Eric Kaler: Goodbye or Good Riddance?

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Strictly related to athletics, my opinion remains that as long as the president takes a stance of "I'm going to hire the AD and then let that person run the show and provide anything needed to obtain success", then that's pretty much the best you can hope for.

As far as I know, Kaler did exactly that.


You can't expect an academic, a person who (probably) didn't even play sports past youth level (or ever), to have a good "feel" for what a competent AD hire will be. The president can only listen to advisers and the company hired to search and vet the target. And it's also largely a matter of timing ... who happens to be available, with the correct and reasonable amount of experience at similar types of institutions.
 

Yudof may well have been a functioning alcoholic, but the New Brickhouse doesn't exist without him making Beautiful U Day a thing, and reminding everyone that campus isn't just something that should be bulldozed for more commuter parking.

Kaler was okay.
 

Spoofin said:
Likely just not the right forum for an honest assessment of Kaler. On here most see Kaler -> Coyle -> PJ, and if you love PJ you gotta love the other two. Not all, but most.


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I guess I am different. I like PJ, mostly indifferent on Kaler, strong dislike for Coyle.

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GopherRock said:
Yudof may well have been a functioning alcoholic, but the New Brickhouse doesn't exist without him making Beautiful U Day a thing, and reminding everyone that campus isn't just something that should be bulldozed for more commuter parking.

Kaler was okay.
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One of Yudof's main goals was to make the U more of a community than a commuter campus. In that, he succeeded. The off campus residence boom was started when he was president.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
One of Yudof's main goals was to make the U more of a community than a commuter campus. In that, he succeeded. The off campus residence boom was started when he was president.
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Wasn't another one of his big pushes to get the school to invest into buildings as well? I started at the U in 92 and there wasn't a whole lot going on (Hasselmo still president) and it seemed like once Yudof took over there started to be more investment into facilities, either renovating or building.
 


Pretty sure that Yudof was Prexy when Mason got hired.

That's when I became a fan of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Proud to be so ever since...although stretched a bit during the years of the Bitter End Club...
 

BilldGopher said:
Pretty sure that Yudof was Prexy when Mason got hired.

That's when I became a fan of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Proud to be so ever since...although stretched a bit during the years of the Bitter End Club...
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Hasselmo was president when Mason was hired.
 


He failed in hiring Teague, but at least he appeared to learn from it. I think after that he realized that he needed to go get someone who knew what they were doing. Reeled in a sitting AD of a Power 5 institution with relatively successful athletics program.

Other than that he has generally been a supporter of the football team, and very visible at football events without being overly involved.

As it relates to football I give him a solid B. I think he tried to do what he could to have a good clean football program, but also don't think he saw it as more important than other aspects of his job -- which IMO is how it should be. Have no idea what grade I'd give him overall as I just don't follow those other aspects as closely.
 



He was a mixed bag but we should aspire for better. Good riddance.


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