Freitag ousted as men's soccer coach

After a disappointing 12-10-1 IU men’s soccer season, IU Athletics Director Fred Glass will not renew former IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag’s contract.

Glass made the decision after taking a “deliberate, sober, dispassionate view” of the program.

“If we felt the program was going in the right direction, I could handle the record,” Glass said. “But, we ultimately concluded that the program was not going in the right direction and that we needed new leadership.”

Glass said the search for a new coach will begin today.

See idsnews.com for updates on this developing story.

“We’ll try to do it as expeditiously as possible,” he said. “It’s more important that we get it right than that we get it fast, but we’ll try to get it fast.”

He mentioned “multiple IU alumni” might be involved in the search, bringing to mind Todd Yeagley, son of Jerry Yeagley and current coach of the Wisconsin program.

“It’s the first hire that I’ll make, and it’s really with our premiere program,” Glass said. “I take this responsibility very seriously.”

It was a decision, Glass said, to be made, and he has no doubts about that fact.

“Renewing Mike’s contract would have been the easy thing, and it would have been the safe thing,” he said. “But it just wouldn’t have been the right thing. I wasn’t eager to make that change, but I was absolutely convinced that it was the right thing to do.
That’s why I did it.”