FMK: Fleck, Mason or Kill?

Who would you hire in their prime?

  • Fleck

    Votes: 57 78.1%

  • Mason

    Votes: 9 12.3%

  • Kill

    Votes: 7 9.6%
  • Total voters
    73
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I voted Fleck. I would have voted Mason but he seemed too comfortable being mediocre. I believe Fleck will work as hard as he can to get the program to where would all like it. Whether he can do it or not is the question.
 



Mason was your typical lazy gopher coach. Kill was a good coach but let his ego ruin him. PJ was made for this stuff.
 

Mason is easily the most overrated Gopher coach. Super soft schedules in his best years to inflate his records (not his fault necessarily, but needs to be taken in context). I love Mason on the Barreiro show though.
 

They are kind of like thinking about your old girlfriends. You tend to only remember the good times. I recall Mason did not want to recruit AWjr, and then got talked into taking him? Is that correct, I am too lazy to look it up.
 

LakevilleBro said:
They are kind of like thinking about your old girlfriends. You tend to only remember the good times. I recall Mason did not want to recruit AWjr, and then got talked into taking him? Is that correct, I am too lazy to look it up.
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That would be Marion Barber III
 



In regard to recruiting, Fleck for sure as he is a blowhard and is charismatic.

In regards to building a program, Mason built us from nothing and had a sustained success where we went from a 2-3 win team to a 6-8 win team every year for many years.

In regards to motivation, I feel those players for Kill were always inspired and always prepared to play every single week and he maximized talent the best. My pick was Kill for this reason.
 






They all had their moments, but I agree that Fleck was made for being the MN coach.
 


I’d say kill if it’s in their prime, meaning minimal health issues.

he was flat out a great coach and developed kids to play way above their star rankings. Despite the offensive short comings

Fleck would be second, but it’s too early in his tenure to perhaps put him this high if you’re looking at his overall body of work.
 

Word said:
Mason is easily the most overrated Gopher coach. Super soft schedules in his best years to inflate his records (not his fault necessarily, but needs to be taken in context). I love Mason on the Barreiro show though.
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One thing I will say for Mason, He defeated every team in the BIG while he was at Minnesota, pretty remarkable when you think about it. Fleck has not seen his prime yet.
 



Is this a spin off F@$%, Marry or Kill?

edit: nvm...I see now that UpAndUnder43 already made the same joke
edit2: apparently half the posters made that joke and I missed seeing it
 


HoustonTXGopher said:
One thing I will say for Mason, He defeated every team in the BIG while he was at Minnesota, pretty remarkable when you think about it. Fleck has not seen his prime yet.
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Not sure it’s that remarkable to defeat 10 teams in ten years. I assume he lost to all of them as well.
 

Based on their tenures at Minnesota it is Fleck and it isn't even close. In their prime adds a slightly different wrinkle to it.

I guess the big question would be what was Jerry Kill's prime? Was it his NIU years, or was it Southern Illinois....Minnesota? Not that it really matters because of these 3 options for me he is the clear #3 choice.

Mason is an interesting one. The Glen Mason who was coaching the Gophers prior to the OSU job debacle was on a really good trajectory. The Glen Mason after the OSU mess was not. If pre OSU Mason is considered his prime I might give that guy a look.

But in the end, Fleck has demonstrated an upside that both Kill and Mason failed to reach, so in the end he is still the choice in my opinion.
 


PJ was in his prime a couple of years ago fielding mostly Kill's recruits.
Kill was a physically ill man with a very serious seizure disorder.
Mason lost interest after was turned down for the tOSU HC position.
 

btowngopher said:
Not sure it’s that remarkable to defeat 10 teams in ten years. I assume he lost to all of them as well.
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The fact that Mason is the only coach to have served 10 seasons as head coach since Murray Warmath is reason to give the guy a little respect as a coach. Now, beating Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St when they were all top ten teams is pretty impressive.
 

Mason had a tiny fraction of the support here as PJ has - and Mason knew there was nothing he could do to change that. Thus, he was lazy in recruiting because the goal was to use us as a stepping stone so no point putting your heart and soul into recruiting. Unfortunately for him, he did not get that big offer soon enough and he eventually had to live with his poor recruiting.

That said, Mason's game planning and player development was far superior to PJ or Kill. For me, Kill is the overrated one. Bad recruiting, poor game day coaching, minimal player development. He only looked good because he was the polar opposite of Brewster.
 

Fleck in his prime, would more than likely be Fleck a decade or two from now. If we want to compare Fleck's best prime years in his 30's compared to Mason and Kill's entire careers it si something different. Thing is I would still take Fleck at this time for the mere fact I have the hope of greatness. I loved Mason and Kill for making Gophers respectable during their time. They gave us a treat, but they also recruited and/or coached in a way that never brought us to excellence. Fleck has 2019 and I believe he will have more years like that in the future.
 

gophernut1 said:
Fleck in his prime, would more than likely be Fleck a decade or two from now.
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Maybe, maybe not. Fleck has his reputation due to recruiting. If we win 6 games or less this year and repeat again next year with a new QB, I think the recruiting halo may be gone. This is a 'what have you done for me lately' world and telling kids that you won 12 games back when they were in middle school and have been rebuilding since is not quite the same as saying you won 12 last year and are going higher.

Then again, if Fleck can get it together this year and pull out 8 wins, I think he has his momentum back. Anything less and 2019 looks more like the fluke season and our current state is revision to the mean. I think the best thing for Minnesota is WI going in reverse too so we can keep more kids home and poach more from WI.
 

Be careful on the Fleck pick as that grade could change drastically when the full body of work is completed here. If things go South and the program falls apart he will be a distant third. If he can sustain and move things forward -- undoubtedly he is your number one guy.

This is actually a very tough question. I would pick Mason's offense #1 (they could run on ANYONE) and Kill's defense but Fleck brings an upside that neither of those had - he gives us a chance to be one of the elite teams in the country which neither the other two did.

I would have to go with Fleck - His best was better than either of the other two.
 

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