Rating the Gopher Football Head Coaches

Donate To GopherHole
Gold Rush

Gold Rush

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,875
Reaction score
1,219
Points
113
I know some of you go back farther than I do, but I have been a big Gopher fan since the Cal Stoll days in the mid 70's. We have all seen quite a few Gopher football head coaches over the last 25 years but just wondering where everyone thinks they stand. This is just one man's opinion, it would be interesting to hear yours as well.

1. Lou Holtz - definitely the best with recruiting, motivating, game day strategy and adjustments that I have seen in these parts. If he would have stayed another 2-3 years, we would have been in a New Year's Bowl but we also might have ended up on probation, too. His overall win-loss percentage is tainted due to inheriting possibly the worst team in Gopher history. Overall W-L PCT - .441

2. Glen Mason - say what you want about all the big time collapses and horrific losses that made you feel like you were punched in the gut, he DID win some big games over the years, including beating everyone in the Big Ten and four straight over Penn St. You also have to give him credit for some big bowl wins over Alabama, Arkansas and Oregon. Mason wasn't the best recruiter and he didn't work well with the high schools in Minnesota, but he did a lot more with a lot less than most every other coach. His overall pct. is a little high due to playing a lot of creampuffs but loved the big wins and upsets his teams pulled off. Overall W-L PCT --- .529

3. Cal Stoll - his team did beat Michigan and UCLA in 1977 but only got to one bowl game during his tenure. He wasn't a bad coach at all but he really suffered from the lack of university support. He got fired kind of for the same reason Mason did - everyone wanted to take a chance at a guy who could get us to the Rose Bowl. His overall pct. would be higher but he played a lot of tough non-conference teams. Overall W-L PCT. --- .500

4. John Gutekunst - the thing I liked about Gutey is his teams were at or above .500 for 4 of his 6 seasons here, but he also was the guy who could not keep the momentum that Lou Holtz built during his two seasons here. Very dry - man oh man I wish they would have hired Bobby Ross instead of him. If Ross would have been hired, I think the Gophers would have won a lot more games and we would have kept the momentum going. Overall W-L PCT -- .441

5. Joe Salem -- yeah I know Salem's team collapsed hard at the end, but he really wasn't a bad coach. He knew how to hire some very good coordinators and I liked his run and shoot offense that led the team to the upset win over Ohio St. in 1981. He had very little support from the University brass and lost his good assistant coaches because they refused to give him anything to pay for them. Memorial Stadium was literally falling apart when they left to go to the Metrodome. Overall W-L PCT -- .355

6. Tim Brewster - still "learning to coach" four years in, he did not know which offense he was going to run and changed it around each year, hired lousy coordinators for the most part but I do like some things about him like building bridges with high school coaches and and his recruiting abilities. I still do not blame him for getting this job - he simply wasn't ready to coach a Big Ten team but Maturi was sold after a strong interview. His head coaching days are probably very numbered at this point. Overall W-L PCT -- .368 heading into this season and will most likely go down by the end of the year.

7. Jim Wacker - actually he came in with strong credentials at TCU and proves that "past performance does not guarantee future results." He was hired for his enthusiasm to compensate for Gutey's dryness. He probably was the nicest guy the Gophers have ever had as their head football coach and although his defenses were REALLY bad, they did have a very good passing attack while he was here. The thing I remember about him the most was at his press conference as he was leaving when he said that he was sorry he could not get it done but he would always be a Gopher fan and would be there at their next bowl game cheering them on. And sure enough, there he was.... great guy, though!! Overall W-L PCT .291

..............................................................................................................................
This is the way I see it at least. My guess is the university brass will go with a proven head coach the next time around because in each case of a head coaching change, the next coach was hired to correct the previous coach's shortcomings with the exception of Holtz who the university just lucked out on.
 

Good list.

I would put Wacker ahead of Brewster and this has nothing to do with any recent events.

Wacker did have credentials when he took the job and for all the problems he had on defense you could at least point to the fact that he did have a good passing attack same as Mason with the running game.

I would put Brewster last because in year four I cannot point to one thing that the team does well on either side of the ball or can say that is the teams identity.
 

They were all good coaches. Just wrong for the U. Mason was actually perfect for the U when he took over, but the landscape shifted and he didn't go with it. When you consider that he also had the advantage of cupcakes unlike his predicessors I drop him down quite a bit.

I'm putting Brew on the bottom for now, I thought Wacker was better than given credit for, I'll put Mason ahead of him and Salem. the rest too much apples and oranges for me.
 

I like the list too. I would put Stoll ahead of Mason. While he did not go to many bowls, that was the time of the big two and the little eight and there were not nearly as many bowls then. Almost seemed like it was the Rose Bowl or bust. I was at Memorial with my dad when Stoll's Gopher team beat Michigan. A great day win that I still have fond memories of.
 

Holtz gets a grade of INCOMPLETE. No points for what he might have done if he had stayed.

Stoll may have only gone to one bowl game, but remember it was much harder to get a bowl game back then. If there was as many bowl games then as there are now, he would have taken us to 4. And remember, this was back when we used to play 2 or even 3 BCS teams in non-conference play. The non-conference schedule was FAR tougher than they were under Mason.
 


With a 32 - 48 Big 10 record and extremely uncompetitive non-conference opponents Mason undeniably belongs behind both Stoll and Gutekunst. His series of second rate bowl games mean very little. Right now I rate Mason and Brewster about even. If Brewster is given another year (which he probably won't) I believe that he will start to show real progress. Brewster's first year doesn't count because he had so little time to put together a coaching staff and recruit players, and because Mason left him with far less talent than Wacker left Mason. Salem and Wacker both belong on the bottom of the list. Take your pick as to which one was worse.
 

I like Brew much better than I rank him, and i agree more time and I think he starts to show progress. But he might not get that time, and Mason had at least one pretty good year. Granted that was out of ten, but it was something.
 

Easy to debate this topic. I could see several lists that would make sense with some jockeying of the top spots. However, ANY list I would construct would have Wacker on the bottom. There was absolutely NO hope in those years. His Big 10 record was terrifying.

I remember attending my first Gopher game with my father. He was NOT a very sarcastic guy but I remember him making a few sarcastic statements about Cal Stoll as we watched the Gophers lose to Oregon State in Memorial Stadium. How sad we would have been that day if someone from the future would have stopped by to say Stoll would be about as good as it gets.
 

I think Stoll has to be #2 ahead of Mason. Only one bowl game, but if he were playing under the same environment as Mason, he would've gone to four. He also had .500 records or better in the conference in five of his seven years. Of course, when he took over we were only five years removed from our last BT title.

I don't think there's any measure that places Salem ahead of Brewster. Sure, Brewster had 1-11 and 55-0 in his first year. Salem was 1-10 and had 83-14 in his fifth year, with his own players and system. If this season turns into that for Brewster, we'll talk. Salem was as good as 6-5 once in five years and, like Brewster, never finished .500 in the conference. Brewster has not improved upon Mason's tenure, but Salem took over a (slightly) more solid program and ran it into the ground.
 



Gold Rush said:
1. Lou Holtz - definitely the best with recruiting, motivating, game day strategy and adjustments that I have seen in these parts. If he would have stayed another 2-3 years, we would have been in a New Year's Bowl but we also might have ended up on probation, too. His overall win-loss percentage is tainted due to inheriting possibly the worst team in Gopher history. Overall W-L PCT - .441
Click to expand...

2 years probation for 17 (IIRC) rules violations. Hated him when he was hired, hated him when he left and still despise him.

Arkansas - left the team with sanctions/probation
Minnesota - left the team with sanctions/probation
Notre Dame - left the team with sanctions/probation
South Carolina - left the team with sanctions/probation

Why this guy is in the College FB HOF after winning 1 friggin' National Championship is beyond me.

Whew...I feel better now.
 

No real problems with your list at all.

However.....

It is more fun to talk about Bierman, Williams, Spears & Warmath! LOL
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
With a 32 - 48 Big 10 record Mason undeniably belongs behind both Stoll and Gutekunst. His series of second rate bowl games mean very little. Right now I rate Mason and Brewster about even. If Brewster is given another year (which he probably won't) I believe that he will start to show real progress. Brewster's first year doesn't count because he had so little time to put together a coaching staff and recruit players, and because Mason left him with far less talent than Wacker left Mason. Salem and Wacker both belong on the bottom of the list. Take your pick as to which one was worse.
Click to expand...

I agree with this comment. Brewster's 3-5 records in the Big 10 the last two years seem very Mason-esque to me. And if Brewster is so bad, then Mason isn't much better. He's just Mason with a tougher schedule and fewer 4th quarter meltdowns (because we're never ahead).

I can't really remember the discussions when we hired Wacker but I remember thinking it was a good hire at the time. I just looked up on the College Football Data Warehouse and see that he had 2 winning seasons in 9 years at TCU with one bowl appearance, an overall record of 40-58-2, and a conference record of 21-48-1. Sounds like we got what we had coming with him.
 

Bo Darville - good checking the facts on Wacker. He was admired for his integrity in the old SW conference, but was a so-so coach. 1 winning record in his last 6 years there. The idea that Wacker was "successful" at TCU is a myth buried deeper every day by TCU's real resurgence.
 



BigTenGuy said:
Bo Darville - good checking the facts on Wacker. He was admired for his integrity in the old SW conference, but was a so-so coach. 1 winning record in his last 6 years there. The idea that Wacker was "successful" at TCU is a myth buried deeper every day by TCU's real resurgence.
Click to expand...

Not arguing TCU's "resurgence" but in fairness, you should probably acknowledge the difference between what they're playing in today and the old SW. Texas, A&M, SMU, Arkansas, make for a good start toward a decent conference schedule.
 


maxwellsmart - you're surely right that Wacker's TCU teams played a tougher schedule than TCU's current conference, but Wacker could not succeed against that competition, which was not a sign that he could somehow succeed against Big Ten competition
 

I think this list should be looked at in the context of Big Ten winning percentage rather than overall winning percentage. There are just too many variations in non-conference schedules. This is not my list but simply sorting the coaches from highest Big Ten winning percentage down:

Cal Stoll: .482
Lou Holtz: .412
Glen Mason: .400
John Gutekunst: .391
Joe Salem: .273
Tim Brewster. 250
Jim Wacker: .200

Overall Big Ten winning percentage during the last 38 years (since Stoll was coach): .358 -- that's pretty sad for a once proud program.
 

I've heard the case made that our problems began with the firing of Cal Stoll. He was the last Gophers coach to win 6 Big Ten games.
 

WaterBoy said:
I think this list should be looked at in the context of Big Ten winning percentage rather than overall winning percentage. There are just too many variations in non-conference schedules. This is not my list but simply sorting the coaches from highest Big Ten winning percentage down:

Cal Stoll: .482
Lou Holtz: .412
Glen Mason: .400
John Gutekunst: .391
Joe Salem: .273
Tim Brewster. 250
Jim Wacker: .200

Overall Big Ten winning percentage during the last 38 years (since Stoll was coach): .358 -- that's pretty sad for a once proud program.
Click to expand...

Lots of good comments on this thread and it makes a lively debate. I just wish the university would have seen what a gold mine that a good football team can be back in the 1970's and given the coaches what they needed to maintain a solid program. It's all about the money I suppose, but if the cash would have been pumped into the program back then, it would have been a solid investment that could have reaped huge rewards. I like the new stadium and new facilities that we have right now a lot, but we were just too shortsighted and too far behind everyone else and allowed everything to go to hell. These coaches would have won a lot more games if someone would have had some foresight back then.
 

You have to remember that things were very different back then. The demise of the football program and the retreat by the administration was largely fueled by the inability to compete in a business sense.

Because of scholarship limits and the TV revenue climate only certain schools could really achieve the budgets to be huge. The U wasn't one of them. AS things changes slowly, our resurgence (or possibility of) is the direct result of additional revenue streams we didn't have before and limitations on the mega schools regarding scholarship limits and recruiting rules.

So really we couldn't have competed well in those years without luck. Things have changed. Now we almost have a huge advantage should we choose to use that advantage and invest in the program. But of course things change slowly. But you need the inputs first. The stadium is one such input, the Big Ten Network is another. It's happening, it's just slow.
 

This is a good discussion! I wanted to make a couple of points, though...

First, using Big Ten record isn't 100% fair because the Big Ten is a much tougher conference in the Wacker/Mason/Brewster era than it was prior to that. The addition of Penn State, rise of Wisconsin as a consistent power and the general improvement of the whole conference make a 4-4 record today much more impressive than a 4-4 record in the 70s.

Second, Wacker's record at TCU is not very impressive, but to understand it, you need to know that early in his career (I believe after his second season, which was a good 8-4 season) he discovered an ongoing payment program where boosters were giving money directly to players. He turned the program in and it was hit with MASSIVE sanctions. That's why they were so mediocre during his tenure. He got the job here because of his integrity (we were on probation at the time of the hire due to the Luther Darville/Lou Holtz days), his history of success and the steady improvement of TCU despite the crippling sanctions they had been dealing with.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom