"Coffee with Kill" impresses former Gophers this morning

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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a few tweets from Marcus:

"Coach Kill made a real good impression during a meeting with 23 former Gopher players this morning at the football complex."

"Former Gopher Ray Hitchcock got the group together after talking with Kill recently. Wants to do it more often, call it "Coffee with Kill"."

"Kill said Jay Sawvel is his secondary coach. He will also have Adam Clark as his recruiting coordinator."

Go Gophers!!
 


I am really glad that Kill and the U have made an effort to mend the bridge with their alumni. I said it in another thread that it goes a long way in making us a less dsyfunctional football program.

However, these "M Men" are starting to get a tad bit annoying. I guess the part that bothered me is when Hitchcock was talking about having more meetings and he thinks Kill understands "how important the "M" Men are". I hope those guys get some respect and that they give the school full support (it's their Alma Mater!) and that's the extent of the relationship (for the most part).
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I am really glad that Kill and the U have made an effort to mend the bridge with their alumni. I said it in another thread that it goes a long way in making us a less dsyfunctional football program.

However, these "M Men" are starting to get a tad bit annoying. I guess the part that bothered me is when Hitchcock was talking about having more meetings and he thinks Kill understands "how important the "M" Men are". I hope those guys get some respect and that they give the school full support (it's their Alma Mater!) and that's the extent of the relationship (for the most part).
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I think it's a fine line, but if you have former players who live in communities around the state and they support the coach and program it is huge. Hitchcock is on the CDH staff. Others are involved in programs.
 

There are M-Men all over the country and many communicate with local M-Men that they know and played with. With good relationship locally, the recruiting network around the country is emense. If there are good feelings, maybe people like Dr. Cook in Fla. might have insite and connections that might help in his area. This started with Brewster, but was never followed thru on, and with no success it fizzled. Nobody wants success more than these guys. It hurts to go around the country and be a laughing stock!
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
However, these "M Men" are starting to get a tad bit annoying. I guess the part that bothered me is when Hitchcock was talking about having more meetings and he thinks Kill understands "how important the "M" Men are". I hope those guys get some respect and that they give the school full support (it's their Alma Mater!) and that's the extent of the relationship (for the most part).
Click to expand...

The thing is, this seems to fit with things Kill said in his opening presser. He talked about how he needs everyone to rally behind the team and move in the same direction. One thing I noticed on the U's blog post about the "Coffee with Kill" group was that Hitchcock mentioned how meeting more frequently with Kill could make it easier for the M-Men to spread Kill's message to the community. Here's the section I'm talking about:
"This guy's the right guy," Hitchcock said. "He's a guy who understands the importance of 'M' men and is going to be able to reach out to us. One thing he announced this morning is that he's going to open spring practice to all of us. We'll be welcomed at any time. That will be a good opportunity for us to come over and see how he coaches. If we do this on a monthly basis, we'll have 300 past players in front of him. That's going to give them an opportunity to go out, be advocates for the program and take the message that Coach Kill is talking about out to the street."
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It is easy to say "they should be doing that anyway b/c it's their alma mater". And I'd agree with you. But he isn't saying their support is contingent on meeting with Kill. He's saying that former players can support the program better and share the message that Kill wants shared if they are included a little bit. That's a pretty important distinction IMO. And one that makes a lot of sense to me given Kill's early talk about getting not just support, but organized and coordinated support in the wider community as part of making the program successful.
 

We talk all the time on this board about recruiting and missing the best players to other programs...we have the stadium, the city and the school to get these players...we need the coach (hope Kill is the guy) and we need the supporters that steer kids to programs. M Men can be a part of this process...D1 athletes tend to coach sports and they tend to have kids that play sports...having our alumni athletes selling the U and our program in thier communities accross the state and the country will do nothing but help our program rise from the ashes...plus we need to have these guys and others donating money to get to where we want to be...we need our alumni base to win...start with former players and build to other groups...when the U wins...we all look good!
 

I wonder if Kill will get in touch with current Minnesota NFL players? Many times we hear a former player bragging how great their old school is.
 

Coach Kill has a plan and he has given it a good jump start. He offers no guarantees but has surrounded himself with faces who are familiar with it and understand it. Other can join in when the opportunity is right. A good number of past UM players are ready.

I thought he was the best choice after all the big names went away. I was sold on his record but the more I read and hear about his plan gives me a feeling that he may be the guy we need. Stay tuned.
 



Ray is a class guy and one of "us". Nice to see the connection with Kill made.
 

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