Anyone else impressed with Maturi today?

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EG#9

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I watched the press conference and could not believe this was the same Joel Maturi. Football is the "engine" "wins and losses" "competing for Big Ten championships". I am usually very critical of Mr.Maturi, but if he has truly adapted this attitude toward football's place in the athletic department, that's a great step in the right direction.

I also think it was very important that Maturi apologize for the leak, and I felt like he did that in a very contrite manner.
 

Not impressed. Did he say some things all want to hear?

Of course.

Did he just figure it all out? Really?
 

EG#9 said:
I watched the press conference and could not believe this was the same Joel Maturi. Football is the "engine" "wins and losses" "competing for Big Ten championships". I am usually very critical of Mr.Maturi, but if he has truly adapted this attitude toward football's place in the athletic department, that's a great step in the right direction.

I also think it was very important that Maturi apologize for the leak, and I felt like he did that in a very contrite manner.
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Where was that "attitude" prior to hiring Brewster? I thought Maturi was defensive and sounded ridiculous when Joe Schmidt ask some tough questions about his own responsibility regarding the failure of Brewster. He said he would put his track record of hires up against others (sorry Joel but having Tubby fall in to your lap doesn't make up for the football debacle).

I predict the students will start screaming "fire Maturi" if/when the team starts getting toasted by OSU/IA
 

Joel Maturi is not going to get fired. He made a bad hire in Coach Brew but realizes his mistake and I don't believe it will happen this time around.

Give him a chance to finish his job. He totally realizes his legacy rests with this hire to go alolng with Tubby.

He did look tired and stressed out today but he knows he has a job to finish.
 

He seemed visibly upset. You may question his decisions, but you can't question he's a genuine fellow.
 


He is a fantastic human being. Which, sadly, is maybe part of the problem.
 

I have been critical of Maturi in the past and I still have some issues with how he's conducted affairs in the past. Having said that, I was impressed with him today. He seemed genuinely upset and I think a good deal of his frustration with due to how poor this hire turned out to be. In other words, I think he feels a good deal of personal responsibility for the current situation and is vowing not to let it happen again. Whether that sentiment comes through when the hire is finally made remains to be seen, but from what I saw today, he seems to fully understand the situation and his part in how this has played out.
 

I just got through looking at the video from the press conference. I wouldn't fault a thing that Maturi said or did.

Most of all, though, I continue to be very impressed by and proud of Adam Weber. This is a young man who has had his share of dreams that have been cut short and who still displays maturity and class.
 

I was quite impressed. Maturi seemed to acknowledge all of the issues surrounding the football situation that I, for one, thought he did not understand.
 



Is the full video available somewhere? Gophersports only seems to have Joel's opening remarks.

Thanks in advance, knuckleheads.
 


He seemed to find a backbone. That much was nice. I didn't really have anything to be critical of in how he handled things at the presser. What I'm more interested in is how he handles the upcoming coaching search. Hopefully he's learned from his mistakes.
 




I think Maturi handled this very well.

He made a mistake.

He accepted it.

He's trying to fix it.

Look at some of the other coaching decisions that have been made by Big Ten AD's over the past decade. It seems like cumulatively they're batting about .500--- This is far from the only mistake made in hiring.

Coaches that come to mind:
Rich Rod: Questionable
Zook: Probably not a success
Dantonio: Great hire
Danny Hope: Questionable
Bill Lynch: Hasn't moved the program forward
Pat Fizgerald: Good coach, New Years Day bowl game, but no conference championship threat
 

Maturi sounded just like Bob McDonald to me. After we would lose a basketball game that we should have won, the same tone Maturi used could be heard in our locker room. You need need that coming from your leaders. I think it's about damn time we saw and heard Maturi upset about the football program. No tip-toeing around how we are trying to get better and the like, it was straight forward and to the point. I loved the shot at Sid and the budget woes. Something like that is one of those falsehoods that you can't control once it's out.

I really hope he and Bruininks can right this wrong, their reputations are riding on it. Like we've heard, athletics are the window on a university, and I bet Bruininks is pretty pissed the U of M looks like a joke in the national media. We could have used a university president like him 30 years ago.
 

By the way the "You're not following Vince Lombardi here" is one of the most unintentionally hilarious comments I've heard in ages.
 

As had been said before, I believe Maturi is a really genuine guy and pretty much a stand-up guy. Was out of town and didn't see this, but it sounds as though he handled himself well.
 

Big Ten Mind said:
Where was that "attitude" prior to hiring Brewster? I thought Maturi was defensive and sounded ridiculous when Joe Schmidt ask some tough questions about his own responsibility regarding the failure of Brewster. He said he would put his track record of hires up against others (sorry Joel but having Tubby fall in to your lap doesn't make up for the football debacle).

I predict the students will start screaming "fire Maturi" if/when the team starts getting toasted by OSU/IA
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Exactly. What he said!
 

Khaliq said:
By the way the "You're not following Vince Lombardi here" is one of the most unintentionally hilarious comments I've heard in ages.
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I thought it was a brilliant comment, took a shot at Brew without outright saying it.
 

Khaliq said:
By the way the "You're not following Vince Lombardi here" is one of the most unintentionally hilarious comments I've heard in ages.
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Seriously, I burst out laughing when he said that. Great speech all around. Who knew he had it in him.
 

I was very impressed with Maturi and the press conference today and I was even pumped afterwards. Then a couple hours later I was remembering that I felt much the same about Maturi after the Mason firing conference. I think the lesson is this:

Maturi is a people pleaser. He will say all the right things to whatever group he's in front of. I was proud today to hear him admit football is the engine and we're involved in a big time conference. But I have a feeling the next time I hear him he'll be on WCCO skirting questions about revenue sports and encouraging people to come to the next rowing event.
 

Build you a statue

Loved the win us the Rose Bowl and we'll put a statue of you outside TCF!
 

"Your not following Vince Lombardi here"-Joel Maturi


HAHA That has to cut deep to coach Brew.
 

wels0081 said:
I think Maturi handled this very well.

He made a mistake.

He accepted it.

He's trying to fix it.

Look at some of the other coaching decisions that have been made by Big Ten AD's over the past decade. It seems like cumulatively they're batting about .500--- This is far from the only mistake made in hiring.

Coaches that come to mind:
Rich Rod: Questionable
Zook: Probably not a success
Dantonio: Great hire
Danny Hope: Questionable
Bill Lynch: Hasn't moved the program forward
Pat Fizgerald: Good coach, New Years Day bowl game, but no conference championship threat
Click to expand...

My issue is not that he made a mistake, which he did, its the level of mistake he made.

Dick Rod: Successful in his previous stint, if a risk, one work taking
Zook: PROVEN recruiter as a head coach and above .500 head coach at Florida in the SEC. A risk, but worth the gamble given the PROVEN results up to the point of Illinois hiring him.
Dantonio: A good hire of a coach on the way up
Danny Hope: Has the team playing well and winning games under adverse conditions in year two. Time will tell, but a good risk that appears to be on the way to a very good hire.
Bill Lynch: under the circumstances was a good hire for continuity in a tough time, but the program is not going anywhere and it is only a matter of time before they make a change.

All in all, the circumstances behind these hires are very different from what Maturi did. There were better candidates interested most of whom were more qualified. It's not a guarantee that any of them would have worked out differently, but the odds would have been better for most of them over someone as underqualified as Brewster was.

This is why I'm concerned Maturi will have a hand in this. He blew it beyond words on the choice he made. If he'd hired Charlie Strong, Lane Kiffin, or any of the other top candidates and we were in this space today Maturi would be much more defensible in his actions.
 

Big Ten Mind said:
I thought Maturi was defensive and sounded ridiculous when Joe Schmidt ask some tough questions about his own responsibility regarding the failure of Brewster. He said he would put his track record of hires up against others (sorry Joel but having Tubby fall in to your lap doesn't make up for the football debacle).
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Joel said "if you do your homework" on his past hires, he'd put his resume up against others. Clearly, you are one that hasn't done his homework. He isn't just talking about Tubby Smith. If you had done your homework, you'd have found out as an AD, he's also hired the following coaches in the major sports he has overseen:

Terry Hoeppner, football Miami (OH) - went on to nice things at Indiana
Enrico Blase, men's hockey Miami (OH) - 2-time NATIONAL Coach of Year
Maria Fantanarosa, women's basketball Miami (OH) - all-time winningest coach at Miami
Tubby Smith, men's basketball Minnesota - good hire

He also wanted to hire Bo Ryan at Denver when Bo was coach at UW-Platteville, but the Denver president vetoed him.

Has Joel made some mistakes? Of course. All ADs have some blemishes, and yes Brewster is a large blemish. But, let's give him a chance to correct before we crucify him as clueless. He spotted Enrico Blase when he was a young up-and-comer. He saw something in Terry Hoeppner. He brought us Tubby Smith.
 

caliGopher said:
My issue is not that he made a mistake, which he did, its the level of mistake he made.

Dick Rod: Successful in his previous stint, if a risk, one work taking
Zook: PROVEN recruiter as a head coach and above .500 head coach at Florida in the SEC. A risk, but worth the gamble given the PROVEN results up to the point of Illinois hiring him.
Dantonio: A good hire of a coach on the way up
Danny Hope: Has the team playing well and winning games under adverse conditions in year two. Time will tell, but a good risk that appears to be on the way to a very good hire.
Bill Lynch: under the circumstances was a good hire for continuity in a tough time, but the program is not going anywhere and it is only a matter of time before they make a change.

All in all, the circumstances behind these hires are very different from what Maturi did. There were better candidates interested most of whom were more qualified. It's not a guarantee that any of them would have worked out differently, but the odds would have been better for most of them over someone as underqualified as Brewster was.

This is why I'm concerned Maturi will have a hand in this. He blew it beyond words on the choice he made. If he'd hired Charlie Strong, Lane Kiffin, or any of the other top candidates and we were in this space today Maturi would be much more defensible in his actions.
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+1

A big reckless gamble.

Maturi spoke well. He is obviously a good person.

Three statements he made that bother me -

1. We were 6-6 last year and seemed to be OK (I really believe he is shooting for OK).

2. Win a Rosebowl and will build you a statue (he has very low expectations).

3. Only I know, who was and was not interested last year and I felt Tim Brewster was the best candidate available. (If he really believes this, he has no business picking the next coach!!!!!!).

He never admitted he made a mistake "Brewster just did not win enough games" Brewster let Joel down.

Fine he feels bad. What does that have to do with this mess? Maturi should not make this decision.
 

Joel had a very good presser, but I hope he already has a good idea of who he is going to pick and that they will accept. If not there is no reason to dismiss coordinators or 'lower level coaches' like he did. Listening, I got the impression that the backchannels have already been worked and are coming up positively. The only verbage I didn't like was a coach with more 'noteriety'. I've always viewed noteriety as akin to being famous for the wrong reasons. Sam Bowie comes to mind.
 

The "Vince Lombardi" comment was an unnecessary shot at Brewster. Maturi is the last person who should be taking cheap shots over people's job performance .
 

Care to expand on that TJ?

tjgopher said:
Joel said "if you do your homework" on his past hires, he'd put his resume up against others. Clearly, you are one that hasn't done his homework. He isn't just talking about Tubby Smith. If you had done your homework, you'd have found out as an AD, he's also hired the following coaches in the major sports he has overseen:

Terry Hoeppner, football Miami (OH) - went on to nice things at Indiana
Enrico Blase, men's hockey Miami (OH) - 2-time NATIONAL Coach of Year
Maria Fantanarosa, women's basketball Miami (OH) - all-time winningest coach at Miami
Tubby Smith, men's basketball Minnesota - good hire

He also wanted to hire Bo Ryan at Denver when Bo was coach at UW-Platteville, but the Denver president vetoed him.

Has Joel made some mistakes? Of course. All ADs have some blemishes, and yes Brewster is a large blemish. But, let's give him a chance to correct before we crucify him as clueless. He spotted Enrico Blase when he was a young up-and-comer. He saw something in Terry Hoeppner. He brought us Tubby Smith.
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By most accounts, Tubby brought himself. Joel had very, very little to do with it.
 

BarnBurner said:
By most accounts, Tubby brought himself. Joel had very, very little to do with it.
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Other than, ya know, getting a HOF coach to leave Kentucky to come here once he knew he was interested.
 

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