Tom Dienhart: Chuck Neinas has been hired to conduct the coaching search

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BleedGopher

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Yahoo's Tom Dienhart tweets:

"I have learned that Chuck Neinas has been hired to conduct the Minnesota football coaching search."

Here is Neinas' site if interested:

http://www.neinassports.com/

Go Gophers!!
 

http://www.neinassports.com/

Former commish of the Big Eight conference, assistant executive director of the NCAA, has employed some big big names in college sports (Texas AD, Miami AD, BCS director).

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/8760295/

^^ Good article on the guy. Seems he was involved in the hires of Les Miles, Mark Richt, Urban Meyer, as well as coaches at Michigan and Wisconsin.

Only downside ... he's a Badger.
 

Apparently he runs some sports service out in Colorado. Well I hope they made the right choice of the guy who will make the right choice as our next head coach.
 


Pretty impressive resume.

If this is true, it puts my mind at ease a bit.
 


Looks like a guy who knows what he's doing. Nice first step.
 

This is good news. It doesn't mean we'll get a killer hire, but it shows that the university is committed to finding the best available candidate for the job...including those currently employed.
 

Joel would hire a Badger to conduct our coaching search, lol.
 




What was the search firm who brought us Brew?
 

sounds like a good move...anything to get the repsonsiblity off of Maturi's desk.
 





If we're willing to put our money where our mouths are, we could get a good coach. I read there are only 25 coaches out there who are making more $1.6 million a year. A big pay check might just persuade someone to come here. One thing is for sure, this Neinas guy is well-connected enough to figure out who'd be interested.

I've said this before, the metrodome was a huge liability for this program. A big salary and budget plus the new stadium should get us a high quality coach. Maybe not Urban Meyer, but I could see an Al Golden or a Kyle Whittingham-type hire. Someone no one would think we'd get and who would provide enough umph to get fans excited.
 

How many candidates were interviewed the last time? I would hope the number of interviews is far and wide this time.
 

goldengophers said:
How many candidates were interviewed the last time? I would hope the number of interviews is far and wide this time.
Click to expand...

This is just from what I read, but from what I understood three coaches received an interview. Lane Kiffin, Tim Brewster and Marc Trestman.

But I would assume that if only 3 got a interview, how the heck (with his resume) did Brewster make it to the interview
 

The search firm will find out under the radar who is interested in the job and give these names to Maturi for further consideration. Then help with negotiations, etc. Final decision is still Maturi/Brunicks.
 

Wheaton said:
This is just from what I read, but from what I understood three coaches received an interview. Lane Kiffin, Tim Brewster and Marc Trestman.

But I would assume that if only 3 got a interview, how the heck (with his resume) did Brewster make it to the interview
Click to expand...

I understand Bo Pellini also interviewed.
 

Wheaton said:
This is just from what I read, but from what I understood three coaches received an interview. Lane Kiffin, Tim Brewster and Marc Trestman.

But I would assume that if only 3 got a interview, how the heck (with his resume) did Brewster make it to the interview
Click to expand...

I believe Charlie Strong also interviewed.
 

bermaGOPHERfan said:
The search firm will find out under the radar who is interested in the job and give these names to Maturi for further consideration. Then help with negotiations, etc. Final decision is still Maturi/Brunicks.
Click to expand...

But don't you think that the firm will have some part in the interview? And then give its opinion on who should be the next coach?

Otherwise, you could have some intern at the U call the coaching candidates and see if they are interested and then hire a mediator for negotiations. Save some money.
 

The firm will provide advice if the AD asks, but primarily they are involved to gauge interest behind closed doors, do the background leg work (to make sure there are no closet skeletons) and whittle down the list for interviews.
 



Here's my question:

The names of Pelini, Strong, Trestman and others have been have been mentioned as finalists/interviewed when Brew was hired. Would any of these taken the job or did they interview and decide they were not that interested.

Maturi mentioned again on Sunday that Brew was the best possible choice at the time. Is there a chance that there wasn't that much true interest from strong candidates((((((((as Sid says))))))).
 

Wheaton said:
But don't you think that the firm will have some part in the interview? And then give its opinion on who should be the next coach?

Otherwise, you could have some intern at the U call the coaching candidates and see if they are interested and then hire a mediator for negotiations. Save some money.
Click to expand...


Yeah, you could save some dinero, but it would turn into a total fustercluck. First off, it would be great for us fans, because we'd be getting minute by minute updates from some clown like Roufs from all the leaks. Also, the whole thing with a search firm is plausible deniability. The best candidates are the ones who might not be interested. You don't know, though, until you contact them. And they aren't going to talk to some 22 year old art history or sports communications major at the U, for fear of getting their names mentioned on some hack radio show.

As Joel Maturi said yesterday, the first time a name should be mentioned publically is when he's up on the podium making the announcement. That probably won't happen. Chances are word will leak out about the finalists. You can bet the local media will be tracking tail numbers of any private aircraft associated with the UofM. But if this is handled even semi-competently (a stretch goal), word will never get out about the guys who said "thanks but no thanks". And to do that you need a blue chip search firm. This is a good first step. Actually a 2nd step. The first step was confiscating Brewster's whistle.
 


Wheaton said:
But don't you think that the firm will have some part in the interview? And then give its opinion on who should be the next coach?

Otherwise, you could have some intern at the U call the coaching candidates and see if they are interested and then hire a mediator for negotiations. Save some money.
Click to expand...

Sure, save some money. And like Too Long says, watch it all leak. The U couldn't keep a simple "when we're gonna fire" decision quiet. No chance they could keep a coaching search on the DL.

Here's a 2006 article on Neinas. The guy's whole MO is about getting your job offer out to pretty much any coach you want and doing the whole thing verbally so no one has a paper trail to leak. He won't even submit a written report to the U at the end of the process...it'll be verbal to Maturi and anyone else they decide needs to hear it (assume Prez, legal) so that the MN papers can't use open records laws to find out about the search.

This is a good sign. Neinas is the guy the big boys use. It guarantees nothing (while Neinas has plenty of hits, his misses include Willingham, Franchione, etc) but it shows that the U is serious. It may also show that the U doesn't trust Maturi to do it alone, but that is good and also shows that they're serious.
 

This is great news. Look at that list of guys he has helped place in their jobs. These are National Title and BCS title winners like Brown, Miles, etc. They are rising stars like Dantonio. This is great news.

So....what is DUngy's role now? will he be working with this search firm?
 

AhliBobwa said:
This is great news. Look at that list of guys he has helped place in their jobs. These are National Title and BCS title winners like Brown, Miles, etc. They are rising stars like Dantonio. This is great news.

So....what is DUngy's role now? will he be working with this search firm?
Click to expand...

Maybe Dungy sits in for the Maturi interviews?
 

AhliBobwa said:
This is great news. Look at that list of guys he has helped place in their jobs. These are National Title and BCS title winners like Brown, Miles, etc. They are rising stars like Dantonio. This is great news.

So....what is DUngy's role now? will he be working with this search firm?
Click to expand...

Dungy's job will be to convince that prospective coach that he is not throwing his career away by coming to the U.
 

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