Joe Rossi: Fabricated Coaching Bio

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I’ve no doubt that Fleck and the University relied HEAVILY on the information when making their decision for employing Rossi. Without it, I’m sure they had no clue whatsoever where the man had coached and what he’d done in the last several years.
 

Spoofin said:
Seems to me to be against the HYPRR culture to lie - but I guess no one cares about this one. The HYRR culture appears to have a lot of leeway.


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It's more of a selective HYPRR culture.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I couldn’t find the 2006 Thiel stats off the PAC stats website. Broken link. However, it does look like Thiel was close to the top of the conference in 2005 so reasonable to think they could have been first in 2006. Hitman will have to post the link. The Maine stats indicate the defense was pretty poor in 2009-2010 but climbed to 4th in scoring and total, first in passing in 2011. Not “top” in my book thus an exaggeration. Our boy PJ is no stranger to that.

In summary he may have exaggerated a tad (and I couldn’t verify the 2006 Thiel claim) and can not verify an outright lie regarding 2006. His defenses improved at Maine over his tenure but were never top 3 in the conference. I can’t imagine Gopher diehards getting worked up over this when recruiting rankings in May are celebrated.
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Christ, the reading comprehension is atrocious around here.

First, you don't need the PAC link to work. You can look up the D3 national rankings in the defensive categories listed on the NCAA website. You can see that Thiel was behind other conference schools in some of those categories. As I said, if you want to argue that it only meant conference games, the PAC site shows the points scored/points against for conference games only. As you can see, Thiel wasn't first in scoring defense in conference games only. It wasn't first in the conference in at least two of the other categories for overall games.

Regardless if you want to argue that the claim was intended for only conference games or for all games, the claim is going to be wrong.

Your whole explanation of the Maine defense dealt with how they did in the conference. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was about Maine's defense in all of FCS, not just the CAA.

It isn't vague line. It is one, arguably subjective, about his defenses being among the top in FCS. By all reasonable measures, that's false. Worse, the bio claims his defense in 2006 led the conference in the categories listed. Those are patently false. There is no vagueness about it. It isn't exaggerating. Exaggerating is claiming that one has a huge crank instead of just bigger than average crank. Claiming things came in first place when they didn't are lies.
 

Hit Harder said:
Christ, the reading comprehension is atrocious around here.

First, you don't need the PAC link to work. You can look up the D3 national rankings in the defensive categories listed on the NCAA website. You can see that Thiel was behind other conference schools in some of those categories. As I said, if you want to argue that it only meant conference games, the PAC site shows the points scored/points against for conference games only. As you can see, Thiel wasn't first in scoring defense in conference games only. It wasn't first in the conference in at least two of the other categories for overall games.

Regardless if you want to argue that the claim was intended for only conference games or for all games, the claim is going to be wrong.

Your whole explanation of the Maine defense dealt with how they did in the conference. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was about Maine's defense in all of FCS, not just the CAA.

It isn't vague line. It is one, arguably subjective, about his defenses being among the top in FCS. By all reasonable measures, that's false. Worse, the bio claims his defense in 2006 led the conference in the categories listed. Those are patently false. There is no vagueness about it. It isn't exaggerating. Exaggerating is claiming that one has a huge crank instead of just bigger than average crank. Claiming things came in first place when they didn't are lies.
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But these days, it's more about feelings, man. He genuinely felt like those defenses were the best.
 

Oh man, I loathe people who seemingly enjoy tearing other people down; always negative, cackling with glee when finding possible dirt on someone. Don't we get enough of this baloney in politics and the mainstream media now? This thread is full of commenters I've never noticed before (non-Gopher trolls?) along with a small number of perpetually negative Gopher "fans" who must be really fun hang around (sic). Geez this is tiring.
 


Panthadad2 said:
Oh man, I loathe people who seemingly enjoy tearing other people down; always negative, cackling with glee when finding possible dirt on someone. Don't we get enough of this baloney in politics and the mainstream media now? This thread is full of commenters I've never noticed before (non-Gopher trolls?) along with a small number of perpetually negative Gopher "fans" who must be really fun hang around (sic). Geez this is tiring.
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Reading your posts lately brings about the same feeling...
 

This thread...


any people criticize my threads for being bad.

I think I'm going to go bump my "Flecks best losses" thread.
 

Hit Harder said:
Christ, the reading comprehension is atrocious around here.

First, you don't need the PAC link to work. You can look up the D3 national rankings in the defensive categories listed on the NCAA website. You can see that Thiel was behind other conference schools in some of those categories. As I said, if you want to argue that it only meant conference games, the PAC site shows the points scored/points against for conference games only. As you can see, Thiel wasn't first in scoring defense in conference games only. It wasn't first in the conference in at least two of the other categories for overall games.

Regardless if you want to argue that the claim was intended for only conference games or for all games, the claim is going to be wrong.

Your whole explanation of the Maine defense dealt with how they did in the conference. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was about Maine's defense in all of FCS, not just the CAA.

It isn't vague line. It is one, arguably subjective, about his defenses being among the top in FCS. By all reasonable measures, that's false. Worse, the bio claims his defense in 2006 led the conference in the categories listed. Those are patently false. There is no vagueness about it. It isn't exaggerating. Exaggerating is claiming that one has a huge crank instead of just bigger than average crank. Claiming things came in first place when they didn't are lies.
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Yeah I’m not arguing with you about the honesty of that bio - it clearly isn’t accurate. But can you just post a link to the pages you’re referrrng to: PAC 2006 stats and the FCS stats for 2009-2011. That’s how things are done here.

I think you’ll find a solid majority of frequent posters are resistant to fact-based arguments. It just doesn’t matter whether something is true.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Oh man, I loathe people who seemingly enjoy tearing other people down; always negative, cackling with glee when finding possible dirt on someone. Don't we get enough of this baloney in politics and the mainstream media now? This thread is full of commenters I've never noticed before (non-Gopher trolls?) along with a small number of perpetually negative Gopher "fans" who must be really fun hang around (sic). Geez this is tiring.
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Some “fans” work in mysterious ways.
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I’ve no doubt that Fleck and the University relied HEAVILY on the information when making their decision for employing Rossi. Without it, I’m sure they had no clue whatsoever where the man had coached and what he’d done in the last several years.
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Maybe there's an explanation, but if not, it really bothers me when people lie. This is more than exaggeration, resume padding, or a white lie. No problem if they fire him, but it if I had to guess it won't happen until after the season.
 

Hit Harder said:
Christ, the reading comprehension is atrocious around here.

First, you don't need the PAC link to work. You can look up the D3 national rankings in the defensive categories listed on the NCAA website. You can see that Thiel was behind other conference schools in some of those categories. As I said, if you want to argue that it only meant conference games, the PAC site shows the points scored/points against for conference games only. As you can see, Thiel wasn't first in scoring defense in conference games only. It wasn't first in the conference in at least two of the other categories for overall games.

Regardless if you want to argue that the claim was intended for only conference games or for all games, the claim is going to be wrong.

Your whole explanation of the Maine defense dealt with how they did in the conference. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was about Maine's defense in all of FCS, not just the CAA.

It isn't vague line. It is one, arguably subjective, about his defenses being among the top in FCS. By all reasonable measures, that's false. Worse, the bio claims his defense in 2006 led the conference in the categories listed. Those are patently false. There is no vagueness about it. It isn't exaggerating. Exaggerating is claiming that one has a huge crank instead of just bigger than average crank. Claiming things came in first place when they didn't are lies.
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Sorry bud. It is not bigger than average. It is just an average crank.
 

Usually we all lol at the joking assertion that the OP was a coach/admin defending themselves, but this might actually be it.

Except Mr. Smith would also be asserting he was lax in who he hired/vetted/employed as well.
 

In my college days, I did work-study for the SID's office. by my JR and SR years, I was basically writing and designing the media guides. Now, mind you, this was an NAIA school (now D3), so it was not the kind of extensive media guide you see at D1 schools. But, just suggesting that a lot of the grunt work is quite possibly not being done by people at the top of the food chain.

There is a relatively fine line between putting things in the best possible light, and stretching the truth. One man's hype is another man's BS.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
In my college days, I did work-study for the SID's office. by my JR and SR years, I was basically writing and designing the media guides. Now, mind you, this was an NAIA school (now D3), so it was not the kind of extensive media guide you see at D1 schools. But, just suggesting that a lot of the grunt work is quite possibly not being done by people at the top of the food chain.

There is a relatively fine line between putting things in the best possible light, and stretching the truth. One man's hype is another man's BS.
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Pretty much my opinion of this whole thread. FBS coaches don't write these bios, someone else does.

Edit: You would think that a coach would hopefully take a gander at their own bio. It's not his linkedIn, but does a coach try to correct a stretched accolade from a previous school's bio? What would Hayden Fox do?
 
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Pompous Elitist said:
Yeah I’m not arguing with you about the honesty of that bio - it clearly isn’t accurate. But can you just post a link to the pages you’re referrrng to: PAC 2006 stats and the FCS stats for 2009-2011. That’s how things are done here.

I think you’ll find a solid majority of frequent posters are resistant to fact-based arguments. It just doesn’t matter whether something is true.
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http://web1.ncaa.org/football/exec/rankingSummary?year=2009&org=380
http://web1.ncaa.org/football/exec/rankingSummary?year=2010&org=380
http://web1.ncaa.org/football/exec/rankingSummary?year=2011&org=380
 


For posterity


Joe Rossi joined the Minnesota football staff in January 2017. He was named interim defensive coordinator on Nov. 4, 2018, after being named defensive line coach in January 2018. Rossi worked as a quality control assistant at Minnesota in 2017.

Rossi spent 2012-15 at Rutgers, which included two years as the defensive coordinator. Rossi was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2014 after serving in an interim role in 2013 and held the role until after the 2015 season. He was the special teams coordinator at Rutgers from 2012-13.

In 2013, Rutgers scored five special teams touchdowns (two kickoff returns, one punt return, one blocked punt return and one fake field goal) and true freshman Janarion Grant earned All-AAC Second Team honors as a return specialist.

The Scarlet Knights put together a strong special teams unit in 2012, ranking first in the nation with eight blocked kicks, ninth in kickoff return yardage defense (18.09) and 34th in kickoff return average (23.21).

Rossi was at Maine from 2007-11 and took over as defensive coordinator after the 2008 season. Maine annually had one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision under Rossi. In 2011, the Black Bears ranked No. 26 in the nation in sacks, No. 31 in pass defense and No. 25 in pass efficiency defense.

Rossi’s first coaching stop was at Division III Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., where he was from 2001-2006. He coached Thiel's defensive line from 2001-02 and was the defensive coordinator from 2003-06. In 2006, Thiel led the President's Athletic Conference in scoring defense, total defense, rush defense and pass defense.

Rossi graduated from Allegheny in 2001 with a degree in history. He played defensive line for the Gators and his 12 sacks in 2000 is tied for the program record for the most in one season. Rossi was named All-NCAC three times (first team in 1999 and 2000 and second team in 1998) and started all 41 games of his collegiate career. His was team captain in 2000 and his 23 career sacks ranks fourth in program history.

Rossi and his wife, Lynsey, have two sons, Nico and Luca.

ROSSI AT A GLANCE

Coaching Experience
2018-present: Minnesota - Defensive Line
2017: Minnesota - Quality Control
2014-15: Rutgers - Defensive Coordinator / Safeties
2012-13: Rutgers - Special Teams Coordinator
2009-11: Maine - Defensive Coordinator / Linebackers
2007-08: Maine - Special Teams Coordinator / Defensive Backs
2003-06: Thiel College - Defensive Coordinator / Linebackers
2001-02: Thiel College - Defensive Line

Playing Experience: Allegheny College (defensive line), 1997-2000
 




kisarazu said:
Cover letters are guilty of the same thing. Is every applicant the perfect candidate for the position? Of course not. Yet, every single one of them is going to, in some way, state that they are. Personally, I like this interview style...

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Classic!
 

denguegopher said:
Maybe there's an explanation, but if not, it really bothers me when people lie. This is more than exaggeration, resume padding, or a white lie. No problem if they fire him, but it if I had to guess it won't happen until after the season.
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I agree, lying in a situation like this is kinda ridiculous. I have two general comments on this though;

First, I have no clue but I’m guessing there’s a small chance that he’s the one that actually wrote this in it’s entirety as we read it today. Maybe an agent, maybe the U’s SID, maybe it was brought from with him from several stops before and it got embellished along the way, whatever. Sure, he should have proofed it and given it his blessing but I would guess it was likely written by someone else.

Secondly, while lying on a resume is just flat out wrong, there are several different kinds of “lying on a resume”. It’s one thing to embellish the specifics, durations, dates, whatever. More important to me would be lying about something that was an absolute requirement for the position and you flat out didn’t have it.

Example; position calls for experience supervising 10+ people and you never have supervised anyone but state on your resume that you supervised 10+ people and multiple different divisions at several previous stops. Or, position calls for 10 years experience programming with C++ (or whatever, I’m no computer guy) and you say you’ve done that when actually you can barely turn on the computer.

I haven’t read the details on what was embellished or lied about here because I just don’t care. The guy is going to run the Gophers defense for the next 3 games and that’s about it. I’m not losing sleep over it.
 

Face The Facts said:
Tracy had nothing to do with this and you know it. Besides, Tracy led us to 9 wins with the same team Fleck would only win 5 games with in 2017 and 4 so far in 2018. Also, don't you remember the 2016 Holiday Bowl? As Mark Coyle and Kaler salivated all day waiting for WSU to blow out Claeys, Claeys held a prolific offense to 9 points... or something like that.
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No team in any sport is exactly the same year to year. Players get older, players graduate, players move on, players get injured.
 

What a weird thread, even by Gopher Hole standards.
 

my mind flashed to Brewster, listing coaching "wins" from when he was an assistant.
 

My guess is he had an accurate bio with some exaggerations and over the course of revisions, lines were dropped which makes it appear worse.

Example on his previous one:

Maine annually had one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision under Rossi's watch. In 2011, the Black Bears ranked 26th nationally in sacks, 31st in pass defense and 25th in pass efficiency defense.
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In his current one, the second sentence was dropped, so the context was lost in how they were a top defensive unit.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Rossi was at Maine from 2007-11 and took over as defensive coordinator after the 2008 season. Maine annually had one of the top defensive units in the Football Championship Subdivision under Rossi. In 2011, the Black Bears ranked No. 26 in the nation in sacks, No. 31 in pass defense and No. 25 in pass efficiency defense.
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Just so I am clear, is this what started this whole thread? Wow.
 


goldy93 said:
Just so I am clear, is this what started this whole thread? Wow.
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I think Hit Harder was saying it would be slightly more accurate if it said Maine annually had a middle of the pack defense under Rossi.

I have little doubt we could find something about Robb’s defenses that looks good or at least not terrible if we looked hard enough and limited the data sets.
 

It amazes me the length some people will go to to find things to be outraged about. So what if they fudged the bio a little bit on the website, is it really worth getting that bent out of shape about?

1. It doesn't mean he lied to get the job or that some massive conspiracy has been uncovered. If some random poster can dig up this info so easily then I would hope the people that hired him would know what he had or had not done at previous stops. I highly doubt they were relying on his bio when they made the decision to hire him.

2. As others have pointed out he probably had very little to do with the writing of his bio. Someone in sports information crafted it and he probably gave it a once over.

3. Is anyone really hurt by this? Clearly Hit Harder feels deceived and the SID should probably take a look at whoever is responsible for the bios to make sure they are fact checking things a little better but to me this feels like a non-issue.
 

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