Reusse: Maturi lucked out in hiring his second football coach for Minnesota.

[FanSinceTheFifties]

I'm put off by the description "skill position players." Every position requires specific and disparate skills. Same with the term "athletic." Every player is an athlete whether a kicker, a defensive lineman, or a wide receiver. What, exactly to you mean by "skill players?"

 

[BarnBoy]

Skill players are "ball touchers".


Rim shot!




Crickets.

 

[ncgo4]

Kill has always (every single time) been able to turn teams around. Then he got the well deserved hire to a higher level school/ conference. Now he's at the highest level of school/conference and he has shown the very same positive turn around results.

It will now be interesting to watch as he tries to take a team at this level from turn around to contender. It will be imperative that the U rewards Kill AND his assistants so that he can keep the band together. Equally, it will be imperative that Kill and staff elevate recruiting beginning this winter.

I fully expect both things to happen. I would not expect Claeys to leave because of Jerry's health. I wouldn't expect Limegrover to get any major offers based just on the moderate success of our offense.

 

[dbaldrich1]

It seems to me that Maturi was fortunate, rather than lucky. Calling the hire lucky makes it seem like Maturi stumbled over Jerry Kill at the McDonalds in Dinkytown, discovered he was a head football coach looking for a job, and hired him on the spot.

Maturi was fortunate because the HC candidates initially identified as more desirable ended up not being available or willing to take the Gopher football HC job, so he had to expand his search. Through that process he identified that Jerry Kill was interested, even though he was having success in his current job at Northern Illinois.

This is where Maturi deserves credit for his work. He identified Kill as a potential candidate with a track record of success in turning around struggling programs (a glaring need for the Gopher program), and he was able to get him to take the job. Of course there were no guarantees that Kill would be successful, and in reality the jury is still out on the long term success of the program under Kill.

All of that being said, it was good fortune that Joel Maturi wasn't able to lure higher priority candidates to take the job and that coach Kill was available. It was good work by Joel Maturi that he was able to take advantage of that good fortune.

I'm looking forward to seeing where the program goes from here, but in my opinion calling the Kill hire "lucky" comes off as rather dismissive. I prefer to recognize that what ended up, in hindsight, as good fortune put Maturi in a position where he had to find a lesser-known/lower priority target, and he was able to identify a strong candidate and make a solid hire.

Go Gophers!

 

[6 Nov 1999]

Joel Maturi = Generalleutnant Arthur Schmidt

It doesn't matter whether Kill was Maturi's 1st, or 5th, or 85th choice. He still gets credit for selecting him over any number of other qualified candidates.

dpodoll68,

Joel Maturi is to Robert Bruininks as Generalleutnant Arthur Schmidt was to Generalfeldmarschall Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst von Paulus. We all know what happened to the German 6th Army. 200,000+ went into Stalingrad, only 6,000 returned to Germany. Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein in his memoirs states that Schmidt declared the 6th Army could hold out until Easter (1943) and should not break out of the Kessel to the southwest. It is generally agreed that Schmidt was running the show in the 6th Army, and that Von Paulus was for whatever reason, catatonic or asleep at the wheel as doom was impending. I see parallels between Robert Bruininks and Von Paulus. Joel's arrogance in firing Glen Mason is equal to Schmidt's declaration that the 6th Army can hold on until Easter 1943. Both decisions were disastrous. I don't profess to be a fly on the wall when deliberations were being conducted regarding Jerry Kill, but if memory serves me correctly, a search firm was hired, and the search firm provided the U a list of names. Also, was not future President Kaler consulted in the vetting process for Tim Brewster's replacement? I seem to remember that the U was not in a hurry to delegate decision making authority to Joel this time around. Whether this was because Bob Bruininks finally woke up, or other factors, I don't know. Yet I would be hesitent to give Joel credit for the hire. At most, Joel's influence was part of a committee decision. In fact Joel's influence might have been limited to that of liaison officer and messenger.

 

[Maximus]

dpodoll68,

Yet I would be hesitent to give Joel credit for the hire. At most, Joel's influence was part of a committee decision. In fact Joel's influence might have been limited to that of liaison officer and messenger.

All powerful Joel fired Mason, but he didn't hire Kill. Got it.

So we cross Tim Brewster off Maturi's tab. He looks better and better.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

dpodoll68,

Joel's arrogance in firing Glen Mason is equal to Schmidt's declaration that the 6th Army can hold on until Easter 1943. Both decisions were disastrous. I don't profess to be a fly on the wall when deliberations were being conducted regarding Jerry Kill, but if memory serves me correctly, a search firm was hired, and the search firm provided the U a list of names. Also, was not future President Kaler consulted in the vetting process for Tim Brewster's replacement? I seem to remember that the U was not in a hurry to delegate decision making authority to Joel this time around. Whether this was because Bob Bruininks finally woke up, or other factors, I don't know. Yet I would be hesitent to give Joel credit for the hire. At most, Joel's influence was part of a committee decision. In fact Joel's influence might have been limited to that of liaison officer and messenger.

Wrong on both counts. Bruininks ordered Maturi to fire Mason when he went into the Gophers locker room after the Texas Tech bowl game loss and saw Mason laughing and joking around and making a big show about not being bothered too much by losing the game. Maturi personally interviewed every candidate for the job, he talked with many of his contacts in college football about each of the candidates, and he ultimately recommended Kill to Bruininks. Bruininks then interviewed Kill himself and decided that he liked him. Bruininks and Maturi then went to Kaler who responded that it was Bruininks and Maturi's call. That was Kaler's only involvement and the hiring was NOT a committee decision of any kind.

 

[6 Nov 1999]

Wrong on both counts. Bruininks ordered Maturi to fire Mason when he went into the Gophers locker room after the Texas Tech bowl game loss and saw Mason laughing and joking around and making a big show about not being bothered too much by losing the game. Maturi personally interviewed every candidate for the job, he talked with many of his contacts in college football about each of the candidates, and he ultimately recommended Kill to Bruininks. Bruininks then interviewed Kill himself and decided that he liked him. Bruininks and Maturi then went to Kaler who responded that it was Bruininks and Maturi's call. That was Kaler's only involvement and the hiring was NOT a committee decision of any kind.

UpnorthGo4,

First time I have ever heard that Bruininks walked into the locker room and found Glen laughing and joking. Even if true, what could Glen do when the referees were doing everything within their power to (a) keep the game clock from running out (b) award generous spots to Texas Tech as they were moving down the field. Are you going to tell me that the last two minutes of the game were well officiated?

 

[UpnorthGo4]

UpnorthGo4,

First time I have ever heard that Bruininks walked into the locker room and found Glen laughing and joking. Even if true, what could Glen do when the referees were doing everything within their power to (a) keep the game clock from running out (b) award generous spots to Texas Tech as they were moving down the field. Are you going to tell me that the last two minutes of the game were well officiated?

Although I can't remember the specifics anymore I am not usually one to blame officials for my team's misfortunes. According to the accounts I have heard (2 or 3) Mason's demeanor in the locker room after the game pissed off Bruininks big time. Apparently, during his time in power at the U very few people pissed off Bruininks without paying a huge price for it. Mark Yudof once said that Bruininks knows where all the bodies are buried at the U.