Travis Goff chose ‘relentless recruiter,’ Nate Lie, as Kansas women’s soccer’s head coach

LAWRENCE — Nate Lie started with humor, as he opened his speech at his first press conference as Kansas women’s soccer’s head coach.

Lie, speaking earlier this month, brought up how the Jayhawks’ athletic director introduced him to the team on Zoom. Travis Goff, Lie indicated, was a tough act to follow each time.

Lie mentioned how prepared remarks have never been his strong suit, and how recruiting calls interrupted him every time he started sketching out what he would say. So if his speech went poorly, at least everyone would know it’s because he was trying to improve the program.

But while those words were met with laughs, it didn’t take long for Lie’s appreciation for the importance of recruiting to reveal itself. While he wanted to frame his remarks around the concept of gratitude, and highlighted his gratefulness for his family above all else, his attitude toward recruiting had its time in the spotlight. From Lie’s perspective, nothing matters unless he can assemble a roster that’s ready to compete for the team, university and greater community.

“I am so indebted to people who actually win games, right?” said Lie, who left being Xavier’s head coach to lead Kansas. “So, that resume that they read off, I wasn’t on the field for one second of those wins or those goals scored. So, all the players at Miami (Ohio) and UC and Xavier, part of … seven championship teams, six NCAA tournaments, a few really special moments, I’m always so indebted to them.”

Lie, an assistant at Miami (Ohio) and Cincinnati before he became the head coach at Xavier, described the “first big recruiting win” as the hire of Tyler Smaha. Smaha, now Kansas’ associate head coach, previously served on Lie’s coaching staff at Xavier. Lie ventured to guess that Smaha could have been in the running to replace him at Xavier, before Smaha chose to follow him to Kansas.

Together they’ll look to execute a recruiting philosophy that starts with relationship building. Connect with the athlete, the athlete’s family and those around them, and see if everyone’s visions match. Not everyone is going to be a fit.

It’s a philosophy Lie thinks can translate anywhere, and given he spent so much time in the state of Ohio — Goff once referred to him as “Mr. Ohio” — it’ll need to. Lie wants to leverage attributes like character, hard work and attentional to detail to create a new recruiting base that starts in Lawrence and expands to Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver and Dallas. In some ways it could eventually be for Lie what the city of Cincinnati and the surrounding area there was for him at Xavier.

“If you know anything about me and Tyler, we’ll go anywhere, we’ll talk to anyone, we’ll try to get the best players we can here,” Lie said. “But we are not in any way, shape or form going to ignore this specific area. And we’re smart enough to know where our bread is buttered and we will invest tirelessly in building relationships around here.”

Lie, who Goff described as a “relentless recruiter,” described their immediate area as the “soccer capital of America” — or at least a little down the road from it. Nearby there is, of course, both a Major League Soccer team and a National Women’s Soccer League team. The next FIFA World Cup will also spend time in Kansas City, and Lie hopes they can host a team locally at Rock Chalk Park.

That list helps make it sound like Lie will have everything he needs to elevate the Kansas program to new heights. Add in the philosophy Lie has and his track record of success, and Goff explained they didn’t feel they needed to hire someone with pre-established recruiting connections locally. As Goff evaluated Lie as a recruiter, attributes like being at the forefront of recruiting, being a hard worker and more kept describing Lie.

Time will tell if Lie can recruit at the level that will meet the goals he has for this program, but he didn’t shy away from naming those goals. That means winning Big 12 Conference titles, competing in the NCAA tournament and doing damage there. Kansas enjoyed success under Mark Francis, the previous head coach who retired after 25 seasons and a career as the Jayhawks’ winningest head coach, but it’s time to see what the Lie era will bring.

“If we’re going to go down … we’re going to go down swinging, right from the start, and we will make the bet that if we take some licks along the way they’re not going to be — we’re not going to be taking them very long,” Lie said. “And we will soon be the ones kind of really staking our claim.”

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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Travis Goff chose a relentless recruiter as Kansas soccer’s head coach