Ohio Hires New Head Hockey Coach
Ohio has promoted current assistant coach Steve Rohlik to become the Head-Coach next season. Rohlik spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Minnesota Duluth (2001-10) before joining the Ohio coaching staff. Prior to UMD he was part of Nebraska-Omaha's coaching staff (1997-2000).
I personally am surprised they stayed in house for the new head coach. I thought moving to a new conference and after a disappointing season they would go outside the program.
http://www.uscho.com/2013/04/29/rohliks-long-road-to-a-head-coaching-po…
the Yost Arena crowd does with the name Rohliks.
Stupid Minnesota Duluth.
Stupid Minnesota Duluth
This will likely keep OSU at the bottom of the conference for many more years. They can troll it out at the bottom with MSU
I too am surprised they didn't go out of house. Years and years of mediocrity and now they're moving to the Big Ten. Perfect opportunity to get a big name with the added exposure from the BTN (Gwozdecky anyone?). Whatever, I'll be happy to continue to sweep them in Columbus whenever they finally feel like they're putting a good season together
With the extra 2 million dollars B1G hockey programs are going to get because of Big Ten Network, George Gwozdecky could have turned Ohio State hockey into a premier program right away.
Agreed Gwozdecky would have been a scary hire for Ohio. What he had done in Denver is nothing short of impressive. If he was hired in Ohio it would have given them the bump in Canadian recruiting that Denver had during his time there.
I actually think they still might've struggled with Gwoz. Until they get a decent arena, I feel like their program is going to be lifeless. They typically play in front of 1,000 fans in an arena that seats 17,500 for hockey. They would really benefit from just getting a 4,000 seat arena that isn't a cavernous tomb of emptiness
What comes first chicken or the egg? Do you get a new arena hoping to attract better players and better fan base, or do you try and get a quality product on the ice and hope people come out to see a top team?
I agree that trying to play at Value City Arena isn't ideal especially for non-traditional hockey market. Like you said 4,000-6,000 seats would be ideal. Even teams like Minnesota (10,000) and North Dakota (11,634) don't play in that sized arena.
I think we've seen how much improving facilities can help. Michigan's resurgence in basketball recruiting can partially be attributed to the new Crisler Center. I was just watching an Oregon baseball game where the announcers were praising the #7 Ducks because they had come out of nowhere in 5 years because their new stadium is as nice as most minor league parks.
I think 50 years of OSU hockey has shown they can't sustain much success and with all that BTN money they have plus normal revenue, they could probably(?) afford an arena. We've seen with PSU though how much ice hockey arenas can end up costing
April 29th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^
It would be how basketball games were six years ago.
The reason why he was brought up for the OSU job, was because he interviewed for the same job in 2010.
No way he would take a job at Michigan. George Gwozdecky was an assistant coach under Ron Mason in the 80's, he's a Spartan
So are there any potential candidates?
Is that why Pearson (and to a lesser extent Shields) went to MTU, to get head coaching experience so they could then interview for the HC job at UM when Red retires?
I think everyone pretty much assumes it's Pearson's job for the taking if he wants it. I have zero insider info, but I don't think he plans to end his career up in Houghton
Mel was the heir apparent, until DB came on and decreed that any future Michigan coaching hires will have head coaching experience.
within a few weeks, Mel went to Tech, IIRC
We're not in an 11 team conference anymore. When one of the six programs in the conference goes away from the big names, promoting an assistant from the previous failed regime, it's kind of a big deal.
is just not a priority. I have traveled down for quite a few games and when they play us it is the only time they have decent crowds. Most of the people there don't even know what they are watching, they just root for the red team to beat the blue team.
They have had quite a bit of talent in the past but have never seemed to be able to take it to the next level. I don't see it happening with this hire either....
April 29th, 2013 at 10:23 PM ^
It's the sugary underbelly to the more heated basketball and football rivalries. Throw in the BJs and you have a concoction of local athletic misery as vulnerable as any in Ohio.
how do BJs contribute to miser...OOOOooohhhhhhhhhhhhh