ESPN radio compared Kill to Monson at Gonzaga

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Stan

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I was listening to a college radio show last night on XM radio and the ESPN host had a writer on from the Chicago Tribune who covers Northern Illinois football. This was after Northern Illinois improved to 10-1 after last seasons 11-3 season. Northern Illinois' only loss is 1 point to Iowa this year. The writer said that Northern Illinois is trying to build a program like Gonzaga has in basketball and that most around the athletic department in NIU credit Kill for making them relevant but that Doeren is more like Mark Few who can keep them at the top and playing at a very high level. They said that Kill taking the money at Minnesota is like Monson taking the money at Minnesota and that some in NIU think it could end for Kill the way it did for Monson at Minnesota. They seem very happy with Doeren right now and are happy with the way it worked out for them. Of course they didn't mention that Few hasn't taken Gonzaga as far as Monson did and that Kill recruited a lot of the guys that Doeren is winning with.
 

Doeren is also already being mentioned as potential Big Ten head coach as jobs open up which would go against the Few comparison who has stayed at Gonzaga despite having other opportunities.

To early to say if Kill will end up going the Monson route, good at the lower level but not ready for the big time.
 

ah...I have little time for comparisons like this...different people...personally not against Monson since he basically had to deal with a far more difficult situations IMO (NCAA sanctions and less scholies) than Kill has and they are two different coaches. Just not the same.
 

The NIU fans better not get too attached to Doeren. He is going to be a hot commodity for a lot of job openings in the next few weeks.

edit to add: Looks like MNVCGUY beat me to it.
 

UNI

Stan said:
I was listening to a college radio show last night on XM radio and the ESPN host had a writer on from the Chicago Tribune who covers Northern Illinois football. This was after Northern Illinois improved to 10-1 after last seasons 11-3 season. Northern Illinois' only loss is 1 point to Iowa this year. The writer said that Northern Illinois is trying to build a program like Gonzaga has in basketball and that most around the athletic department in NIU credit Kill for making them relevant but that Doeren is more like Mark Few who can keep them at the top and playing at a very high level. They said that Kill taking the money at Minnesota is like Monson taking the money at Minnesota and that some in NIU think it could end for Kill the way it did for Monson at Minnesota. They seem very happy with Doeren right now and are happy with the way it worked out for them. Of course they didn't mention that Few hasn't taken Gonzaga as far as Monson did and that Kill recruited a lot of the guys that Doeren is winning with.
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Pure, unadulterated hogwash!!
 


It very well could end the same way for Kill as it did for Monson. But I think Kill has a little longer of a track record than Monson, and he also seems to fully grasp the situation he's in. Wasn't Gonzaga Monson's first job, and he was only there for a few years? Kill has a good bunch of years to look back on that gives you a little more to go on.
 

Good grief, how lazy could this comparison be....

Monson had about as much chance to be successful at Minnesota as head coach as I would have. With the sanctions and penalties that came down after Ganglegate, the Gophers would have been much better off hiring a HS basketball coach for those first 3-4 years to ride out the storm.

Not even remotely apples to apples...
 

Stan said:
...most around the athletic department in NIU credit Kill for making them relevant...
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This seems kind of revisionist. I peripherally followed NIU since 2000 and they were not an "irrelevant" program under the previous coach Novak. According to this article NIU was one of only 18 teams starting in 2000 until Novak's penultimate year to have a winning record for 7 straight years, including wins over ranked FBS opponents. They tanked one season before Kill got there but still had the foundation of a winning program, so it's not like Kill "built the program" from nothing.
 

Catechol said:
This seems kind of revisionist. I peripherally followed NIU since 2000 and they were not an "irrelevant" program under the previous coach Novak. According to this article NIU was one of only 18 teams starting in 2000 until Novak's penultimate year to have a winning record for 7 straight years, including wins over ranked FBS opponents. They tanked one season before Kill got there but still had the foundation of a winning program, so it's not like Kill "built the program" from nothing.
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Yeah, that part kinda tripped me up as well. Novak had that thing churnin pretty good in the 2000s. I think this radio guy was kinda just throwing things up against the wall.
 



As others have said, terrible comparison on both accounts. Kill was vastly more experienced than Monson when each got the Minnesota job. Few has stayed at Gonzaga for 14 seasons, while Doeren will be gone to the highest bidder after 2 at NIU. I get that people need to fill up airwaves and have something to talk about, but this is a poorly researched and stupid comparison.
 


Wasn't Few working under Monson at Gonzaga as well? So, in some sense, couldn't you have attributed Gonzaga's success under Monson at least partially to Few? In the case of NIU, Doeren and Kill never worked together and you can't make that comparison.
 

So Kill followed a decent coach at NIU, left, and was replaced by another decent coach. That automatically means Kill is going to fail here? There's something screwed up in the logic. How do we know it's not going to be more like Xavier or Butler basketball -- a new breeding ground for up-and-coming coaches?
 



Catechol said:
This seems kind of revisionist. I peripherally followed NIU since 2000 and they were not an "irrelevant" program under the previous coach Novak. According to this article NIU was one of only 18 teams starting in 2000 until Novak's penultimate year to have a winning record for 7 straight years, including wins over ranked FBS opponents. They tanked one season before Kill got there but still had the foundation of a winning program, so it's not like Kill "built the program" from nothing.
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Shhh....keep your voice down. Don't go around trying to take credit for building NIU from Kill that kind of thinking doesn't fly around here. :cool:

Clearly they guy was trying to fill airtime and so he reached at a dumb comparisson. At least stick within the same sport, plus as it has been pointed out all the different facts he just left out of the equation.

I actually come down in the camp that feels bad for Monson because he was setup to fail taking over the mess Clem left behind. Pretty much anyone walking into that minefield was going to fail. He has actually done ok for himself at Long Beach State. Even went to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season.
 

Yup, what he said

Gopher07 said:
Wasn't Few working under Monson at Gonzaga as well? So, in some sense, couldn't you have attributed Gonzaga's success under Monson at least partially to Few? In the case of NIU, Doeren and Kill never worked together and you can't make that comparison.
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I agree with Gopher07 and hogwash and apples to apples and it's just a plain dumb comparison.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
Doeren, according to Boiler99 is already in talks with Purdue.
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Along with Butch Jones at Cincinnati. Those are the 2 names I hear the most. Another is Sonny Dykes at La Tech but he is likely to hold out for something bigger and better down south. I don't blame him.
 

Different individuals, different circumstances and a different time. This is a silly comparison - just radio babble. What does mean something is how we finish out this season. That, and the recruits JK lands this next year. The next 3 months will say a lot about how much we have improved. The recruiting especially, I think. JK is a pretty magnetic guy. I expect him to land a few more potential stars this time around.
 

Was it Fred Mitchell? Lol he's been at the Chicago Tribune for like 200 years and his assignments are the Arena League, the WNBA and Northern Illinois.
 

I just went to the NIU football website, didn't know Mike Dunbar was there Offensive Coordinator.
 


Must be a slow news day for ESPN radio to be talking NIU football. Also, I think we should take it as a compliment that so many people affiliated with the NIU program are this butt-hurt over Kill leaving. I don't remember the Zags ever being upset about losing Monson. You'd think a MAC program would be used to this...they are a conference full of stepping stones. I'm not trying to hate, but there just isn't the money for people to stick around. They are the starter home of the NCAA.
 

Iceland12 said:
Does their QB ever get behind the Center..
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Yes, but who cares? Lynch is bad@$$.

The NIU fans realize that Doeren could leave, however it really depends on the job. The openings are pretty garbage around the country, except for Tennessee.
 

CrocShots said:
The NIU fans realize that Doeren could leave, however it really depends on the job. The openings are pretty garbage around the country, except for Tennessee.
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Doeren isn't going to get his pick of SEC jobs after 2 years of coaching a MAC program. I bet he bolts if any BCS program offers this offseason.
 

If they really want to come up with a comparison, compare Tim Brewster and Colorado's Jon Embree.
 

Comparing Monson and Kill is like saying every Miami (OH) coach who gets hired in the B1G must be legendary since both Hayes and Schembeckler came from there. Ask Terry Hoeppner how that worked out...
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
Comparing Monson and Kill is like saying every Miami (OH) coach who gets hired in the B1G must be legendary since both Hayes and Schembeckler came from there. Ask Terry Hoeppner how that worked out...
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Well, Terry Hoeppner died of cancer, so............
 


The comparison is apples to oranges comparing Monson and Kill.
1. Kill brought over pretty much his entire staff and any leftovers never became the head coach at NI whereas Monson didn't bring his best assistant coach with him and that coach stayed back and became the head coach at Gonzaga.
2. Monson came into a program that operated with significant scholarship reductions because of Gangelgate. Kill did not walk into a similar situation.

Monson made a bad decision coming here.
It was a no brainier for Kill.
 

At Gonzaga, Monson benefitted from an automatic berth in a crappy conference. NIU gets almost nothing for winning the MAC, and the Gophers compete against the most well-resourced opponents in college football in the Big Ten.
 

I think the comparisons are just wishful thinking on the part of NIU fans. They hope they can get a guy having success to stay. If they keep hiring these younger guys I think they will just keep having Dan Monson types since they just can't afford to keep them. Joe Novack probably could have left for something better but he was nearing 60 when he started having some really nice years. Basketball is a whole different game then football, not only can you get paid at some smaller conference schools in basketball, but you can also get nearly as much recognition and notoriety since the basketball tournament is such a great equalizer. Maybe they should try to hire Solich type guys, older guys who maybe washed out at the AQ level and are in no hurry to go back. Solich has done a hell of a job at Ohio and since he's 68 I wouldn't be surprised if he just went out to pasture there.
 

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