May 12, 2022
How It’s Going, How It Went
by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@CHN_AdamWodon)
The coaching search for the big three is over. Never before had there been openings at Boston University, Boston College and Michigan State — three heavy hitters in college hockey lore — at the same time. Only once before was BU and BC open at the same time, 1972, when legends Jack Kelley and Snooks Kelley both stepped down.
This time around, BC is definitely replacing a legend in Jerry York, but the other two schools are replacing alums who didn’t work out, after five and four years, respectively.
In all three cases, three alums were replaced with three other alums. All are first-time NCAA head coaches. A lot of the fireworks that were expected — or at least hoped for by some, just for the entertainment of it — didn’t come to pass. That doesn’t mean anything was done badly or wrong, necessarily.
Boston University
BU did well in hiring Jay Pandolfo, a distinguished alum. It’s his first head coaching position of any kind, and that’s always dicey, especially at such a prominent program. But it can work, as often as it doesn’t. By all accounts, Pandolfo did a tremendous job in the second half of BU’s season, after taking a more prominent role in leading the team, following a troublesome first half filled with “issues.”
Athletic director Drew Marrochello did his due dilligence in talking to some big names first. He and the school denied that former coach David Quinn or current Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings were actually offered the position, which is fine, I wouldn’t expect them to say anything different. But it’s really just semantics. An actual offer may not have been made, but there was some level of discussion with those guys that involved at least mentioning salary numbers and other perks, to gauge whether they could be enticed to take the job. The number $800,000 has been rumbling around the hockey community.
Honestly, I don’t know why BU would bristle at that, because it demonstrates it was doing due dilligence. I realize you don’t want to give the impression that Jay Pandolfo was your third choice, but so what. He had to know that anyway. Pandolfo was the only other serious candidate, and as someone who was already on staff, and without any head coaching experience of any kind, he was more than likely perfectly OK being…
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