Reusse 1500 blog: There's a pattern to Gophers' coaches

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I never thought of Cal Stoll as a salesman ... and still don't. I think of him as a good coach that did a lot with a little.
 

Salesman:

A football coach:

(What Reusse claims is a) Salesman:

Hard to define:

Salesman/ FB coach combo:

A football coach:

Salesman:

A football coach:

Salesman:


Is this really a pattern? I am still trying to find one
 

I am trying to find one and the only notable pattern I can find is that coaches don't seem to be followed by coaches with the same personality....which is true in 99% of the cases when there is a new head coach of a team.
 




WAGopher said:
I never thought of Cal Stoll as a salesman ... and still don't. I think of him as a good coach that did a lot with a little.
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Agree completely. I guess anyone who smiled in public qualifies as a salesman in Reusse's universe.

As bad as Brewster was, Salem was the worst coach I've seen in my years of Gopher fandom and the reason for mass distrust of the M-Club.
 

50PoundHead said:
Agree completely. I guess anyone who smiled in public qualifies as a salesman in Reusse's universe.

As bad as Brewster was, Salem was the worst coach I've seen in my years of Gopher fandom and the reason for mass distrust of the M-Club.
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Really? I'm not saying you're wrong I'm just too young to remember the Salem years.
 




Salem went 19-35-1 in 5 years (.352) whereas Brew went 25-37 in 4 years (.333). But Wacker takes the cake going 16-39 in 5 years (.291)!

I remember Wacker a little, mostly just my dad shaking his head in disgust, but how is he not the worse than Salem?

Edit, this is kinda fun. in 1882 and 1892 the gophers played with no coach and had a combined record of 6-2 (going 5-0 in 1892). Draw what conclusions you like.
 

Salem had a couple of big wins, which Brewster never had, so one can tip the scales toward Salem a bit in that regard, but Salem didn't recruit well and didn't coach well. Plus, he was just a terrible promoter of the program. Wacker wasn't that sharp either, but he was a decent guy and someone you could pull for. I just never felt that way about Salem and maybe that says more about me than him.
 

50PoundHead said:
Salem had a couple of big wins, which Brewster never had, so one can tip the scales toward Salem a bit in that regard, but Salem didn't recruit well and didn't coach well. Plus, he was just a terrible promoter of the program. Wacker wasn't that sharp either, but he was a decent guy and someone you could pull for. I just never felt that way about Salem and maybe that says more about me than him.
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Brew always did get me with his non sequiturs and hyping of the program.
 



I think when it comes to comparing Salem, Wacker, and Brewster, it's like a debate on the smartest of The Three Stooges.
 




Was Joe Salem hired purely because he played at the U? His record pre-U looked unimpressive at best.
 

Salem's 1983 Season, makes him the winner

Salem's 1983 season is some sort of a record. They not only lost, but they lost big. Some quick reasearch shows they gave up 518 points in an 11 game season. Winning one, against Rice. But what team can or has over come a defense which averaged letting up 47 points a game. But to lay it specifically on the defense fails to give credit to an offense, the original run and shoot, who could not run the ball, and threw the ball short. That was a painfull season.
 

Cal Stoll was more than a salesman, he was a good coach who had to take over with the cupboards basically bare. He was a good recruiter. I would have put him second after Holtz, he recruited hard and made friends with high school coaches wherever he had been.Murray was a great coach, but the world of aggressive recruiting had passed him by. I think he got fired because Giel was a pretty inexperienced athletic director, was pressured by some strong supporters and panicked. It was a big mistake because Salem had no idea how to recruit BigTen players. That was the start of the slide to horrible football that lasted until Mason got here. Stoll had a very good staff, given time they would have had a program that looked like Iowa's does now. Tom Moore the Colts OC was his OC, and Norm Parker the Iowa DC was his Dine coach.
One of the reasons I am very conservative in deciding firing the coach is a solution, is we have a track record of athletic directors who could not find their butt with both hands, let alone a good coach.

Brewster had to go, and I am happy with Kill, but after the last 40 years I approach coaching changes with great fear. For the record, I would rather have Kill than Hoke or Edsall.
 

Honestly it was not just the coaches...the U failed to support the program big time. One of the reasons Stoll did not succeed and some of the others were not as good as hoped for.
 


I have heard from a couple of former Gopher players on both Stoll and Salem...one said Stoll was a tremendous coach and person who did more with less...another played for Salem...was on the 1-10 team...but says Joe gets a bad rap...call him an incredibly intelligent coach...he does blast the support of the football program at that time...said Paul Giel was absolutely useless and contributed greatly to football's demise.
 


IronRanger91 said:
I have heard from a couple of former Gopher players on both Stoll and Salem...one said Stoll was a tremendous coach and person who did more with less...another played for Salem...was on the 1-10 team...but says Joe gets a bad rap...call him an incredibly intelligent coach...he does blast the support of the football program at that time...said Paul Giel was absolutely useless and contributed greatly to football's demise.
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I agree with your analysis. In my opinion Paul Giel was the person most responsible for the state of Gopher football today, along with the school administration of his time. Giel was a very personable guy, and a great speaker. However, he was just as far in over his head as AD as Salem, Wacker, or Brewster were as Big 10 coaches. Had he given Stoll 2 or 3 more years this 40 plus year nightmare may not have happened. Remember, Giel was at the helm during, and was a proponent of the move to the Metrodome. I realize that the facilities of the era were abismal, but Giel along with the administration, did nothing to improve them.
 

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