Nadine Babu STrib blog: Gopher Football – Who is to blame? Start with Maturi

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Firejumper said:
To say we couldn't do better than Kill is ridiculous. It was up to the AD to SELL the job to someone and he couldn't do it. Harvey Mackay and others sold Holtz on the job, if only for awhile.
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Did you see who Pitt and Colorado settled with? Those are better jobs. You think a better AD gets Hoke to turn down Michigan, or Golden to drop Miami? Both of those schools settled for B list in those two guys. Look who Florida hired. Maryland had to settle for Edsall and that is a better job too. If Florida, Maryland, and Miami couldn't get a Calhoun, Patterson, Petersen, Mullen, etc. how does Marvey Mackay get them here? We got a guy close to as established if not as established as did Michigan, Maryland, and Miami.

We gotta roll with Kill for 4 years and hope for the best and for some luck. If not, we are no better than Tulsa, Vanderbilt, or Indiana at that point.
 

maliksealy, I read that comment by "Loon03" and my first thought was..."How long before this comment gets to the GopherHole?"

The STrib is nothing but a dumping grounds for commentors and their bitches and moans, some of which also happens here. At least GopherLady hasn't been banned here on GH! :)
 

Let's get 'er going at the remaining home games. Take it into our own hands and make the chant heard loud and clear!

FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI FIRE MATURI
 

Given the lack of support the U has given the football program over the years, it is unfair to be to hard on most of the HCs they have had. Cal Stoll, Waacker and others did not have the support they needed to build a quality program like other schools.

Please...can we move on from the nostalgia concerning Mason. The 10-3 season was the highwater mark, but after that and his desire to be romanced by Ohio State (I guess they lost his number), everything was downhill from there. Mason gave up on MN. Mediocre was as good as it was going to get. Many of the states HS coaches wanted nothing to do with him and he did not even bother with the top state talent. His dismissal was not the big problem. The big problem was who they chose to replace him with along with the years of neglect the football program has had to endure from the U.

Kill may or may not be the right coach now...personally I think he is and is just going to need a few years to rebuild. But regardless, he was probably the best hire they were going to get. The A List coaches were all using the U and other schools to better their present situation. The others listed (Edsall, Hoke, Golden) had other opportunities plus a PR mess up with Hoke.

In reality Kill was their best option and in the end may be their best hire. To judge him now is way premature.
 



maliksealy said:
Interesting comment left on the comments section of the blog by "Loon03":

I have been a Gopher football fan since 1966 when I first started dating my future wife here at the U. Since then I have been in 50 different stadia in 49 different towns. I agree with this article 90%. My only complaint is the one category of blame incorrectly left off this opinion piece for very self serving reasons by GopherLady: Gopher football fans. Allow me to explain at some length. By 2003 Coach Mason had built up this program to the his high water mark of 10 wins and 3 losses. We were no longer the hopeless program he had inherited from Jim Wacker. Mason did this without TCF Bank Stadium, the single biggest improvement in our program in my 45 years as a fan, by far. By very far. So what happened from there? Amazingly, stunningly, mystifyingly to me, the fans decided that even without TCF Mason had somehow failed them. He had somehow built up their expectations to such a point that he had failed them. They decided that unlike Jesus Christ, he, Glen Mason was too imperfect to get us "to the next level". A common mantra of that majority view was that "just because he led us to only 10-3, we just know he will never get us to 11-2" even with a new stadium. Stunning logic. I was at nearly all of those games, nearly all of those ranting, male, complaint sessions. The internet and the young turks which controlled it, even banned people with any contrary or opposing views. Mason had to be undercut by Maturi until he left, changed his evil ways or was fired. GopherLady was an important part of that movement. She insisted on the very orthodoxy she attacks today in this article. Joel Maturi was the man in charge and the buck stops at his desk for sure, but it is purely disingenuous to pretend he was not pushed very hard by the majority of Gopher fans that she helped to lead and control.
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I saw this too - I'm flattered that Loon thinks I have any kind of influence. When I was running The Barnyard, I didn't even have enough pull to get them to make colored copies for us!

For the record, I absolutely think Mason tenure had run it's course. I absolutely love the guy now, he's fantastic, funny, knows the game, and I truly believe he cares about his players and loves the Gophers...but during that last year or two, I didn't see the passion he initially had. The decision to replace Mason I was in complete agreement with, but if you replace a solid coach, you do it and get an upgrade. I also think that when a coach is in place, you support the 100%. He didn't do that for Monson after the Cincinnati game, and lost the fanbase....and did the same thing with Mase in the bowl game against UVA. You show confidence in them, because when he didn't the fanbase also gave up on these coaches.

For the record, I was also never one of those "Fire Mason" people. I think that's classless, and would never actually boo my coach or a player during the game. I never even did that for Brew!

Arbogast said:
Not trying to nitpick or defend Maturi but didn't he "extend" Brewster's contract to a lower buyout? In turn saving money?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4891587
Did I miss some legal jargon in there somewhere?
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That's a common misunderstanding. The buyout was less, but there were more years on his contract. I believe Brew netted $200,000 more because of the extension. Had he lasted one more year, I think that would have been the break even point.
 


Until there is a coach who wins more Big Ten games than Mason won, it was an absolute disaster for prexy b. to have impulsively fired Mason. He would have NEEDED to have had better coach all lined up...but...he had no one. And, the comedy of errors started. And, the football program went into free-fall.

They even hired a hoops coach for much more (over 2 million a year) than they were willing to hire a football coach for when they knew they had a new stadium coming in just two years. (And really, how much better than Monson has Tubby done?) Be very honest about the Big Ten records of the two and consider the fact that Monson had all those losses of scholarships, recruiting visits and the scandal fall-out. The end of the Big Ten Hoops season this year was quite distressing. I like Tubby, but, just how well has he done here?

We are only NOW seeing what the true tragedy of the prexy b firing of Mason without an adequate replacement in hand has done to the football program. Coach Kill will hopefully be ok and will do well...eventually. However, Coach Kill is here one year too early. He is having to put the brewster disaster era to rest forever, and it is going to be incredibly painful for all of us. And, what the players have been put through during the past 4 years of brewball has been totally unprofessional treatment by running so many coordinators and coaches through the football program on a yearly basis. How on earth could the players develop, grow and thrive in an environment like that? All those coordinators, position coaches, offenses, defenses...utter and complete lack of organization. Those student athletes who were part of the football program were totally short-changed and treated very badly because the firing/hiring process was so btched by the president of the University of Minnesota and his fall-guy, the ad. I have to totally disagree with your take GopherLady. My point is that prexy b made a monumental error that I as a season ticket purchasing customer of the U of M have resented very much.

Have things been better in the Football Program since Mason was fired and NO adequate replacement for him was hired? And, when you grandstand the way prexy b did, you had better have that upgraded replacement in your hip pocket or have a powerful representative who would be capable of landing that Big Ten replacement. And you could NEVER be willing to pay more for a hoops coach than for your football coach, especially when you have an almost 300 million dollar stadium about ready to be built. All prexy b had was that badger joel maturi to go "find him" a cheap football coach to go into his fancy new stadium.

And we are paying for it now, aren't we?
 

imthewalrus said:
Have things been better in the Football Program since Mason was fired and NO adequate replacement for him was hired? What do you think GopherLady? I really would like to know.
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Ummmm....that's exactly what I said. You don't get rid of Mase if you don't have a plan to upgrade him. It's about having vision and a plan, things that Maturi has not shown me. Perhaps you're just missing my point? Oh well. I've said my peace.
 



akgopher said:
Did you see who Pitt and Colorado settled with? Those are better jobs. You think a better AD gets Hoke to turn down Michigan, or Golden to drop Miami? Both of those schools settled for B list in those two guys. Look who Florida hired. Maryland had to settle for Edsall and that is a better job too. If Florida, Maryland, and Miami couldn't get a Calhoun, Patterson, Petersen, Mullen, etc. how does Marvey Mackay get them here? We got a guy close to as established if not as established as did Michigan, Maryland, and Miami.

We gotta roll with Kill for 4 years and hope for the best and for some luck. If not, we are no better than Tulsa, Vanderbilt, or Indiana at that point.
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This.
 

Then, it was wrong of prexy b and maturi to have fired Mason, because they had NO replacement at all when they fired him. Isn't that what you are implying GopherLady? Because it is OBVIOUS that they fired Mason long before they knew who they would replace him with. (I know that you said "you don't replace Mase unless you have a plan to upgrade him...) However, you also state emphatically that you were in complete agreement to replace Mason. I don't undestand how you could be in complete agreement to replace him when the second part of that equation was missing. They had NO ONE. prexy b. just acted impulsively and destroyed the program on the spot. So, when you heard they had fired Mason, but would have to go out and search for a replacement, did you think they had made a mistake and take them to task for that mistake?

(I was in Nashville before the game with UVA. That was in December of 2005. I saw the tension all over the place since prexy b and maturi had let Mason's contract run down to the zero hour. Some GLC members I knew were ready to start a protest action. Then, the ralley in the stadium was delayed for a fairly long time and Mase and prexy b finally came to address the people. It was announced that they had been having a meeting. Mason's agent was also there. The tension in the place finally eased a bit. Within a couple days, maturi finally announced that he had "hired his football coach..." You don't think that having a contract run down to nothing is somewhat disheartening to a football coach? Then came the naming rights deal Mason put together. The passage of the stadium deal came together...then, prexy b blew his cool and fired Mase without having an "upgrade" in hand. )

Once I heard that the replacement process was going to be started with a head-hunting firm, I KNEW we were in horrible trouble. As the process unfolded, I knew that it was even worse than I had expected.

When brewster was finally hired, I KNEW it was going to end badly. They hired a guy on the cheap with NO head coaching experience.

When they then spent over 2 million a year for a hoops coach, I wondered what on earth the administration was thinking?

This has been a very difficult time to be an investor in season tickets in any of the University of Minnesota Revenue Sports programs.

But, by your very definition, GopherLady, since they had NO upgrade for Mason to bring in to coach the football team at the time they fired him, it was a mistake for them to have fired Mason. You are a bit tricky in your statement by your very wording. You kind of "play it safe..." However, if I am to take you at your word, it WAS a mistake for prexy b and maturi to have fired Mason. They had no upgrade to sign, so, it had to have been a mistake.

I just needed to clarify that GL. Statements can have such different messages unless one can be clear about the way that statement is worded...don't you think?

; 0 )
 

Yeah, I don't think the issue was firing Coach Mason, it was that it was done so haphazardly because of a terrible collapse. And they had nobody to replace him, so they took Brew.
 

I was against firing Mason, but I would have had no huge issue if they'd done it the day after the Iowa game in 2006. The list of candidates in Nov/Dec would have been very different and we wouldn't have ended up with Brew. Waiting until after the Bowl game is the second most moronic thing Maturi/Bruinicks did. The first was the butcher job they did to Monson the Spring before.

I truly don't believe Maturi would still have his job at any other BCS school. Only MN.
 



akgopher said:
Did you see who Pitt and Colorado settled with? Those are better jobs. You think a better AD gets Hoke to turn down Michigan, or Golden to drop Miami? Both of those schools settled for B list in those two guys. Look who Florida hired. Maryland had to settle for Edsall and that is a better job too. If Florida, Maryland, and Miami couldn't get a Calhoun, Patterson, Petersen, Mullen, etc. how does Marvey Mackay get them here? We got a guy close to as established if not as established as did Michigan, Maryland, and Miami.

We gotta roll with Kill for 4 years and hope for the best and for some luck. If not, we are no better than Tulsa, Vanderbilt, or Indiana at that point.
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Pitt is not a better job than Minnesota. They're a big urban public school with mediocre fan support that plays off campus and in a bad conference. Colorado is probably equal to slightly better than MN, only because Colorado is a place more people would want to live due to the climate.

I really don't know that Kill is any worse a hire than Edsall or Hoke or Golden. This is just a really bad team, and no coach is going to change the lack of talent in one season. There weren't a ton of coaches looking to change jobs last off-season either. The only major name that was available was Mike Leach, who still hasn't been hired yet by any program, so that's just not the Gophers - everyone else has passed on Leach. (though I still wish we'd have hired him).
 

Probably talked about earlier in a post, but it will take three years of hard work just to balance out the roster. If I'm not mistaken, next year there will be no senior o-linemen. In order to play we have a bevy of F, r-F, so. How many o-line can we recruit over three years so we don't have the same issue down the road? If we can only recruit 2 per year, they better not miss or seven years down the road we have the same issue. How could anyone recruit 29 players without a o-lineman who could make it to their senior year?
Same goes for RB. One senior next year?
 

Gopher fans are not happy and certainly have reason as football, basketball and hockey programs have regressed. The football program has been a joke for decades and we have an AD who values the Directors Cup more that having competitive teams in the revenue producing sports.

Enter Mr. Kaler. He has stated the importance of a competive athletic program to the University. He gets it.

I hope he also gets that the AD needs new leadership. But more important, the UM must step up and significantly upgrade the support to the AD if it really wants to be more competitive. Doing business as usual and lip service won't cut it. Mr. Kaler needs to implement steps whereby the AD will become one of the cornerstones of the University and sell it the the Regents. As part of that, bring in a new AD who has the vision and experience to get it done and can connect with the fans, alumni and donors.

Like those before him, Coach Kill faces an enormous task to get the Gophers to the top tier in the BIG. However, he is not a miracle worker. But I fear that he too will fail unless the new President really does get it and musters the needed support behind Kill, Tubby and the hockey programs.
 

From what I have heard the Regents don't care about sports unless of course the department is in the red. In their opinion sports are a hassle and should be disbanded because they are a higher education service. IMO, if the regents cared about fb, bb, and hockey the school would be competive in all sports, they are part of the problem. Instead of bashing Maturi the state of Minnesota needs to hear from the regents to see how the athletic department can be competive.
 

4four4 said:
From what I have heard the Regents don't care about sports unless of course the department is in the red. In their opinion sports are a hassle and should be disbanded because they are a higher education service. IMO, if the regents cared about fb, bb, and hockey the school would be competive in all sports, they are part of the problem. Instead of bashing Maturi the state of Minnesota needs to hear from the regents to see how the athletic department can be competive.
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I have a friend who just spoke to a former Regent and one of our former Asst. AD's and they were both in agreement that problems do indeed exist on the Board of Regents and that Maturi has made bad decisions, one after another, the biggest of which was offering to Timmy B. when Gary Patterson wanted the job. HUGE mistake and he was never held accountable for it by Prexy B.
 

calminnfan said:
blame starts in the 60s when the football program was marginalized so the school would be know for academics rather than as a football school. From that point they started investing a lot less and suppressing the program. Partially the FB program up to that point had realized its fair share of success, but what was not understood was how important that was to the school and the state.
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I agree. For the counter example of 'what could have been' look no further than our rivals to the east. While there are specific programs and schools which are stronger at the U, there is no question that the academic reputation of Wisconsin exceeds that of Minnesota. No point in mentioning the athletics.

Isn't the anecdote that then-University-of-Wisconsin-President Donna Shalala attended a Wisconsin football game when they were atrocious and more or less decided it was an unacceptable reflection of a top tier university and that the football program must be emphasized? She was right and Wisconsin has flourished both on and off the field.
 

BleedGopher said:
Ummm, how did Holtz prove this? He had one 6th place and one 8th place BT finish. If he had stayed a few more years he may have proved it, but no way did Holtz prove anything. Mason had more success than Lou.

Go Gophers!!
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I'm going to disagree, sort of. I agree that Holtz didn't stay long enough to prove anything MORE than Mason. But he was at least even. He had the Gophers 4-4 in the Big Ten and in a bowl game two years after a year like 2011, at a time when getting to a bowl game still meant more than it does today. Mason did beat 4-4 twice, but just barely at 5-3, and he had 10 years to do it. Meanwhile, Holtz lost to #1 Oklahoma 13-7 and had the Dome rocking in a 23-19 loss to Ohio State. I say it's even.
 

Hates Monikers said:
I'm going to disagree, sort of. I agree that Holtz didn't stay long enough to prove anything MORE than Mason. But he was at least even. He had the Gophers 4-4 in the Big Ten and in a bowl game two years after a year like 2011, at a time when getting to a bowl game still meant more than it does today. Mason did beat 4-4 twice, but just barely at 5-3, and he had 10 years to do it. Meanwhile, Holtz lost to #1 Oklahoma 13-7 and had the Dome rocking in a 23-19 loss to Ohio State. I say it's even.
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We would have probably ended up on big-time probation, but I've always wondered what would have happened if Holtz had stayed five years.
 

go4rob said:
I have a friend who just spoke to a former Regent and one of our former Asst. AD's and they were both in agreement that problems do indeed exist on the Board of Regents and that Maturi has made bad decisions, one after another, the biggest of which was offering to Timmy B. when Gary Patterson wanted the job. HUGE mistake and he was never held accountable for it by Prexy B.
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OUCH!!! That hurts big time...
 


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