Nico Perrino

Men’s Soccer

By now this isn’t really news, as most of you who follow collegiate soccer probably already know, but last month Indiana University decided to not renew the contract of long-time Indiana player and coach Mike Freitag.
 
In 2004 Freitag was hired as the replacement of Hoosier coaching legend, Jerry Yeagley, who won six national championships before retiring in 2003. In his first year as head coach Freitag won the NCAA National Championship, but since then hasn’t been able to live up to the high expectations for success surrounding college’s most successful soccer program.
 
During his tenure as head coach at IU Freitag went 86-32-19, advanced to the NCAA tournament every year and won a slew of Big Ten championships in addition to his single NCAA championship 2004. While Freitag’s record may be cause for a contract extension and pay raise at any other school in the country, at Indiana success is measured by college cup appearance not NCAA tournament appearances, and for the administration one college cup appearance in six years was not enough.
 
And losing 10 games for the first time in a single season didn’t help either.
 
“The record, that was only part of it,” athletic director, Fred Glass, said after it was announced that Freitag’s contract would not be renewed. “If I had thought the program was going in the right direction the record wouldn’t have mattered. But, ultimately, I could not come to that conclusion.”
 
The parting was not smooth.
 
In a tearful goodbye Freitag expressed his disappointment with the way the administration handled the situation, describing it as “unprofessional” and insisted that the student-athletes he coached, “receive an apology for the manner in which [the] transition unfolded.”
 
“I would like to go on record that I do not agree with my dismissal or that of my assistants,” said Freitag in his prepared statement. “I am especially disturbed with the manner in which the evaluation of my program went down. The timing was truly unprofessional.”
 
Although Freitag had harsh words for the administration following his release, he still expressed interest in helping the university assemble a new coaching staff, which demonstrated his tremendous commitment to the program.
 
While it wasn’t immediately clear who the administration was looking at to take over as head coach, it was assumed that IU would try to hire a coach who has a history at IU.
 
With that being said, two coaches were prominent in conversations; Caleb Porter and Todd Yeagley. Porter, who coached at IU from 2000-2006, is now the coach at Akron and during the talks was in the midst of a tournament run that ended with the team winning the College Cup. It was unsure as to whether or not Porter would be interested in leaving a good situation at Akron –where he returns most of his starters next year- for his alma mater, but in the end it didn’t matter.
 
Todd Yeagley, former player and assistant coach at IU, and the son of a legend, was hired on December 18th to replace Freitag.
 
Selected as one of three finalists for the job, it was decided that Yeagley was the most fitting candidate for the job.
 
“All three candidates were outstanding,” said Glass after the hiring was announced. “Each of them would have been an exceptional head coach at Indiana. In the final analysis, Todd emerged as the preferred candidate among excellent candidates.
 
Yeagley, who was once named national player of year while at Indiana, comes to IU after a one-year stint as head coach at Wisconsin. While at Wisconsin Yeagley took a very sub-par team, who won only one game in 2008, and put them amongst the elite in the conference, finishing 4th overall; an incredible improvement over where they finished the year before: Last place.
 
Yeagley will receive the same base pay, according the IUhoosiers.com, as Freitag: $96,635.
 
Mike Freitag has yet to find a new job, and he has remained pretty quiet since the hiring of his former assistant coach.  It is also unsure as to whether he had any influence in the administrations decision.
 
 
Personal Analysis: The hiring of Yeagley was a great move. Although Porter would have also been a great head coach for IU, he chanced upon gold at Akron when a group of elite players –who wanted to stick together in college- decided to all go to there to play.
 
I like the fact that the administration kept the hiring close, and picked up a coach who is familiar and very close with the IU tradition. Yeagley was a great player at IU and in the MLS, and he was also in the works of doing great things at Wisconsin when the IU job became available.
 
Freitag needed to go. His love of IU and the soccer program should be commended, but he wasn’t able to carry on the tradition that Yeagley started. He won the 2004 national championship with Yeagley’s players, and was responsible for the first class of Hoosiers to go four years without making it to the college cup, which says a lot about not only Freitag but about the bar which was set by Yeagley before he retired. In addition, I know from talking with some players that Freitag was not the best coach and that many who played under him thought he should go.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens during spring ball and during the season next year. It will be the first time in seven years that a Yeagley will be strolling the Indiana sidelines as head coach, and if he has anywhere near the same success as the last one, you can start looking at little Ben Yeagley (9) to take over for his father once he retires too.

Nepotism aint’ so bad, is it?