Georgetown Hires Maryland's Kevin Warne

There was a lot of chatter among fans over the last few seasons that Dave Urick had kind of lost a bit of his hunger, his drive for success had waned and it started to show out on the field for Georgetown. The hiring of Matt Kerwick from Jacksonville, it was assumed, was intended to build a bridge between Urick and Kerwick's presumptive ascension to the Hoya lacrosse throne, invigorating the program along the way with some energy and direction towards a new era of Georgetown lacrosse.

Well, that didn't happen. Kerwick got pinched for a DUI, was taken out of consideration in the Hoyas' head coaching search, and Georgetown meandered through its selection process, seemingly unable to find a suitable candidate for its vacancy with the academic year looming on the horizon. It was looking so bleak that I even provided some personnel consulting -- for free! -- to help Georgetown along.

And then today happened. No longer are the Hoyas devoid of a head lacrosse coach, and if they wanted to put someone in place that is hungry for victories (and also functionally insane), they absolutely found their guy. As Christian Swezey reports in the Washington Post, Maryland's Kevin Warne is off to the Hilltop to lead the Hoyas program:

Georgetown is set to name Maryland defensive coordinator Kevin Warne as its next head lacrosse coach, three sources familiar with the search said Tuesday morning. An announcement is expected Tuesday.

Warne, 35, had spent the past two years at Maryland and helped it reach the NCAA title game both years. He also had been an assistant at Harvard and UMBC.

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Warne interviewed at Georgetown over the weekend and was offered the job soon after.

As usual, Georgetown's Director of Athletics is very excited and expects big things and whatever else is included on the script that administrators read from when they introduce new head coaches:

"I'm really excited to name Kevin Warne as head coach for our men's lacrosse program," Reed said. "Kevin's commitment to student-athlete welfare and his passion for the game makes him the perfect person to take over our lacrosse program at this time. He is considered to be one of the top young assistants in the country and he has a terrific track record of success as an assistant coach, including appearances in the last two national championship games. We welcome Kevin to the Hoya family and look forward to working with him to build on the great tradition and success of Georgetown lacrosse."

This is an incredibly strong hire for the Hoyas. Warne had been the architect of one of the stronger defensive units in the country over the past few seasons, giving his best effort in 2012 with a very green close defense. His time at Harvard should be invaluable in terms of understanding how to recruit and develop the kind of athlete that Georgetown will permit to enroll. The tenure that he had at UMBC, buttressed with his time at Maryland, should provide the kind of recruiting relationships he'll need to stomp the trail and pull through some talent.

Given the timing of Georgetown's selection process and what was available to them, it's hard not to call their hiring of Warne a home run. With a fairly strong roster going into 2013, Warne could see some immediate success (which is always nice). There is one fact about the hire that is undisputed, though: Things are about to be a hell of a lot different around Georgetown's offices in the near future; any time that you have this prowling your sidelines, the attitude around the program is going to change.