Glen Mason Territory


This again? I love Bill's work, but he's missing the mark in recycling this one again. There are two separate parts that go into firing a coach: Firing the coach, and hiring the replacement. When it's time to fire a coach, you fire the coach. The tough part, other than writing a check for Glen Mason to go away, is hiring the right replacement to fit what your school needs at that time. Just because you completely whiff on the replacement doesn't mean the predecessor shouldn't have been fired.
 

How many more whiffs will it take before the U of M makes contact?
 

Sit back and watch. I feel more confident about this one than the last 4, and I was pleasantly surprised that Kill plateaued where he did.
 

When a coach gets stale, are you supposed to keep him?



If Glen was still coach what would have happened?
 


It still makes me wonder where Gopher football would be today had Glen Mason had the same resources and facilities that PJ Fleck has today.

Mason was one of the biggest supporters behind getting the on-campus stadium built. This was also before BTN launched in 2007 with many more revenue streams available to the schools.

For as many heartbreaking losses we suffered under Mason, we still had some pretty good teams during Mason's years and he was actually able to beat Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan. He also beat Alabama and Oregon in Bowl games.

PJ has the resources in place to be successful, only time will tell if he can get the job done. Most people know it will take a good 3-4 years before we start seeing some of the results.
 

It was time for Mason to go, he had lost his passion for coaching and had become contentious with the media and administration. The Glen Mason that is out there now on TV would still be the coach of Minnesota but the guy that was here in 2006 was just a shell of that guy. He wanted Ohio State and when he knew he was never going to get it he lost his drive for coaching.

The firing of Mason looks even worse because of who they went to as a replacement and how badly that turned out. Had they gone with a more established guy like Kill after Mason things might have turned out very differently.
 

You just have to be realistic about who you can hire and there needs to be more strategy than just, "Let's fire this guy so we get the fans fired up again". We have already seen after each subsequent firing of the football coach that the U of M has made that the honeymoon period was extremely brief. PJ's honeymoon is already over and I'm not against PJ, but when you consider that this fan base is pretty much at a plateau or regression level anyway, there is no need to fire coaches to try to sell hope if holding onto the coach can give you some continuity. We have seen that it definitely doesn't lead to a dramatic increase in ticket sales.

That is why I hope the admin just gets out of the way the next few years and just let's PJ do his thing and let the chips fall where they may. Because whether you like him or not, he is probably the best option the U has been able to land in quite some time.
 

When a coach gets stale, are you supposed to keep him?



If Glen was still coach what would have happened?

I'm probably in the minority, but I would have liked to see Mason coach and recruit with the new stadium for at least a few years. And yes, I was pissed after the Texas Tech loss (and WI loss 2005, MI loss 2003, Purdue 19 second drive/loss 2001, blown 24-0 lead vs NC State MicronPC.com Bowl 2000, NW hail mary loss 2000).
 



If Mason showed the personality he has now when he was coach, he could have stayed a lot longer.

But his relationship at the time with the media was bad, and fans though he was arrogant and not interested in Minnesota.

Now that he's not defending his program 24/7 he's a very likable guy.
 

Mason got what he wanted to get. Except the tOSU job that he BEGGED for and saw it go to Tressel. Something Bill C. always leaves out. Leaves all of this out too. Glen got his contract and more money for his assistants. Despite apparent promises, he again disappeared after the season, showed-up for the Spring Game and disappeared again until Summer.

The 2006 season came. Then he ranted about drunken students, failed to show-up for his shows, went on a huge rant at the bowl party about how he didn't get the respect he deserved from the local press and then his team blew one of the largest leads in Bowl history and lost to Texas Tech.

After the game the "Grinning Glen" showed-up and seemed to not care whether they had lost or not.

Big donor who sat in front of us at the Dome said before the last Home Game, a big win against Iowa, that enough donors had came forward to pay off Mason's contract and that he was gone if they lost the game. They won it instead.

Don't know what would have happened if they lost to Iowa or beat Texas Tech. Think they would have fired him after the Iowa loss. Think they would have kept him if they held on to that big lead in Sun Devil Stadium.

The Administration was very careful in denying that booster money paid off his contract. They hammered the point that it came from "the general fund". Thing is donations to the genera fund were never discussed.

Glen has never seemed real upset that he was fired. He's been pretty classy about the firing too. Would guess that he wasn't real upset. He got his money and probably figured a better job was on the horizon. It wasn't. He was only offered big rebuilding jobs. He didn't want to go through that again. Bet he's pretty happy with his life now.

Wish he was still here. He said that was going to start focusing on Defense. Bet he was too. Just wish he didn't seem so dead set on attacking his critics and doing things his way, regardless of what he said he was going to do.

Brewster was a horrible hire, Kill was a good one and Claeys never had a chance. P.J. looks to be a good hire.

Fleck did a fine job at WMU. His recruiting looks to be off to a great start and if he just shuts-up about not caring about winning and starts trying a little harder to do it, everything should be fine.
 


I'm probably in the minority, but I would have liked to see Mason coach and recruit with the new stadium for at least a few years. And yes, I was pissed after the Texas Tech loss (and WI loss 2005, MI loss 2003, Purdue 19 second drive/loss 2001, blown 24-0 lead vs NC State MicronPC.com Bowl 2000, NW hail mary loss 2000).

I think had he been given greater financial resources to retain and attract assistant coaches, he would have still been coaching if he had replaced his Defensive coaches like Gary Patterson did at TCU. It is too bad that he wasn't able to coach a team at TCF because he was partly instrumental in the push for an on campus stadium.

I have to give him credit for the ten years of stability the program had. It wasn't spectacular, but it was serviceable.

We need our next coach to stay put for the long haul. I envy NW with Fitz, Iowa with Ferentz, and Wiscy with program stability under AD Barry Alvarez.

What is exciting about PJ Fleck is that we have the potential to recruit on the level of or exceed the levels of our top rivals.

Coaching will get you a Jerry Kill plateau at 5th place. You need talent for the program to rise. Our floor is the 70-0 routing by Wiscy & NW combined. This shows how far we need to climb.

The weather gave NW every advantage in their home field. We couldn't answer Michigan or Wisconsin. They had too much talent and team speed. We got nothing in the passing game. Our defense was thin and decimated. The QB had self-evolved head issues.
 



Mason got what he wanted to get. Except the tOSU job that he BEGGED for and saw it go to Tressel. Something Bill C. always leaves out. Leaves all of this out too. Glen got his contract and more money for his assistants. Despite apparent promises, he again disappeared after the season, showed-up for the Spring Game and disappeared again until Summer.

The 2006 season came. Then he ranted about drunken students, failed to show-up for his shows, went on a huge rant at the bowl party about how he didn't get the respect he deserved from the local press and then his team blew one of the largest leads in Bowl history and lost to Texas Tech.

After the game the "Grinning Glen" showed-up and seemed to not care whether they had lost or not.

Big donor who sat in front of us at the Dome said before the last Home Game, a big win against Iowa, that enough donors had came forward to pay off Mason's contract and that he was gone if they lost the game. They won it instead.

Don't know what would have happened if they lost to Iowa or beat Texas Tech. Think they would have fired him after the Iowa loss. Think they would have kept him if they held on to that big lead in Sun Devil Stadium.

The Administration was very careful in denying that booster money paid off his contract. They hammered the point that it came from "the general fund". Thing is donations to the genera fund were never discussed.

Glen has never seemed real upset that he was fired. He's been pretty classy about the firing too. Would guess that he wasn't real upset. He got his money and probably figured a better job was on the horizon. It wasn't. He was only offered big rebuilding jobs. He didn't want to go through that again. Bet he's pretty happy with his life now.

Wish he was still here. He said that was going to start focusing on Defense. Bet he was too. Just wish he didn't seem so dead set on attacking his critics and doing things his way, regardless of what he said he was going to do.

Brewster was a horrible hire, Kill was a good one and Claeys never had a chance. P.J. looks to be a good hire.

Fleck did a fine job at WMU. His recruiting looks to be off to a great start and if he just shuts-up about not caring about winning and starts trying a little harder to do it, everything should be fine.

That's a great take. Well stated.
 

If Mason showed the personality he has now when he was coach, he could have stayed a lot longer.

But his relationship at the time with the media was bad, and fans though he was arrogant and not interested in Minnesota.

Now that he's not defending his program 24/7 he's a very likable guy.

Very true. He also burned bridges with coaches and some players he was recruiting. I'm sure he has learned, but the public is always slow to forgive.
 

The problem isn't that Mason was fired. It's that he was fired on a whim with no plan that should've been thought out over the previous months on how to upgrade the position.

This is a valid criticism of Maturi, unlike most that are leveled here.
 

Mason got what he wanted to get. Except the tOSU job that he BEGGED for and saw it go to Tressel. Something Bill C. always leaves out. Leaves all of this out too. Glen got his contract and more money for his assistants. Despite apparent promises, he again disappeared after the season, showed-up for the Spring Game and disappeared again until Summer.

The 2006 season came. Then he ranted about drunken students, failed to show-up for his shows, went on a huge rant at the bowl party about how he didn't get the respect he deserved from the local press and then his team blew one of the largest leads in Bowl history and lost to Texas Tech.

After the game the "Grinning Glen" showed-up and seemed to not care whether they had lost or not.

Big donor who sat in front of us at the Dome said before the last Home Game, a big win against Iowa, that enough donors had came forward to pay off Mason's contract and that he was gone if they lost the game. They won it instead.

Don't know what would have happened if they lost to Iowa or beat Texas Tech. Think they would have fired him after the Iowa loss. Think they would have kept him if they held on to that big lead in Sun Devil Stadium.

The Administration was very careful in denying that booster money paid off his contract. They hammered the point that it came from "the general fund". Thing is donations to the genera fund were never discussed.

Glen has never seemed real upset that he was fired. He's been pretty classy about the firing too. Would guess that he wasn't real upset. He got his money and probably figured a better job was on the horizon. It wasn't. He was only offered big rebuilding jobs. He didn't want to go through that again. Bet he's pretty happy with his life now.

Wish he was still here. He said that was going to start focusing on Defense. Bet he was too. Just wish he didn't seem so dead set on attacking his critics and doing things his way, regardless of what he said he was going to do.

Brewster was a horrible hire, Kill was a good one and Claeys never had a chance. P.J. looks to be a good hire.

Fleck did a fine job at WMU. His recruiting looks to be off to a great start and if he just shuts-up about not caring about winning and starts trying a little harder to do it, everything should be fine.

Interesting story. I wonder who the big donor was...and if that big donor watched Gopher football before the Mason era. The main reason I respect Mason is the HUGE improvement in talent and competitiveness he brought to the team. I remember sitting in the Metrodome at an Ohio State game early in his tenure (1997?) and being amazed at how their lineman were so much larger and athletic than ours. By the early 2000s, that talent gap decreased dramatically. It was fun to watch even with the occasional excruciating epic losses that occurred during his time.
 

The problem isn't that Mason was fired. It's that he was fired on a whim with no plan that should've been thought out over the previous months on how to upgrade the position.

This is a valid criticism of Maturi, unlike most that are leveled here.

They had a plan, it was to go as cheap as they could with the replacement by hiring an unknown coach and hoping to get lucky.....it wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan. And absolutely agree that Maturi and the others that were in charge at the time absolutely deserve the blame for that.

Lots on here don't like Coyle but they clearly had a plan to pay good money for an in demand coach and they went out and landed him in Fleck.
 

Interesting story. I wonder who the big donor was...and if that big donor watched Gopher football before the Mason era. The main reason I respect Mason is the HUGE improvement in talent and competitiveness he brought to the team. I remember sitting in the Metrodome at an Ohio State game early in his tenure (1997?) and being amazed at how their lineman were so much larger and athletic than ours. By the early 2000s, that talent gap decreased dramatically. It was fun to watch even with the occasional excruciating epic losses that occurred during his time.

Mason deserves all the credit in the world for taking a program that was a laughing stock and making it respectable again. But by 2006 it was time for him to go. His attitude was toxic and his relationship with the admin and high school coaches had gone cold. He changed so much during his time at Minnesota. When he arrived he was motivated and had things going in the right direction, then he lost out on the Ohio State job and it all went downhill from there. Recruiting wise they were just going through the motions over the last few years and it was clear to see based on the talent on the field.

A change needed to be made but the administration was ill equipped to do it and butchered the change about as badly as any administration could.
 

Agree with the above comments. I would add one additional. Coach Mason had the very best offensive line coach in America - Gordy Shaw, and no, I am not related to Coach Shaw. But I have watched a good many offensive lines in action during my 50 years of Gopher football and during the Mason years, it was the best. Very similar to Becky this year, only not as huge. A Shaw line was very physical, came off the line and would hit you in the nose before you had time to react. Certainly much better - actually no comparison - to the the Warringer Gopher line this year.
 

Agree with the above comments. I would add one additional. Coach Mason had the very best offensive line coach in America - Gordy Shaw, and no, I am not related to Coach Shaw. But I have watched a good many offensive lines in action during my 50 years of Gopher football and during the Mason years, it was the best. Very similar to Becky this year, only not as huge. A Shaw line was very physical, came off the line and would hit you in the nose before you had time to react. Certainly much better - actually no comparison - to the the Warringer Gopher line this year.

Need to give Browning credit as well. Shaw and Browning made a great o-line coaching combo. They knew what kind of players they wanted (smaller, quicker lineman that could pull) and they did a great job finding and developing those guys year after year.

Warriner is well regarded as an 0-Line coach. Can't really judge him fairly until we get more of Fleck's guys in the system.
 

They had a plan, it was to go as cheap as they could with the replacement by hiring an unknown coach and hoping to get lucky.....it wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan. And absolutely agree that Maturi and the others that were in charge at the time absolutely deserve the blame for that.

Disagree. Bruininks had Mason fired because he didn't like that he was smiling in the locker room after the biggest blown loss in bowl history. It was made worse in that this capricious firing took place at the end of December. If Maturi had a working replacement list in mind (as should be standard for any AD), he could've at least mitigated the bad circumstances, even when the candidate pool was suboptimal. I am quite certain that their plan wasn't to be as cheap as possible - if that had been their intent, they could've gone with a far less experienced candidate than Brewster.

Lots on here don't like Coyle but they clearly had a plan to pay good money for an in demand coach and they went out and landed him in Fleck.

Agreed, 100%.

Coyle handled the firing of Claeys horribly, particularly the press conference where he was inventing rationales for why he fired him. Aside from that, he has been great in my opinion.
 

Agree with the above comments. I would add one additional. Coach Mason had the very best offensive line coach in America - Gordy Shaw, and no, I am not related to Coach Shaw. But I have watched a good many offensive lines in action during my 50 years of Gopher football and during the Mason years, it was the best. Very similar to Becky this year, only not as huge. A Shaw line was very physical, came off the line and would hit you in the nose before you had time to react. Certainly much better - actually no comparison - to the the Warringer Gopher line this year.

Gordy Shaw is definitely the best offensive line coach in America. That is why Minnesota is (by far) the best job he's ever had, and why he now coaches at a Division II school.
 

Joel Maturi failed twice in executing the termination and replacement of a coach. He just got lucky when Jerry Kill fell into his lap after every other member of the AFCA and their dog turned him down.

And as for the plan in regards to Brewster, it made sense but was completely botched in execution. I'll give Maturi credit for wanting to energize both recruiting and the fanbase going into the new stadium, but he just hired an unqualified, incompetent oaf instead of what he was looking for, which is what we have right now.
 

Disagree. Bruininks had Mason fired because he didn't like that he was smiling in the locker room after the biggest blown loss in bowl history. It was made worse in that this capricious firing took place at the end of December. If Maturi had a working replacement list in mind (as should be standard for any AD), he could've at least mitigated the bad circumstances, even when the candidate pool was suboptimal. I am quite certain that their plan wasn't to be as cheap as possible - if that had been their intent, they could've gone with a far less experienced candidate than Brewster.



Agreed, 100%.

Coyle handled the firing of Claeys horribly, particularly the press conference where he was inventing rationales for why he fired him. Aside from that, he has been great in my opinion.

They wanted to fire Mason late in the season but the team went on a winning streak and made a bowl game. The staff was caught off guard by getting fired and it definitely was not handled well by the administration. The administration may not have planned on going as cheap as possible but they also were not willing to pay enough to lure an in demand coach. Brewster wasn't really on anyone's head coaching radar when he surfaced as a candidate for the head job at Minnesota.
 

It still makes me wonder where Gopher football would be today had Glen Mason had the same resources and facilities that PJ Fleck has today.

Mason was one of the biggest supporters behind getting the on-campus stadium built. This was also before BTN launched in 2007 with many more revenue streams available to the schools.

For as many heartbreaking losses we suffered under Mason, we still had some pretty good teams during Mason's years and he was actually able to beat Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Michigan. He also beat Alabama and Oregon in Bowl games.

PJ has the resources in place to be successful, only time will tell if he can get the job done. Most people know it will take a good 3-4 years before we start seeing some of the results.
Mase would have done better if we did ot play in the Metrodump which clearly favored the more skilled team. All of his biggest upsets were on the road, and his biggest losses were at home. That was a big part of the image of the program locally. If he had worked with Maturi to afford a good DC and not pissed Bruininks off he would have been here another 5 years anyway.
 

You just have to be realistic about who you can hire and there needs to be more strategy than just, "Let's fire this guy so we get the fans fired up again". We have already seen after each subsequent firing of the football coach that the U of M has made that the honeymoon period was extremely brief. PJ's honeymoon is already over and I'm not against PJ, but when you consider that this fan base is pretty much at a plateau or regression level anyway, there is no need to fire coaches to try to sell hope if holding onto the coach can give you some continuity. We have seen that it definitely doesn't lead to a dramatic increase in ticket sales.

That is why I hope the admin just gets out of the way the next few years and just let's PJ do his thing and let the chips fall where they may. Because whether you like him or not, he is probably the best option the U has been able to land in quite some time.

+1
 

Agree with the above comments. I would add one additional. Coach Mason had the very best offensive line coach in America - Gordy Shaw, and no, I am not related to Coach Shaw. But I have watched a good many offensive lines in action during my 50 years of Gopher football and during the Mason years, it was the best. Very similar to Becky this year, only not as huge. A Shaw line was very physical, came off the line and would hit you in the nose before you had time to react. Certainly much better - actually no comparison - to the the Warringer Gopher line this year.
Those Olinemen under Mason, Browning, and Shaw, were some pretty damn good football pkayers, not just the coaching. I agree you can give Shaw some credit but he had much more talented crew of players than we have now playing Oline. There is no comparison on talent.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk
 

Mason went to 7 bowls in 8 years before his firing.
We fired him because he wasn’t making the next step.

The point of the article is that it is a tragic mistake.

Which I’d say it wasn’t. We have been to bowls in 7/11 since he left. Though overall we haven’t been quite as consistent as the mason era. I’ll sacrifice 2-3 music city bowls for a chance at improving. So far we have costed ourself 2-3 medium bowls and not achieved greatness. I’ll survive.
 

Gordy Shaw is definitely the best offensive line coach in America. That is why Minnesota is (by far) the best job he's ever had, and why he now coaches at a Division II school.

Go back and read my post. I said Gordy Shaw was the best line coach in America. Certainly the best in Minn. history, at least for 50 years I have watched Gopher football. You probably aren't old enough to even remember Coach Mason 's team. Check with your Dad assuming he is/was a Gopher fan.
 




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