this year and and have been successful. Still I question whether the coaches being the only Big 10 coaches to make the final 16 this year will decide to move 90 miles Southeast. Maybe if they both want Head Coach salaries it might be good to see if we could get one of them and let the other handle Northwestern themselves (like the Stoops brothers eventually got multiple jobs), but since they have been together at NW for 20 years so they may be difficult to split up & it's not clear that would be as successful if they did split.

To me NW is a much easier job to win when all of its conference schools in the Big 10 have similar weather. Really their only competition is Michigan. In the ACC with Duke and Clemson new programs now strong, you now must compete against the Carolina schools with their weather as well as perennial power FSU. Your post about A&M though tells me that both the CLemson & Duke coaches will be targets by A&M just like Texas they paid a ridiculous salary to get the Oregon coach than even Phil Knight money couldn't match. I doubt Duke or CLemson would break the bank to keep their softball coaches.

Hope you are right about your uninformed 60% chance Gumpf is replaced because I do think ND should be a power at least to the level of Northwestern and Michigan and especially better than schools like Oregon State and Virgina Tech that made it to the Supers this year when Gumpf has never made it. I live in Corvallis and I am amazed the Beavs beat Tennessee in Knoxville to move on.

unless ND gets the "Bob" of the sisters in the process

this is all very much off topic (and, if unclear, am not a Mike Stoops fan):

do not think Mark Stoops (who is having success at UK) ever worked for Bob, though he did work for brother Mike at Arizona

Mike Stoops was hired away from Oklahoma/Bob by Arizona, came back to OU after being fired by Arizona, chasing away a co-defensive coordinator who went on to be an incredibly successful coordinator at Clemson and is now OU head coach

Mike was one of Nick Saban's analysts after being fired by Lincoln Riley at OU, but other than that don't think he has worked for anyone other than his brothers, Riley (briefly) and Bill Snyder at Kansas State

softball coach or are we doomed to wallow in mediocrity?

Someone in the athletic department has got to finally realize the current state of the softball program cannot continue.

This is not unlike the state of the baseball program under Aoki. Sure, the softball team has been making the tournament. Making the tournament should not be the definition of a successful program. Set low expectations and you are always successful.

is the mission statement of Notre Dame's athletic department.

Never was it more apparent than the football program under Swarbrick, but it's endemic throughout Notre Dame's athletic department.

But for "It was unremarkable" Swarbrick's tombstone ought to read, "Set low expectations and you are always successful."

Another contender, but the original Mayor Daley has first claim upon it -- "If a man can't put his arms around his (children) and help them, then what's the world coming to?"

I compare ND under Swabrick to another athletic department I used to be familiar with (University of Florida under Jeremy Foley) and the difference is night and day. Foley's commitment to being excellent at absolutely everything UF did could not have been clearer. Two anecdotes:

1. A former colleague of my wife was hired to start a new program under Foley. He told her in their first meeting that she had X years to compete for a conference title and Y years to compete for a national title or she was out.

2. Foley forced UF's men's tennis coach to resign despite the team making the Sweet 16 ten of the coach's eleven years. In announcing the resignation and search for a replacement, Foley stated that his vision for the program was to compete for the national championship and that he would find someone who could. (Footnote: the replacement he hired won Florida their first ever national championship in men's tennis in 2021).

Does Swarbrick even have a vision for what he expects his programs to achieve? If so, there's no evidence that it's anything meaningful or that he holds anyone accountable for failing to achieve that vision.