In the two-plus weeks since Tim Brewster was canned as Minnesota’s head coach, names such as Randy Shannon, Mike Leach, Mark Mangino, Scott Linehan, Jeff Jagodzinski and Marc Trestman have popped up on reports seeking to identify a list of potential replacements.
Today, you can add arguably the biggest “name” to the unofficial list of candidates.
According to a tweet from Rivals.com‘s Tom Dienhart, former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer is a name that has emerged in connection to the Gopher vacancy.
Fulmer was connected to openings Notre Dame, Louisville, South Florida and, yes, Tennessee in the past 11 months, but has been out of coaching since “parting ways” with the Volunteers in 2008. Fulmer has been working for CBS Sports on their SEC coverage the past two seasons, but has made it clear that he would like to return to coaching.
However, based on his own words, Minnesota might not be the opening he’s looking for.
“I’m not going to put myself and my family in a position where I’m going to a place that is a stepping-stone … a place that doesn’t have a history of doing well,” Fulmer said last November. “I’m looking for a place that has some history. If I have to sit or not coach that’s kind of the way it’s going to be I guess.”
The Gophers certainly have a history — 40 or more years ago. Since those halcyon days of Rose Bowls in the early sixties, however, the only history the football program has known on a regular basis has been a miserable one. Would Fulmer go against his own words and “stoop” to the Gophers’ level? That will very likely depend on how desperate he is to get back into coaching. And what other jobs come open between now and January.
