Coyle needs to go

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upnorthkid said:
you should give the GPL podcast from last night a listen. Think Cappy probably had a pretty fair assessment of it (which surprised me a little, but felt like a good portion of what I saw watching it happen live) right around the 25min mark
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Thanks. I went back and listened to it. I don't disagree that it's not all on Bob; it's never just on the coach, as it's never just on the players. As a hockey fan (not just Gophers, but NHL as well), I've seen a lot of teams tense up and lose a game. Not saying that it isn't real.

They also mentioned Paul Martin being up front about that Bob did pull back - one man's opinion, sure, but someone who had visibility whose opinion I think matters.

Throw on top of that, this wasn't an outlier. If you watched any Motzko-coached teams before he got to Minnesota.......same thing happened at various times and levels of pressure. The tendencies of his teams at St. Cloud State and Minnesota to fold in pressure situations are not proof, but evidence that the issue starts with him.

The players often react to the coaches. The fact that the atmosphere on the team really seemed to disintegrate after that loss, and Motzko became more and more of an isolated figure who wasn't willing to acknowledge the failure in that game, the changes in College Hockey going on around him, and the issues within his team. The results? This past season.

I still argue he was a bad hire. Not because he can't coach, he's an above average Hockey coach.

As a blue blood, we should not be hiring above-average coaches. We should be hiring the best coaches available, as we did with Lucia after Woog. Motzko was NOT a top-tier coach, never had been, never will be.

Given the Admin and AD's approach to sports, where Good Enough is now the bar and without the advantages we once had as a blue blood (e.g., a lot more programs playing D1 in Minnesota, other schools' willingness to invest in their programs the way Minnesota won't, etc.) I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that we'll make a hire befitting a blue-blood program. I'd be more optimistic if it weren't Coyle making the decision, perhaps, but he's not the central issue, he's just the result of the "meh, good enough" approach of Athletics at the University of Minnesota.
 

UMN is a joke. They spent $15 million for a slogan a sixth grader could have come up with for free or a Marketing sophomore could have come up with for a pizza party for his or her group. Yet we won't get an extra 200K a year for the hockey coach to make the job more appealing.
 

phifo said:
If we are going to fire coaches with multiple National titles (Frost) and deep runs in the frozen 4 (Motzko) then it’s time to hold the guy who hired then accountable. Coyle needs to go.
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What has Frost done recently? Don’t enjoy watching Wisconsin and Ohio State winning National titles? Minnesota develops way more girls hockey players than any other state. No excuse for Minnesota not to win nattys more frequently.

At Minnesota. It is expected that Minnesota hockey teams compete for the National Championship each and every year. I am a season ticket holder. This years men’s team was an embarrassment to the state of hockey. Fans let Motzko know each and every game it is not acceptable to have a bottom feeder in the BigTen. It was time for a change.
 

caliGopher said:
Thanks. I went back and listened to it. I don't disagree that it's not all on Bob; it's never just on the coach, as it's never just on the players. As a hockey fan (not just Gophers, but NHL as well), I've seen a lot of teams tense up and lose a game. Not saying that it isn't real.

They also mentioned Paul Martin being up front about that Bob did pull back - one man's opinion, sure, but someone who had visibility whose opinion I think matters.

Throw on top of that, this wasn't an outlier. If you watched any Motzko-coached teams before he got to Minnesota.......same thing happened at various times and levels of pressure. The tendencies of his teams at St. Cloud State and Minnesota to fold in pressure situations are not proof, but evidence that the issue starts with him.

The players often react to the coaches. The fact that the atmosphere on the team really seemed to disintegrate after that loss, and Motzko became more and more of an isolated figure who wasn't willing to acknowledge the failure in that game, the changes in College Hockey going on around him, and the issues within his team. The results? This past season.

I still argue he was a bad hire. Not because he can't coach, he's an above average Hockey coach.

As a blue blood, we should not be hiring above-average coaches. We should be hiring the best coaches available, as we did with Lucia after Woog. Motzko was NOT a top-tier coach, never had been, never will be.

Given the Admin and AD's approach to sports, where Good Enough is now the bar and without the advantages we once had as a blue blood (e.g., a lot more programs playing D1 in Minnesota, other schools' willingness to invest in their programs the way Minnesota won't, etc.) I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that we'll make a hire befitting a blue-blood program. I'd be more optimistic if it weren't Coyle making the decision, perhaps, but he's not the central issue, he's just the result of the "meh, good enough" approach of Athletics at the University of Minnesota.
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SCSU fans were laughing when they hired Motzko. They mentioned have fun watching him wins games only to choke in important games. Spot on. Don’t forget. Lost to Michigan at home three years in a row in BigTen Championship game.
 


Honestly you get someone who takes modern recruiting seriously we are probably title contenders quickly.
 

jankwi01 said:
Honestly you get someone who takes modern recruiting seriously we are probably title contenders quickly.
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Basically meaning, what's our payroll for players. Because that's modern recruiting.
 

Coyle seems to give the locals and influencers what they want on the same hire and then when they fail he goes his way.

Johnson, Whalen, and Motzko were all those type of hires in my opinion. Whalen got a good class in but seemed stressed beyond repair and as some have said, almost relieved when she was fired. Johnson just didn’t have the it factor. Motzko ran his course.

I think all three needed to go and weren’t going to adapt or survive the new reality of college sports.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Coyle seems to give the locals and influencers what they want on the same hire and then when they fail he goes his way.

Johnson, Whalen, and Motzko were all those type of hires in my opinion. Whalen got a good class in but seemed stressed beyond repair and as some have said, almost relieved when she was fired. Johnson just didn’t have the it factor. Motzko ran his course.

I think all three needed to go and weren’t going to adapt or survive the new reality of college sports.
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How were these two hires similar?
 




So after Coyle shows Motzko the door we are now down to Larson and Poultney. This is going well. I am quite sure Humphreys and the Cullen brothers are waiting with baited breath to see which of these fine candidates they will be playing for. This is some 4D chess Coyle is playing here. I gotta say I was totally wrong about this. Coyle has things well in hand here.
 

A little off topic, but if Coyle was going to Kentucky, don't you think he would have just let Frost and Bob stay and let new AD deal with it?
 




No way in hell Kentucky is hiring Coyle. Talk about a step backwards for them if they did.
 

We’re still early in the search process. There are more candidates than Larson and Potulny.

On Coyle, he’s a good AD and our athletic department would miss him if he left.
 

beatles said:
We’re still early in the search process. There are more candidates than Larson and Potulny.

On Coyle, he’s a good AD and our athletic department would miss him if he left.
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By what standards do you figure Coyle is a good AD?
 

GopherPete said:
By what standards do you figure Coyle is a good AD?
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He hired the best football coach we’ve had since Lou Holtz. He recently hired the best men’s basketball coach we’ve had since Haskins. A couple years ago he hired the best women’s basketball coach we’ve had in over twenty years. He hired Motzko which was the right decision. Yes he’s had some misses as well but overall he’s been very good.
 

I'd say his previous hires have been average or slightly above average at best. The way the hockey hirings are playing out this time around is not exactly impressive or instilling confidence that he knows what he's doing, or even cares for that matter. Fund raising is well below average, he's not very personable, and doesn't seem to provide resources to our historically successful programs (mens and women's hockey, wrestling, volleyball). Not a good AD from my perspective.
 

GopherPete said:
I'd say his previous hires have been average or slightly above average at best. The way the hockey hirings are playing out this time around is not exactly impressive or instilling confidence that he knows what he's doing, or even cares for that matter. Fund raising is well below average, he's not very personable, and doesn't seem to provide resources to our historically successful programs (mens and women's hockey, wrestling, volleyball). Not a good AD from my perspective.
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Hockey, wrestling, and volleyball take a backseat when we’re talking about the job performance of an AD at a Big Ten school. And I’ve had hockey season tickets since the ‘80’s.
 

beatles said:
Hockey, wrestling, and volleyball take a backseat when we’re talking about the job performance of an AD at a Big Ten school. And I’ve had hockey season tickets since the ‘80’s.
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Tell that to UM, MSU, and PSU
 


And yet they're all doing much more to support their hockey program than the U and Coyle
 


GopherPete said:
And yet they're all doing much more to support their hockey program than the U and Coyle
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Mich St and Penn St have one large benefactor for their athletic programs who has stepped forward and provided the cash. There is a reason Penn St arena is named after the Pegula family. And Magic Johnson just forked over a ton of cash to MSU. Mich is a different animal all together, they have multiple large donors. The AD at those schools had little to do with that money coming.
 

Gee I wonder if Coyle had been actually attempting to raise funds throughout his tenure if maybe we would have more donors?
 

beatles said:
He hired the best football coach we’ve had since Lou Holtz. He recently hired the best men’s basketball coach we’ve had since Haskins. A couple years ago he hired the best women’s basketball coach we’ve had in over twenty years. He hired Motzko which was the right decision. Yes he’s had some misses as well but overall he’s been very good.
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Okay I love Niko, I really do, but he's had one season with a squad filled with injuries and a team that finished 11th and lost in the first round of the B1G tournament. Maybe hold off on calling him Basketball Jesus.
 

phifo said:
Okay I love Niko, I really do, but he's had one season with a squad filled with injuries and a team that finished 11th and lost in the first round of the B1G tournament. Maybe hold off on calling him Basketball Jesus.
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Never claimed he was Jesus. But you know he’s better than Monson, Pitino, and Johnson. I only said he’s our best coach since Haskins which I know is true.

Actually I guess we could argue Tubby, I somehow forgot about him. But the bottom line is that Medved was a great hire by Coyle.
 


PMWinSTP said:
Boy, hindsight really is 20/20 on this thread.
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It's smaller than hoops and football, but you can make a very strong argument that no fan base at the U comes even close to the passion of the Men's Hockey base.

Larson or Potulny is going to be a huge buzz kill if it happens, and agree with it or not, Coyle is going to get savaged. When the search first began, I thought Raboin would be the disappointing fallback option. Now I'm praying he gets the job.
 

Yes now I'm on board lol but it won't change the fate of the only program I care about...
 

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