Who could the Cal Poly men’s soccer coach be?

I did a lot of chewing over the holiday weekend. Yes, turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie were on the menu, but I also chewed on what I want this site to be. More on that in a bit.

First off, I’ve been chewing on some potentially juicy Cal Poly Athletics innuendo. Last week, I read this tweet from KSBY’s sports director, Matt SantaMaria:

Hearing there could be a new soccer coach at Cal Poly in next few weeks. Also hearing it's a name 'casual fans will recognize'. #Mustangs

— Matt SantaMaria (@MattSantaMaria) November 26, 2014

For whatever reason, I have an inexplicable interest in both Cal Poly men’s soccer and the game around the world, so the wheels in my mind were quickly turning. There aren’t many people in the game of soccer that “casual fans” would recognize.

Landon Donovan is retiring this season — what if he wanted to go coach somewhere?

No, that was silly.

What about another recently retired player? Nobody came to mind. So, I did what any inquisitive fan does: I went to the Internet.

I found a few things there. Someone who is usually pretty intuitive about things like this — but wouldn’t have any firsthand knowledge — pointed me in the direction of a forum where someone linked former US Men’s National Team head coach, Steve Sampson, to the vacant Cal Poly coaching job.

If you google “Steve Sampson Cal Poly,” what you get is a YouTube video from Cal Poly’s sister school in Pomona, where Sampson visited practice a while back.

Sampson, who was a highly-successful coach with the LA Galaxy after his national team career, coached at Santa Clara early in his career, where he won a co-national title in 1989. One of his players at Santa Clara was departed Mustang head coach, Paul Holocher. Recently, Sampson has been running the Steve Sampson Soccer Academy, located in Southern California. Combine his player development academy in the region and the fact that Holocher and he have a connection, and it would make sense for Sampson to at least have an awareness of the program.

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While the Mustangs haven’t been able to do much in any recent postseason, it would seem to be a desirable spot in terms of a student and local fan-base. The team has a talented group of players returning next season and it’s possible some of them have even had contact with Sampson or his academy in the past.

If Sampson was motivated to get back into the college soccer scene, there are worse places to be than the Big West, at Cal Poly.

Here’s where I’m going to finish my thought from the first paragraph of this post. With all the talk recently of 14 year-olds “breaking” baseball news, I definitely did not want to have any pretenses about what this post is. So let me be clear, this is speculation, based on a tweet and some posts I found on the Internet. It should be taken for what it is.

So, why am I writing it, posting it, and putting it out into the ether? First of all, it’s already out there. I didn’t have to look very hard to find it. More importantly, trying to figure out who a coach who “casual fans will recognize” can be a fun exercise. I’m acknowledging that no actual news has been broken and that what I’m writing here is pure speculation, but isn’t that one of the fun things about being a fan of a program? If you think you know better and want to contribute and tell us who you think it should be, there’s a place to do that below.

Whether it’s Sampson, Phil Ruskin, or someone else, Cal Poly will hire someone they think is capable and I will be really excited to talk to that person about their outlook and plan for the team. Next year’s team will have at least 11 upperclassmen who have played significant roles in past seasons. They have their eyes on competing for a conference title and they need a coach.

If it’s Sampson, it would probably make news across the college soccer scene. As a former National Team coach, Sampson would instantly become the highest profile coach on-campus. It’s clear that students want to be excited about the soccer team, but the program has been in limbo with an interim coach and the sooner they can hire a head coach, the faster they can get focused on next season, when they’ll have the goalkeeper of the year, midfielder of the year, and two-time first-team all-conference player back.

I’ve documented my feelings about Phil Ruskin. I think he did a decent job under what were very tough circumstances with a pretty thin lineup. Whenever it happens, he will make a very good Division I head coach. Hell, for all I know, it could be at Cal Poly next season — maybe the “casual fans” refers to casual fans at Cal Poly… .

If you are, however, standing in Don Oberhelman’s shoes and you have an opportunity to make a hire that is “a name casual fans will recognize,” then I think you have to do it. Until then, Cal Poly soccer fans will remain on pins and needles.

What other names who are out there would be recognizable to casual fans? Would your perception of the program at Cal Poly change significantly if someone like Steve Sampson came on-board? Comment below.