In a rather surprising announcement, Ole Miss' head track coach, Brian O'Neal, announced his resignation Monday after just three years on the job. If you're wondering what a "Brian O'Neal" and "track coach" are, the Rebel runners gained little -- if any -- success on the indoor and outdoor ovals through the early aughts, and not until O'Neal's return in 2012 did they make any sort of ripple on the SEC stage, let alone in the NCAA at large.
Though known mainly as a middle-sprinting and jumps guru, O'Neal devoted historic energies to developing the Rebs' distance program, which, like most of the SEC, never rivaled Arkansas' fabled prowess, but all the same won its Southeastern Regional meet last fall and in so doing earned its first ever automatic bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships.