Congratulations to Mark Coyle on the successful hire

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Dano564

Dano564

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Mark Coyle was brought in as AD and faced a rocky start. He fired a coach who was very popular among some and went out and found his guy.

From fire to hire he spent about 72 hours getting the guy he wanted. Not only did he get the guy he wanted, but it appears PJ Fleck was the #1 or #2 choice (Second only to a guy who is currently struggling to keep his job who was trending on twitter yesterday for repeatedly head-butting a helmeted player of his without a helmet), of any coach in the nation tha year.

Coyle had his guy picked out. He sought him. He got him. Now he's given him whatever support needed to be successful, and now we've had the most successful season in 50 years with one game remaining.

Although his PR skills and public speaking was atrocious during the few months from November 2016 - January 2017, he has done his job masterfully when it comes to hiring and firing coaches.

Congratulations Mark Coyle and congratulations to Minnesota for having an Athletic Director who actually wants to compete at a high level.
 

Thanks to the BOR and presidents for being willing to finally spend some money on hiring the best coaches available.
 


Agreed on Coyle getting his guy, but there is finally support from the administration and BOR for revenue sports and football specifically. They approved PJ’s new contract and more money for his assistants in a special meeting. Even more, some members of the BOR questioned if the salarie should be higher. When has that ever happened here? Finally, those at the top see the value for the university. The free press and revenue generated by ESPN and others talking about the program and coach is invaluable.
 

Gopher2007 said:
Agreed on Coyle getting his guy, but there is finally support from the administration and BOR for revenue sports and football specifically. They approved PJ’s new contract and more money for his assistants in a special meeting. Even more, some members of the BOR questioned if the salarie should be higher. When has that ever happened here? Finally, those at the top see the value for the university. The free press and revenue generated by ESPN and others talking about the program and coach is invaluable.
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Agree 100%.

I don't know if that was started by Kaler, or if Coyle has had a large impact on it, but they seem to be far more aligned to compete from President through head coach than we've ever been and that's 100% necessary to have success.

Coyle may have a big or small role in that alignment, but getting the right head coach was something he did swiftly and perfectly.
 


Face The Facts said:
Agree 100%.

I don't know if that was started by Kaler, or if Coyle has had a large impact on it, but they seem to be far more aligned to compete from President through head coach than we've ever been and that's 100% necessary to have success.

Coyle may have a big or small role in that alignment, but getting the right head coach was something he did swiftly and perfectly.
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Can't say I loved everything about Kaler, but he really seemed to be the one that moved things in that direction.
 

Absolutely this was a Home run hire, and one that would never have been made in years past. Usually, the U of M has a lengthy interview process that takes a month or two to assemble all the candidates, then they blow an entire's year worth of recruiting by being so late. Coyle got blasted by some for firing Claeys who some around here really liked, then hired probably the hottest young coach out there. It has turned out very well, to say the least. Coyle deserves huge credit for this - we would not be where we are at without this hire, and everyone knows it, too.
 


He was part of the Gopher administration before he sojourned to different places. Both he and his wife are from Iowa and are true Midwesterners. They loved it here. Their kids were born here. And most importantly, they wanted to return to the U. Mark Coyle accepted the AD job at Syracuse, but jumped at the chance to return. Kudos to Eric Kaler for hiring him. The first thing that was done was to get rid of the expensive search committee that netted us Norwood Teague.

The mission, vision, and goals are all aligned from PJ Fleck, Mark Coyle, Eric Kaler/Joan Gable, all the way to the BOR. We have the makings of a quality organization that will have permanence for positive change once and for all.

Mark Coyle was the most important hire before PJ Fleck.
 



Fleck is the best thing to happen to Gopher football in a very, very, very long time. I know we just signed him to an extension but in the future the U has to do whatever the hell it takes to keep him here.
 

Word said:
Can't say I loved everything about Kaler, but he really seemed to be the one that moved things in that direction.
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Indeed. We need to give credit where it is due. Kaler did a lot for Gopher sports!
 

Are there any rules to ripping up a contract he signed 3 weeks ago to give him a new contract? I’ve never seen anything like this regarding football in my life. The last two road games local news stations were doing live shoots outside the team hotel!
 

Football (and men's basketball, and men's hockey) drive the bus. There is no bus without those programs.

When they have historic success, then the athletic department and the school have indeed had historic success. That is correct, and this thread's OP is correct.


That said, I'm still going to give my little plug, then shut up and go away:
there is more to life than just football, MBB, and MHKY. The U women's programs have enjoyed some fabulous success, and Coyle was not directly responsible for, but rather a fellow named Maturi.

OK, done with that. There doesn't need to be any discussion or debate about it.
 



MnplsGopher said:
Football (and men's basketball, and men's hockey) drive the bus. There is no bus without those programs.

When they have historic success, then the athletic department and the school have indeed had historic success. That is correct, and this thread's OP is correct.


That said, I'm still going to give my little plug, then shut up and go away:
there is more to life than just football, MBB, and MHKY. The U women's programs have enjoyed some fabulous success, and Coyle was not directly responsible for, but rather a fellow named Maturi.

OK, done with that. There doesn't need to be any discussion or debate about it.
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What are you even talking about?
 

Some guy said:
What are you even talking about?
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The point was that FB, Men's hoops and Men's Hockey are - or have been - the top three revenue-generating sports at MN. If those teams are drawing well, it generates revenue to support the non-revenue and 'olympic' sports. And many of those non-revenue sports have done very well at MN.

If the FB team's success translates to more ticket sales, that is important. But, men's hoops and men's hockey are still lagging way behind historic levels for ticket sales. That is the next big challenge for Coyle and the marketing department. They have to get bodies back in the seats for hoops and hockey. Feel free to bask in the success of the football team - but there is more than football on the AD's plate.
 

I didn't understand Coyle's contract extension of Pitino. It didn't seem to make sense that he would add a couple years on a contract that still had 2 years left. Pitino hasn't done enough to show that he is the long term answer.
 

There was a thread about this very subject a few weeks ago. Why is there a new one?
 



Flash30 said:
There was a thread about this very subject a few weeks ago. Why is there a new one?
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We're going to keep doing it until not one of the usual haters in GopherHole shows up to tell us what a crummy public speaker Coyle is, and how terrible it was for him to publicly say the Gopher's football culture needed to be changed when he introduced Fleck at his initial press conference.
 
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Started out referring to him as snake.

This year started referring to him as our snake.

I now refer to him as our Athletic Director. Rough start with a lot of us but he has followed his compass. Not sure what the "vision thing" is for him but am encouraged overall.
 

Made a top notch hire for FB coach. Has mishandled just about everything else he has touched. He is self serving and a liar. It’s too bad so many think hiring a FB coach is all that matters for someone in his position.
 

I sent Coyle a nasty-gram he probably never saw after he did Claeys dirty. I must give him credit for targeting and getting the right guy and the support he needed to be successful.
 


Spoofin said:
Made a top notch hire for FB coach. Has mishandled just about everything else he has touched. He is self serving and a liar. It’s too bad so many think hiring a FB coach is all that matters for someone in his position.
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So that Lindsay Whalen hire is not working out?
 

Spoofin said:
Made a top notch hire for FB coach. Has mishandled just about everything else he has touched. He is self serving and a liar. It’s too bad so many think hiring a FB coach is all that matters for someone in his position.
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So the Trachsel & Whalen hirings were mishandled.

And the completion of the Athlete's Village was a piece of crap.
 


Spoofin said:
How is that AV fund raising going?
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I love how "pretty much mishandled everything" seems to exclude coaching hires. I guess we should get a new AD because...fundraising. Yeaaaaaah. Okay, buddy.
 

WriterGoph said:
I love how "pretty much mishandled everything" seems to exclude coaching hires. I guess we should get a new AD because...fundraising. Yeaaaaaah. Okay, buddy.
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I never said it excludes coaching hires. Not sure where you got that? I do, however, think leaders should be judged on how they handle tough situations - and MC gets a big “F” there in my book. I also think fundraising is an important part of his job - seems you don’t, buddy. Finally, I must admit my view of MC is clouded by the simple fact that he appears to me to be a self-serving, dishonest, untrustworthy person. But hey, he hired a good FB coach so let’s start multiple threads to honor him.
 

BilldGopher said:
Started out referring to him as snake.

This year started referring to him as our snake.

I now refer to him as our Athletic Director. Rough start with a lot of us but he has followed his compass. Not sure what the "vision thing" is for him but am encouraged overall.
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Thank you. People in management have tough decisions to make everyday.

People who have never been in management have...no clue.

Coyle is a manager that has had to make monumentally tough decisions. So far, he gets an “A” from me.

You’ll see.
 

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