Maturi

[GopherMike]

I am as big a Gopher fan as any of you and have been for almost 40 years. I read this forum several times a day, expecially during the coaching search. I have grown very tired of all the pot shots that are constantly leveled at Joel Maturi. Once and for all I would like one of you to articulate point by point exactly why so many posters on this board are so down on him, because I can articulate point by point his accomplishments:

1. GPAs and graduation rates are up across the board in the athletic dept.
2. The athletic dept. is operating in the black.
3. He hired Tubby Smith.
4. The U is always ranked in the top 15 or 20 in the Sears Cup(Or whatever it is called now) that ranks athletic programs nationally by overall success.
5. Zero NCAA infractions during his tenure.

No I am not a memebr of Joel's family nor do I even know the man. I also do not beleive he is the devil incarnate that many of you do, and in fact it seems to me he has done a fairly good job. He made one bad hire. It happens. Nobody is perfect That doesn't mean this next hire will turn out the same. Let the man do his job.

 

[Wheaton]

He hired a football coach with no head coaching experience beyond high school and no-coordinating experience whatsoever.

Then after he hired him he spouted things off like "If you didn't do your homework you would think Tim isn't the right choice for a head coach. Well I did my homework."

Also, he has done nothing to lead us to believe this search process is going well. I'm not asking for him to come out and say who they are going after, who he has interviewed, but at least deny some of these reports. Give us a little more confidence.

It is because of his handpicked head coach (Time Brewster) that the beautiful TCF Bank stadium is nowhere near filled to capacity when it is only two years old.

I don't hate Maturi all that much and if he makes a hire I am happy with I will give him credit. You just asked for some reasons why people hate on him and I gave you a few

 

[MSGopher]

I am as big a Gopher fan as any of you and have been for almost 40 years. I read this forum several times a day, expecially during the coaching search. I have grown very tired of all the pot shots that are constantly leveled at Joel Maturi. Once and for all I would like one of you to articulate point by point exactly why so many posters on this board are so down on him, because I can articulate point by point his accomplishments:

1. GPAs and graduation rates are up across the board in the athletic dept.
2. The athletic dept. is operating in the black.
3. He hired Tubby Smith.
4. The U is always ranked in the top 15 or 20 in the Sears Cup(Or whatever it is called now) that ranks athletic programs nationally by overall success.
5. Zero NCAA infractions during his tenure.

No I am not a memebr of Joel's family nor do I even know the man. I also do not beleive he is the devil incarnate that many of you do, and in fact it seems to me he has done a fairly good job. He made one bad hire. It happens. Nobody is perfect That doesn't mean this next hire will turn out the same. Let the man do his job.

I am not a fan of Maturi because of: (1) Monson; (2) Mason; (3) Mbakwe; and (4) Brewster. I am, however, aware that he is conducting this coaching search and that is not going to change. Rather than trash him I lend my constructive support and hope for the best. I cannot understand those who think they can control this process by trashing Maturi and the U to potential coaches (ahem, Save Gopher Football.) Very, very frustrating.

 

[needmorecowbell]

I am as big a Gopher fan as any of you and have been for almost 40 years. I read this forum several times a day, expecially during the coaching search. I have grown very tired of all the pot shots that are constantly leveled at Joel Maturi. Once and for all I would like one of you to articulate point by point exactly why so many posters on this board are so down on him, because I can articulate point by point his accomplishments:

1. GPAs and graduation rates are up across the board in the athletic dept.
2. The athletic dept. is operating in the black.
3. He hired Tubby Smith.
4. The U is always ranked in the top 15 or 20 in the Sears Cup(Or whatever it is called now) that ranks athletic programs nationally by overall success.
5. Zero NCAA infractions during his tenure.

No I am not a memebr of Joel's family nor do I even know the man. I also do not beleive he is the devil incarnate that many of you do, and in fact it seems to me he has done a fairly good job. He made one bad hire. It happens. Nobody is perfect That doesn't mean this next hire will turn out the same. Let the man do his job.

"LEAVE BRITTANY ALONE!!!"

 

[howeda7]

I would suggest you could just read Nadine's blog from earlier this week. That pretty much laid out the case. But here's mine.

-Letting it get out that hiring Dan Monson in March 2006 then clumsily taking it back. This was just horrific and the press conference they had to announce his 'non-firing' was one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen. The idea that Monson had any chance to survive at that point was gone.

-Firing Monson 7 games into the next season. It probably had to be done because of the above, but who puts themselves in a position to have to fire the coach 20% into the season?

-Firing Mason at all. But especially for firing him after the Insight Bowl instead of after the regular season. There is zero excuse for this. None. It should not have happened.

-The subsequent rushed and bungled coaching search and hiring of Brewster. It has set Gopher football back to the stone ages.

-The Jimmy Williams fiasco. Let's be real, you just anointed Tubby God, of course he will assume he can hire whoever he wants for his staff, as I'm sure he was allowed to do every other place he coached. He wasn't trying to hire Clem Haskins here. There's no reason to have shot this down over things that happened 30 years before. It showed just how risk-averse and afraid Maturi is to ever step on anyone's toes.

-Promising Tubby a practice facility when he was hired, when he knew or should have known he couldn't deliver on it for years, if ever.

-Dithering around on Trevor Mbakwe's status and treating him very unfairly. Even if his stance of not letting him play was correct (I don't think it was) he could have made it months earlier and let Trevor decide if he wanted to even wanted to enroll. Instead he dithered and didn't decide until Trevor had no choice but to sit there and take it.

-His handling of the Royce White situation. First, many speculate that he let what Royce did impact his decision with Trevor. If that's true, it's unacceptable. Regardless of that, and the fact that Royce is a knucklehead, there's not doubt that the UMPD drew the whole laptop business out far more then was necessary. A strong AD would have leaned on them either charge him or don't, and get it over with. Maturi was more then happy to let them drag out the incident for months when it would have been closed in 10 minutes if it wasn't a basketball player. Royce is a knuckle-head and we may be better off without him, but there's no doubt that the whole matter could have been handled better.

-Acting helpless every time a rumor of Tubby leaving comes around. 'I won't know until he's already gone.' 'Some team will offer him $3 million, we can't pay $3 million.' Poor little old Joel. You're the AD at one of the 5 biggest schools in America and you're in the Big 10. Oregon and Virginia do not have better basketball programs. Quit acting like such a light-weight.

-Saying in March that he's working on a contract extension, but not delivering one. It's December. Any other school would have had it done in April. Not dithering Joel.

-Allowing the news that Brew would be fired if he lost to Purdue to leak out. That was just an embarrassment for the whole Athletic Department.

-The current search is TBD, but I'm not filled with confidence and he will almost certainly regret the 'Tubby-like' hire comment.

 

[we will win this week?]

You can not blame Maturi for empty seats. YOU are either a fan or you are not. I go for the following reasons
1)I love college football
2) I love Gopher football
3) We might just get treated to a memorial game- This years Iowa game.
4)Short of death or dieing, I will be there.
I have a question to all on the board? I know that Texas had a down year and how many Texas fans sold there seats or did not show up to see them play?
We need to just enjoy the ride which sometimes like this year is a little bumpy.

 

[needmorecowbell]

You can not blame Maturi for empty seats. YOU are either a fan or you are not. I go for the following reasons
1)I love college football
2) I love Gopher football
3) We might just get treated to a memorial game- This years Iowa game.
4)Short of death or dieing, I will be there.
I have a question to all on the board? I know that Texas had a down year and how many Texas fans sold there seats or did not show up to see them play?
We need to just enjoy the ride which sometimes like this year is a little bumpy.

This year???? It has been a nightmare for 50 years. Thanks for trying to sugarcoat this pig.

 

[91 CLA Grad]

Had Maturi not hired Brewster (and then taken locals to task about how he did his homework on him) more people here would be willing to cut him some slack. There is genuine worry that he will make a poor choice at a pivotal time on the history of the football program.

 

[Duluthguy]

Wheaton, I disagree that he has done nothing to make us believe this seasrch is going well. It's just that this board is too frickn negative to pay attention. In his letter to Gopher supporters he said the search was going extremely well, that there was a good group of qualified candidates and that Gopher donors will be proud of the new coach. We'll see how much of this is true, but just about everyone on this board ignored that letter because they're too busy having a hissy fit over the latest rumors.

I'm one of the few who believes that Maturi has his shot at redemption, and I don't think anyone would try any harder to hire a good coach than a guy who needs to salvage his reputation. Of course, I could be very, very wrong, but so could all of the Maturi haters.

 

[calminnfan]

Wheaton, I disagree that he has done nothing to make us believe this seasrch is going well. It's just that this board is too frickn negative to pay attention. In his letter to Gopher supporters he said the search was going extremely well, that there was a good group of qualified candidates and that Gopher donors will be proud of the new coach. We'll see how much of this is true, but just about everyone on this board ignored that letter because they're too busy having a hissy fit over the latest rumors.

I'm one of the few who believes that Maturi has his shot at redemption, and I don't think anyone would try any harder to hire a good coach than a guy who needs to salvage his reputation. Of course, I could be very, very wrong, but so could all of the Maturi haters.

+1

Though he has made some blunders, being athletic director is far more then hiring coaches. It is managing the entire athletic department, with many of the sports he is having to oversee really non-revenue or minimum revenue.

When he came in he had to re-organize the whole department.

Basically just trying to say there is far more to the job then the specific issues on this board.

 

[Wheaton]

I would suggest you could just read Nadine's blog from earlier this week. That pretty much laid out the case. But here's mine.

-Letting it get out that hiring Dan Monson in March 2006 then clumsily taking it back. This was just horrific and the press conference they had to announce his 'non-firing' was one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen. The idea that Monson had any chance to survive at that point was gone.

-Firing Monson 7 games into the next season. It probably had to be done because of the above, but who puts themselves in a position to have to fire the coach 20% into the season?

(1)-Firing Mason at all. But especially for firing him after the Insight Bowl instead of after the regular season. There is zero excuse for this. None. It should not have happened.

(2)-The subsequent rushed and bungled coaching search and hiring of Brewster. It has set Gopher football back to the stone ages.

-The Jimmy Williams fiasco. Let's be real, you just anointed Tubby God, of course he will assume he can hire whoever he wants for his staff, as I'm sure he was allowed to do every other place he coached. He wasn't trying to hire Clem Haskins here. There's no reason to have shot this down over things that happened 30 years before. It showed just how risk-averse and afraid Maturi is to ever step on anyone's toes.

-Promising Tubby a practice facility when he was hired, when he knew or should have known he couldn't deliver on it for years, if ever.

-Dithering around on Trevor Mbakwe's status and treating him very unfairly. Even if his stance of not letting him play was correct (I don't think it was) he could have made it months earlier and let Trevor decide if he wanted to even wanted to enroll. Instead he dithered and didn't decide until Trevor had no choice but to sit there and take it.

-His handling of the Royce White situation. First, many speculate that he let what Royce did impact his decision with Trevor. If that's true, it's unacceptable. Regardless of that, and the fact that Royce is a knucklehead, there's not doubt that the UMPD drew the whole laptop business out far more then was necessary. A strong AD would have leaned on them either charge him or don't, and get it over with. Maturi was more then happy to let them drag out the incident for months when it would have been closed in 10 minutes if it wasn't a basketball player. Royce is a knuckle-head and we may be better off without him, but there's no doubt that the whole matter could have been handled better.

-Acting helpless every time a rumor of Tubby leaving comes around. 'I won't know until he's already gone.' 'Some team will offer him $3 million, we can't pay $3 million.' Poor little old Joel. You're the AD at one of the 5 biggest schools in America and you're in the Big 10. Oregon and Virginia do not have better basketball programs. Quit acting like such a light-weight.

-Saying in March that he's working on a contract extension, but not delivering one. It's December. Any other school would have had it done in April. Not dithering Joel.

-Allowing the news that Brew would be fired if he lost to Purdue to leak out. That was just an embarrassment for the whole Athletic Department.

-The current search is TBD, but I'm not filled with confidence and he will almost certainly regret the 'Tubby-like' hire comment.

(1) I don' hate Maturi for firing Mason. We had success, but I think Mason became complacent so firing him was an alright move. However, the way things have been going I am currently pining for they days of Mason. Mason did a poor job both recruiting Minnesota and developing a defense. However he NEVER lost to teams like South Dakota and Northern Illinois and North Dakota State.

(2) You hit the nail on the head with that. How Maturi was ever conned into buying the "Handsome cream" Brewster was selling is beyond me!

 

[howeda7]

(1) I don' hate Maturi for firing Mason. We had success, but I think Mason became complacent so firing him was an alright move. However, the way things have been going I am currently pining for they days of Mason. Mason did a poor job both recruiting Minnesota and developing a defense. However he NEVER lost to teams like South Dakota and Northern Illinois and North Dakota State.

(2) You hit the nail on the head with that. How Maturi was ever conned into buying the "Handsome cream" Brewster was selling is beyond me!

I disagreed with the firing of Mason, but it was a reasonable position to take. What was not reasonable was doing so for the sin of losing an Insight Bowl they weren't even favored to win, leaving them in a horrible position for hiring his replacement. There's a reason Black Monday is the day after the regular season and not on January 2nd. No one with a clue does it this way. We didn't have a clue. I'm shocked to hear Michigan considering it, and I think they will ultimately do it sooner. And even if they don't, they're Michigan. We're not.

 

[calminnfan]

(1) I don' hate Maturi for firing Mason. We had success, but I think Mason became complacent so firing him was an alright move. However, the way things have been going I am currently pining for they days of Mason. Mason did a poor job both recruiting Minnesota and developing a defense. However he NEVER lost to teams like South Dakota and Northern Illinois and North Dakota State.

(2) You hit the nail on the head with that. How Maturi was ever conned into buying the "Handsome cream" Brewster was selling is beyond me!

Concerning #2, even Horton along with the last 2 impressive wins of the season along with the level of talent on the team strongly state the program has not gone back to the stone ages. Actually a good hire is going to be able to make the program competitive next year. Horton's last 2 wins and the depth of talent they have are enough to say that.

 

[Wheaton]

Concerning #2, even Horton along with the last 2 impressive wins of the season along with the level of talent on the team strongly state the program has not gone back to the stone ages. Actually a good hire is going to be able to make the program competitive next year. Horton's last 2 wins and the depth of talent they have are enough to say that.

I don't want to take things away from Gopher football, but they didn't defeat Ohio State or Wisconsin. In fact they never did under Brewster.

They beat a mediocre Bow team in Illinois and a Iowa team that was way down after being a two game losing streak in which they imploded in the fourth quarter. (Just as they did against Minnesota.)

I was at that Iowa game and it was amazing!

 

[calminnfan]

I don't want to take things away from Gopher football, but they didn't defeat Ohio State or Wisconsin. In fact they never did under Brewster.

They beat a mediocre Bow team in Illinois and a Iowa team that was way down after being a two game losing streak in which they imploded in the fourth quarter. (Just as they did against Minnesota.)

I'm just saying they are not as far back as implied and with good coaching and a couple of players are going to be more competitive then they are given credit for. Horton even said they are not that far away from being competitive.

The Illinois and Iowa game, granted both teams were down, but they both are going to bowl games as well. For the most part, the same Gopher team that got blown out of Iowa last year is the same team that won this year.

 

[Goldmember]

Also, he has done nothing to lead us to believe this search process is going well. I'm not asking for him to come out and say who they are going after, who he has interviewed, but at least deny some of these reports. Give us a little more confidence.

He said the next time you would hear from him about this it would be to announce the coach. End of story. If people lack confidence, it has nothing to do with Maturi- it's their own anxiety issues. He can't help you with that.

 

[CDH27]

Maturi will either be praised for a good hire or criticised for a poor hire in a few days. I will hold my thoughts for that to happen. Joel has done some good things for the U and has failed miserabley in others as detailed above. None of us are going to change the U's decision about their football coach selection so all we can do is wait for the announcement.

 

[WAGopher]

+1000 to Howeda7's list.

I don't hate Maturi, but I have criticized him. Maturi is not a bad guy, but he's not AD material for a school like Minnesota. His skill set is more suited for an assistant AD like he was at Wisconsin. He seems to like managing the internal structure of the department and looks to be very good at it as exhibited by increasing graduation rates, continued success in most sports and developing a good atmosphere between the merged men's and women's departments. However, his position is at a high profile, top academic, top research and Big10 sports university. His position requires a vision to bring and keep Minnesota athletics near the top of college athletics. However, his personality, indecisiveness, knee jerk reactions and untimely public comments support the notion that he is not well suited for his position at Minnesota.

Joel Maturi would make a great AD at a lower division school where his strengths would be more important than his weaknesses. He would also make a great assistant AD for a Division I school.

With all that said, I am still glad that Joel was our AD for the first few years of his employment. The athletics department was in need of restructuring and after Tom Moe began the work, Joel did a great job of completing it. He also did an outstanding job of coordinating the effort for the new stadium. He was able to stay on top of many important issues and affectively manage them.

For the University, students, players and fans, I sincerely hope Maturi lures a great football HC to Minnesota.

 

[Wheaton]

He said the next time you would hear from him about this it would be to announce the coach. End of story. If people lack confidence, it has nothing to do with Maturi- it's their own anxiety issues. He can't help you with that.

It just seems to me that he could throw the fans a bone. Maturi has to realize and understand why some people don't have faith in him, he screwed up the last hire plain and simple. Now fans are receiving all these reports from blogs, web sites, rumor mills, news papers and t.v saying we are getting turned down right and left.

It doesn't have to be in great detail, Phil Miller tried to contact him for a story and he declined comment. Give Phil something, it doesn't have to be earth shattering, but we are quickly approaching day 50 with no clear cut favorite idea.

 

[howeda7]

+1000 to Howeda7's list.

I don't hate Maturi, but I have criticized him. Maturi is not a bad guy, but he's not AD material for a school like Minnesota. His skill set is more suited for an assistant AD like he was at Wisconsin. He seems to like managing the internal structure of the department and looks to be very good at it as exhibited by increasing graduation rates, continued success in most sports and developing a good atmosphere between the merged men's and women's departments. However, his position is at a high profile, top academic, top research and Big10 sports university. His position requires a vision to bring and keep Minnesota athletics near the top of college athletics. However, his personality, indecisiveness, knee jerk reactions and untimely public comments support the notion that he is not well suited for his position at Minnesota.

Joel Maturi would make a great AD at a lower division school where his strengths would be more important than his weaknesses. He would also make a great assistant AD for a Division I school.

With all that said, I am still glad that Joel was our AD for the first few years of his employment. The athletics department was in need of restructuring and after Tom Moe began the work, Joel did a great job of completing it. He also did an outstanding job of coordinating the effort for the new stadium. He was able to stay on top of many important issues and affectively manage them.

For the University, students, players and fans, I sincerely hope Maturi lures a great football HC to Minnesota.

He certainly did some good things. If had retired after say 2005, I would have viewed his short tenure as a success. It's most of the things he's done since that are a problem.

 

[ButchNashGuy]

It just seems to me that he could throw the fans a bone. Maturi has to realize and understand why some people don't have faith in him, he screwed up the last hire plain and simple. Now fans are receiving all these reports from blogs, web sites, rumor mills, news papers and t.v saying we are getting turned down right and left.

It doesn't have to be in great detail, Phil Miller tried to contact him for a story and he declined comment. Give Phil something, it doesn't have to be earth shattering, but we are quickly approaching day 50 with no clear cut favorite idea.

I get what you are saying. However, JM does not usually do well in his public statements. I think the board was satisified with "next time you hear from me....". Why not Mona or someone else that can be a spokesman?

 

[howeda7]

I get what you are saying. However, JM does not usually do well in his public statements. I think the board was satisified with "next time you hear from me....". Why not Mona or someone else that can be a spokesman?

First, it's pretty sad that we have an AD who 'doesn't do well when making public statements'. That's a pretty important part of an AD's job. Maybe not time-wise, but in how his impact will be judged.

Second, he said 'no comment until the press conference, then proceeded to make all manner of different comments for about 2-3 weeks after that. 'Coaches we were surprised was interested' etc. So he contradicted himself already. To now expect us to respect the utter silence as him just doing a 'great job' is a bit of a reach. Honestly, would it be that hard to say, we expect the process to be complete next week.' It would at least ease the speculation until Monday.

 

[Wheaton]

Wheaton, I disagree that he has done nothing to make us believe this seasrch is going well. It's just that this board is too frickn negative to pay attention. In his letter to Gopher supporters he said the search was going extremely well, that there was a good group of qualified candidates and that Gopher donors will be proud of the new coach. We'll see how much of this is true, but just about everyone on this board ignored that letter because they're too busy having a hissy fit over the latest rumors.

I'm one of the few who believes that Maturi has his shot at redemption, and I don't think anyone would try any harder to hire a good coach than a guy who needs to salvage his reputation. Of course, I could be very, very wrong, but so could all of the Maturi haters.

Once again, I don't hate Maturi.

Now I do feel there is a good candidate he is working on, however (and you know this) he isn't going to send a letter out to season ticket holders say "The search is going terrible and I can't give this job away."

 

[Wheaton]

I get what you are saying. However, JM does not usually do well in his public statements. I think the board was satisified with "next time you hear from me....". Why not Mona or someone else that can be a spokesman?

Mona would be perfect for that.

 

[akgo4]

I will trust Maturi at his word. If he wants a program builder, and "name", a defensive minded coach, whatever. If he doesn't deliver, he deserves everything he gets and the program will be set back even further. I for one don't believe that the new hire will be given a chance to be successful if it's anything less than a rock solid pick to coach. He'll be done before his first game in terms of fan annoyance.

 

[sec105]

Mona would be perfect for that.

Isn't it one of Dave Mona's jobs to shape public opinion, to put a positive spin on negative situations? Well if that's the case he is failing. The guy is mute on this topic.

I agree, Mona needs to say something to limit all this negative speculation. As it stands now anybody Maturi hires aside form Leach (who Ruesse say's it can't be) or Belotti will have as many detractors as supporters.

SPEAK UP DAVE MONA!!! Calm us down as only you can do.

 

[Firejumper]

While following Gopher football for 40+ years, I have to say my pride and joy has always been the men's hockey program. Year after year they competed for conference titles and national titles. No matter what was happening anywhere else, I could always fall back on that program as a source of pride. You knew they were going to be good. Every single year. What has happened to this program the last half dozen years is an embarrasment, and Maturi needs to start taking some serious heat for it. Ever since John Hill was hired as an assistant, things have gone downhill. Other top assistants have left. What has Joel done? Nothing !!! His fellow Notre Dame buddy Lucia and he are apparently attached at the hip. Maturi should have intervened long ago to get rid of Hill and insist on Lucia making whatever changes are necessary to make this team competitive again.

We can all thank Maturi for standing by and watching the Pride of Minnesota deteriorate. He knows nothing about hockey, and it shows.

As for the biggest feather in Maturi's cap, lets face it, under Tubby we have not even sniffed a conference championship and won't sniff one this year either.

 

[GopherKrazed]

While following Gopher football for 40+ years, I have to say my pride and joy has always been the men's hockey program. Year after year they competed for conference titles and national titles. No matter what was happening anywhere else, I could always fall back on that program as a source of pride. You knew they were going to be good. Every single year. What has happened to this program the last half dozen years is an embarrasment, and Maturi needs to start taking some serious heat for it.

Under Maturi's "leadership" the mens hockey team has gone from one of the top three programs in the country to one that is now not even one of the top three in the state!

 

[Duluthguy]

Yes, he isn't going to send out a letter saying that the search is going to hell, but he didn't have to send out any letter. Let's see, Maturi should do something to give us more confidence in how everything is going, but when he does, we shouldn't believe him.

 

[calminnfan]

Under Maturi's "leadership" the mens hockey team has gone from one of the top three programs in the country to one that is now not even one of the top three in the state!

The coach and his assistants may have something to do with that...it seems he started out pretty well and has gone downhill from there..

just a thought.