The men’s soccer team was coming off two straight losing seasons—three out of four, in fact—when Jeremy Gunn became the new coach in January 2012. It would have been impossible to script a steadier or grander ascent than the one he has overseen in the four seasons since then, the most recent flourish being a dramatic second-straight national championship in December. From downtrodden to dominant, this is how the transformation occurred.
The coach’s first day
In a hallway chat, then athletic director Bob Bowlsby asks, “Are you going to win us a national championship?” Gunn, hired from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, replies, “Yes, sir, and then we are going to try to win you another one.”
The path to and through the 2012 season
In partnership with his players, Gunn develops the team’s Cardinal Code, a detailed outline of the athletic and cultural values that will define his program. It’s a blueprint and a reminder: “This is who we said we want to be.”
2013 season
A 10-7-4 record is highlighted by reaching the NCAA tournament with a first-round tie and second-round win before a third-round elimination.
2014 season
Despite a first-game loss at home in the NCAA tourney, “probably the biggest pivotal moment” for the program, notes Gunn, was capturing the Pac-12 championship a week earlier. Why? Because until then, “the Pac-12 was owned by other people,” with Stanford not in contention. But no longer, as the Cardinal went 6-1-3 in the conference and 13-3-3 overall.
2015 season
Whoooooosh. The program’s turnaround accelerates to a rocket ride, streaking to a 4-0 thrashing of Clemson in the NCAA title match. Final record: 18-2-3, plus the Hermann Trophy for the best college player goes to wunderkind Jordan Morris (already a member of the U.S. national team).
January 2016
How motivated would players be following a championship? The answer came in the first two minutes of the year’s first practice. “They wanted to work,” recalls Gunn, immediately sensing that they had turned their attention from the past to the future.
2016 season
The championship route this time was fundamentally different: no win in the first four games. But “mentality is a skill set just like kicking a ball,” says Gunn. And a steely mindset was the key ingredient months later during nail-biter tourney games that concluded with the Cardinal becoming the first NCAA champ to go scoreless in the semifinals and finals (before winning the shoot-outs). Memorable saves by goalie Andrew Epstein punctuated the achievement.
