Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Jim: Well, Ed, we’re really in the home stretch of the college hockey season. And while generally, I’d start with PairWise or league standings to lead off this conversation, I feel like this year is a little unique and thus needs a different approach.
Of the 64 NCAA Division I men’s teams, four have already announced that they will be changing coaches at the end of this season. All four are coaching legends who are retiring – Mike Schafer at Cornell, Brian Riley at Army West Point, Jeff Jackson at Notre Dame and Bob Daniels at Ferris State.
The farewell tour for these coaches has been ongoing, but I’m sure Saturday night felt very real to Army’s Riley who coached his final game at Tate Rink. Most know the Riley story at Army, but for those who don’t, Saturday’s game marked the end of 75 seasons with a Riley behind the bench in West Point. It began with the patriarch of the family, Jack Riley, before his sons Rob and the Brian led the Black Knights team.
Army gave Riley the proper send off, too, as Vincent Salice scored the overtime game-winner over AIC for the victory.
This significant number of retiring coaches does make me think and reflect. Not just on how incredible each and every one of the careers was, but also on how the current landscape of the college hockey game might be forcing the hands of certain coaches.
The modern game factors in NIL and the transfer portal and could include roster limitations and other things that significantly impact the recruiting and retention of players. I’m sure a coach who has been at this for decades looks at the current game and happily cleanses himself of this landscape.
Listen, change happens. It’s part of life. And the coaches who are retiring this year have done plenty for this game. I just wonder if the modern game is forcing the hands of some of these coaches.
Ed: Coaching has changed quite a bit over the years, and at an accelerating rate. I think the four who are retiring all have adapted to the situation, but you ask a good question, especially if you’re a coach who isn’t a fan of the latest NIL and portal drama.
The first evolution we started to hear about from coaches in some of our podcasts and feature stories was the change in the players themselves from one generation to another. The days of telling a team what to do and just having them do it gave way to players wanting to know why they were being asked to do something. Players and coaches have developed different – I’d say better – relationships from what we hear, with coaches getting even more interested in the whole player and how every aspect of life is going for them. The advent of lots of video of individual players and shifts has also allowed more individual instruction. Players are also more attuned to nutrition and conditioning than ever before.
It’s not just about age, either. Accounts of former Boston College coach Jerry York using text messaging because that’s how his players communicated, or taking an interest in the music they liked to hear demonstrate that.
But it’s the more recent changes that make me wonder if it’s making the game less fun for coaches. I think back to a conversation we had on the USCHO Spotlight podcast in October with Rensselaer coach Dave Smith. We were talking about the transfer portal and its impact, and he said, “We build our team through draft picks and free agency.” That reflects head coaches having to take on what would be general manager roles in the pros, and assistants scouting players on other teams who might become available.
The number of coaching changes so far is not unusual, but coaches retiring and naming their successor a season before is new. Brock Sheahan will succeed Jackson at Notre Dame, Casey Jones follows Schafer at Cornell, and Zach McKelvie will be the first non-Riley since 1951 at West Point. All three are alumni of their respective programs.
Do you like this pattern of naming the next coach ahead of time?
Jim: That’s an interesting question, as I am from Boston and a lifelong New England Patriots fan. Honestly, I do like naming the successor to a long-time head coach as it allows the program some continuity (the Patriots, of course, told Jerrod Mayo and only him that he’d be taking over for Bill Belichick, a move I never liked). I think it is very helpful when you have a successful, long-term coach, something you can say for all four of these bench bosses who are retiring, to do whatever is possible to maintain continuity in the program they depart. That is something that has been accomplished here.
All that said, I think all four of these athletic departments should be ready for change. That is the single biggest opportunity that any program is handed when a long-term coach retires. Certainly, tradition plays a major role in many programs, but so too does fresh ideas and new approaches.
This weekend, we also watched the final regular-season games played by American International. The Yellow Jackets will drop their Division I hockey program at the end of this season despite winning four straight regular-season title and three postseason titles in Atlantic Hockey from 2019 through 2022. Few will forget the upset AIC pulled over top-overall seed St. Cloud State in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
You and I have spent decades around this great game, Ed. So maybe we’re getting a bit too nostalgic as we talk about the legendary coaches and teams of the past. There is, though, something deep inside me that is sad to see the change ever though I am aware that change is often good.
Ed: You and I have both watched the AIC program over the years, going back to when Gary Wright was the head coach, a position he held from 1984 to 2016 (and which he wrote about in his book Striding Rough Ice: Coaching College Hockey and Growing Up in The Game). It’s sad to see this come to an end and for the Yellow Jackets to join other D-I men’s teams that have gone defunct.
A college hockey fan commented to me that Eric Lang has never gotten the recognition he deserves at AIC. That’s certainly a matter of opinion, but I think that USCHO and other college hockey publications have made the accomplishments of Lang and his program well known.
But even as things are coming to a close, Lang is making good on his promise to find new homes for his players, a task made even more difficult with the addition of Canadian major junior players to the mix. Lang has put together the College Hockey Portal Showcase for D-I, D-II, and D-III players on April 5 and 6 in Simsbury, Conn. Its social media sites are @portalshowcase on X and @hockeytransfershowcase on Instagram. The weekend is open to all players in the portal and will include games to showcase players for potential new programs.
I admire Lang’s dedication to his players and this innovative approach to finding places for players to land. And I think Lang himself will land somewhere where his skills in elevating a program will be used well.
As far as change in general, somewhere along the line I decided I didn’t want to be a curmudgeon who constantly points to the “good old days” and accommodate myself to things changing. I like to think of myself as an early adopter with technology.
There’s a lot to like in where college hockey is now. The skill level is incredible. The speed is crazy. The athleticism of goaltenders is amazing.
I realize there’s still a lot of hockey to be played this season, but this column and other stories and podcasts on USCHO have really been detailed on all that. Since you brought it up, what about change over the next five or 10 seasons? Are you willing to look into your crystal ball?
Jim: I think the number one thing I see coming in the coming decade or so will be further conference realignment.
What happened with the old WCHA, the Big Ten and the old and current CCHA is far from over. Though I don’t see the addition or subtraction of a bunch of programs.
What we are seeing on the larger scale of college sports – the Big 5 becoming the Big 4, the formation of an even larger separation between the haves and have nots – could impact every single college sport.
College hockey, with just 64 teams and that number shrinking, probably can’t afford to bifurcate into two groups of larger and smaller teams, but I think we will see more like minded (similar budgets, similar resources, similar academic stature) work together to align.
We have already learned from other college sports that conferences aren’t structured on geography as much as they once were. And I see that creeping into college hockey. Do you?
Ed: I agree about league realignment. With the moratorium on new single-sport conferences in the NCAA coming to an end, there may be some pent-up effort to make something happen, and I’ve heard quiet rumblings from various directions about that.
When we talked with College Hockey Inc.’s Sean Hogan on another USCHO Spotlight episode, he suggested that smaller schools wanting a spot on the big stage could be good candidates for college hockey. While it’s nearly impossible for a new program to make a dent in football or basketball, small schools and new programs have made it to the NCAA tournament relatively quickly.
One change I expect to see is more college hockey players in the NHL. According to College Hockey Inc., 37% of NHL debuts in the past three years have been by former college hockey players. I expect that only to increase with the extending of eligibility to players in the CHL. We’ll see some underage blue-chip players make the move to college hockey to accelerate their development by playing against older talent and having more practice and strength-training time. And older, late-blooming players will have the opportunity to play in the NCAA and get free-agent looks that they might not have been ready for after aging out.
Finally, once all the dust settles with lawsuits and settlements, I expect the NCAA to look a bit different and for there to be more independence to make decisions within specific sports.
I know that all of us who share this column have sounded some doom and gloom at times recently. Some might call me a cockeyed optimist, but I’m going to stay bullish on college hockey and suggest that its best days are still ahead.
The Northland College Board of Trustees today voted unanimously to close the college at the end of the 2024–25 academic year.