The Verde Report: Wolff In or Wolff Out? The Answer: It’s Complicated

Head coach Josh Wolff (courtesy of Austin FC)

Austin FC finally secured its first win of the 2024 season Saturday night, beating an injury-plagued FC Dallas 2-1 at Q2 Stadium. For Austin FC players and coaches, particularly head coach Josh Wolff, the moment allowed for a rare and refreshing break from the constant tension that exists when a club is failing to live up to the expectations of its supporters.

Until about midway through Wolff’s post-match press conference, that is.

That’s when Jorge Iturralde of Club Deportes – a longtime critic and verbal sparring partner of Wolff – informed the fourth-year coach that a “Wolff Out” march, complete with a 10-foot-long banner, had taken place before the match. Wolff, as any embattled coach with half a brain would do, dismissed the question without comment, but not before falling back into the kind of guarded, tense disposition that has become his mantra during tough stretches for the club.

Though attendance for the “Wolff Out” march in question seemed to number more in the dozens than in the hundreds, it's clear to anyone who follows Austin FC that a sizable portion of the fan base has lost its patience with, and its faith in, Wolff. The odd win against a banged-up rival certainly won't be enough to alter those feelings.

Last October, longtime MLS voice and former Austin FC play-by-play announcer Adrian Healey, who at the time was still on the club’s payroll as a host of the Verde Lights studio show, outlined the crux of the issue in a brutally honest tweet.

“By the global standards of modern pro soccer management, Josh Wolff is extraordinarily lucky to still be coach of Austin FC after 3 seasons in the job. A record of 37-52-21 after 110 [games] in all [competitions] would be fatal in 99% of cases,” Healey wrote.

Following the ATXFC’s loss to Orlando City on March 23, Healey, now no longer employed by the club, issued a cheeky follow-up, tweeting simply, “37-54-24.”

Healey is right. Even when you factor in a stellar 2022 season which concluded with a trip to the Western Conference Final, Austin FC’s all-time record under Wolff, frankly, sucks. And that’s not the only factor working against him, especially when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of the Verde fanbase.

From a personality standpoint, Wolff at the helm of an MLS franchise in Austin, Texas has long given off square peg-round hole vibes. The Austin fanbase is tailor-made for the kind of gregarious, charismatic, unapologetically ambitious coaching personality you’ll find in Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp or, closer to home, Nashville SC’s Gary Smith.

Wolff, however, is reserved, pragmatic, and prefers to lie low when not under the Verde lights at Q2 Stadium. He rarely misses an opportunity to express his appreciation for the ATX fans, but also rarely goes out of his way to involve himself in the Austin community on a personal level the way that, say, goalkeeper Brad Stuver regularly has.

So if Wolff is an awkward personality fit with a sub-par record, why is he still Austin’s coach?

Only club majority owner Anthony Precourt – who rarely speaks on record – knows for sure, but we can infer.

First, to attribute Austin FC’s mediocre record entirely to Wolff would be both ignorant and unfair, given the club’s well-documented front office turmoil over the years. Former sporting director Claudio Reyna assembled a deeply flawed expansion roster in 2021, then abandoned the club in 2023 thanks to his “bad dad” antics at the World Cup, forcing Wolff into double-duty as both coach and GM. This season, new sporting director Rodolfo Borrell’s roster renovation project has left Wolff with a glorified skeleton crew to work with.

Second, and likely more importantly, Wolff’s significance to Austin FC goes much deeper than the average coach/club relationship. Wolff isn’t just Austin FC’s first head coach. He’s their architect – figuratively from an on-field perspective, but also literally; he helped design the club’s training ground. His tactical principles aren’t just employed by the senior team, they’re coached at every level of the club’s academy. Parting ways with Wolff would come at a cost.

Put another way, Wolff is Austin FC’s first love. And sometimes, you stick by your first love longer than you probably should, because you want so badly for it to work out. But if Austin FC’s win-loss record under Wolff continues to suffer, the club will have to come to grips with the fact that the first love rarely leads to a ring.