More "Kill-er" Press

[GoAUpher]

I'll say this before I go away: I think Kill is a good guy and I think he can coach. Do I think he'll succeed? No, not really. Do I want him to? Yes, of course.

I'm just worried about this blind acceptance of him already. Shouldn't there be some skepticism? We went through this with Brew. I like Brew so I'm as guilty as anyone, but after one presser everyone hopped on board and got completely burned. We should learn something from the past. Slow down, everyone. He hasn't done anything yet that any other hire wouldn't have done. Let's not get ahead ourselves -- we've seen where that can lead.

There is skepticism. Most folks aren't sure how he'll recruit yet. But skepticism can only go so far in the absence of any proof. At this point there is no reason to be a big hater because you're doing so in the absence of any proof to back up your position. Why is it bad to be optimistic and update that feeling if after 1 season and 1 recruiting class of his own there is so evidence to be worried?

 

[GoAUpher]

In becoming fully enamored with Kill, all you are doing is taking the pressure off Maturi, Bruininks and the Regents who have created a situation at the university that couldn't possibly be any more unattractive to top coaching candidates. Sure, it's important to fully support the coach, but by fully supporting the hire, you're not helping force the changes that need to be made to get the program out of perpetual mediocrity. Sad but true. And short of storming administrative offices with pitchforks and torches, I've got no suggestions on how to change it. I do know, however, that the wholesale changes that need to be made are not going to happen as long as everyone forgets how much of a rude awakening the coaching search was.

Um, I agree that I don't see why we have to hate on Kill to put pressure on Maturi. As has been discussed ad naseum you can critique the AD for how he handled the hiring process without taking a crap on our new coach. If you can't see how that works then I question your ability to think rationally or logically.

 

[Dr.Don]

Um, I agree that I don't see why we have to hate on Kill to put pressure on Maturi. As has been discussed ad naseum you can critique the AD for how he handled the hiring process without taking a crap on our new coach. If you can't see how that works then I question your ability to think rationally or logically.

"...ability to think rationally or logically?"

Since when was that a requirement for some of the GopherHole commentors.

 

[HouseOfHagen]

What differences does it make? Whether we are skeptical of him or offer "blind acceptance", he is, at the end of the day, our coach. So, I don't understand what the problem is with "blind acceptance" when skepticism will really do nothing for us.

Unless, of course, this skepticism is just protection in case things go badly. Then you can fire back with "I told you so" comments.

"We've seen where that can lead"? So, if we would have been more skeptical of Brewster, things would have turned out better? Or, does this just mean that you want to "not get ahead of yourself" to protect from being embarrassed. Either way, if you are not willing to support and accept your new coach, are you a true fan or just a fair weather fan?

I supported Brewster, and we lost. I don't regret my support, and I think this is what any true fan would do. Kill was not my first choice, but he is our coach, and I will support him with "blind acceptance" because I support this team regardless of who is roaming the sidelines.

So tell me...if Glen Mason was re-hired instead of Kill, would you support him with "blind acceptance" because you support this team regardless of who is roaming the sidelines? Come to think of it, I would expect you to be the type of fan that still wishes we had Mason.

 

[MaxyJR1]

So tell me...if Glen Mason was re-hired instead of Kill, would you support him with "blind acceptance" because you support this team regardless of who is roaming the sidelines? Come to think of it, I would expect you to be the type of fan that still wishes we had Mason.

Now that is irrational in and of itself.

 

[GoAUpher]

So tell me...if Glen Mason was re-hired instead of Kill, would you support him with "blind acceptance" because you support this team regardless of who is roaming the sidelines? Come to think of it, I would expect you to be the type of fan that still wishes we had Mason.

The thing is that we'd have some actual history with which to base our feelings on. With Kill the history looks good but didn't come at the BCS/Big Ten level. Which means its a wait and see type of scenario.

 

[GopherBeef]

So tell me...if Glen Mason was re-hired instead of Kill, would you support him with "blind acceptance" because you support this team regardless of who is roaming the sidelines? Come to think of it, I would expect you to be the type of fan that still wishes we had Mason.

Thanks to Maxy and GoAUpher, I don't have a whole lot to add to this. Thanks fellas.

All I have to add is: I don't see the point of taking a wait-and-see approach before accepting Coach Kill. He is here, no matter if we support him fully or are full of skepticism (we can even have it both ways). I don't know how it will turn out, but I will support him fully and with "blind acceptance".

I definitely do not wish we still had Mason, and I am offended by that suggestion. However, if by some horrible decision Mason was re-hired, I would not turn my back on the program, and would support him even though I would not be thrilled about the hire. I don't base my loyalties on the current head coach, and I suspect that most on this board don't either.

 

[ruralgopher]

I've yet to read anywhere that gives the opinion that Kill has improved the reputation or perception of the university or the program. This program is still a laughintstock. Hiring some hayseed from the MAC hasn't changed that.

From Stewart Mandel at SI:

The good news: Kill is more than a great name, he's a great coach. When someone's won big everywhere he's been, that's usually a good sign. He won big (38-14) at Division II Saginaw Valley State, he won big (producing a No. 1 ranked team) at I-AA Southern Illinois (five straight playoff appearances) and he won big, at least for a year, at Northern Illinois (10-3 this season). He's sort of a Brian Kelly/Chris Petersen type, having recruited at the small-school level where you have to find hidden gems that fit your system and coach them up. That's particularly important at a school like Minnesota that isn't going to win a lot of recruiting battles with Ohio State.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...el/12/08/bcs-process/index.html#ixzz18ltBUlQf

From Andy Staples at SI:
But what Kill lacks in sex appeal he more than makes up for in ability and tenacity. He is a cancer survivor who specializes in rebuilding programs. In 2001, Kill took over a Southern Illinois program that had gone 3-8 the previous season. He went 5-18 his first two seasons and 50-14 in his last five. The Salukis made the FCS playoffs each of Kill's last five seasons in Carbondale. In 2008, Kill took over a Northern Illinois program that had gone 2-10 the previous season. This past season, Kill went 10-3.

Kill is exactly the kind of coach Minnesota needs, even if the average Golden Gophers fan couldn't have picked him out of a lineup a week ago. Kill understands he wasn't at the top of Minnesota's wish list. But at his introductory press conference last week, Kill introduced his lovely wife Rebecca. The fact that Kill had outkicked his coverage in finding a spouse proved his point. Sometimes, the sexiest choice isn't always the best one.

"I wasn't her first choice," Kill said. "I was second or third down that line. I had to work at it. So this isn't the first time maybe [that] I haven't been the first choice. I can live with that."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/12/13/new.hires/index.html#ixzz18ltUXSX3

Ritt's is too long to put here, so here is the link:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/20835/kill-not-big-splash-hire-but-who-cares


That seems to be a fair sampling of what the media thinks. What news are you reading??


Oh, almost forgot... Derps.

 

[HouseOfHagen]

The point is, with Maturi in charge, we have every right to be skeptic of his new hire given what we've just gone through in Brewster. I don't know about any of you, but I've grown tired of building up Gopher football hope just to get sh!t on over and over again.

 

[MaxyJR1]

The point is, with Maturi in charge, we have every right to be skeptic of his new hire given what we've just gone through in Brewster. I don't know about any of you, but I've grown tired of building up Gopher football hope just to get sh!t on over and over again.

Pooh, Pooh, I guess we'll just have to be pessimistic.

You must be old because the Mason years were actually pretty good. We didn't get over the hump, but the 10 years were the glory years of the last 40+.

 

[RodentRampage]

The point is, with Maturi in charge, we have every right to be skeptic of his new hire given what we've just gone through in Brewster. I don't know about any of you, but I've grown tired of building up Gopher football hope just to get sh!t on over and over again.

No, we do not. Maturi doesn't have anything to do with whether this is a good hire. It doesn't matter that Maturi hired Brewster. We shouldn't base our opinions of a hire based on who hired him. We have access to the coaches resume, and what people are saying about him. Hiring Brewster was a big gamble, and raised a lot of eyebrows, as he was only a tight ends coach. With Kill, he has a track record of success as a head coach.

 

[Dr.Don]

House of Hagen... you said: ...I've grown tired of building up Gopher football hope just to get sh!t on over and over again.

Then stop living where people sh!t. Join Art V. in his mother's basement and sh!t in your own pants.

 

[HouseOfHagen]

Pooh, Pooh, I guess we'll just have to be pessimistic.

You must be old because the Mason years were actually pretty good. We didn't get over the hump, but the 10 years were the glory years of the last 40+.

That is hands down the worst post I've read in my short history on Gopherhole. Calling the Mason years "pretty good" is absurd.

 

[dpodoll68]

Calling the Mason years "pretty good" is absurd.

It depends on your frame of reference. I'm not sure whether you are able to grasp nuance, but he did frame it in the context of the last 40 years of Gopher football. Within that context, the Mason years (specifically 1999-2005) were pretty damn good.

 

[MaxyJR1]

That is hands down the worst post I've read in my short history on Gopherhole. Calling the Mason years "pretty good" is absurd.

There were nearly 10,000 student season ticket holders under Mason. My freshman year I sat in the front row for games. By my senior year we were close to being in the upper deck. Something was good. I supported Mason being fired, but those were the glory years of the last 40.

 

[GoAUpher]

The point is, with Maturi in charge, we have every right to be skeptic of his new hire given what we've just gone through in Brewster. I don't know about any of you, but I've grown tired of building up Gopher football hope just to get sh!t on over and over again.

Yes, because both Brew and Kill lacked records as an HC before coming to MN. I mean, its not like Kill lead a team in the MAC to a 10-3 season or brought a soon to be canceled SIU team back from the dead, etc. That sort of history would be important in shaping one's opinion of a coach despite who hired him. But since you think he and Brew are equally unknown at the start of their tenure I'm sure I must be dreaming all this. After all, with your penchant for reason and logic so clearly on display I can think of any reason to be concerned...

 

[harrys ghost]

It depends on your frame of reference. I'm not sure whether you are able to grasp nuance, but he did frame it in the context of the last 40 years of Gopher football. Within that context, the Mason years (specifically 1999-2005) were pretty damn good.

Actually, they were pretty darn average. 40 years ago was 1970. Warmath was still coaching. Let's look at the conference records (Mason looks better if you consider his parade of cupcakes in NC play but most on the list did not have that luxury) for the coaches during the last 40 years.

Murray Warmath 65-57-4 (.533)
Cal Stoll 27-29 (.482)
Joe Salem 12-32-1 (.273)
Lou Holtz 7-10 (.412)
John Gutekunst 18-28-2 (.391)
Jim Wacker 8-32 (.200)
Glen Mason 32-48 (.400)
Tim Brewster 6-21 (.222)
Jeff Horton 2-3 (.400)

Out of the last nine coaches, Mason had a much better record than Brewster, Salem and Wacker. He was on a par with Holtz, Gutekunst and Horton. He was worse than Warmath and Stoll. Pretty much right in the middle.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Kill may be the best Gopher coach since Lou Holtz and, unlike Holtz, he's liable to stick around, a la Warmath. We'll know a lot more after the first few games this fall. At this point, he looks as good as any of the newly hired coaches - in terms of past record, organization, loyalty of staff, and, especially, the great showing of NIU in their bowl game. Relax, things are looking up...

 

[Haugy#33]

Go Kill!!!! Mame!! Stampede the Women and rape the cattle!!!!

 

[Dr.Don]

Go Kill!!!! Mame!! Stampede the Women and rape the cattle!!!!

In Western North Dakota the sheep are scared!!!!

 

[corcoran1]

You are exactly wrong on the pressure issue, IMO. There is a lot more pressure on them when the fans expect good things, than when fans are objective, disengaged observers of their own team. It is not hard to be AD when everybody expects your football team to be crap, and the BigTen network gives you enough money to break even with bad teams. It's a tough job when people expect to go to January bowl games, and you can't get over 7-5. My belief is that Maturi has had it really easy because most people (e.g. you) want to be shown it is possible, rather than demanding it be done.
If it was not for Bruininks, I am not convinced either of the last two changes would have been made, and they both needed to happen. The timing on the Mason firing was brutal, but it should have happened earlier. An athletic director commmitted to winning and not just balancing the budget, would have had Mason out of here two years earlier when his recruiting absolutely came apart, and it was clear he had no intention of working hard enough to take the program further.
If you want different resuts, get involved, write a check( even a small one), and complain like crazy if things do not improve.

 

[TLHGO4]

Actually, they were pretty darn average. 40 years ago was 1970. Warmath was still coaching. Let's look at the conference records (Mason looks better if you consider his parade of cupcakes in NC play but most on the list did not have that luxury) for the coaches during the last 40 years.

Murray Warmath 65-57-4 (.533)
Cal Stoll 27-29 (.482)
Joe Salem 12-32-1 (.273)
Lou Holtz 7-10 (.412)
John Gutekunst 18-28-2 (.391)
Jim Wacker 8-32 (.200)
Glen Mason 32-48 (.400)
Tim Brewster 6-21 (.222)
Jeff Horton 2-3 (.400)

Out of the last nine coaches, Mason had a much better record than Brewster, Salem and Wacker. He was on a par with Holtz, Gutekunst and Horton. He was worse than Warmath and Stoll. Pretty much right in the middle.[/QUOTE

Always helps to put things in perspective.

 

[Gold Rush]

Actually, I don't think that Kill is a bad choice at all - you can tell that Maturi wanted to go with a guy who was a real football coach and that is what he got. If you look at our past history, whenever we get a new coach we almost always seem to choose someone who is the exact opposite of their predecessor. So I was expecting to get a real coach this time.

When you look at who everyone else has been hiring, I think this stacks up pretty well actually. If Maturi would have come out from the beginning and said, "Hey we are going to get the best coach that we can get and someone who we feel can be a winner here," I think people would have respected that. Instead we get this stupid, "Tubby Smith hire" that had everyone on here talking about everyone from Mike Belotti to Mike Leach and if they would have still been alive I am sure Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi would have been mentioned, too. Naturally, most people were a little let down from that kind of a build up when Kill was announced. Still, Maturi's neck is on the line over this hire.

I think the overall atmosphere toward our new coach is optimistic, but guarded and you can thank the previous regime for that - Minnesotans aren't going to fall for all the smack talk again. My biggest request for Coach Kill is to get a top notch recruiting coordinator that can win some of the big battles he will face in the future. I agree with most fans on here that recruiting is the biggest question mark right now but I am very excited to see a real football coach on our sidelines for a change. Hopefully he and his staff can make our players better, come up with some good game plans and make good adjustments during the game because that is what good coaches do. I would strongly urge everyone to be patient though as we will have to go through some growing pains with new schemes, new coaches and probably some fallout attrition with the coaching change. Still, I think it's a good time to be a fan and I am hopeful for a good future!!

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I don't really get this argument. The argument essentially is that we are a laughingstock of a program and we only hired a MAC coach and therefore we should all remain skeptical.

Since our program isn't a model program (see laughingstock) most of us were under the impression that we had no chance at the big time hires (Harbaugh, Mullen, Petersen, Patterson, Dungy, Gruden, etc.) and that we would probably be picking from coaches who have had success at lower levels.

When you come from that realistic vantage point and you look at Jerry Kill's resume, how could there really be too many people who hate the hire?

As far as being skeptical, well, that will obviously come. However, we have absolutely no reason to be skeptical at this point because the coaching search has gone exactly how most of us thought it would go. I hope you do continue to come to this board and see that Kill will get criticisized by this board for numerous decisions and there will be a ton of skepticism. However, now, we have nothing to base that skepticism on. Being skeptical over absolutely nothing is pure paranoia.

We are a program that hired a coach on about the same level (could argue a tad better or worse) as the coach that Miami hired. If you think that the U fanbase should be skeptical, you should be expecting all out anarchy in Coral Gables.

 

[Ski-U-Mah24]

I wasn't a fan of this hire at first, but the more I hear of this guy the more I like. The man is going to get 110% out of every athlete that he brings in that wants to play for the school. I think with the way he is going to run this program with the continuity of staff from top to bottom that this team will surprise a lot of the skeptical fans and people will once again be jumping on the bandwagon in a few years. I can't wait to see how much this team improves year-to-year over the next four years because I would put a chunk of money on them that they will produce much better results than Brewster with a lot less unneeded flair and hoopla!

 

[GopherHomer]

I'm fine with the program returning to "Mason's Level" but I hope Kill isn't as satisfied with that level as Mason was. That's my big gripe with Mason. He thought he should be revered for getting us respectability, and didn't want to put in the extra work to make the next step. Nobody can guarantee that Kill will succeed, but he just doesn't seem like the type of person who will be satisfied with mediocrity.

 

[tikited]

That is hands down the worst post I've read in my short history on Gopherhole. Calling the Mason years "pretty good" is absurd.

I couldn't stand Mason at all, but he was better than pretty good. Not good enough, but pretty good.

 

[HouseOfHagen]

I couldn't stand Mason at all, but he was better than pretty good. Not good enough, but pretty good.

I still don't get how people can call Mason "pretty good." As noted above, he won 40% of the conference games at MN. His record vs. top 25 teams was horrible. He gave up the largest comeback in bowl history. I'm still not over the 4th quarter Michigan loss at the dome. Average conference record and repeated game coaching failures does not translate into pretty good.

 

[MaxyJR1]

I still don't get how people can call Mason "pretty good." As noted above, he won 40% of the conference games at MN. His record vs. top 25 teams was horrible. He gave up the largest comeback in bowl history. I'm still not over the 4th quarter Michigan loss at the dome. Average conference record and repeated game coaching failures does not translate into pretty good.

What do you call the Mason years? Respectable? Average? Below Average? I think he beat two top 5 teams, beat every team in the conference, won every trophy, and went to a bowl in 7 of 10 years. He helped bring a new stadium and boosted the student section to its highest point.

I still support the firing of him because of a plateau.

 

[WAGopher]

What do you call the Mason years? Respectable? Average? Below Average? I think he beat two top 5 teams, beat every team in the conference, won every trophy, and went to a bowl in 7 of 10 years. He helped bring a new stadium and boosted the student section to its highest point.

I still support the firing of him because of a plateau.

Mason was a pretty good at coaching, but he had more than a few in game decisions that are head scratchers, kept some coaches that should have been shown the door, lost good coaches for lateral moves, and lost some of those to conference rivals (like Kerry Cooks). His recruiting also dropped off when he should have been building off the successes of the 2003 - 2005 teams.

A little discussed reason why Mason may have lost his edge is that his good teams were passed over for better bowl games by teams with worse or even records. That has to sting, especially when it happens multiple times. The worst case was when MSU basically bought the Alamo Bowl in '03 by guaranteeing a larger ticket sale. They went on to get stuffed by Nebraska, when we had a very good chance of beating the them. Just think if Minnesota gets to the Alamo Bowl and beats a top 20 Nebraska team. History could have been different. I'm sure Mason had a gut check of why was he at a program that couldn't buy a break with a 10 win season. For whatever other reasons, he seemed to lose some passion for his job after that season.