Peterson

[gopherfield]

There appears to be a consensus that Chris Petersen and/or Harbaugh would be ideal candidates, but the same qualities that make them ideal candidates, make them such for any job (college or Pro), and thus they would not want the Gopher job. I've also seen stated that they both currently have better jobs.

Aside from some of the negativity as to why neither would take the Gopher's job, - here some reasons Chris Petersen should be interested:


Boise State is essentially a glorified community college. They have been recently trying to upgrade their academics offerings to try and look moderately respectable. They offer something like a total of 3 PhD programs and only in the geo-sciences/engineering. Not much for industry and Fortune500 companies around Boise for a post-college career. If a recruit comes in to Boise State from elsewhere, - you're only going for football and then moving on.

He makes 1.6 million a year, and this is on a new "we love you and want to pay you as much as we can to stay" contract. I don't foresee Boise State being able to pay 2million+, and the Gophers could pay over 3million per year (like Iowa does with Ferentz) in 3-5 years if we maximize revenues streams with a good coach who is winning and taking us to good Bowl games.

Small alumni base at BSU and rarely on national TV (even when ranked very high!)

After four expansions, with the last one just completing recently in 2009, Bronco stadium is now up to a capacity of 33,500.

BigTen vs MWC.

BigTen Network.

Even if Peterson has NFL aspirations, he needs to move-up to a BCS conference school at some point before he can make the jump.

Most of these reasons are compelling to leave Boise for any BCS job, but the Gophers could be potentially appealing because there is no pressure to win right away (obviously), and being at Boise, he would not be intimidated by issues regarding weather.

 

[amateurdwarftosser]

I like your take, but if you succeed at BSU, you can aim higher than Minnesota, especially being ranked in the top 10 all season.

Dan Hawkins left BSU in 2006 to go to Colorado
Dirk Koetter left BSU in 2000 to go to Arizona State
Houston Nutt left BSU in 1998 to go to Arkansas

I would also say that all of these schools (at those times) were a better jobs than the train wreck of our football program currently.

 

[gopher7]

Chris Peterson will not be our head coach. If he leaves boise it will be for a top-10 type of job like Georgia. It would be a big career risk for him to come here and I just don't see that happening. Maybe if we offered him like 3.5-4 million a year, but that isn't going to happen.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

Chris Peterson will not be our head coach. If he leaves boise it will be for a top-10 type of job like Georgia. It would be a big career risk for him to come here and I just don't see that happening. Maybe if we offered him like 3.5-4 million a year, but that isn't going to happen.

Why any active high profile coach would take the MN job is a head rattler. Plus, where would Maturi come up with the huge buyouts these guys command? I may be way off base, but we will be fortunate to get a Sumlin or Golden unless one of the unemployed steps up.

 

[Goldmember]

Why any active high profile coach would take the MN job is a head rattler. Plus, where would Maturi come up with the huge buyouts these guys command? I may be way off base, but we will be fortunate to get a Sumlin or Golden unless one of the unemployed steps up.

Fans don't get it. Coaching candidates see things in reverse-mirror image as the fans.

Here's all you have to know:

Among the fans and the local talkers, no one thought anyone would be interested in the Minnesota job in 1996. Minnesota ended-up landing one of the most sought-after head coaches of the day in Glen Mason. He left Kansas for Minnesota and jilted Georgia along the way. The fans, simply, could not have been more wrong.

In 2006, people were convinced that qualified potential HCs were just waiting for the opportunity to coach at Minnesota. Mason was fired. Cue cricket noises. If you want to replace a coach that has gone to 7 bowl games in 8 years you better prepare the money truck (which, everyone knew, the U wasn't). But even given a boatload of cash, reasonable HCs are probably going to balk at the expectations.

This is an all-time low-point for Gopher fans. But there is more potential for a HC here than there has been ever. We're talking about paying North of 2-Million/ year. This is over 50-times what Joe Salem was paid 30 years ago. New stadium. High-profile conference.

 

[gopher7]

Why any active high profile coach would take the MN job is a head rattler. Plus, where would Maturi come up with the huge buyouts these guys command? I may be way off base, but we will be fortunate to get a Sumlin or Golden unless one of the unemployed steps up.

Here are the types of coaches I can see wanting to come here.

- Someone who would like to coach in the Big Ten (so possibly Harbaugh)

- Any up and comer, except for Peterson. The thing with Peterson is stock is SO high right now, that coming to Minnesota would be an unnecessary risk when he already has earned a shot at a top-10 job. He's pretty much in the same boat Urban Meyer was 5 years ago.

- Someone like Mark Richt who maybe has a good job now, but like Tubby Smith may want to take a job in a lower-pressure situation.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Chris Peterson will not be our head coach. If he leaves boise it will be for a top-10 type of job like Georgia. It would be a big career risk for him to come here and I just don't see that happening. Maybe if we offered him like 3.5-4 million a year, but that isn't going to happen.

I don't think Chris Peterson would be a strong candidate for Georgia. I know you said a job "like Georgia", but I can't really think of a position like that that will open up soon.

 

[howeda7]

Fans don't get it. Coaching candidates see things in reverse-mirror image as the fans.

Here's all you have to know:

Among the fans and the local talkers, no one thought anyone would be interested in the Minnesota job in 1996. Minnesota ended-up landing one of the most sought-after head coaches of the day in Glen Mason. He left Kansas for Minnesota and jilted Georgia along the way. The fans, simply, could not have been more wrong.

In 2006, people were convinced that qualified potential HCs were just waiting for the opportunity to coach at Minnesota. Mason was fired. Cue cricket noises. If you want to replace a coach that has gone to 7 bowl games in 8 years you better prepare the money truck (which, everyone knew, the U wasn't). But even given a boatload of cash, reasonable HCs are probably going to balk at the expectations.

This is an all-time low-point for Gopher fans. But there is more potential for a HC here than there has been ever. We're talking about paying North of 2-Million/ year. This is over 50-times what Joe Salem was paid 30 years ago. New stadium. High-profile conference.

You're not wrong in general, yet you're wrong about Petersen (and probably Patterson and Harbough.) Yes this job is more attractive then some think. But those 3 gentleman seem perfectly happy where they are, and if they want out, they can do far better. Petersen has already had and turned down opportunities better then MN. If he leaves Boise it will be for UGa or ND, etc. Virginia couldn't even get him mildly interested last year, and I would consider them about = to MN. And he's had bigger schools then that sniff around him to no avail. Patterson might be able to be lured for the right price, given the supposed interaction last time. Harbough's in a similar boat to Petersen, but with the additional likelihood that the NFL will come calling soon.

FWIW, while Mason did have an offer from Georgia, and I don't recall exactly what occured to make him turn it down (I believe it was the fact that it leaked prior to Kansas's Bowl Game as I think "Coach" ripped it off for a story-line), suffice it to say that he did not have offers from Georgia and Minnesota at the same time, and if he had, he'd have gone South.

 

[Silvio]

You're not wrong in general, yet you're wrong about Petersen (and probably Patterson and Harbough.) Yes this job is more attractive then some think. But those 3 gentleman seem perfectly happy where they are, and if they want out, they can do far better. Petersen has already had and turned down opportunities better then MN. If he leaves Boise it will be for UGa or ND, etc. Virginia couldn't even get him mildly interested last year, and I would consider them about = to MN. And he's had bigger schools then that sniff around him to no avail. Patterson might be able to be lured for the right price, given the supposed interaction last time. Harbough's in a similar boat to Petersen, but with the additional likelihood that the NFL will come calling soon.

FWIW, while Mason did have an offer from Georgia, and I don't recall exactly what occured to make him turn it down (I believe it was the fact that it leaked prior to Kansas's Bowl Game as I think "Coach" ripped it off for a story-line), suffice it to say that he did not have offers from Georgia and Minnesota at the same time, and if he had, he'd have gone South.

I believe "Mase" was the actual head coach of UGA for about a day and a half.

My guess is that he "jilted" UGA because their demands for their coach were more than get us back to respectable and we'll love you for almost ever.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I don't think we have a chance at getting these guys either, but Virginia wasn't willing to pay a new coach over 2 million dollars. If we have that condition, there is ZERO chance we get any of the guys that we are talking about.

 

[Goldmember]

Petersen has already had and turned down opportunities better then MN.

Where?

 

[howeda7]

I don't think we have a chance at getting these guys either, but Virginia wasn't willing to pay a new coach over 2 million dollars. If we have that condition, there is ZERO chance we get any of the guys that we are talking about.

They didn't have to pay Mike London that, but they were willing to. Recall how much $$$ they offered Tubby in thier attempt to get him away from MN ($3 million/year +). They don't have a Pickens or Knight, but UVa has plenty of big $$ donors to turn to when the need cash.

 

[howeda7]

Where?

Oh geeze don't go Dpdoll on me. After they won the 1st Fiesta Bowl I know he rebuked interest from several places, but I'm not going to go back and research who. Given where we are, I guess I'm putting almost every BCS job in the 'better then us' category.

I'm not saying he's gotten offers, but rather then he seems to have deflected the interest right off the bat. I do know that Virignia asked about him last year and got nowhere. Bottom-line is that if Petersen wanted a BCS job the caliber of MN, he'd have one already. He seems perfectly content to stay at Boise unless one of the big boys come calling, which they well may this year via Michigan, ND (if this Kelly thing blows up) or Georgia.

 

[Khaliq]

Dan Hawkins left BSU in 2006 to go to Colorado
Dirk Koetter left BSU in 2000 to go to Arizona State
Houston Nutt left BSU in 1998 to go to Arkansas

That's a sobering list really. And not in the way you might expect.

 

[Goldmember]

Oh geeze don't go Dpdoll on me. After they won the 1st Fiesta Bowl I know he rebuked interest from several places, but I'm not going to go back and research who. Given where we are, I guess I'm putting almost every BCS job in the 'better then us' category.

I'm not trying to be a dick. I ask because I'm curious. I believe, if he has turned down an offer it probably hasn't yet been a decent one. I'm not saying he's waiting for Minnesota's call. But, there seems to be a lot of evidence that he hasn't been made a decent offer because Hawkin's tenure at Colorado makes big-time ADs want to puke.

"Given where we are" is how the fans and talking-heads look at HC jobs. And that was exactly my point. I really think a lot of people think that because this team is one of the worst 20 teams in the FBS that the HC job is one of the worst BCS jobs out there. That's a fan's perspective. And fans are not coaches.

In the eyes of a potential HC, "given where we are" the vacancy is actually improved. What other 2MM/year BCS job is out there where a HC can earn a "good" job review in year one just by beating NDSU and NMSU?

Petersen an Harbaugh are certainly long-shot candidates. But the Minnesota HC job is far more attractive to them than most fans and chest-pounding sportstalkers will ever know because they are simply unwilling to think like a coach or administrator.

 

[Bo Darville]

FWIW, while Mason did have an offer from Georgia, and I don't recall exactly what occured to make him turn it down (I believe it was the fact that it leaked prior to Kansas's Bowl Game as I think "Coach" ripped it off for a story-line), suffice it to say that he did not have offers from Georgia and Minnesota at the same time, and if he had, he'd have gone South.

According to the book "Top Dawg: Mark Richt and the Revival of Georgia Football" by Rob Suggs, Mason changed his mind about Georgia after 1 week because he was going through a divorce and it would negatively impact his child custody arrangements.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

They didn't have to pay Mike London that, but they were willing to. Recall how much $$$ they offered Tubby in thier attempt to get him away from MN ($3 million/year +). They don't have a Pickens or Knight, but UVa has plenty of big $$ donors to turn to when the need cash.

I really don't know what the offer to Peterson was or would have been, but the general consensus was that Peterson would have been offered under $2 million per.

Everything that i've read has always been based on like sports message board type of things, but everywhere I have ever seen it listed, they have talked about Virginia possibly being able to pay Peterson $1.6-1.8 million.


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/290246-virginias-next-football-coach#page/4

-places like that website are what I've heard Virginia was willing to pay. Keep in mind they had to pay off Groh 4 million dollars as well.

 

[howeda7]

I really don't know what the offer to Peterson was or would have been, but the general consensus was that Peterson would have been offered under $2 million per.

Everything that i've read has always been based on like sports message board type of things, but everywhere I have ever seen it listed, they have talked about Virginia possibly being able to pay Peterson $1.6-1.8 million.


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/290246-virginias-next-football-coach#page/4

-places like that website are what I've heard Virginia was willing to pay. Keep in mind they had to pay off Groh 4 million dollars as well.

I don't know specifcally what they offered him, if they even made a formal offer. The off-record word in the local media was that he pretty much shot them down from the get-go. I'm not sure it would have matter what the amount was unless it was something absurd. Certainly the Al Groh buyout did restrict UVa somewhat (they probably weren't going to turn around and pay $4 million to someone else), but I don't think it would have stopped them from paying $2 million for someone the calibur of Petersen. Anyway, they probably made the right hire in the end.

 

[Governor Sibley]

Find out if Harbaugh has a price.

This is not hard.

 

[CrocShots]

Bleacher report isn't a reliable site for anything, let alone factual information.

 

[gophermartin]

Find out if Harbaugh has a price.

This is not hard.

Agreed. Studwell is right....get Harbaugh here now! Come on Bruininks..."stretch" as you said on the $. Come coach the Gophers.

Not convinced...albeit...doesn't make much sense...as to why Boise St does as well as it has but the coaches are average at best outside of Boise. Easy schedule helps...but that list of coaches...makes be say no thanks.

Felt like adding a picture of Studwell tonight.

#55!

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

There are other factos why Boise St. has built in advantages to winning that might not carry over outside of Boise. A ton of kids who go to Boise St. couldn't even get into Pac 10 and Big 12 schools. They have a really strong following for a Mountain West school, easy schedule to fluff up their record, tradition of being a good football program.

I'm not discrediting what Peterson did at Boise, but it isn't entirely a fluke that a lot of these Boise guys haven't had a ton of success elsewhere.