Who was the worst coaching hire in Minnesota History?

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Otis

Otis

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Just throw them out there, lots to choose from.

Vikings - Les Steckel

Gopher Football - Tim Brewster

Gopher Basketball - George Hansen

Twins - Ray Miller

Gopher Hockey - Ken Yackel

Add what you can!
 

Well I've only been witness to about 56 years of these programs. Having said that, I would have to vote for Brewster. Other than the gift of gab, he had zero qualifications to be hired anywhere as a D1 football head coach.
 

Smokey Joe was never my favorite either. Plus he brought his son for a double whammy.
 

Pretty much any Timberwoo coach not named Mussulmen or Flip could be on this list. Todd Richards was a flop for the Wild. Joe Salem and Jim Wacker could give Brew a run for his money, atleast Brew went to a couple of bowls. Steckel enough said.
 



Otis said:
Just throw them out there, lots to choose from.

Vikings - Les Steckel

Gopher Football - Tim Brewster

Gopher Basketball - George Hansen

Twins - Ray Miller

Gopher Hockey - Ken Yackel

Add what you can!
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Gopher Football - Jim Wacker

Gopher Basketball - Richard Pitino
 


kurt rambis. no one else is even close.

brew at least did some positive things, raised the profile of the program, recruited a bit, stood up to bielema, was passionate about the u, etc.

rambis was as bad as brew at coaching, with none of the positive attributes that brew had.
 

Tough choice between Les Steckel and Ray Miller, have to go with Steckel and his daughter, Tess.
 



The worst hire is Teague and it is not even close (yes, I know he is not a coach).
 

Les Steckel was bad, but Norm Van Brocklin was worse. He'd just finished his playing career and had no coaching experience to speak of. Max Winter wanted to hire Bud Grant from the get-go, but the board of directors said, You're crazy; we can get Van Brocklin!
 

Go4 said:
kurt rambis. no one else is even close.
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I agree: Rambis. Rambis also had the distinction of hiring disinterested assistants. Ray Miller, at least, brought some organization professionalism to the Twins. He gave Kelly and his staff had something to build on. At least I heard Rick Stelmaszek mention that once.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
I agree: Rambis. Rambis also had the distinction of hiring disinterested assistants. Ray Miller, at least, brought some organization professionalism to the Twins. He gave Kelly and his staff had something to build on. At least I heard Rick Stelmaszek mention that once.
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That's hilarious.
 



Ignatius L Hoops said:
I agree: Rambis. Rambis also had the distinction of hiring disinterested assistants. Ray Miller, at least, brought some organization professionalism to the Twins. He gave Kelly and his staff had something to build on. At least I heard Rick Stelmaszek mention that once.
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Rambis was the first that came to my mind as well. To his defense the talent stunk other than Love who was in his 2nd and 3rd year. The problem is he tried to run the triangle offense with a lack of talent, making things even worse.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Rambis was the first that came to my mind as well. To his defense the talent stunk other than Love who was in his 2nd and 3rd year. The problem is he tried to run the triangle offense with a lack of talent, making things even worse.
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Id agree with Rambis too. But it was more the Rambis/Khan combination. Kahn was building a roster to run and play showtime while Rambis was trying to slow it down and run the triangle. Not exactly on the same page.

So maybe David Kahn, even as he's not a coach, should be mentioned as well. Just a horrendous tenure.
 


Kinda fitting that there is a lot more discussion about the worst coach than the best. Unfortunately there are many options when it comes to this category while the best coach discussion is pretty easy.
 

For the Gophers Mens basketball I have to go with Clem Haskins. The academic scandal that hit during his tenure was terrible for this program during important years in the development in internet connectivity that helps to drive recruiting now. We haven't been above an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney since (over 16 seasons). We have had only 2 winning BIG seasons over the last 16 years as a result and I blame Clem for pushing us down this road. Now there are a lot of reasons for this but this is the worst such stretch in gophers history (I think by scanning the BIG records on wikipedia) all after that scandal hit.
 

Tim1406 said:
For the Gophers Mens basketball I have to go with Clem Haskins. The academic scandal that hit during his tenure was terrible for this program during important years in the development in internet connectivity that helps to drive recruiting now. We haven't been above an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney since (over 16 seasons). We have had only 2 winning BIG seasons over the last 16 years as a result and I blame Clem for pushing us down this road. Now there are a lot of reasons for this but this is the worst such stretch in gophers history (I think by scanning the BIG records on wikipedia) all after that scandal hit.
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Lol. Clem was the best thing for the University up to the point he got caught.
 

Tim1406 said:
For the Gophers Mens basketball I have to go with Clem Haskins. The academic scandal that hit during his tenure was terrible for this program during important years in the development in internet connectivity that helps to drive recruiting now. We haven't been above an 8 seed in the NCAA tourney since (over 16 seasons). We have had only 2 winning BIG seasons over the last 16 years as a result and I blame Clem for pushing us down this road. Now there are a lot of reasons for this but this is the worst such stretch in gophers history (I think by scanning the BIG records on wikipedia) all after that scandal hit.
Click to expand...

I disagree completely. The Gophers weren't exactly a juggernaut before he arrived, as is evidenced by the ridiculous lack of banners at Williams Arena. Way too much time has passed to put any blame on Clem for whatever has transpired through at least the last two administrations (Tubby/Pitino). I'd argue for Clem in the other thread, to be honest.
 

Nobody mentioned so far is as bad as Darrell Hazzell at Purdue. He makes Tim Brewster look like Nick Saban.

If we are including GM/AD's I would nominate Bill Smith with the Twins.

Pitino would be pretty high on my list.
 




GoodasGold said:
Yep. Hey, anybody know if UNC has been caught, or is the NCAA now practicing catch-and-release?
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I suspect they will slap Dean Smith on the wrist since it started in his era and move on. Oh wait...
 

Otis said:
Smokey Joe was never my favorite either. Plus he brought his son for a double whammy.
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Before there was Brewster, there was Smokey Joe-k.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 


Hammer em' said:
Lol. Clem was the best thing for the University up to the point he got caught.
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Sure but was he the best because he could coach or because of the players he got and kept through breaking the rules? I don't know I was too young at the time to judge his in game coaching ability. I only know the fallout which was bad. And yes too much time has passed but the stats I gave are true.

Edit: SMU football was only really good when cheating so I deleted the part about "see SMU football for how a team can never recover from a scandal"
 

I am afraid Richard Pitino could end up as the worst in basketball. I'd say Brewster for football. I will cut Rambis some slack since he had no talent to work with.
 


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