STrib: Dismissed MSU-Mankato football HC wins arbitrator's ruling; may return to MSU

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per the STrib:

The Minnesota State University, Mankato, was wrong to dismiss football coach Todd Hoffner after child pornography charges were dropped stemming from nude video images of his young kids on his cellphone, an arbitrator has ruled.

According to Hoffner’s attorney, Christopher Madel, the 72-page decision from Gerald E. Wallin says Hoffner should be reinstated because his suspension and firing were not for just cause.

Hoffner’s wife, Melodee, confirmed the ruling Thursday afternoon and said Hoffner’s return to Mankato “is under discussion right now.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/254776931.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Is the zero-intolerance/intelligence chip installed at the undergrad or graduate level? Education majors?

While a little odd...some families are more open with running around in their birthday suits.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Breaking: Ex-Minnesota State, Mankato football coach Todd Hoffner says he'll return to school that wrongly fired him. Details soon.</p>— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/StribSports/statuses/456164217171632128">April 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 

Mankato Free Press: Mankato football players meet Hoffner: say they want Keen back as coach

Minnesota State University players came onto their spring practice field today at 3:30 p.m. practice time but were not in uniform.

Coach Todd Hoffner came on field with Athletic Director Kevin Buisman. Hoffner shook coach Aaron Keen's hand. Keen had been the interim coach before Hoffner got his job back.

Players just came out of locker room out of uniform and read a statement saying they want Aaron Keen back as coach.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/spo...meet-Hoffner-say-they-want-Keen-back-as-coach

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Mankato Free Press: Mankato football players meet Hoffner: say they want Keen back as coach

Minnesota State University players came onto their spring practice field today at 3:30 p.m. practice time but were not in uniform.

Coach Todd Hoffner came on field with Athletic Director Kevin Buisman. Hoffner shook coach Aaron Keen's hand. Keen had been the interim coach before Hoffner got his job back.

Players just came out of locker room out of uniform and read a statement saying they want Aaron Keen back as coach.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/spo...meet-Hoffner-say-they-want-Keen-back-as-coach

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

This whole thing makes for a very odd situation and although it must be tough on the players, never, ever, let the inmates run the asylum.
 


Sorta

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
This whole thing makes for a very odd situation and although it must be tough on the players, never, ever, let the inmates run the asylum.
Click to expand...

I agree with your philosophy in many situations but I don't think this is one of them. As a coach, it is impossible, (Impossible) to be successful without the true support of administration/ownership. It can't be lip service. It's why coaches leave on their own, or get fired, when they get a new boss etc. He does not have that at all. Even if they get fired, the new guys won't be his guys.

You can't make somebody love you. To be forced into your rightful place as a coach by law isn't going to change their feelings.
Wrong choice to coach there. You were vindicated by the courts. Move on. Perform for the people who showed you love, went out on a limb and hired you.

The "interim" coach is popular and was successful. That's a whole other dynamic to excel beyond his 24 and 2 standard. Just the wrong choice for many reasons. Definitely a be careful what you wish for scenario. The odds are one in many this has any chance to be successful or happy.
 


What's disappointong to me is that Minot State gave him that 2nd chance, and he $hit in their lunch pails.
 

By some accounts Hoffner needed to choose what he felt would make the most money. Legal fees are not cheap. If they don't want him, the will have to pay him to leave.

Interim coach does not have a contract past June. Tough decisions to come.
 



Dr.Don said:
What's disappointong to me is that Minot State gave him that 2nd chance, and he $hit in their lunch pails.
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Agreed. 100%. Great minds think alike. We are two peas in a pod.
 

most money?

MaxyJR1 said:
By some accounts Hoffner needed to choose what he felt would make the most money. Legal fees are not cheap. If they don't want him, the will have to pay him to leave.

Interim coach does not have a contract past June. Tough decisions to come.
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The legal ruling was that Mankato had to pay the difference of his Minot salary as a penalty going forward. Money ain't it.

Legal fees are not cheap. Which location is he likely to incur more in going forward? All he has done is piss everybody off and look stupid. He waxed on about loyalty to Minot when he was hired.
He says f... off to return where he's not wanted. Now he's not wanted in either community.
Mankato faculty is ticked off at him for the fallout he caused in tightened policies and regulations. Mankato players want their coach of the past two years. They feel he's better, he's more fun to play for, in their eyes. You can't glue this back together. How do the other assistant coaches feel? You don't need to be too
sharp to answer that one either.

If the players are willing to publicly express their displeasure, that's pretty unusual. How do you miss that going in, making your decision to return? The only answer is not flattering.

He was vindicated, respected by the ruling. Coming back,the logical conclusion is to question if he has any logic. He lost all the respect he was given back. It's not a battle you can win, nor have any fun trying.
 

Interesting that in the cesspool that is the Strib comments section, that almost universally, the players are being criticized for taking the side of their interim coach Keen. I could not disagree more.

Keen is by all accounts a players coach, while Hoffner is not. Not to mention that they were extremely successful under Keen. Most of the commenters are calling the players spoiled brats who need to turn in their scholarships. Not realizing that very few D2 players are getting a full ride - it's often a couple hundred bucks on a partial. These guys are playing for the fun of it.

Hoffner got screwed over by an overzealous prosecutor (who should be canned) and a spineless administration. But he also exercised really poor judgement, especially in this open digital world where everything can be put out there for all to see. He also proved to not be much of a man of his word when he took the Minot job and now, a few months before the season begins, he's bailing on them. I understand that Minot is the backwater of college football, but still, it shows little in terms of character to do what he did. He's now pissed off the players at Mankato, the players and administration at Minot, and probably the coaching staff at Mankato. He should have taken the money and stayed at Minot, while looking possibly for a job elsewhere.

I understand how the players feel. Something similar happened to our team in high school. High school is of course different than college, but the emotions would have been the same.

Personally, I've felt for years that St. Cloud and Mankato should follow the lead of UW-Green Bay and UW Milwaukee. Drop football altogether and move up to D1 in all other sports.
 




It's a mess. Put yourself in Hoffner's shoes, he's very likely not in his right mind after the turbulence he had to ride through. Who in their right mind would leave Minot and go back to a place where your team doesn't want you and half the community probably thinks he probably is molesting his kids.

The sad part is is that it ever had to happen. Maybe the guy has other strikes against him we don't know about. Maybe they had it our for him.

Unfortunately there is something called prosecutorial immunity that essentially gives carte blanche to the DA, for debatable reasons that have gone before the supreme court. If you have an honest and ethical one, it's fine. If not...all evidence real and imagined, scraped up, made up at the forensic lab will be brought to bear to bring a conviction. It happens.
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
This whole thing makes for a very odd situation and although it must be tough on the players, never, ever, let the inmates run the asylum.
Click to expand...

Is that you Ray Hitchcock?

Anyway, this is the Poor Judgment Olympics and the gold medal is still in doubt.

I had to laugh (sadly) at a couple of the comments on the WCCO site. "Who doesn't have pictures of their kids naked?" queried one poster. Depends on the age of the kids I guess. I don't think I do and if I do, I surely wouldn't have shown them to my co-workers. Not saying Hofner is a pedophile or that I'm a prude, but I think what he did was really goofy. But enough about that.

No question the DA was overzealous, but with the Penn State and Catholic Church stories swirling around, it's not like that office was operating in a vacuum. At the same time, they should have used more discernment.

I seem to remember a post on here when he was fired insinuating that the guy was kind of a pr*ck and the team didn't particularly like playing for him then. As someone pointed out above, a lot of these kids aren't on full rides, but obviously enjoy playing and don't enjoy the prospects of playing for Hofner. What a mess.
 

Best way to be vindicated? Become a valuable member of the Minot community and put a championship football team on the field. Unfortunately, by his actions, he doesn't have that choice anymore.
 

No one's a winner in this thing, especially Hoffner. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. It's easy for us to say what we'd do in that situation (stay @ Minot or go back and fight it @ Mankato). My understanding is the salary is a heck of a lot bigger at Mankato?

No matter what happens, Mankato State comes out of this looking pretty bad. That's a stench that could stick around for quite some time.
 

50PoundHead said:
Is that you Ray Hitchcock?

Anyway, this is the Poor Judgment Olympics and the gold medal is still in doubt.

I had to laugh (sadly) at a couple of the comments on the WCCO site. "Who doesn't have pictures of their kids naked?" queried one poster. Depends on the age of the kids I guess. I don't think I do and if I do, I surely wouldn't have shown them to my co-workers. Not saying Hofner is a pedophile or that I'm a prude, but I think what he did was really goofy. But enough about that.

No question the DA was overzealous, but with the Penn State and Catholic Church stories swirling around, it's not like that office was operating in a vacuum. At the same time, they should have used more discernment.

I seem to remember a post on here when he was fired insinuating that the guy was kind of a pr*ck and the team didn't particularly like playing for him then. As someone pointed out above, a lot of these kids aren't on full rides, but obviously enjoy playing and don't enjoy the prospects of playing for Hofner. What a mess.
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Good stuff :) 60's Guy makes some good points as do you but just don't get me started on Pedophile State and its cousin the Catholic Church. Just so we're clear, I'm not defending Hoffner and certainly not the admin at MN State Mankato. This thing is a mess. The admin screwed up. Hoffner probably should have headed to Minot State and never looked back.

My point is simply that the players shouldn't call the shots under any circumstances other than perhaps at the line of scrimmage. Sure, it doesn't hurt to hear them out but I don't agree when they try to demand who is going to be the boss or we’ll pick up our ball and go home (it hasn’t worked that way anywhere I've had a job). Although very different circumstances this situation reminds me a bit of when Holtz left MN and the players demanded that the AD make John Gutekunst the head coach. The AD buckled to the player’s demands and that whole thing didn't exactly work out so great.

Anyway and if nothing else, this thread represents an interesting diversion from Gopher football which we’ll need until the end of August rolls around. I’m just glad this isn’t our mess!

Go Gophers!
 

SelectionSunday said:
No one's a winner in this thing, especially Hoffner. He's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. It's easy for us to say what we'd do in that situation (stay @ Minot or go back and fight it @ Mankato). My understanding is the salary is a heck of a lot bigger at Mankato?
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he guaranteed the difference in salary between the Minot St. job and the MSU-Mankato job, to be paid by MSU-Mankato? I don't think salary is the reason he's staying put.

Anyways, I've heard that the videos/pictures are very disturbing, and aren't just some "naked pictures of his kids". I believe it was the IT dept. who turned the phone in, and it sounds like they made the right call in doing so. I'm guessing they had no idea if they were his kids or not. The school probably jumped the gun a bit in firing him, but it sounds like everybody has screwed up in this situation.

If I were Hoffner I would have stuck with the Minot St. job. I'm sure he's aware that he doesn't have many fans down in Mankato, and if he was guaranteed the difference in salary why not start somewhere fresh? He's never going to escape these allegations and a lot of people are going to think of him as that "pedophile coach" even though he was cleared of any wrong-doing. He for sure is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't - you've got that right SS!
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
My point is simply that the players shouldn't call the shots under any circumstances other than perhaps at the line of scrimmage. Sure, it doesn't hurt to hear them out but I don't agree when they try to demand who is going to be the boss or we’ll pick up our ball and go home (it hasn’t worked that way anywhere I've had a job).
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D2 football isn't a job.
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Good stuff :) 60's Guy makes some good points as do you but just don't get me started on Pedophile State and its cousin the Catholic Church. Just so we're clear, I'm not defending Hoffner and certainly not the admin at MN State Mankato. This thing is a mess. The admin screwed up. Hoffner probably should have headed to Minot State and never looked back.

My point is simply that the players shouldn't call the shots under any circumstances other than perhaps at the line of scrimmage. Sure, it doesn't hurt to hear them out but I don't agree when they try to demand who is going to be the boss or we’ll pick up our ball and go home (it hasn’t worked that way anywhere I've had a job). Although very different circumstances this situation reminds me a bit of when Holtz left MN and the players demanded that the AD make John Gutekunst the head coach. The AD buckled to the player’s demands and that whole thing didn't exactly work out so great.

Anyway and if nothing else, this thread represents an interesting diversion from Gopher football which we’ll need until the end of August rolls around. I’m just glad this isn’t our mess!

Go Gophers!
Click to expand...

I don't think we disagree. I don't know if Hitchcock was behind the Gute-coup-nts, but he was unfortunately the guy with the microphone in his hands when the press showed up.

Players play. Coaches coach. Administrations administer. Don't like it, switch jobs.

As per my Catholic Church/PSU comments, I'm just saying County Attorneys and DAs don't operate in a vacuum. Pedophilia is serious, serious, serious sh*t and while the overzealous nature of the action here was likely unwarranted, pedophilia is more than just an issue du jour.
 

BleedGopher said:
Mankato Free Press: Mankato football players meet Hoffner: say they want Keen back as coach

Minnesota State University players came onto their spring practice field today at 3:30 p.m. practice time but were not in uniform.

Coach Todd Hoffner came on field with Athletic Director Kevin Buisman. Hoffner shook coach Aaron Keen's hand. Keen had been the interim coach before Hoffner got his job back.

Players just came out of locker room out of uniform and read a statement saying they want Aaron Keen back as coach.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/spo...meet-Hoffner-say-they-want-Keen-back-as-coach

Go Gophers!!
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Perhaps a little game by the admin? It's possible after they didn't get what they wanted out of the ruling they chose to introduce a little controversy by re-instating Hoffner as coach knowing the players would protest and not want to change coaches again.
 

CentralGopher said:
Perhaps a little game by the admin? It's possible after they didn't get what they wanted out of the ruling they chose to introduce a little controversy by re-instating Hoffner as coach knowing the players would protest and not want to change coaches again.
Click to expand...

Anything is possible in a $ hitty situation such as this.
 

Classic case of win the battle, but lose the war. The person(s) I feel the most sorry for is the guy at Minot State who hired Hoffner. You can pretty much make a case for and against any party in this mess. Except whoever didn't drop this at some point in the Mankato administration.

I take that back. The people I feel the most sorry for are his kids. What do you suppose their lives have been like at school with all of this? That's why I hope the prosecutor pays a price. If you are doing your job the way you are supposed to, what happened at Penn State should have no bearing on this. Public opinion shouldn't matter in deciding whether or not to prosecute, although too often it does. You investigate the hell out of this; expert professionals talking to the kids to find out if anything is going on. If protecting the kids is your rationale for all you do, then make sure you're actually protecting them instead of putting them in a situation where their lives could be hell in so many ways.
 

CentralGopher said:
Perhaps a little game by the admin? It's possible after they didn't get what they wanted out of the ruling they chose to introduce a little controversy by re-instating Hoffner as coach knowing the players would protest and not want to change coaches again.
Click to expand...

According to something I read, the administration tried to buy him out of returning but he declined.

And what happens if this fall they have a poor season? Players didn't buy in? Hoffner not as good as Keen? Considering Keen only lost 2 games during his two year tenure, it's going to be a hard standard to meet. This was an all around poor decision by Hoffner to come back. Anything short of what Keen established will be seen as his fault. And then they'll be looking to remove him again.
 




Players need to play! No different than if a good coach leaves for a better program. U play for the guy that is in charge. That is Hoffner... If u don't like it give up your scholarship or leave I am sure the parents won't like that. 110,000 is not a bad salary for a D-2 coach.

Also the reason he wanted to come back there is his wife has a very good job there and all of his family lives there. Not a tough choice I don't think so. So some other employees don't care for him.. Its there fault in the first place not his.

The community knows he got screwed...

So the players think keen is a players coach what players don't pick the coaches admin does.
 

Mulligan said:
Classic case of win the battle, but lose the war. The person(s) I feel the most sorry for is the guy at Minot State who hired Hoffner. You can pretty much make a case for and against any party in this mess. Except whoever didn't drop this at some point in the Mankato administration.

I take that back. The people I feel the most sorry for are his kids. What do you suppose their lives have been like at school with all of this? That's why I hope the prosecutor pays a price. If you are doing your job the way you are supposed to, what happened at Penn State should have no bearing on this. Public opinion shouldn't matter in deciding whether or not to prosecute, although too often it does. You investigate the hell out of this; expert professionals talking to the kids to find out if anything is going on. If protecting the kids is your rationale for all you do, then make sure you're actually protecting them instead of putting them in a situation where their lives could be hell in so many ways.
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I agree that's why Hoffner should move, get a fresh start, he won, he was vindicated, move on. The kids might be too young to know any better now, but when they're older I'm guessing some asshole in their class is going to make their lives at school a living hell. I just think as long as they're in Mankato the Hoffner's will never fully shake this
 

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