WHB Brewer
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I'm going on record as being satisfied with Jerry Kill as the new Gopher Head Coach. After thining more about it over the past 18hrs, here is my take.
I'm happy they picked a guy with a winning background who has done it the right way building several programs, and winning while doing so. I have a few questions about how well he will do recruiting on a bigger stage, but he obviously has a lot of connections across the Midwest with his coaching background. He can add some assistant coaches to help with recruiting nationally. He is able to beat the teams at his level (dominated the MVC & MAC) and was competitive when playing teams of higher caliber (2-3 vs B10). His teams are well-prepared and disciplined (consistent winners, low penaties, high grad rates). I have to believe some of that has to translate into the next level.
I'm extremely disappointed with all the negativity by the media and on the gopherhole message board. I undestand people might be disappointed with the hire, but they should tone down the hatred and give the guy a chance. It is not Jerry Kill's fault that he doesn't excite the fanbase enough. Maturi set the expectation way too high with his "Tubby-like hire" comment. That got everyone's hopes up way too high. Realistically, I think everyone (myself included) got caught up in the "what if we get this guy" speculation, and completely lost track of what was likely going to happen. If we take out the dream aspect of all the speculation, this hire is about what we should have expected going into the search, and possibly a little bit better.
Here is a realistic take on the speculated names on this board (or at least my breakdown)
Leach - This was my initial choice candidate as a coach who would excite the fanbase and fill the stadium. But, the UMN is too politically correct to hire an old-school football coach who will tell it like it is and will likely have all the liberal students protesting his latest word choice at a press conference. My guess is he will have to start at a lower-tier program and build his way back up to a BCS-level job. He's young enough to re-establish himself and get a good job down the road. Being the replacement at N.Illinois might be the right fit for him at this time (semi-established program he can elevate further). Taking a lower-level job will also help prove his damages claim against T.Tech and ESPN.
Edsall - why would he leave when he already has a good deal going and has his team in a BCS bowl right now?
Hoke - is on everyone's radar, is going to get a nice raise to stick around at SDSU for another year and can get a better job down the road (i.e. Michigan). Plus, what in his background shows he is any better than Kill?
Golden - similar to Hoke. He's in line for a better job down the road (i.e. Penn St). He has already shown he is not any better than Kill (his team got beat by N.Illinois).
Mullen - competitive at Miss.St already, is on everyone's radar and will probably get a better job down the road. People are probably a little over-excited about this guy, since he's only been a HC for 2 seasons and is winning with someone else's players. Time will tell if he can maintain it.
Calhoun - has a pretty thing going and will most likely stay at Air Force for a while, or get a much better job down the road
Shannon - he couldn't win at Miami with their obvious recruiting advantages. How is he going to win at Minnesota?
Fulmer - You are a 60+ southerner and only have 5-10yrs left (at most) in your career. Why go to a place where you have to do a major rebuilding job and take a chance of tarnishing your legacy at a school in a cold-climate where it's tough to win. Where is the upside to the coach?
Belloti - see Fulmer (minus being a southerner)
Peterson - Never had a chance. He has a very good thing going with no reason to believe it will end anytime soon. Everyone knows who you are (already on the national scene), and took a school that nobody thought could hit the big time to several BCS bowls and were a missed FG away from being in another. Why start over at a low-level program? If you are going to move, you can wait for the right opportunity and have your choice of jobs.
Patterson - see Peterson. Bonus that TCU is moving to a BCS conference
Harbaugh - you just took a loser program (Stanford) to a BCS bowl and will have the Michigan job or any other choice job if you want it
Chryst - no background as HC and we cannot hire anyone from Bucky-land
Horton - his background should have eliminated him from consideration. He got fired from UNLV for losing his final 20-some games. Just because he kept the team together during a very trying season and won 2 emotional games does not qualify someone for a long-term commitment. A great memory beating Iowa, but let's just leave it at that and move on.
Holtz & sons - good grief. I can't believe anyone (ouside of Sid) thought this was a good idea.
I think Jerry Kill is the type of coach who you hire when the program is at the state that it is today. The Minnesota football program is in the bottom of the B10 with little recent history of great success. Making it an even worse job is a new president coming in and a lame-duck AD. Not many coaches are going to walk into a job with that much uncertainty. You either hire an alumn (i.e. Northwestern, Colorado, etc) or take a chance on a guy from a lower-level with some track record and hope he turns into the next great coach. Nobody knew much about guys like Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Farenz, etc, until they got started and made a name for themself. A guy has to start somewhere. I think someone on the gopherhole made the following comment about being a Gopher fan, "you hope for the best and expect the worst." The speculation over the past few weeks was all about hoping for the best. I think Jerry Kill is much better than "expecting the worst" and is a middle of the road hire, a better track-record than many of our past hires (Stoll, Salem, Gutey, Wacker, Brew), and about where we should have expected it to be.
I realize that we are back to the Mason model all over again. But it's the only realistic way to build a program and get better. It is how Iowa got better with Haden Fry and Wisconsin got better with Alvarez. I still contend Mason was the right guy at the time, but he peaked in 2003 at halftime of the Michigan game and never reached that level again. It was obvious to me as a fan that he was never going to win a B10 title with our tendency to collapse at the worst possible time (see history of Mason debacles). If we were happy with beating up on creampuffs in the NC schedule, winning 3-4 games in the B10, pulling off an upset every once in a while and going to the Music City/Insight Bowl every year, then you keep him. Othewise, you move on (which we did). I was on record of being in favor of getting rid of him 2yrs prior to when we actually did and thought Maturi messed up by giving him the extension with the big buyout. He thought the buyout would keep him from leaving, but didn't consider what would happen if he actually wanted to get rid of him (he made the same mistake with Monson). We are paying big $$ for those mistakes.
Unfortunately, Maturi compounded the problem when he picked the wrong guy in Brewster. Many people liked his enthusiasm and all the speculation about recruiting better players. Those are good things, but talking isn't going to win games. Brew's inability to settle on an offense style and retain coaches demonstrated that he was not ready to be a head coach and was in over his head. The funny thing is that Brewster on auto-pilot was able to achieve the same level of mediocrity with Mason's players (went to Insight Bowl twice). The warning signs were there when last year's team was dominated by seniors on defense and none of his recruits were major contributors. At the end of the day, Brew's BS became apparent and he had to show his hand when the last of Mason's guys were gone. We discovered his true (lack of )ability as a coach when he couldn't coach up his own players well enough to beat teams from South Dakota and N.Illinois (i.e. teams you schedule to beef up your record and get to bowl games). Just think, if he had beaten S.Dakota and N.Ill, they get on a little roll, probably have enough confidence going to actually beat Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois and someone else, wind up 6-6 and in a low-end bowl. Would everyone have been happy with that? Probably, and we still have Brew chanting "Gopher Nation" for another year. Ugh. Fortunately, Maturi handled Brew's extension a little bit better by reducing the buyout and get rid of him when the fans completely turned on him. Unfortunately the damage was already done.
It's time to move forward. Get on board and support Jerry Kill.
Go Gophers! Kill Herky! Kill Bucky!
I'm happy they picked a guy with a winning background who has done it the right way building several programs, and winning while doing so. I have a few questions about how well he will do recruiting on a bigger stage, but he obviously has a lot of connections across the Midwest with his coaching background. He can add some assistant coaches to help with recruiting nationally. He is able to beat the teams at his level (dominated the MVC & MAC) and was competitive when playing teams of higher caliber (2-3 vs B10). His teams are well-prepared and disciplined (consistent winners, low penaties, high grad rates). I have to believe some of that has to translate into the next level.
I'm extremely disappointed with all the negativity by the media and on the gopherhole message board. I undestand people might be disappointed with the hire, but they should tone down the hatred and give the guy a chance. It is not Jerry Kill's fault that he doesn't excite the fanbase enough. Maturi set the expectation way too high with his "Tubby-like hire" comment. That got everyone's hopes up way too high. Realistically, I think everyone (myself included) got caught up in the "what if we get this guy" speculation, and completely lost track of what was likely going to happen. If we take out the dream aspect of all the speculation, this hire is about what we should have expected going into the search, and possibly a little bit better.
Here is a realistic take on the speculated names on this board (or at least my breakdown)
Leach - This was my initial choice candidate as a coach who would excite the fanbase and fill the stadium. But, the UMN is too politically correct to hire an old-school football coach who will tell it like it is and will likely have all the liberal students protesting his latest word choice at a press conference. My guess is he will have to start at a lower-tier program and build his way back up to a BCS-level job. He's young enough to re-establish himself and get a good job down the road. Being the replacement at N.Illinois might be the right fit for him at this time (semi-established program he can elevate further). Taking a lower-level job will also help prove his damages claim against T.Tech and ESPN.
Edsall - why would he leave when he already has a good deal going and has his team in a BCS bowl right now?
Hoke - is on everyone's radar, is going to get a nice raise to stick around at SDSU for another year and can get a better job down the road (i.e. Michigan). Plus, what in his background shows he is any better than Kill?
Golden - similar to Hoke. He's in line for a better job down the road (i.e. Penn St). He has already shown he is not any better than Kill (his team got beat by N.Illinois).
Mullen - competitive at Miss.St already, is on everyone's radar and will probably get a better job down the road. People are probably a little over-excited about this guy, since he's only been a HC for 2 seasons and is winning with someone else's players. Time will tell if he can maintain it.
Calhoun - has a pretty thing going and will most likely stay at Air Force for a while, or get a much better job down the road
Shannon - he couldn't win at Miami with their obvious recruiting advantages. How is he going to win at Minnesota?
Fulmer - You are a 60+ southerner and only have 5-10yrs left (at most) in your career. Why go to a place where you have to do a major rebuilding job and take a chance of tarnishing your legacy at a school in a cold-climate where it's tough to win. Where is the upside to the coach?
Belloti - see Fulmer (minus being a southerner)
Peterson - Never had a chance. He has a very good thing going with no reason to believe it will end anytime soon. Everyone knows who you are (already on the national scene), and took a school that nobody thought could hit the big time to several BCS bowls and were a missed FG away from being in another. Why start over at a low-level program? If you are going to move, you can wait for the right opportunity and have your choice of jobs.
Patterson - see Peterson. Bonus that TCU is moving to a BCS conference
Harbaugh - you just took a loser program (Stanford) to a BCS bowl and will have the Michigan job or any other choice job if you want it
Chryst - no background as HC and we cannot hire anyone from Bucky-land
Horton - his background should have eliminated him from consideration. He got fired from UNLV for losing his final 20-some games. Just because he kept the team together during a very trying season and won 2 emotional games does not qualify someone for a long-term commitment. A great memory beating Iowa, but let's just leave it at that and move on.
Holtz & sons - good grief. I can't believe anyone (ouside of Sid) thought this was a good idea.
I think Jerry Kill is the type of coach who you hire when the program is at the state that it is today. The Minnesota football program is in the bottom of the B10 with little recent history of great success. Making it an even worse job is a new president coming in and a lame-duck AD. Not many coaches are going to walk into a job with that much uncertainty. You either hire an alumn (i.e. Northwestern, Colorado, etc) or take a chance on a guy from a lower-level with some track record and hope he turns into the next great coach. Nobody knew much about guys like Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Farenz, etc, until they got started and made a name for themself. A guy has to start somewhere. I think someone on the gopherhole made the following comment about being a Gopher fan, "you hope for the best and expect the worst." The speculation over the past few weeks was all about hoping for the best. I think Jerry Kill is much better than "expecting the worst" and is a middle of the road hire, a better track-record than many of our past hires (Stoll, Salem, Gutey, Wacker, Brew), and about where we should have expected it to be.
I realize that we are back to the Mason model all over again. But it's the only realistic way to build a program and get better. It is how Iowa got better with Haden Fry and Wisconsin got better with Alvarez. I still contend Mason was the right guy at the time, but he peaked in 2003 at halftime of the Michigan game and never reached that level again. It was obvious to me as a fan that he was never going to win a B10 title with our tendency to collapse at the worst possible time (see history of Mason debacles). If we were happy with beating up on creampuffs in the NC schedule, winning 3-4 games in the B10, pulling off an upset every once in a while and going to the Music City/Insight Bowl every year, then you keep him. Othewise, you move on (which we did). I was on record of being in favor of getting rid of him 2yrs prior to when we actually did and thought Maturi messed up by giving him the extension with the big buyout. He thought the buyout would keep him from leaving, but didn't consider what would happen if he actually wanted to get rid of him (he made the same mistake with Monson). We are paying big $$ for those mistakes.
Unfortunately, Maturi compounded the problem when he picked the wrong guy in Brewster. Many people liked his enthusiasm and all the speculation about recruiting better players. Those are good things, but talking isn't going to win games. Brew's inability to settle on an offense style and retain coaches demonstrated that he was not ready to be a head coach and was in over his head. The funny thing is that Brewster on auto-pilot was able to achieve the same level of mediocrity with Mason's players (went to Insight Bowl twice). The warning signs were there when last year's team was dominated by seniors on defense and none of his recruits were major contributors. At the end of the day, Brew's BS became apparent and he had to show his hand when the last of Mason's guys were gone. We discovered his true (lack of )ability as a coach when he couldn't coach up his own players well enough to beat teams from South Dakota and N.Illinois (i.e. teams you schedule to beef up your record and get to bowl games). Just think, if he had beaten S.Dakota and N.Ill, they get on a little roll, probably have enough confidence going to actually beat Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois and someone else, wind up 6-6 and in a low-end bowl. Would everyone have been happy with that? Probably, and we still have Brew chanting "Gopher Nation" for another year. Ugh. Fortunately, Maturi handled Brew's extension a little bit better by reducing the buyout and get rid of him when the fans completely turned on him. Unfortunately the damage was already done.
It's time to move forward. Get on board and support Jerry Kill.
Go Gophers! Kill Herky! Kill Bucky!
