My Favorite Candidate

[Pewterschmidt]

Kevin Sumlin

Reasons I like him as the next Gopher Head Coach:

1. He has 3 years of head coaching experience, with success at a program (Houston) that was cruddy since Ware and Klingler left.
2. His connections to the state of Texas and Oklahoma run deep, which is good for recruiting. Since 2001, he's coached at Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Houston.
3. He knows exactly what he's getting into with the Gophers since he was an assistant here for 4 years. He knows the area, the media, the fanbase, the positives, the negatives, etc.
4. He knows the Big Ten. He played at Purdue and coached at Minnesota and Purdue.
5. He would be the only African-American coach in the Big Ten. Could that be a competitive advantage on the recruiting trail? A way to make Minnesota stand out?
6. He's relatively young (46 yo).
7. He's a realistic candidate, making $1.16 mil/year at Houston. This isn't Chris Peterson or Gary Patterson who would require a $3-$4 mil/year salary to land and eat up so much money that there's nothing left for assistants.

 

[NateDawgUM]

In response to #1, Art Briles won 10 games and a conference title at Houston 2 years before taking the job at Baylor. Sumlin has done a good job of keeping the program successful, but they weren't exactly in a Temple-like state.

Don't look now, but Baylor is 5-2 and 2-1 in the Big XII. Briles is a Texas guy through and through though so I doubt he would be interested.

 

[StCroix]

Kevin Sumlin

Reasons I like him as the next Gopher Head Coach:


2. His connections to the state of Texas and Oklahoma run deep, which is good for recruiting. Since 2001, he's coached at Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Houston.



I know where you're coming from on this, but I am SICK TO DEATH of everyone pointing fingers down south thinking we can get a 4 or even a 3 star recruit. I know the HS players generally are more talented, but there is so much talent in our backyard we should be getting that I hope we don't get someone from down there and someone more connected with THIS AREA. If your a 3 star recruit in Texas where are you going? Houston or Minnesota? We need to attack this area like Wisconsin does. Wisconsin has 8 of our GOOD players from Minnesota playing for them: Gilreath and Sorenson leading the way!

I'm done thinking a big name coach is the answer. I think you get someone grounded with the U or familiar with the landscape and you run with it. WINNING will get those 3 and 4 star athletes to consider the U.

 

[50PoundHead]

Kevin Sumlin

Reasons I like him as the next Gopher Head Coach:


2. His connections to the state of Texas and Oklahoma run deep, which is good for recruiting. Since 2001, he's coached at Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Houston.



I know where you're coming from on this, but I am SICK TO DEATH of everyone pointing fingers down south thinking we can get a 4 or even a 3 star recruit. I know the HS players generally are more talented, but there is so much talent in our backyard we should be getting that I hope we don't get someone from down there and someone more connected with THIS AREA. If your a 3 star recruit in Texas where are you going? Houston or Minnesota? We need to attack this area like Wisconsin does. Wisconsin has 8 of our GOOD players from Minnesota playing for them: Gilreath and Sorenson leading the way!

I'm done thinking a big name coach is the answer. I think you get someone grounded with the U or familiar with the landscape and you run with it. WINNING will get those 3 and 4 star athletes to consider the U.

I agree St. Croix. We haven't been good at keeping the best kids home since the Wacker era. Notre Dame walks in and gets Floyd, Carlson, Harris, and Laws. Wisconsin gets Gilreath, Sorenson, and Kelly. Iowa gets Eubanks and Binns. Northwestern gets McNaul. We have to promote this program heavily in Minnesota and get these top-level kids to consider Minnesota.

I realize this isn't 1960 anymore and with a mobile society and media saturation, playing for "Hometown U" doesn't have the same allure as it did when "Leave it to Beaver" was first run on the airwaves (note: Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver, died last week at the age of 94), but there is talent here and we need to keep that talent home.

 

[MaxyJR1]

I agree St. Croix. We haven't been good at keeping the best kids home since the Wacker era. Notre Dame walks in and gets Floyd, Carlson, Harris, and Laws. Wisconsin gets Gilreath, Sorenson, and Kelly. Iowa gets Eubanks and Binns. Northwestern gets McNaul. We have to promote this program heavily in Minnesota and get these top-level kids to consider Minnesota.

I realize this isn't 1960 anymore and with a mobile society and media saturation, playing for "Hometown U" doesn't have the same allure as it did when "Leave it to Beaver" was first run on the airwaves (note: Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver, died last week at the age of 94), but there is talent here and we need to keep that talent home.

I agree. When you want to recruit in the South you are not just recruiting against Florida, Louisiana and Texas. You're recruiting against every team in between. Our recruiting focus should be MN south to Missouri and East and North to Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. Recruit against the teams you play.

 

[UST82Gopher]

I think it is very unrealistic to expect us to ever get more than 50% of the in state recruits. There is a lot more working against us than you might think.

My kids were athletes, not D1, but D3. They were very much pressured by their school counselors to "go away" to school - almost along the lines of you will not get the college experience if you stay at home. Even though they wanted to stay in MN - they kept getting pressure.

While this is a crock of BS - but I am telling you - there are a lot more HS people pushing kids to leave state than stay in state. A tough battle for anyone to win more than half the time.

 

[Bo Darville]

In response to #1, Art Briles won 10 games and a conference title at Houston 2 years before taking the job at Baylor. Sumlin has done a good job of keeping the program successful, but they weren't exactly in a Temple-like state.

Don't look now, but Baylor is 5-2 and 2-1 in the Big XII. Briles is a Texas guy through and through though so I doubt he would be interested.

Briles was one of the guys who used us to get a raise back in '07:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/houston/4459633.html

 

[50PoundHead]

I think it is very unrealistic to expect us to ever get more than 50% of the in state recruits. There is a lot more working against us than you might think.

My kids were athletes, not D1, but D3. They were very much pressured by their school counselors to "go away" to school - almost along the lines of you will not get the college experience if you stay at home. Even though they wanted to stay in MN - they kept getting pressure.

While this is a crock of BS - but I am telling you - there are a lot more HS people pushing kids to leave state than stay in state. A tough battle for anyone to win more than half the time.

It is troubling and I think it's more than the high school counselors (although I don't doubt your post at all). I am of a generation where you grew up and went to college in your home state and lived your life pretty much in the proximity (within 200 miles for most) of where you grew up. Subsequent generations have moved around a lot more.

It is a tough battle. Neither Brewster nor Mason could figure out how to crack this nut (and I know for fact that Brewster put out a lot more effort than Mason did in this area) and we somehow have to deal with it.

When Zach Vraa was being discussed in here last year, a lot of guys were saying, "too slow" or "FCS guy." If you're down to your last couple of scholarships and you're filling out your class, why not guys like Vraa? When push comes to shove and you have two relatively equal talents, nod toward the homestate kid. I think that would help. Mason did do that with Marion Barber III (although he was recruited as a DB) and looked what happened.

 

[dpodoll68]

I know where you're coming from on this, but I am SICK TO DEATH of everyone pointing fingers down south thinking we can get a 4 or even a 3 star recruit.

Yeah, it's not like we could recruit any of these guys:

Curtis Thomas
Keanon Cooper
Eric Lair
Spencer Reeves
Troy Stoudermire
Hasan Lipscomb
Kerry Lewis
Joey Searcy
Josh Tauaefa
Mike Moore

You're right. Clearly Minnesota cannot recruit 3- and 4-star athletes from Texas. Whatever was anyone doing thinking otherwise?