Coyle on being “mad” the Gophers aren’t in the NCAA Tournament: “If you could see the text messages to my wife.”

BleedGopher

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Folks, our AD:

“Yeah [this tournament] has had good games to see and it’s amazing… I get mad, to be honest with you, because I [want the Gophers] to be there, as an AD. If you could see the text messages to my wife… You know, that there’s no reason why we can’t do it at Minnesota. Somehow we’ve gotta pop through and get in there. I love that competition, and the pressure, and I’m absolutely confident our kids would love that, and that’s our goal, to get there and experience that pressure.”

Go Gophers!!
 




Good grief! He’s the AD, if he wanted the team to play a tougher schedule maybe he should have told Ben last year. I can’t believe the coach has the only say in the non conference schedule. He sure doesn’t negotiate the terms, the dates and the payout percentage without the AD’s input. This interview sounded like complete "tell dah rubes what dey wanna hear".

Coyle is a BB guy? But he loves PJ? I could see that if PJ was winning the division, was able to regularly fill that mini football stadium they built, and come within 40 pts of MI and Ohio St on occasion. But I suppose Coyle does love those free oil changes in Detroit every Dec. Yes the football team is better than in the past, we even won a couple trophy games. But the talent increase is incremental, and our offense would make Woody Hayes proud!

He wanted to hold his head up high in those NCAA meetings, he should have spent the money on a high end coach. He didn’t. I like Ben Johnson, someday, somewhere he is going to be successful. I hope it’s here. But he is a project coach, and Coyle knew that.

Btw, “scandal that rocked the nation"? At UCLA, Duke, Kentucky, or Las Vegas it wouldn’t have even made the front page! Just business as usual.
 




I don't pretend to be able to read Coyle's mind and know what he's really thinking. and - to be blunt - Coyle is such a poor communicator that it's next to impossible to figure out what he really means based on what he says.

But to me - this feels like Coyle is doing a massive "cover your ass" campaign. HE wants to win. HE wants to be in the NCAA tournament. So, if the Gophers don't make it, it's not HIS fault.

(of course, HE hired the current Coach, but let's not talk about that.)

Coye - IMHO - is trying to position himself so that he can bask in the glory if the team wins, but he can also avoid accepting any responsibility if the team doesn't win.
 

Then why would he have a coach in play who is a D2 guy? So weird. Sometimes I think Coyle is the problem
Not sure how anyone on this forum sees otherwise at this point. Coyle takes credit for every bit of athletic success here at the U and at his past two jobs but somehow gets a pass on Basketball by many.

He has had 8 years to make positive changes to the Men's basketball program and the program is pretty much at its lowest point. Mark Coyle has done absolutely nothing for the Basketball program and should resign.

His advocates point at the mediocre football program/coach but the only difference I see is that we now occasionally can beat a Wisconsin program that is in decline. Thats it? No Big 10 titles, winning % less than 6 out of 10 games, football trajectory is in decline...

Coyle is the problem.
 



Definitely feels like that is what he is doing by openly bringing up the tournament multiple times.
Greasing the skids so the crowd who will lose their minds when we can a black head coach have ample time to process the expectations and keep the wailing and gnashing of teeth to a dull roar.

It oddly feels like a tacit admission he swung and missed. I think he really wanted to get someone in this role who would be here a long time and build a sustainable program. I think he feared given our history that any outsider with an ounce of success would get poached. Hard to sustain anything when you have to replace coaches every few years. But going with the greenest of greenhorns was always a high risk / high reward proposition.

There is no question. He either makes the tournament or he's done. I don't have high hopes at this point, but at least I feel relatively confident that a year from now this experiment will have yielded fruit or we're cutting the tree down.
 

I don't pretend to be able to read Coyle's mind and know what he's really thinking. and - to be blunt - Coyle is such a poor communicator that it's next to impossible to figure out what he really means based on what he says.

But to me - this feels like Coyle is doing a massive "cover your ass" campaign. HE wants to win. HE wants to be in the NCAA tournament. So, if the Gophers don't make it, it's not HIS fault.

(of course, HE hired the current Coach, but let's not talk about that.)

Coye - IMHO - is trying to position himself so that he can bask in the glory if the team wins, but he can also avoid accepting any responsibility if the team doesn't win.
Sounds like 90% of the senior leaders and executives I've experienced in over 25 years of professional working. Almost every single one of these people are cut from the same cloth, probably because they were all trained in the same MBA curriculum that emphasizes marketing spin over honesty and salesmanship over integrity. It is very difficult for people to admit they f'd up, especially those in high places. Coyle just happens to also be socially awkward, which makes it even worse.

If and when I see one in the wild actually take responsibility for something they did or did not do, I hope I remember to record it. :)
 

One big, Garcia, doesn't make this team competitive. Unless we get two more bigs, one of whom needs to be an upgrade over Payne, then we are changing head coaches during or after next season.
 

Sounds like 90% of the senior leaders and executives I've experienced in over 25 years of professional working. Almost every single one of these people are cut from the same cloth, probably because they were all trained in the same MBA curriculum that emphasizes marketing spin over honesty and salesmanship over integrity. It is very difficult for people to admit they f'd up, especially those in high places. Coyle just happens to also be socially awkward, which makes it even worse.

If and when I see one in the wild actually take responsibility for something they did or did not do, I hope I remember to record it. :)
It's the Peter Principle, another great MBA tidbit to learn.
 



Folks, our AD:

“Yeah [this tournament] has had good games to see and it’s amazing… I get mad, to be honest with you, because I [want the Gophers] to be there, as an AD. If you could see the text messages to my wife… You know, that there’s no reason why we can’t do it at Minnesota. Somehow we’ve gotta pop through and get in there. I love that competition, and the pressure, and I’m absolutely confident our kids would love that, and that’s our goal, to get there and experience that pressure.”

Go Gophers!!
Let's see those texts, Mark. I bet they're scathing.
 


I think a lot of the posts miss the point. These days it's less about the coaches (CBJ and PJ) and more about the money. The money leads straight to the AD's office. In 2024 you can have the greatest coaches in the world, and we don't, but if you are behind in the NIL race, and we are, you won't hold on to your players.

Slimy Norwood Teague is much better suited to be an NIL AD than flat line Mark Coyle.
 

Greasing the skids so the crowd who will lose their minds when we can a black head coach have ample time to process the expectations and keep the wailing and gnashing of teeth to a dull roar.

It oddly feels like a tacit admission he swung and missed. I think he really wanted to get someone in this role who would be here a long time and build a sustainable program. I think he feared given our history that any outsider with an ounce of success would get poached. Hard to sustain anything when you have to replace coaches every few years. But going with the greenest of greenhorns was always a high risk / high reward proposition.

There is no question. He either makes the tournament or he's done. I don't have high hopes at this point, but at least I feel relatively confident that a year from now this experiment will have yielded fruit or we're cutting the tree down.
Swing and missed????
 



Sounds like 90% of the senior leaders and executives I've experienced in over 25 years of professional working. Almost every single one of these people are cut from the same cloth, probably because they were all trained in the same MBA curriculum that emphasizes marketing spin over honesty and salesmanship over integrity. It is very difficult for people to admit they f'd up, especially those in high places. Coyle just happens to also be socially awkward, which makes it even worse.

If and when I see one in the wild actually take responsibility for something they did or did not do, I hope I remember to record it. :)

Coyle is fine. It goes way deeper than an AD, and has for decades.
 

I wonder if he offered Ben a blindfold before putting him up on the plank.
 






Good grief! He’s the AD, if he wanted the team to play a tougher schedule maybe he should have told Ben last year. I can’t believe the coach has the only say in the non conference schedule.
What was NC State’s SOS this season?
 
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