Comments about ‘Utah Utes soccer: Utah product knocks out Utes’

Hey Utah Athletic Director,
When are you going to fire Rich Manning? Since he took over the program it has been going backwards every year. He is one of the worse recruiters in the state. Until you get rid of him the team will not succeed and go to tournament play again. I know of numerous great players that wanted to play for the U but Rich Manning wouldn't give them the time of day. Now these girls will play out of state just like Niki Fernandes did. Congratulations Niki! Keep up the good work.

Way to underachieve again Manning!
Despite having your "best player ever" in Islieb, and national pool players like Skeen, Turpin and Hair, you come out and loose to far inferior teams like Weber State, Utah State and New Mexico, AT HOME! Your idea of good soccer is having your center-mids dribble around in circles trying to "meg" people until they loose the ball. Then your defense gets to clean up the counter attacks. I feel sorry for your forwards who make countless runs and finally give up because of the dribble-fest in the midfield. The only assists your forwards got was from the other forwards. I don't think that you are capable of learning from your mistakes. Your team didn't "loose steam" after you scored your goal. You immediately put them into a defensive shell and made them defend non-stop for the last 35 minutes. I was almost laughing as I watched the SDSU keeper dribble almost to half line and send ball after ball into the box. Eventually, something bad is going to happen, and it did, Just like the end of the BYU game in October. Your players and fans deserve better.

I concur with the above posted comment. Utah Soccer could only do as well as they were coached. However, when the coaching is subpar and coaching decisions are subpar, unfortunatly below average performances is the result. I heard that experienced players including last years goalkeeper lost their starting positions because of last years results... interesting, this years stats are worse than last year, now that's great coaching. The Utah Soccer program will continue to lose great, local, talent unless coaching changes are made, but kudos to those out of state schools who will know just how good our local talent really is. I feel bad that the Utah Soccer season ended too early due to inconsistant, unfair, and recreational soccer syle coaching. Hopefully things will improve next season, those hard working girls deserve better. Keep your heads up girls, the fans don't blame you.

The real question should be, is why the U soccer program has the highest transfer rate in the mountain west conference. The NCAA puts out a APR (academic progress report) report each year and the U program is below the national average and is the lowest in the mountain west conference. This report translates when girls come to the U and play for Rich, they want out and transfer.

There is a lot of talent on the team but when you loose to Weber, Utah State, and BYU this year, its time for a change.

Manning put Utah on the map when the program was going nowhere. Yes the last couple years they have struggled to live up to the hype and maybe that is due to Kelly dependency but his has recruited some of the top players and if you dont think so it is because you are upset your daughter wasnt one of them. The transfer rate is due to sour grapes from some of the players that were known for club hopping before they ever reached high school. Why is it that Weber is getting all these transfers? They didnt even make the conference tournament. maybe they just want an easy academic atmosphere because they cant cut it at a real university.

Do the right thing for the current players: RESIGN

Despite how I feel about the coaching I think it is necessary to recognize what a great game SDSU played. This is the best SDSU team I have ever seen and they are on a roll. I bet they take out BYU tomorrow.

There's a lot to be said for a coach that his players respect, like and want to play hard for. Rich Manning isn't that coach. I've heard for years that nobody on the team likes him, even this starters! He is disrespectful, unapproachable and clearly doesn't know a thing about coaching. Several of the current starters have at one point tried to transfer! Something's wrong there, time for a change!!

Note to Rich Manning:
I hope that you watched the Real Salt Lake game Thursday night. Jason Kries boldly decided to actually play 90 minutes of attacking soccer and not only preserved their one goal aggregate advantage but won the away game at Columbus straight up 3-2. the only thing a "prevent" defense does is prevent you from winning. Maybe you'll remember that next year when you're assistant coaching at Weber State... If they'll take you.