AT THE TIME that Tubby was hired, there were 5 teams in the Big Ten with MULTIPLE FF's on their resume's in the previous 20 years. MSU, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois & OSU. Throw in Wisconsin's 1 FF, and regular Top 4 conf finishes, and Purdue's multiple Big Ten Titles over the last 25 years, and its just an absolute fact that Tubby, coming into the Minnesota job, with Scandal after scandal after scandal proceeding him, and some of the worst facilities in the Big Ten to work with, was WAY BEHIND those 7 teams.
Now on an average year, not all 7 of those teams are going to be playing stellar, so lets say that on average, 2 of those 7 have down years on average. All of those 7 have top notch coaches.
Minnesota regularly finishes above NW and PSU, and now should finish ahead of Nebraska as well. This puts Minnesota and Iowa into that middle tier of teams. Fighting every year with the 2 teams having down years, for the spots from 6th to 9th. In a good year, Minny should be expected to finish 6th or 7th, in a not so good year, from 8th to 10th.
UNLESS something BIG happens to give us that advantage over the Top 5/7.
Hiring Tubby was a step in the right direction, but bad luck with injuries, and NOT complimenting his hire with upgraded facilities, DOES NOT equal up to something big enough to raise us up into the Upper Echelon.
Who do you people think we are that all we need to do is hire a "decent" coach to all of a sudden be one of the Upper Echelon teams in the Big Ten?!
If that is all it took, why wouldn't PSU or NW or Nebraska be able to do the same thing?
Maybe because it takes MORE than just a decent coaching hire to compete with the Upper Echelon of the Big Ten.
It takes a MAJOR investment of either Time and money, or LOTS OF MONEY to get a more immediate effect.
Or, one of the best coaches out there. MSU got lucky with their coach. Wisconsin got lucky with their coach. Had we not suffered the injuries we did, MAYBE people would be talking about how lucky we got with Tubby?! We'd have had a really good year in 2010, gotten better recruits and had a bench this season, done better this season and landed the big 3, and then gone on to incredible glory and Tubby could have retired on top of the world, having proven to everyone that he was a great hall of fame worthy coach.
Instead, we suffered those injuries, our 2010 team struggled, we didn't get the recruits needed to have any kind of a bench this season, and so now this season we are struggling, and things are going down hill because Tubby is getting old and probably has lost the fire needed to make a great season happen?! No one wants to throw money at a sinking ship, so things will get worse for us, we'll continue to be behind the Big 7 from the start, every year, and almost no matter who the new coach will end up being, it won't be enough.
OR, maybe at his age, he can only sustain the fire for short periods?! So maybe we'll get lucky and that fire will flame up right around tourney time, we'll have a VCU/UConn type FF run after struggling during the regular season, and we'll in turn get the big 3, and excitement will build, donations will come in that do not have to go to buying out Tubby but instead can go to practice facility and all will be good in Gopherland.
The only other option is we get uber lucky and the coach we hire after Tubby gets driven out, is the 2nd coming, and pulls off a miracle.
