and distance running. For those that do not follow cross-country or distance running, Oregon distance is like Duke basketball, except Oregon has a longer history of success (7 NCAA titles in men's cross-country, 7 NCAA titles in men's outdoor track (including '14 and '15), and 4 NCAA titles for the men indoors ('09, '14, '15, and '16)).

I haven't talked with Ben in a while, and I never talked to him about jobs, etc., but this is a job that I don't think anyone could turn down. Ben is a local guy (from Lynchburg) and he went to VT, and his wife is also from the East (from Florida originally and she went to Villanova where she was a standout runner), so it might have been difficult to leave. But, I'm sure Oregon at least doubled his salary, and he will have the opportunity to compete for national championships, and he will have his pick of the litter when it comes to recruiting.

It will be interesting to see where we go now. From the sounds of things, the current assistant, Eric Johanigmeier, is going to get the head job. Promoting a young (he's 29) assistant would be a change from the way Whit has operated elsewhere, as he has always hired coaches that have prior experience as a head coach. I know that, overall, XC and T&F are low on the visibility list, but they make up six sports (XC, indoor, outdoor for men and women) for the director's cup and for the commonwealth cup. However, it seems like Eric is top notch coach, and I have heard many positives from the runners on the team.