The 5 worst firings over the past 10 years in college football (Mason/Minnesota #2)

[GopherGack]

I'm not sweeping anything under the rug. Mason had two really fine seasons (and we would have gone to the Rose Bowl if he would have made some adjustments against Michigan) out of ten and his bad seasons weren't abysmal, but his supporters seem to think we fired Knute Frickin' Rockne. I don't hate Mason. I support the players (always have and always will). I'm proud of them always and really avoid criticizing them at every juncture. But things run their course and Mason's tenure had run his. Like Formo wrote succinctly, people always use the subsequent "hire" to attack the "fire." Clearly, the transition was negative, but that is damning Mason with faint praise.

My whole point this thread has been to get people to recognize that the Gophers did indeed have 2 very good seasons (absolutely fantastic seasons in comparison to the other 40 or so seasons lately). If you recognize that I'm satisfied. I'm not trying to make Mason out to be a super hero. He had his faults. But that doesn't mean 1999 and 2003 weren't great seasons and that they don't deserve to be recognized. That was, is and continues to be my only point.

 

[TPatt17]

Some of these post are entertaining. I try not to respond but sometimes I feel like should. I was apart of both the '99 and '03 teams. My teammates and I always get into a debate on which team was better. We even break it down position by position! Although both seasons didn't turn out the way we would have liked, hopefully we provided some sort of entertainment for the fans. It's a lot of ripping on Mason I see on here. We all can agree that Mason wasn't as "friendly" as the coaches that came after him. Our practices weren't open to the public, we didn't have music playing at our practice(which would have been cool) but he did do a lot for the players and the state as a whole.

The 2003 season was my senior year and I see our record and who we played against is being tossed around. I'm not sure who has control over our Big 10 schedule but we did finish 10-3. Is it our fault the the other teams we played against in the Big 10 wasn't successful that particular year? Was it our fault that we had 3 big horses in the backfield that nobody seemed to want to tackle? Not one team that we played against just flat out gave us the game. We earned the 10 wins regardless of who we played.

I understand and respect everyone's opinion of Gopher Football, but to say that Mason was not a good coach is somewhat irresponsible. I'm not saying that Mason was the greatest coach on earth, but sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due...

Go Gophers!

 

[Stan]

TPatt17, great post and great perspective. The 99 team was my favorite of all time, and the 03 team was fun to watch as well. I wish we had WRs that could block down field as well as you did. Our RBs should credit you for a lot of the down field yards they picked up.

 

[Go4Broke]

I understand and respect everyone's opinion of Gopher Football, but to say that Mason was not a good coach is somewhat irresponsible. I'm not saying that Mason was the greatest coach on earth, but sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due...Go Gophers!

Mason was a good coach but even a better underachiever. Among other things, he was:

1. A below average game day coach, especially in the second half trying to protect a lead;

2. A below average recruiter;

3. Not very interested in recruiting or coaching defense;

4. Not very well liked by Minnesota high school coaches;

5. Not very well liked by the Gopher fan base;

6. Way too satisfied coaching a Big 10 team where he had far too little expectations and pressure put on him to win Big 10 games (his overall record was 32-48) and play in first rate bowl games.

 

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

So you think all it takes is a magic coaching hire for UM to be at the top? You might be right. Reusse says so, too. As for me, I notice that since our last conference title threat, we've had nine head coaches and not one has been close to even competing for the Big Ten title. Could it be that there is something other than the head coach that has taken the UM football program from a regular top Big Ten team up until the 60s to one that hasn't been competitive since. Something that makes many Minnesota prospects want to play elsewhere and makes it difficult to recruit top out-of-state players? And it's not the weather.

To me (and I think to many others), coaching and recruiting are EVERYTHING when it comes to modern football program success. Being great at one or the other, or mediocre at both only gets you so far, and these days, it would seem you need to be great in both to win a Big Ten Title. You gotta have the horses, and you need the right guys to lead them to water. You seem to be hinting at something more... conspiratorial, Fifties. Not sure what you are driving at as this x-factor blighting our program, is it our ADs? Boosters? In-state players being tampered with by men in black helicopters?

As far as keeping more Minnesota prospects in state, a year or two of solid winning above 'Mason-levels' would do this. I personally could care less about where our players come from, I just want great players who fit our system and want to be here Frankly, it's great to have a handful of local kids to drum up interest, but if all our players came from Texas, Ohio, Florida, and California I wouldn't give a rip, provided they WIN.

 

[e.bigelow]

To me (and I think to many others), coaching and recruiting are EVERYTHING when it comes to modern football program success. Being great at one or the other, or mediocre at both only gets you so far, and these days, it would seem you need to be great in both to win a Big Ten Title. You gotta have the horses, and you need the right guys to lead them to water. You seem to be hinting at something more... conspiratorial, Fifties. Not sure what you are driving at as this x-factor blighting our program, is it our ADs? Boosters? In-state players being tampered with by men in black helicopters?

As far as keeping more Minnesota prospects in state, a year or two of solid winning above 'Mason-levels' would do this. I personally could care less about where our players come from, I just want great players who fit our system and want to be here Frankly, it's great to have a handful of local kids to drum up interest, but if all our players came from Texas, Ohio, Florida, and California I wouldn't give a rip, provided they WIN.

+1. I agree. Man, you're killing it today GBG! Haha.