Rob Dow
Appearances
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah, I think we hit success at our program's highest level in 2022 at the right time when the portal was really taking fire. And so we got some top players at that time. And we could have been on the other end and constantly trying to catch up in this way to retain our guys. Yeah. But it's about the people, right? So it's always about the people.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And if your team, you know, you guys have been on plenty of teams. And do you want to show up and train every day with these guys? Do they give you energy or do they take energy? And when you can accumulate this group where the guys can think about the team first and themselves second, then it creates an atmosphere where people want to be and stay.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Now, beyond the culture standpoint, we're continuing to try and recruit experienced and known quantities in the transfer portal. It's going to go beyond or it's already gone beyond success. Now it's about money into this NIL and revenue sharing world, which we'll have to exist in here really quick. We've lost guys already in this recruiting class to offers that we couldn't compete with.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
But it's our decision now to... either stand still and talk about how great 2024 was for years or, you know, continue the success and exist in this competitive financial world and college sports.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yes. You're not getting the million-dollar signing bonus as they might want to compare it to, but it's somewhere between $5,000 and $25,000. Wow.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
We, yes, we'll have to start playing. I think we're about to play in that game. We're probably a week fresh of starting to think of those ideas. And this, guys, this is on top of a full scholarship, on top of a cost of attendance, on top of Alston money, which is already... that's like $8,000 to $9,000 of money in which a student athlete can pocket.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Pony up, Mitch. I love to talk to Mitch.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
We do. It's great for our younger guys specifically, and I think we want to have our older guys playing, but maybe in teams where there's lots of depth where we can have a meaningful preseason where we're not just fully resting guys. But we've got a great team in town that plays at our stadium, Vermont Green.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I know that name's gone around the country, maybe world about their philosophy and what they stand for and social justice. And, but like, it's, it's, we, our top players want to play and they play with sold out crowds and, and the energy in our stadium is, is unbelievable for such a small venue. Soccer really matters in Vermont and that's, You brought up Caleb Porter, right?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
When I was a young coach, I was an assistant at the time. I used to love getting on YouTube and watching Caleb Porter and the passion, the energy he displayed to his teams and the identity that was so clear. That's something I took from him. Absolutely. There's a Vermont identity that is, I think, unique and we'll stick to that.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah, I really appreciated Coach K's books on value points and non-negotiables and how you build a team culture. He's very clear and concise about how you do that and the communication in which you use within your team so that people can all quickly come back to, you know, points in which we all agreed to be at, at the beginning of the season. And it was really cool.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I got a chance to talk to him probably a couple of weeks after the national championship. Wow. What was that like? But as of now, like talking to you guys is definitely, you know. I was going to say.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I appreciate you thinking that, you know, that that could be a possibility. Yeah. Yeah. Four more national championships, you know, and, you know, let's beat Stanford's three, you know, three in a row that they won later on. Yeah. I mean, look, I think it'd be an honor to be able to coach at the national team level of some capacity when Canada. whether it's a youth team or so forth.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. You guys are talking about your Valentine's Day plans while I'm changing diapers and going to bed early.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And I've done some work with U.S. soccer and their scouting department. But, you know, you kind of leave me speechless thinking about that, but I appreciate it. I might need your guys' connections if I go abroad.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Um, we're not underdogs. We're just dogs.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
That's beautiful.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah, we were. had plenty of doctor's appointments, like weekly. That's how it goes. And right after Hofstra, we won. We were actually hoping that we would host San Diego, which would have made the process a lot easier. Anyway, we went into the doctor's office on Tuesday after Hofstra on Sunday and said, you know, can we do this thing? And then we're like, well, I think we can induce.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
There's signs to do that. And but that didn't work. And I'm about to get on a plane on Thursday on Thanksgiving to San Diego. And that morning my son, Russell William Dow was born. So just in time.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah, I think I had some unique experiences of coaching at every level in the college game. NEI, Division III, Division II, Division I, junior college in my first head coaching position. But when we first arrived at Vermont, I think we were ranked somewhere in the 120, 130s in our RPI.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And, you know, from there, you know, it was assistant coach helped us get to the NCAA tournament, you know, raise the visibility of the program and the national level.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
But over the last four years, we've done something that I think might take away a little bit of the Cinderella story, you know, being in the NCAA tournament each of the four years, advancing to the round of eight and 22, round of 16 and 23. And so we were building something that we, where we really felt like we believe, the national championship was a possibility.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
It is, especially when you get into a tournament with so many members. It's a cup game format. And in football, we know that the margins are so small in terms of being successful at getting through. But I think some of the momentum that came from this season was believing we can win in all different ways, whether it was PKs, down a goal, a PK in overtime coming back from deficits.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
But yeah, the building and consistency comes from what your program is built on. And we've had more talented teams in the past, but what we've always prioritized is the intangible talents of work ethic, resiliency, mental toughness. um, you know, prioritizing the locker room, these types of things, culture of your team. And this year we were the most talented in that area.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
We had eight or nine guys deep, which were, were really, really top leaders in those areas.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
It was a really good question. You know, I was playing soccer in the summertime to keep in shape as a hockey player and somewhere around the, you know, I was 13, 14 years old. I started getting a little bit better at soccer and Might have made a national team pool once when I was 17 years old in Canada. But I had this really great coach growing up. His name was Stephen Hart.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And he was from Trinidad and Tobago. And he came to Halifax from Trinidad. And he coached the senior men's national team eventually for Canada and for TNT. But a huge mentor of mine. And really, in any major step in my game or my coaching career, he was a part of it.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I just wanted to stay in football. I wasn't good enough of a player to do it long, long term. But as a coach, you quickly realize it's not about you. It's all about everyone else. That was certainly a hard transition in my early years. But you live vicariously through these guys, and it's the best you can do it until you're 70, so why not?
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah, look, we went into preseason. We do this trip every year to the mountains in Vermont. There's a couple of turf fields on top of a mountain, which is really cool. It's called Jay Peak Resort. But no one's there. It's just the team. And it's funny. I... I got concussed the day before we left, first day of preseason. I got dehydrated, fell down some stairs, non-alcohol related, I promise.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And I was concussed for the first two weeks of preseason. And so I had no idea what happened, but something was going right. And my staff did a great job, but it just showed the amount of leadership and And experience that was in the group. But injuries, you know, we come off these really long season of multiple seasons, whether it's our spring season, USL two seasons into the college season.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And we really need to be conscious about, you know, peaking at the right point. Well, we inherited some some injuries. serious injuries in the team. Fortunately, we had depth. But if you look at the first part of our season, it was extremely rocky, whether it was a loss or Western Michigan crushed us day one of the season.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And so getting through that, constantly plugging holes, constantly plugging holes, which is super stressful as a coach. And then we finally got to the point where, okay, this seems like this is going to be the strongest team we can get based on our health. And had some good results, but became complacent at that same time. And I remember playing against UMass. UMass had an amazing season as well.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
They're extremely underfunded and they overachieve every year, in my opinion. But we played them at home and it was a really big RPI game. And we noticed that their top striker, Alec Hughes, was out for the game. And we went down 2-0 early in the match. And it's just like, guys, this is an opportunity for us to, I think, solidify ourselves in the national rankings.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
And we came back from the 2-0 deficit. We tied, had a really good performance in the second half, but enough to say like, hey, this is what we're capable of in the second half. Um, we need to start games better.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
We need to hold ourselves accountable to that and had a long conversation on the field for about 40 to 45 minutes while all the parents are waiting in the, you know, in the, um, post game meal, you know,
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
looking to hug their kids i was i was giving them the hair dryer um but uh other guys stepped up and those in that conversation um you know my assistant brad who played for the program told him what it meant to wear the jersey um and you know was really honest with the the guys that uh were not living up to it you know this is not the standard this is not what it's going to take to win a national championship let alone a america east championship
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
So coming off of that, we really ascended into the direction where we raised the bar and held ourselves accountable to national championship performances.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
30 to 35% of our team is.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
Yeah. The, the, The initial conversation is hard, but once we get our prospects around our team, it's really easy. The culture in our team is, everyone says family, a brotherhood, but it's authentic. And when we connect a prospect to our group, our current players are interviewing the prospect more than the prospect's interviewing. Love that. the team.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
So the follow-up conversation is, do you want this guy as your teammate? And it's great in our recruiting. We've got to expand our network and there's always a connection through somebody to somebody on a recruit. And we just ask, do you want this guy in the locker room? And I think we start building a team that wants to be around each other.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
I wish that was still the case at Vermont. We're still going to have to recruit hard. I think we haven't signed, we signed one player I think since the national championship for the 2025 class and we've got another nine that we need to sign. But the late game is our game. which is great around the pro atmosphere of guys getting released, whether it's here or abroad.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
But that's going to work for us. But yeah, you get them in your team. You get them around your campus. University of Vermont's a beautiful campus. It's a great school. But you play your strengths on it, right? So we're not in Boston, right? So we're not in New York. There's a lot of other distractions in these urban areas. Our team leans on each other and they do everything together.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
You know, we had... Two seniors, fifth-year seniors, came back for the COVID year who bought meal plans on their own to be able to eat on campus with our freshmen and sophomores. Because when they were freshmen, they came in in a COVID world and weren't allowed to leave their dorm room. And they felt like they didn't have a connection with their seniors.
Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard
NCAA Soccer with guest Rob Dow, Head Coach at the University of Vermont
So they wanted to change that and get to know the group. And that was one of the things that I think bonded ourselves, our team together pretty tight.