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August wrote:Well, guess we don't have to worry about Steve O screwing up the coaching search. And we can stop holding our collective breath, too, until the new AD is in place. Always something...

Wow. This one sure came out of nowhere.

Of course, with our luck, Steve O was probably just about to hire "the one".

Long term, this obviously has to be seen as a positive for the program, but short term it is probably pretty bad. Unless they have somebody in mind I would think a search for a new AD would be at least on the 1-2 month scale which puts us dangerously close to the season. Plus, we don't even have an assistant coach in place.

I guess Meagan and Joe will have to handle all of the summer program and any recruiting activities?

I won't dare mention the elephant in the room potential interim solution for the summer because it is too horrible to even contemplate at this point...

Hopefully, a new AD will be in place quickly and he/she will have a top coach they can bring with them!

I think this is a blessing. I have it from a pretty good source that Orsini liked Petrucelli and that was certainly not the answer.

I had heard mixed reviews on Petrucelli. Some said he was great and some said he was awful (although I never heard anything in between, which is a little unusual).

You sound like you know a lot more than I do. Why do you think he was not the answer?

I don't know that I know any more than you about Petrucelli or women's college soccer. What I do know is that in any sport, if you can't get it done at Texas then you probably aren't going to get it done at SMU.

He was hot in the mid 90s winning a national championship at Notre Dame. He left to take the money at Texas and while he did very little with a lot in a decade at UT, the assistant that took over for him at Notre Dame won another national championship and has had sustained success. Sometimes hiring an assistant can be risky because you never know exactly how much of the program's success was attributed to them...I guess sometimes the same is true of a head coach with great assistants.

As others have said, he has not recruited the state of Texas well and as a general rule, every sport at UT should be in the Sweet 16 more often than not. He made it there 3 times in I think 14 years ('04, '06 & '07) and in that time only won the Big 12 twice. I'm not saying he's terrible, but I think that we should be able to make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament once every five years at SMU and it doesn't seem likely that with the lesser name and lesser resources, he would be able to improve on what he did at Texas (and trust me I hate UT and I only mean "lesser name" as in "lesser in most recruits' eyes"...the lesser resources is just a painful fact).

he left to take the money at Texas and while he did very little with a lot in a decade at UT, the assistant that took over for him at Notre Dame won another national championship and has had sustained success.

Randy Waldrum took over at Notre Dame, he was not the assistant. He went from Tulsa, to Baylor, then to Notre Dame.

Petrucelli would not be a good hire. Not much of a personality

Randy Waldrum took over at Notre Dame, he was not the assistant. He went from Tulsa, to Baylor, then to Notre Dame.

My mistake...but the point remains the same. Can't get it done at Texas, aren't going to get it done at SMU.

RealSMUfan wrote:

he left to take the money at Texas and while he did very little with a lot in a decade at UT, the assistant that took over for him at Notre Dame won another national championship and has had sustained success.

Randy Waldrum took over at Notre Dame, he was not the assistant. He went from Tulsa, to Baylor, then to Notre Dame.

Petrucelli would not be a good hire. Not much of a personality

Three of the schools I hate more than almost any others.
Hope he recovers from living in those landfills.

One the one hand I'm glad my intel was good, on the other I think we just overpaid for mediocrity

How much did we pay? To me, that's like being the owner of a fantasy team: if we're spending money that's not mine, I don't really care, as long as he can coach. To me it looks like Petro has a really good track record, and I'm eager to see what he can do with our team.

PonyLurker wrote:One the one hand I'm glad my intel was good, on the other I think we just overpaid for mediocrity

Honestly, how could SMU have done any better in late May?

Of course it would have been great to get Waldrum, and if Steve O would have made the Erwin move in Feb/Mar we very well might have, but he didn't and we didn't.

I have not heard a single bad word about Petrucelli and the response nationally on message boards, etc. has been overwhelmingly positive.

The two criticisms you see from fans are "he couldn't win at Texas" and "he can't recruit Texas".

Well, I try to pay as little attention to that orange hellhole three hours south of here as possible - but none of their team sports are anywhere near where they should be right now. It's just screwed up in Austin right now and honestly I hope it stays that way - for a long time.

I took a look through their roster and it sure looks like he can recruit Texas to me.

Of course we probably paid a reasonable amount to get him (national coaches of the year with national championships on their resume don't just grow on trees), but I take that as a MAJOR positive to know the athletic department is 100% behind women's soccer at SMU. Just think of the message that would have been sent to the Big East and nationally if we saved a few bucks and hired some up and coming assistant or a head coach from a small program. We certainly weren't going to get a head coach from any top program at this point in the calendar.

Thank you SMU - and best wishes on The Hilltop, Coach Petrucelli!

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:Honestly, how could SMU have done any better in late May?

Of course it would have been great to get Waldrum, and if Steve O would have made the Erwin move in Feb/Mar we very well might have, but he didn't and we didn't.

Dan, I agree with everything you said except the above. We wouldn't have done better regardless of when the change happened. Coach Petrucelli is a well respected coach and SMU is lucky to have him. Some on here want to complain that we hired him even though he didn’t meet expectations at Texas, however they fail to mention that overall he is one of the most successful coaches in Div 1 soccer.

As for Waldrum I don’t know if he applied or not, but Texas and TCU reportedly passed him because he insisted on bringing his son with him as his assistant (the one he had to fire at Notre Dame because of egregious behavior.) Waldrum- great. Package deal- no thanks.