The Worst College Football Firings Since 2000 (Glen Mason, Minnesota)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Andrew:

Glen Mason

Minnesota fired a four-decade college coaching veteran with 123 career wins so they could hire an NFL tight ends coach with zero college football coordinator or head-coaching experience.

Glen Mason cleaned up Jim Wacker's mess and, for the first time since a blip of success in the 1960s, brought national college football relevance to Minneapolis. He won 33 games from 2002-05, the most of any coach in program history over four years, and was a quick-trigger dismissal after blowing a 31-point lead in the 2006 Insight Bowl.

Minnesota didn't fire Mason to hire Jerry Kill, P.J. Fleck, or another real coach. They fired Mason to hire Brewster, who spectacularly flopped in four seasons.

herosports.com

The Worst College Football Firings Since 2000

Nebraska fired Frank Solich...and hired Bill Callahan.
herosports.com herosports.com

Go Gophers!!
 




BleedGopher said:
per Andrew:

Glen Mason

Minnesota fired a four-decade college coaching veteran with 123 career wins so they could hire an NFL tight ends coach with zero college football coordinator or head-coaching experience.

Glen Mason cleaned up Jim Wacker's mess and, for the first time since a blip of success in the 1960s, brought national college football relevance to Minneapolis. He won 33 games from 2002-05, the most of any coach in program history over four years, and was a quick-trigger dismissal after blowing a 31-point lead in the 2006 Insight Bowl.

Minnesota didn't fire Mason to hire Jerry Kill, P.J. Fleck, or another real coach. They fired Mason to hire Brewster, who spectacularly flopped in four seasons.

herosports.com

The Worst College Football Firings Since 2000

Nebraska fired Frank Solich...and hired Bill Callahan.
herosports.com herosports.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Ummm....NO! We all know that they fired Mason without a plan to secure a specific coach and had to settle for what they could get. The debate was/ is should they have chosen someone else like Charlie Strong. IIRC he was available and interested. IIRC all of the coaches with head coaching experience that were available turned the job down.

Lady luck appears to have finally smiled upon us again. We have Fleck now.
 


Keeping Mason would've been the definition of mediocrity. Growth baby! Gonna have some ups and downs
 

With the hind sight benefit of knowing what a flop Brewster was, it would have been nice to see what Mason could have done with the new stadium. In many ways, he deserved that. However, without any hind sight available to say what would have happened if MN had retained Mason into the TCF Bank Stadium era, we can only speculate. Based on all evidence available and where the program had been and indicators of where it was going, I suspect Mason might have had a slight bump but overall the defensive woes would have continued and the team would have continued to thrash around somewhere between mediocrity and respectability.

That "should he be fired or not" debate would have continued. There was a lot of evidence he was running his course at MN. Never a dynamic recruiter, and he seemed to be a bit on auto pilot after the phone calls had come and he had listened.

The butterfly effect would have been a big factor on the way to it being unlikely the Gophers would have had a job to fill when Fleck was available so if the Brewster years were somehow necessary to end up with Fleck, I will be "thankful" for those years forever (couldn't help but put that in quotes).
 

STPGopher said:
Ummm....NO! We all know that they fired Mason without a plan to secure a specific coach and had to settle for what they could get. The debate was/ is should they have chosen someone else like Charlie Strong. IIRC he was available and interested. IIRC all of the coaches with head coaching experience that were available turned the job down.

Lady luck appears to have finally smiled upon us again. We have Fleck now.
Click to expand...

I believe they talked to Strong (he was listed as the official runner up by the U, which I think had to name a runner up/other interviewee), Bo Pelini and Lane Kiffin. There was a report in the Dallas-Fort Worth newspaper that we offered Gary Patterson the job. Someone on here said they talked to Dan Mullen, who was then at Mississippi State and wanted far more than we would pay.
 




Hates Monikers said:
I believe they talked to Strong (he was listed as the official runner up by the U, which I think had to name a runner up/other interviewee), Bo Pelini and Lane Kiffin. There was a report in the Dallas-Fort Worth newspaper that we offered Gary Patterson the job. Someone on here said they talked to Dan Mullen, who was then at Mississippi State and wanted far more than we would pay.
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According to Sid...

"No. 1 has to do with Gary Patterson, who interviewed for the Gophers job after going 11-2 in the Mountain West Conference in 2006 with the Horned Frogs but then didn’t want to be considered for the position to replace Glen Mason. However, at some point in January 2007 with the position still unfilled, Patterson changed his mind and contacted university officials, and I am told he would have taken the job had it been offered. But the Gophers had already either offered Tim Brewster the job, or had somebody else in mind. It was another six years before TCU became a high-major conference program by joining the Big 12 in 2012. "

www.startribune.com

TCU's Patterson could have ended up as Gophers coach

Gary Patterson interviewed for the Gophers job after going 11-2 in the Mountain West Conference in 2006 with the Horned Frogs but then didn't want to be considered for the position to replace Glen Mason.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

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Fans were pretty P.O.'d with that loss to Texas Tech...

Told Mrs. Billd at the half that we did not have enough points...

Very painful.
 

It wasn't just that bowl game. Mason's teams found ways to painfully lose every year. I'm not sure if that is grounds to be fired or not as looking back I was only a kid then, but I remember how frustrating it was watching or being at some heartbreaking games.
 



WinLoseOrTy said:
According to Sid...

"No. 1 has to do with Gary Patterson, who interviewed for the Gophers job after going 11-2 in the Mountain West Conference in 2006 with the Horned Frogs but then didn’t want to be considered for the position to replace Glen Mason. However, at some point in January 2007 with the position still unfilled, Patterson changed his mind and contacted university officials, and I am told he would have taken the job had it been offered. But the Gophers had already either offered Tim Brewster the job, or had somebody else in mind. It was another six years before TCU became a high-major conference program by joining the Big 12 in 2012. "

www.startribune.com

TCU's Patterson could have ended up as Gophers coach

Gary Patterson interviewed for the Gophers job after going 11-2 in the Mountain West Conference in 2006 with the Horned Frogs but then didn't want to be considered for the position to replace Glen Mason.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
Click to expand...

From the Forth Worth Star-Telgram:

Sources told the Star-Telegram that the Horned Frogs coach was offered a salary worth more than $2 million to leave Fort Worth. He turned down the offer Sunday, and Minnesota hired Denver Broncos tight ends coach Tim Brewster on Tuesday.

Patterson did not confirm terms of the reported contract offer, though he did acknowledge that he discussed the opening with representatives from Minnesota and Baker-Parker and Associates, an Atlanta-based headhunting firm.
Click to expand...

Whatever. We would've been better off.

 

btowngopher said:
They fired Mason based on Mason, not based on the fact that Brewster was available. The firing was a good move regardless of whether the immediate hire that followed worked out.
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I fully agree. I have always said firing Mason was the right decision at the time, and that doesn't change just because the person they hired in his place was terrible. One good decision and one very very poor decision, IMO.
 


BilldGopher said:
Fans were pretty P.O.'d with that loss to Texas Tech...

Told Mrs. Billd at the half that we did not have enough points...

Very painful.
Click to expand...
I was going to hit "like" but I didn't like the result at all. One of many painful losses.
 


Glen was fired because the U did not like some of the recruiting stuff that was going on.
 

tmvander said:
It wasn't just that bowl game. Mason's teams found ways to painfully lose every year. I'm not sure if that is grounds to be fired or not as looking back I was only a kid then, but I remember how frustrating it was watching or being at some heartbreaking games.
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EXACTLY.

With some of the other epic collapses in the Mason era, it's easy to forget about the Northwestern loss in 2000. Watch these highlights and remember:
But this game (and really the 2000 season) perfectly sum up the amazingly frustrating Mason experience. Go on the road and defeat Ohio State in a huge upset! Follow that up by giving up 51 points to Indiana the next week and losing 51-43. Then come home and lead Northwestern 35-14 in the 3rd quarter, let them come back and lose on a freaking Hail Mary. WOW.

And that's just a part of ONE SEASON. Mason's teams were great at building comfy leads, but they never really mounted any huge comebacks that I can recall. And when it came to crunch time, we could almost NEVER make big plays, whether getting a key first down to kill the clock or (in that NW game) giving up a number of huge 4th downs (including a 4th-and-20 when NW was at our 30!)

Factor in the hell we experienced losing to Michigan in 2003 and Wiscy in 2005 and the Texas Tech collapse was really just the cherry on a shit sundae Gopher fans had been eating for years. A move needed to happen 100%. It's just too bad we had an AD who was inept at hiring for our biggest roles for so long.
 

WriterGoph said:
EXACTLY.

With some of the other epic collapses in the Mason era, it's easy to forget about the Northwestern loss in 2000. Watch these highlights and remember:
But this game (and really the 2000 season) perfectly sum up the amazingly frustrating Mason experience. Go on the road and defeat Ohio State in a huge upset! Follow that up by giving up 51 points to Indiana the next week and losing 51-43. Then come home and lead Northwestern 35-14 in the 3rd quarter, let them come back and lose on a freaking Hail Mary. WOW.

And that's just a part of ONE SEASON. Mason's teams were great at building comfy leads, but they never really mounted any huge comebacks that I can recall. And when it came to crunch time, we could almost NEVER make big plays, whether getting a key first down to kill the clock or (in that NW game) giving up a number of huge 4th downs (including a 4th-and-20 when NW was at our 30!)

Factor in the hell we experienced losing to Michigan in 2003 and Wiscy in 2005 and the Texas Tech collapse was really just the cherry on a shit sundae Gopher fans had been eating for years. A move needed to happen 100%. It's just too bad we had an AD who was inept at hiring for our biggest roles for so long.
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I bet you were all in for the huge Hail Mary play, the pass to the TE, that won us the Auburn game. In college you have to have the horses. At Minnesota you have to get the horses without cheating. Fleck may be the first coach we have had since the early 1960's who can get the horses here and, AND, do everything else right.
 

tmvander said:
It wasn't just that bowl game. Mason's teams found ways to painfully lose every year. I'm not sure if that is grounds to be fired or not as looking back I was only a kid then, but I remember how frustrating it was watching or being at some heartbreaking games.
Click to expand...

You have to be in the games in order for the losses to be painful. Under Mason our superior coaching could work up a game plan that would often work, but eventually, the other teams coaches could figure out what we were doing and how to overcome those schemes. Then, like the TT game, they would be able to use their superior players to crush us. Michigan game, same thing.
 

Veritas said:
I bet you were all in for the huge Hail Mary play, the pass to the TE, that won us the Auburn game. In college you have to have the horses. At Minnesota you have to get the horses without cheating. Fleck may be the first coach we have had since the early 1960's who can get the horses here and, AND, do everything else right.
Click to expand...

Yes, I love ballsy calls like we saw in the Auburn game - when it's time to put a foot on their throat. The problem with Mason is that in the big games, we were almost always playing to protect a lead instead of to finish an opponent off. The 2018 Wisconsin game is probably the first big moment we could see that difference between a Fleck team and a Mason team. But there were a TON of moments this past season where we saw things happen that many of us hadn't seen in our Gopher lifetimes:

The CAB catch on 4th and forever at Fresno
The game-winning drive facing 3rd and 30 against GSU
The Penn State victory with the stakes
The physical domination of Auburn to close out the win

Bring on some more in 2020!
 

Veritas said:
You have to be in the games in order for the losses to be painful. Under Mason our superior coaching could work up a game plan that would often work, but eventually, the other teams coaches could figure out what we were doing and how to overcome those schemes. Then, like the TT game, they would be able to use their superior players to crush us. Michigan game, same thing.
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Right, which is half of the argument and maybe where Andrew is coming from. He won us a lot of games and had us in others. However, these other coaches "overcoming schemes" and other teams having more "superior players" is maybe what led to the firing.
 

We should not forget that the Gophers were trying to get an on campus stadium at the time as well. The lousy recruiting and the terrible half-time adjustments (sorry there were no adjustments) led to a program with no steam. TCF happened because a new coach brought some momentum to get it finished. Brewster was terrible, but boy could he talk. Big difference between Fleck and him is that Fleck has always talked with substance (culture creation). Brewster just said outrageous things confidently.
 

gophernut1 said:
We should not forget that the Gophers were trying to get an on campus stadium at the time as well. The lousy recruiting and the terrible half-time adjustments (sorry there were no adjustments) led to a program with no steam. TCF happened because a new coach brought some momentum to get it finished. Brewster was terrible, but boy could he talk. Big difference between Fleck and him is that Fleck has always talked with substance (culture creation). Brewster just said outrageous things confidently.
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You guys remember when we were 7-0 or 7-1 under Brewster (2008) and then the wheels just completely fell off? We had broken into the rankings and then ended up losing the last 5, including a 55-0 shutout at home against Iowa. The wheels fell off is an understatement. He had me for a second though.
 

Veritas said:
I bet you were all in for the huge Hail Mary play, the pass to the TE, that won us the Auburn game. In college you have to have the horses. At Minnesota you have to get the horses without cheating. Fleck may be the first coach we have had since the early 1960's who can get the horses here and, AND, do everything else right.
Click to expand...
Yeah...and if Fleck had had these guts in the Ioaw game, instead if punting on the Hawkeyeballs 35, they would have won that game too! Lesson learned!
 

Glen Mason was a good coach, he was the right coach at the time he was hired. However, he was also a guy that for much of his tenure chose to be adversarial with the press, chose to not build relationships with Minnesota HS coaches, chose to put most of his quality players on offense at the cost of defense and chose to become overly conservative with a lead which allowed other teams to come back. How many years do all those things need to keep happening before a B1G school should say "enough is enough"? Not to mention the incident on the flight en route to the Insight Bowl. It was time for Mason to go.

Agree wholeheartedly with what most have said - the fact Maturi was ill prepared to make a good hire doesn't mean the choice to fire was wrong. Charlie Strong was reportedly interested, Lane Kiffin called it his dream job and was supposedly very upset he didn't get it (granted, that might have ended worse than Brewster).

Like Coyle or not, one thing I respect is he told the fan advisory board that he has a list of potential head coaches for every single sport and updates it at least once a year. He basically said, any coach leaves he is ready to conduct interviews. Maybe he'll miss candidates that a search committee would find, but at least he wouldn't be caught completely unprepared regardless of why a coach left.

The fact Maturi was unprepared when he chose to fire Mason is more of an indictment on Maturi than anything else.
 

Maverick said:
Yeah...and if Fleck had had these guts in the Ioaw game, instead if punting on the Hawkeyeballs 35, they would have won that game too! Lesson learned!
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I think you're confusing with the Wisconsin game?
 

skiumah1 said:
You guys remember when we were 7-0 or 7-1 under Brewster (2008) and then the wheels just completely fell off? We had broken into the rankings and then ended up losing the last 5, including a 55-0 shutout at home against Iowa. The wheels fell off is an understatement. He had me for a second though.
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Remember that very well. I am pretty sure that season also swung badly on a Northwestern loss.

Pulled up the video. Weber threw a pick with the game tied and and less than 20 seconds left and NW returned it for the game-winning TD.

 

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