom as a result of a coaching change he made than allow it to continue limping along in a state of utter mediocrity. Persistent underperformance just can't be tolerated. Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut. And if not and yet another ND program goes into freefall, so be it. Maybe that will convince ND's leadership to finally put him out to pasture.
But do you think that maybe there's a problem throughout the athletic department when this exact same "conversation," pretty much verbatim, has been occurring surrounding the Notre Dame football and men's basketball programs for much of the past two decades?
W soccer, Tennis, Swimming and Diving, Track & Field (except for a few distance runners), Golf - seems to be improving but missed NCAAs,
etc.
Hockey's Jeff Jackson has done a pretty good job, but hasn't gotten the National Championship he was hoped to bring (2 at Lake St.) and now he may be nearing retirement.
Men's lax got royally screwed this year, but has not won a championship under Corrigan and he isn't a spring chick.
Women's Lax seems a mirror image of softball - decent teams but underperforming
Volleyball has had a mass exodus
My point, schools like Stanford compete for championships in all these sports - why not ND?
I don't want to hear about weather
I don't want to hear about academics
I don't want to hear about $$$$$$
The answer starts at the top - if mediocre is all you strive for, that's what you get. I don't see anything changing until "the top" changes
I guess Fencing should get major acclimation for being the one sport Notre Dame excels (2 years ago I would have added Women's Basketball, but they are having their own issues now)
He doesn't pay much attention or care unless he can groundhog his face on the TV behind a winning coach, or being asked a soundbite about conferences or football. He doesn't care.
He's let long-tenured coaches far more accomplished than Gumpf hang around well past the point when it was time to make a move. No commitment to excellence, particularly in non-marquee sports.