Is it fair to rip Maturi at Kill's expense?

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All I can say is let's move on. It's over, we have a coach. There is nothing anyone can do about how the search was handled.
 


Wurm said:
Kill seems like a good guy, and I really think he will turn out to be one heck of a coach. Still, Maturi seems to be going down as a convenient butt of more than one joke:

New Gopher Football Coach Vows to Resurrect Once-Proud Hockey Program

What does everybody think about all of the guff Maturi has received?
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To answer your question...Yes. I think it is unfair to rip Kill in an effort to rip Maturi.

While I believe the U could have gotten a much better known coach who has coached at the D1 level by getting its house in order prior to conducting a coaching search; notice that I didn't say a better coach, because until coach Kill coaches one gopher game we don't know what he is capable of. Go gophers.
 

Agree. Move on. Let's start focusing on the positives and what we can do to support Kill.
 



I agree that the search is now over and we should support Kill in any way we can. He seems like a personable guy and a good coach..funny too! I really don't feel that people are directing their frustrations with Maturi at Coach Kill, but Kill has been put in an impossible position by Maturi's comments about a "Tubby like hire" and basically saying the Kill was a last resort.

In response to the notion that "The hire is now made and we should stop beating a dead horse by picking on Maturi," I completely disagree. I think now more than ever we need to keep the heat on Bruininks to get rid of this moron before he causes further damage to the athletic department. Maturi has done nothing but lie to us and give us inflated expectations since the Brew firing...and the lies keep on coming. Apparently yesterday Barry Alvarez denied ever being offered the MN coaching job, good one Joel! This guy really can't get out of his own way.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16793522?source=most_viewed

http://host.madison.com/sports/college/football/article_f62101ba-02d9-11e0-9bee-001cc4c002e0.html
 

confusedgopher said:
I agree that the search is now over and we should support Kill in any way we can. He seems like a personable guy and a good coach..funny too! I really don't feel that people are directing their frustrations with Maturi at Coach Kill, but Kill has been put in an impossible position by Maturi's comments about a "Tubby like hire" and basically saying the Kill was a last resort.

In response to the notion that "The hire is now made and we should stop beating a dead horse by picking on Maturi," I completely disagree. I think now more than ever we need to keep the heat on Bruininks to get rid of this moron before he causes further damage to the athletic department. Maturi has done nothing but lie to us and give us inflated expectations since the Brew firing...and the lies keep on coming. Apparently yesterday Barry Alvarez denied ever being offered the MN coaching job, good one Joel! This guy really can't get out of his own way.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16793522?source=most_viewed

http://host.madison.com/sports/college/football/article_f62101ba-02d9-11e0-9bee-001cc4c002e0.html
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Barry also never confirmed being caught in bed with a coed despite what his wife said when canceling dinner reservations. Not saying he's lying about this but there is a history here...:clap:
 




gopherjay said:
Lets say Kill does a great job and wins. Does Maturi get some credit?
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Yes he does get some credit. He made the hire, so he will deserve credit for it just like he gets credit for Tubby. That's the way it works. You succeed, you get credit for that. You fail, then you're accountable for that too and you will get held to that, if not by your bosses then surely by the fans and people who are paying attention to the program.
 

If you have more Maturi-ripping to get out of your system, ask where the heck Tubby's contract extension is? The football coaching search is over. However badly he bungled it, we have our coach and he deserves our support.

As for Maturi, he will not do any further damage to the football program. It's now time to make sure he can't do any to the basketball or hockey programs in the next 18 months.
 

Maturi has messed up most of what he has touched but this constant scapegoating is lame. He will be gone in about 24 months (MAX) so who the hell even cares?

As for Jerry Kill, I was on board immediately with the hire and have spend the past 4 days trying to convert the naysayers. My efforts, however, are nothing compared to the turnaround that is happening naturally as folks actually look into his background, listen to him speak, and get a sense of who he is as a coach and a man. This hire was a no-brainer so I can't credit Maturi. I'm just glad Maturi pulled the trigger fast, before the Save Gopher Football a-wipes had a chance to call NIU to trash the U of M and scuttle the hire.
 

confusedgopher said:
I agree that the search is now over and we should support Kill in any way we can. He seems like a personable guy and a good coach..funny too! I really don't feel that people are directing their frustrations with Maturi at Coach Kill, but Kill has been put in an impossible position by Maturi's comments about a "Tubby like hire" and basically saying the Kill was a last resort.

In response to the notion that "The hire is now made and we should stop beating a dead horse by picking on Maturi," I completely disagree. I think now more than ever we need to keep the heat on Bruininks to get rid of this moron before he causes further damage to the athletic department. Maturi has done nothing but lie to us and give us inflated expectations since the Brew firing...and the lies keep on coming. Apparently yesterday Barry Alvarez denied ever being offered the MN coaching job, good one Joel! This guy really can't get out of his own way.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16793522?source=most_viewed

http://host.madison.com/sports/college/football/article_f62101ba-02d9-11e0-9bee-001cc4c002e0.html
Click to expand...


Give it a rest, buffoon. Do you really think Bruininks is going to hire "your guy" as AD after all that you guys did to trash the U and undermine the coaching search? It is never going to happen.

Also, why did you sissies take your names off the website?
 



Seany said:
Yes he does get some credit. He made the hire, so he will deserve credit for it just like he gets credit for Tubby. That's the way it works. You succeed, you get credit for that. You fail, then you're accountable for that too and you will get held to that, if not by your bosses then surely by the fans and people who are paying attention to the program.
Click to expand...

Actually I think if Kill succeeds Maturi will not get much credit. There is so much Maturi hate that the comments will something like 'the only reason he got kill was all the better known candidates knew how much a bafoon he is and Kill was his only choice'.
 

Handsome Pete said:
Maturi has messed up most of what he has touched but this constant scapegoating is lame. He will be gone in about 24 months (MAX) so who the hell even cares?

As for Jerry Kill, I was on board immediately with the hire and have spend the past 4 days trying to convert the naysayers. My efforts, however, are nothing compared to the turnaround that is happening naturally as folks actually look into his background, listen to him speak, and get a sense of who he is as a coach and a man. This hire was a no-brainer so I can't credit Maturi. I'm just glad Maturi pulled the trigger fast, before the Save Gopher Football a-wipes had a chance to call NIU to trash the U of M and scuttle the hire.
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I'm more neutral on Maturi than most here. I believe it's important to remember what he inherited and further remember that he doesn't have carte blanche to do anything he wants. At risk of understatement, he hasn't been what I would call a dynamic leader, but I think people need to understand that a large part of his job is purely administrative and unless anyone here works in the athletic department, it is difficult to comment on how well those duties are being performed. If things are truly a mess over there, then he deserves criticism.

I'll be curious to see what type of personality the new administration will seek in filling the AD slot once Maturi leaves. I get the feeling that Kaler will seek someone more dynamic, but I think it's important to give Maturi some credit in being a guy who swept up behind the particularly messy parade that proceeded him and will be giving the new AD a better situation within which to work.
 

That is correct. Maturi inherited a football program that has been down for 50 years. That is not his fault.

If you're an incorrigible front-runner, go see a wrestling match or volleyball game. The U is doing some great things. Try to enjoy it.
 

MSGopher said:
Give it a rest, buffoon. Do you really think Bruininks is going to hire "your guy" as AD after all that you guys did to trash the U and undermine the coaching search? It is never going to happen.

Also, why did you sissies take your names off the website?
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And who exactly is "our" guy? Also, don't group Adam Kelly in with the other former players, many whom are actually intelligent and have contacts all over the country that Maturi could and should have tapped into had he at least listened to what these M Men had to say. Instead, he completely disregarded them (which is what pissed them off and caused them to lash out against him) and chose to spend 200k on a search firm that did nothing to help in the end.

I am not a former player but I am a Gopher season ticket holder and long time supporter. I agree some of the tactics of savegopherfootball were questionable, but their message is right on.

Look at any other successful program in the country. Alumni and former players play a HUGE role in recruiting and general support for their programs. At Minnesota, the President and AD seem to get offended when others offer advice or constructive criticism. To be successful, the athletic department and alumni need to work together, not fight each other. I really hope this culture of friction between former players and administration changes under Kaler, otherwise we are doomed to repeat our shortcomings.
 

confused, I'm not going to dismiss your argument because I basically agree that the next AD is probably going to have to have a style totally different than that of Maturi.

My point is that--and I really don't have anything to back this up--when Maturi got here, he had to merge the men's and women's programs and I can only imagine the energy that sapped out of the guy in trying to build the internal coalitions necessary to keep the whole thing from blowing apart. Maturi inherited a situation with a lot of non-revenue sports--and it has seemingly been the larger administration's preference--to keep these non-revenue athletic opportunities in place.

In other words, Maturi's been juggling knives while the folks on the sidelines have decided to toss a couple of axes into the act. I don't like it when Maturi gets defensive, but I can't say that I blame him all that much.

His tenure is winding down. My guess (and again, it's only a guess) is that Kaler will be more hands-on with the athletic department and will bring in a more dynamic personality. There will be good and bad with that. My guess is prominent athletic alums from all sports will likely have more access, but a strong personality will also be likely to tell people to "we're not going in your direction" to their faces. I wouldn't call Maturi passive-aggressive. I would say he tried to avoid confrontation and that has its downside as well.

But everyone needs to be careful what they wish for. Given the budget time bombs throughout higher education nationally, there will be some tough decisions to be made and those decisions are going to affect the athletic department. I believe Maturi isn't the guy to make those tough decisions, but that wasn't his job when he was hired. His job was to merge two disparate programs, both containing strong personalities, and to create some semblance of order. Whether or not he's done that is open to question, but the next AD inherits a pretty good set of student athletic opportunities that appears to be run fairly well overall.
 

I can respect your view. Yes, many of my posts are critical of Maturi but I will give him credit for a lot of the points you have brought up. I, like many gopher football enthusiasts, am just extremely pissed off by the way Maturi has set our football program back by many of his hirings and subsequent firings and by the way he comes off as arrogant in the media despite his failures and dishonesty with the public. I have no doubt that Maturi is a nice man, but I have had enough of his antics and would at least like him to stop making public comments that make him and our athletics department look foolish.
 


confusedgopher said:
I can respect your view. Yes, many of my posts are critical of Maturi but I will give him credit for a lot of the points you have brought up. I, like many gopher football enthusiasts, am just extremely pissed off by the way Maturi has set our football program back by many of his hirings and subsequent firings and by the way he comes off as arrogant in the media despite his failures and dishonesty with the public. I have no doubt that Maturi is a nice man, but I have had enough of his antics and would at least like him to stop making public comments that make him and our athletics department look foolish.
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I don't disagree with you regarding his mishandling of the football program and on a number of levels.
 

confusedgopher said:
I can respect your view. Yes, many of my posts are critical of Maturi but I will give him credit for a lot of the points you have brought up. I, like many gopher football enthusiasts, am just extremely pissed off by the way Maturi has set our football program back by many of his hirings and subsequent firings and by the way he comes off as arrogant in the media despite his failures and dishonesty with the public. I have no doubt that Maturi is a nice man, but I have had enough of his antics and would at least like him to stop making public comments that make him and our athletics department look foolish.
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I asked President Bruininks to place a gag order on Maturi about three years ago. Apparently(sp) he didn't get the message.

Maturi's brain goes numb whenever someone puts a mic in front of him.

Maturi was hired to do some tough things which he did. But he has also bungled a lot of things up which have been detrimental to the program. I am ready for a change and look forward to President Kalers arrival.
 

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