Shama: There might not be a more frequent supporter of various Gopher sports than retired U athletic director Joel Maturi

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Nice guy. I just don't think he had that killer instinct for believing our football and basketball teams could be great.
 

Word said:
Nice guy. I just don't think he had that killer instinct for believing our football and basketball teams could be great.
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Nice guy, great AD for the non-revenue sports. But unfortunately will always be linked to the Tim Brewster debacle since it happened under his watch.
 



Ultimately, you are judged by the decisions you make in the revenue sports and he gets low grades for that. The Brewster hire was a disaster, but you have to admit the football hires since then have all been very good. I was a strong advocate of Mike Leach when he was available, but Jerry Kill turned out to be pretty solid.
 

I wonder how many events Maturi attends. In a good year, I bet I’m close to him and I pay for my tickets.
 

Gold Rush said:
Ultimately, you are judged by the decisions you make in the revenue sports and he gets low grades for that. The Brewster hire was a disaster, but you have to admit the football hires since then have all been very good. I was a strong advocate of Mike Leach when he was available, but Jerry Kill turned out to be pretty solid.
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Man I wanted Mike at that time too. But the events in Texas probabbly made him a non option for somewhat shy Minnesota.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Man I wanted Mike at that time too. But the events in Texas probabbly made him a non option for somewhat shy Minnesota.
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He would have made things interesting around here that's for sure! Can you imagine him going toe to toe with the media guys around here like Barreiro and Reusse?? He would have probably either put us in the Rose Bowl or probation.......lol
 




Gold Rush said:
He would have made things interesting around here that's for sure! Can you imagine him going toe to toe with the media guys around here like Barreiro and Reusse?? He would have probably either put us in the Rose Bowl or probation.......lol
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He really irked the sports reporters out in Washington State before he left. Good stuff.
 


Classy guy. Good program manager. Couldn’t turn the corner in FB & MBB.
 



Whatever Wren says, I'll side with that.
 

He is still at every wrestling match. Always appreciated his support of the non-revenue sports
 



Can't judge Joel by the Brewster hire. I honestly thought he was going to be a great coach and so did many people. Illinois did everything but hire him. The only thing that kept them back was that he had never been a head coach and therefore a little red flag popped up and waggled in their face and they wondered about it.

Yes Joel was everywhere. Not sure if that made sense in my opinion. Driving everywhere, spending very little time at some events due to commitments elsewhere. I would think he would have managed his time and energy better by taking in fewer events for a particular day. Slopping it all in to me doesn't cut it.
 

There was a suspicion at the time he was extending contracts and then firing coaches leaving the cupboard bare of $$ that led to the Brewster disaster that Maturi was a mole inserted in the MN athletic department by WI to destroy MN athletics from the inside.
 

I'll note that on three occassions over his tenure AD Maturi appeared to personally respond to emails directed to him. I appreciated the fact he took the time to do so.

I've come around to support the current AD but note he is 0 for 2 so far on this metric in his term. Joel may be an outlier though because I believe Teague went 0 for 1 with his opportunities.
 

BilldGopher said:
I'll note that on three occassions over his tenure AD Maturi appeared to personally respond to emails directed to him. I appreciated the fact he took the time to do so.

I've come around to support the current AD but note he is 0 for 2 so far on this metric in his term. Joel may be an outlier though because I believe Teague went 0 for 1 with his opportunities.
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That's pretty impressive.
 

I have never read anything from this guy that wasn't linked in Gopherhole. Isn't Shama one of the writers that likes to call out low attendance for Gopher sports all the time? Since I don't read his stuff this isn't a rhetorical question: Has he said anything about the big jump in Gopher football attendance last season?
 

BilldGopher said:
I'll note that on three occassions over his tenure AD Maturi appeared to personally respond to emails directed to him. I appreciated the fact he took the time to do so.

I've come around to support the current AD but note he is 0 for 2 so far on this metric in his term. Joel may be an outlier though because I believe Teague went 0 for 1 with his opportunities.
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Maturi was 2 for 2 with me. Teague was 1 for 1 plus an in-person meeting. Coyle 0 for 1.
 

Schnauzer said:
I have never read anything from this guy that wasn't linked in Gopherhole. Isn't Shama one of the writers that likes to call out low attendance for Gopher sports all the time? Since I don't read his stuff this isn't a rhetorical question: Has he said anything about the big jump in Gopher football attendance last season?
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Whomever Sama is the stories that I read early on when they were posted here seemed no better informed or detailed than a ... not really well informed / rhetorical forum post.

I kinda ignored it after that.

Granted for sports related journalism specifically ... that might be not far from any other given sports journalist, sadly.
 


#2Gopher said:
Can't judge Joel by the Brewster hire. I honestly thought he was going to be a great coach and so did many people. Illinois did everything but hire him. The only thing that kept them back was that he had never been a head coach and therefore a little red flag popped up and waggled in their face and they wondered about it.

Yes Joel was everywhere. Not sure if that made sense in my opinion. Driving everywhere, spending very little time at some events due to commitments elsewhere. I would think he would have managed his time and energy better by taking in fewer events for a particular day. Slopping it all in to me doesn't cut it.
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Sure we can. And we do. And we will continue to do so.
 

#2Gopher said:
Can't judge Joel by the Brewster hire. I honestly thought he was going to be a great coach and so did many people. Illinois did everything but hire him. The only thing that kept them back was that he had never been a head coach and therefore a little red flag popped up and waggled in their face and they wondered about it.

Yes Joel was everywhere. Not sure if that made sense in my opinion. Driving everywhere, spending very little time at some events due to commitments elsewhere. I would think he would have managed his time and energy better by taking in fewer events for a particular day. Slopping it all in to me doesn't cut it.
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That's the whole point! Illinois didn't hire him because he wasn't qualified to be a B10 head coach. I think Tim is a great guy and I hold no ill will towards him, but we absolutely can and should judge Joel by a hire than set our most important athletic program back many years.
 

This confirms he was qualified to be an athletic supporter,
 

I can remember a talk I had with Joel at a Football event in the old practice facility at Bierman. I had strolled through the entrance to the football complex and here is one for the record books: they had a large picture of the Gopher football team from the '62 Rose Bowl game against UCLA, our only Rose Bowl win in history, and, believe it or not, they had the wrong score written on the picture "Minnesota 7 - UCLA 3. In reality the score was 21 to 3 favoring the Gophers. I was in total shock when I saw this and about 10 minutes later I ran into Joel at the event inside the building. So I said to Joel, "I have a favor to ask of you." He said, "what can I do for you". I told him about the error in the lobby of the building and he couldn't believe it either. BUT, less that a week later, the score was corrected. Just had to share this with you.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Sure we can. And we do. And we will continue to do so.
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Like it or not, AD's are judged by their coaching hires and the number of championship banners they hang, especially in the "major sports". How else would you prefer to judge an AD??? IMHO you can't go 10 years without even a sniff of a conference championship in either football or basketball and be considered a "success".
 

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