GopherLady's Strib Blog: Do you trust Joel Maturi to hire the next Football coach?

Donate To GopherHole

Dang, she just kept it real right there lol. Can't argue any of it. I hope he kills this hire as well, but there's a part of me that is bracing for something underwhelming.
 

Great article. Sad that it's so accurate.
 

Tubby was his last major hire, not Brewster. And the "fell in his lap" is so ridiculous. Michigan had an opening. Iowa had an opening. Yet Minnesota got him. Four years later, he's still here when he could've easily taken off for another job. Maturi made one epic failure and that was Brewster. Tubby Smith....was going to hire Bo Ryan at denver. Hired the Miami hockey coach. Even his hires at the U in the minor sports have been out of this world.
 

"Trust him?". It's too late for that we've got him! There may be one coach with a national championship who might come here. But his national championship(s) are from Canada.
 


Maximus said:
Tubby was his last major hire, not Brewster. And the "fell in his lap" is so ridiculous. Michigan had an opening. Iowa had an opening. Yet Minnesota got him. Four years later, he's still here when he could've easily taken off for another job. Maturi made one epic failure and that was Brewster. Tubby Smith....was going to hire Bo Ryan at denver. Hired the Miami hockey coach. Even his hires at the U in the minor sports have been out of this world.
Click to expand...

Minnesota is a far better basketball job then Iowa or Michigan. Tubby chose us, not the other way around and to a large degree he did fall in our lap. I'm not saying Joel gets no credit, but the idea that he pulled of some miraculous sales job to get Tubby here is ridiculous. Clem's vouching for the job with Tubby probably had far more sway then anything Joel said. Tubby basically accepted the job over the phone. That tells you all you need to know.

Yes Tubby's still here. Is that also supposed to be some miraculous Maturi feat? He came very close to leaving for Virginia a year and a half ago. Matur's been supposedly working on a contract extension since March, but it's not done. Why not? We're hardly out of the woods that Tubby could leave.

Please give me some examples of the great minor coaches he's hired here? I don't dispute that the wrestling, baseball and volleyball coaches are great, but none of them were hired by Joel Maturi.
 

ncgo4 said:
"Trust him?". It's too late for that we've got him! There may be one coach with a national championship who might come here. But his national championship(s) are from Canada.
Click to expand...

Yep. Nothing to do now but just hope and pray that he's not gonna muck this one up, and judging by the candidates we've been linked to so far, it seems all is good in that regard. ****knocking on wood****
 

She lost me when she said Lane Kiffin was a better choice and said his 7-4 record put Brewster's record to shame. 7-4 with the talent you have at USC is terrible and there is no way I would want that spoiled a-hole leading this program.
 

If this is true I hope Maturi's using his "fall into my lap" move.
 



Pelini is 10-2, Kiffin is 7-5, and Strong is 6-6.
 

Well, I do think Nadine (sorry - Gopherlady) :) has a lot of valid points. Maturi is more of a manager then a visionary. People are tooled that way. Not a big surprise.

But I think in fairness, the problems with revenue sports at the U did not begin under Maturi's watch. We are not privy to the powers that be which led him (think money, reputation of U wanting to be know for scholastics over sports which began in the 60s, ect) to hire Brew over the others being considered. It may very well be that Maturi had to pick the one that accepted the money being offered.
 

Have no choice but to trust him. Like I said before, whoever he hires will be 100% better then "He who shall remain nameless." No possible way he screws it up that badly again.
 

I don't trust Maturi, i'm just hoping the "blind squirrel" adage wins out in our case.
 



I long for the day...

when journalism was left to journalists, when we could open a paper and read a well written article full of wonderful prose marked by style and substance. Perhaps the Minneapolis Star should hire an editor to polish blog pieces before they post them. This piece was unreadable.
 

koppco1 said:
She lost me when she said Lane Kiffin was a better choice and said his 7-4 record put Brewster's record to shame. 7-4 with the talent you have at USC is terrible and there is no way I would want that spoiled a-hole leading this program.
Click to expand...

Still better than Brew. And I'm guesing most people begun to not like him in the past 2 years, 4 years ago, I think he was a Gopher fan favorite. I'm not saying everyone, but a lot wanted him.

dpodoll68 said:
Pelini is 10-2, Kiffin is 7-5, and Strong is 6-6.
Click to expand...

You are correct, I started writing this a week and a half ago, I changed that to reflect their records...must have just miscounted on Strong.

Maximus said:
Tubby was his last major hire, not Brewster. And the "fell in his lap" is so ridiculous. Michigan had an opening. Iowa had an opening. Yet Minnesota got him. Four years later, he's still here when he could've easily taken off for another job. Maturi made one epic failure and that was Brewster. Tubby Smith....was going to hire Bo Ryan at denver. Hired the Miami hockey coach. Even his hires at the U in the minor sports have been out of this world.
Click to expand...

I was trying to get this up pretty quickly with a hire coming sooner than later (I think). That was my bad, I edited that at well. Obviously, Tubby was hired after Brew.
 

For what the Gophers needed at the time of Maturi's hire, he was not a bad choice. The athletic department was riddled with problems/scandal and the greater need was to get back on solid footing. Not everything Maturi

With the new President coming in, along with more people who have had to endure the humiliation of their stifling the football program, and who does have a greater appreciation for the football program and sports programs, he will be hiring the new AD. He can bring in someone who is more of a visionary that can make better use growth wise of the athletic department.
 

Sir Tipsy McStagger said:
when journalism was left to journalists, when we could open a paper and read a well written article full of wonderful prose marked by style and substance. Perhaps the Minneapolis Star should hire an editor to polish blog pieces before they post them. This piece was unreadable.
Click to expand...

While it may have contained an error or two, it's overall analysis was spot-on. No one cares whether Charlie Strong's current record is 6-6 or 7-5, it has nothing to do with the overall point. Welcome to the 21st century. We all have to learn to distinguish blogs and Twitter from formal articles and not expect 100% accuracy from the former in most cases. That doesn't mean that they are irrelevant and not worth reading. The days you long for died out sometime around the time Sid got his first AARP card. Besides, on this board, you can rest easy, as we have Dpdoll, on his stick, always watching for errors such as those noted above. The Strib may no longer be able to afford this luxury, but the GopherHole gets it for free.:)
 

howeda7 said:
While it may have contained an error or two, it's overall analysis was spot-on. No one cares whether Charlie Strong's current record is 6-6 or 7-5, it has nothing to do with the overall point. Welcome to the 21st century. We all have to learn to distinguish blogs and Twitter from formal articles and not expect 100% accuracy from the former in most cases. That doesn't mean that they are irrelevant and not worth reading. The days you long for died out sometime around the time Sid got his first AARP card. Besides, on this board, you can rest easy, as we have Dpdoll, on his stick, always watching for errors such as those noted above. The Strib may no longer be able to afford this luxury, but the GopherHole gets it for free.:)
Click to expand...

Thanks, Howeda - it's amazing how many times a day I need to describe to people what a "blog" is. Even though it's on the website that a newspaper has, it's still a blog!
 

I'm not sure how this helps the Gophers in any way?

calminnfan said:
Well, I do think Nadine (sorry - Gopherlady) :) has a lot of valid points. Maturi is more of a manager then a visionary. People are tooled that way. Not a big surprise.

But I think in fairness, the problems with revenue sports at the U did not begin under Maturi's watch. We are not privy to the powers that be which led him (think money, reputation of U wanting to be know for scholastics over sports which began in the 60s, ect) to hire Brew over the others being considered. It may very well be that Maturi had to pick the one that accepted the money being offered.
Click to expand...

This may increase Nadine's popularity with readers who are more than willing to bash Maturi but how is the timing at all helpful to the Gopher program as a coach makes a decision to accept a head coaching football job? There is no benefit to anyone other than a self serving one to vent for not accepting your suggestions.

Maturi's job is incredibly complicated financially. Administration wanted to abolish a boatload of sports. Maturi saved those sports. Maturi got a football stadium built. Maturi is in the process of getting a baseball stadium built. Maturi will get a basketball practice facility done. The University of Minnesota ranks near the top in excellence in all sports combined each year under Maturi's leadership. As is stated above, Brewster was hired because he was the only guy we could afford. (Brewster was not that far away from being successful. How much better are we last year if Decker isn't hurt. How much better is the defense this year if Maresh doesn't flip out?
etc. etc.) Maturi is not perfect but he has done a "tremendous" job in the big picture.

Am I worried he is going to screw up the hiring of the football coach? Yup. But any more worried Ziggy screws up the Vikings worse? Nope Pretty much nobody hits a homerun with every hire. I have enough patience to wait to bash him until I think he hires the wrong guy.
 

60's Guy said:
This may increase Nadine's popularity with readers who are more than willing to bash Maturi but how is the timing at all helpful to the Gopher program as a coach makes a decision to accept a head coaching football job? There is no benefit to anyone other than a self serving one to vent for not accepting your suggestions.

Maturi's job is incredibly complicated financially. Administration wanted to abolish a boatload of sports. Maturi saved those sports. Maturi got a football stadium built. Maturi is in the process of getting a baseball stadium built. Maturi will get a basketball practice facility done. The University of Minnesota ranks near the top in excellence in all sports combined each year under Maturi's leadership. As is stated above, Brewster was hired because he was the only guy we could afford. (Brewster was not that far away from being successful. How much better are we last year if Decker isn't hurt. How much better is the defense this year if Maresh doesn't flip out?
etc. etc.) Maturi is not perfect but he has done a "tremendous" job in the big picture.

Am I worried he is going to screw up the hiring of the football coach? Yup. But any more worried Ziggy screws up the Vikings worse? Nope Pretty much nobody hits a homerun with every hire. I have enough patience to wait to bash him until I think he hires the wrong guy.
Click to expand...

+1
 

60's Guy said:
This may increase Nadine's popularity with readers who are more than willing to bash Maturi but how is the timing at all helpful to the Gopher program as a coach makes a decision to accept a head coaching football job? There is no benefit to anyone other than a self serving one to vent for not accepting your suggestions.

Maturi's job is incredibly complicated financially. Administration wanted to abolish a boatload of sports. Maturi saved those sports. Maturi got a football stadium built. Maturi is in the process of getting a baseball stadium built. Maturi will get a basketball practice facility done. The University of Minnesota ranks near the top in excellence in all sports combined each year under Maturi's leadership. As is stated above, Brewster was hired because he was the only guy we could afford. (Brewster was not that far away from being successful. How much better are we last year if Decker isn't hurt. How much better is the defense this year if Maresh doesn't flip out?
etc. etc.) Maturi is not perfect but he has done a "tremendous" job in the big picture.

Am I worried he is going to screw up the hiring of the football coach? Yup. But any more worried Ziggy screws up the Vikings worse? Nope Pretty much nobody hits a homerun with every hire. I have enough patience to wait to bash him until I think he hires the wrong guy.
Click to expand...

Great post, 60's Guy. You pretty much nailed. Gopher Lady and her gang have been grinding their axes about Maturi since I first joined GopherHole. I have always assumed that it was because Joel didn't defer to them in the way they wanted him too. She has just confirmed it for me. Of all the times to publish her personal vendetta against Maturi in the Strib this is the absolute worst. Gopher Lady has lost a huge amount of credibility as a Gopher fan and supporter by doing it.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Great post, 60's Guy. You pretty much nailed. Gopher Lady and her gang have been grinding their axes about Maturi since I first joined GopherHole. I have always assumed that it was because Joel didn't defer to them in the way they wanted him too. She has just confirmed it for me. Of all the times to publish her personal vendetta against Maturi in the Strib this is the absolute worst. Gopher Lady has lost a huge amount of credibility as a Gopher fan and supporter by doing it.
Click to expand...

I think you have to give her credit for noting that she has a major axe to grind with Maturi. She could have easily left it out of there changing the perception for readers. Kudos to her for that.
 

GopherLady: good, strong opinion piece on maturi!

The only thing good about maturi is his age and he keeps getting older every day. Another good thing is the fact that prexy b is on his way out. He has been talking about extending the reign of incompetence that maturi has brought to managing the football program for another couple of years. For that, prexy b should be hung in effigy.

maturi is the only ad I have ever heard of who is so incompetent that they had to assign him a public releations person. Think about the addition of Dave Mona to be the ventriliquist for the maturi puppet character.

The only saving grace for this football hire situation would be IF the perspective coach is given a voice in the recruitment of the NEW Athletic Director that will be brought in when Prexy K assumes the duties as the president of the University of Minnesota.

I do NOT trust maturi and, I know I am not alone in that point of view. I am assuming that is the very reason Dave Mona was suddenly assigned to be an "assistant ad..."

How pathetic. How incredibly prexy b-ish. prexy b and maturi have truely mismanaged bringing the new stadium into being as a tribute to the University of Minnesota, the state of Minnesota and to all of the alumni and friends of the University of Minnesota. In just the second year, seeing ALL those empty seats for the first iowa game in the facility was certainly a nasty reminder that maturi and prexy b have horribly mismanaged the football program at the University of Minnesota.

The ONLY hope for the future will be for Prexy K to accept leadership at the University of Minnesota and to come up with a "KILL SHOT" Athletic Director replacement for maturi. And it has to be SOON! And, the new football coach needs to have a large role in this process. Just another opinion about the maturi mess.

Dave Mona has failed to "monaize" my impression of badger joel maturi.
 

60's Guy said:
This may increase Nadine's popularity with readers who are more than willing to bash Maturi but how is the timing at all helpful to the Gopher program as a coach makes a decision to accept a head coaching football job? There is no benefit to anyone other than a self serving one to vent for not accepting your suggestions.

Maturi's job is incredibly complicated financially. Administration wanted to abolish a boatload of sports. Maturi saved those sports. Maturi got a football stadium built. Maturi is in the process of getting a baseball stadium built. Maturi will get a basketball practice facility done. The University of Minnesota ranks near the top in excellence in all sports combined each year under Maturi's leadership. As is stated above, Brewster was hired because he was the only guy we could afford. (Brewster was not that far away from being successful. How much better are we last year if Decker isn't hurt. How much better is the defense this year if Maresh doesn't flip out?
etc. etc.) Maturi is not perfect but he has done a "tremendous" job in the big picture.

Am I worried he is going to screw up the hiring of the football coach? Yup. But any more worried Ziggy screws up the Vikings worse? Nope Pretty much nobody hits a homerun with every hire. I have enough patience to wait to bash him until I think he hires the wrong guy.
Click to expand...

If Maturi's job is going to be complicated by a blog appearing on Startribune.com he's a lost cause. And this article was hardly self-serving, it merely expressed the opinion of many Gopher fans a lot stronger then Souhan or Reusse ever will because they still need access to do thier jobs. I say Kudos.

I don't think GL ever stated that there weren't good things that Maturi has done, in fact she went out of her way to point this out. And while he may have done some good things in saving a couple of sports from the axe, I'm not going to slobber all over him for balancing the AD budget and running a program in the black. Ooh, so he's doing the same thing almost every AD at every school does. Wow, he's great at his job! As for TCF, I simply don't give him the majority of the credit for that. That goes mostly to Bruinicks, Mason and frankly Jim Pohlad and Mike Opat.

Meanwhile, he butchered the Brew hire, he's been promising Anderson a baseball stadium for 10 years with no shovel in the ground, Tubby a Practice Facility for 4 years with no shovel in the ground, and he can't even get a simple contract extension for him that he's been 'working on' since March. You'll excuse me if I don't swoon at his greatness.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Great post, 60's Guy. You pretty much nailed. Gopher Lady and her gang have been grinding their axes about Maturi since I first joined GopherHole. I have always assumed that it was because Joel didn't defer to them in the way they wanted him too. She has just confirmed it for me. Of all the times to publish her personal vendetta against Maturi in the Strib this is the absolute worst. Gopher Lady has lost a huge amount of credibility as a Gopher fan and supporter by doing it.
Click to expand...

Good lord, this was hardly a 'vendetta'. To the extent she had any personal beef with the man, she acknowledged and disclosed it. Most of her points were far more general and ones that many agree with.

And by the way, to most of us, GL has far more credibility then anyone on this board and frankly more then many members of the media that try to cover the U. You can disagree with her stance on Maturi without questioning it.
 

Great blog post, spot on.

I'm amazed that people feel the need to critique grammar and spelling mistakes since they've been reading a "professional journalist" in Sid since 500 B.C. and even with an editor he gets a pass.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Great post, 60's Guy. You pretty much nailed. Gopher Lady and her gang have been grinding their axes about Maturi since I first joined GopherHole. I have always assumed that it was because Joel didn't defer to them in the way they wanted him too. She has just confirmed it for me. Of all the times to publish her personal vendetta against Maturi in the Strib this is the absolute worst. Gopher Lady has lost a huge amount of credibility as a Gopher fan and supporter by doing it.
Click to expand...

I debated putting in my own experience with him, as I knew that I would be criticized for it. I'm past the point of really caring though - I had a very thin skin when I 1st began this blog, and through non-stop ripping apart, I have developed a thicker skin, which is a good thing. I've always cared what people thought, and now I only care what few that I respect think.

I took the advice of a few that read it, and did add it it, to show an example of his lack of vision. That was one of many. If you think it's a personal vendetta, you are sadly mistaken - it's a lack of competency and desire to win that I can't stand. If you think he's a good A.D. and he's capable of taking Minnesota to the next level, then more power to you. I'm looking for any evidence of that still...many years later.
 

Originally Posted by UpnorthGo4
Great post, 60's Guy. You pretty much nailed. Gopher Lady and her gang have been grinding their axes about Maturi since I first joined GopherHole. I have always assumed that it was because Joel didn't defer to them in the way they wanted him too. She has just confirmed it for me. Of all the times to publish her personal vendetta against Maturi in the Strib this is the absolute worst.
Click to expand...

BAD BAD BAD TIMING...what good can come of this? It looks to me like a case of "I'm not going to get mad, I'm going to get even!".

JM knows what is needed and will do his best to get that person. While Brewster turned out to be a disaster, he inspired me so much I bought season tickets after listening to his first press conference...the very same day! He revived some pride in the program. That was what was needed at the time. (If you wanted to stay in mediocrity, you keep Mason.) JM brought in someone who could get us thinking in terms of greatness.

Yes it turned out he didn't have a clue how to coach and manage a program. The mistake he made was not the hiring of Brewster, it was in not firing him earlier.

And, BTW, what makes anyone think that JM is going to make this decision in a closet by himself? I think you're terribly naive to think that given what happened last time. I would bet good money that even the new President K. will be consulted before the trigger is pulled.

GO GOPHERS!
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom