Had Kill not had the health issues he was nowhere close to being fired. Mason had run his course here and it was time for him to go. And Claeys was never anything more than a stop gap measure who was never going to be a long term option here. So while fans might have been proclaiming the program needed to reach some higher standard, 3 of the 5 coaches before Fleck were not fired for performance reasons.
Wacker - Was fired because the team was a laughingstock. Great guy, wrong coach for the program.
Mason - Was fired because he started phoning it in after the OSU dream died.
Brewster - Was a bad hire and fired for performance
Kill - Likes to play the victim and pretend the U did him wrong but he left, wasn't fired.
Claeys - Was a one year fill in who would have needed some kind of miracle season not to be let go at the end of the year.
Fleck has elevated things to a point where the fanbase is pissy when we don't win the division. There were not division champion expectations under the previous coaches I listed.
And finally, the Gophers won the West in 2019, they just didn't win it outright. And that 11-2 season is far superior to anything that has happened with Gopher football in a long long long long time.