Who did Maturi want?

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Buttcheeks McGaffigan

Buttcheeks McGaffigan

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It came up in one of the rate the new hires. This isn't anything more than me wondering if there was ever a confirmed name or not. I've been on board with Coach Kill since the beginning so no stirring the pot.
 

Dungy was #1. After that he followed a list of candidates until finding a mutual agreement with Coach Kill.
 

My guess was Brady Hoke was a guy he went after hard.....
 

The former UCONN coach was his go to guy and the one that was in the bag

The UCONN coach bailed and that is when he gave the interview to the Wisconsin Offensive coordinator to give the appearance of two finalist,
and then coach Kill. I think we lucked into getting coach Kill, he was not the first choice but he will end up being the right choice when it is all said and done.
The improvement in tempo at practice is night and day, so much more professional and organized. This is like watching Pro's versus pop Warner level coach from the past head coach. He could talk the talk but not coach or teach what he was spewing.
It is nice to see a real professional "football" coach is in the building and there is an adult in charge again. I like this coach, they
will not just produce better football players, but better men and contributors to our society and University. We
are lucky to have coach Kill and the players will realize he is hard to play for but has there best interest and will have them
better prepared in the end.
 

I think too think we had a verbal agreement with someone else or were close to one based on speculation in the media a week earlier and Coach Kill's comments about not being the first choice and saying it came together really fast.

I'd think Edsall makes sense because I think I remember there being a candidate close to being named before the weekend before we hired Coach Kill that doesn't coincide with the "it came together quick" statement. It would make sense that Edsall would be the guy based on beating South Florida that weekend to earn a berth to the Fiesta Bowl and Edsall not even traveling home with UConn to take the job with Maryland for 1.3 million.

If there was another guy, Edsall or someone else, then it appears that Maturi might have gotten lucky because I can't imagine a better fit for Minnesota than Jerry Kill who was a realistic candidate. He moved me from being someone who went from buying seats on the street for three games at a 2 for1 discount to becoming a season ticket holder.
 


One thing too is that although Coach Kill's name came up publicly very late in the search, I recall him saying in his first or second interview that his agent had been in contact with the search effort from very early on.

My point is that no doubt that higher profile candidates were being sought, but Jerry Kill was on the U's radar...just not in public.

In this instance in retrospect I don't mind being left in the dark. Coach Kill is exactly what we needed.

Go Gophers! In Kill We Trust!
 


BilldGopher said:
One thing too is that although Coach Kill's name came up publicly very late in the search, I recall him saying in his first or second interview that his agent had been in contact with the search effort from very early on.

My point is that no doubt that higher profile candidates were being sought, but Jerry Kill was on the U's radar...just not in public.

In this instance in retrospect I don't mind being left in the dark. Coach Kill is exactly what we needed.

Go Gophers! In Kill We Trust!
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I think Kill was in the "Realistic Top 5" all along. Now that we're long past it, here's a nugget I am comfortable to share. At the Senior Banquet, the day after the Iowa game, Maturi told a group that we "weren't going to win the Press Conference". I think that Kill might have even been a strong 3rd. I have no doubt that this wasn't "lucked into". Kill simply wasn't the sexy choice.
 

I heard Kill tell Sid Hartman on his radio show that Maturi had been in contact with his agent for quite some time before Maturi and Bruininks flew to Illinios to interview Kill in person. Kill was on Maturi's short list right from the start. Luck had very little to do with this hire.
 



Go4Broke said:
I heard Kill tell Sid Hartman on his radio show that Maturi had been in contact with his agent for quite some time before Maturi and Bruininks flew to Illinios to interview Kill in person. Kill was on Maturi's short list right from the start. Luck had very little to do with this hire.
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That is my understanding from a letterman for the Gophers in the 80s. Still very close to the program, from my home town of Fargo. He says Kill was in the original five Maturi knew he wanted to look at deeper.

I am thrilled that Kill is the HC and I am really enjoying all the stuff that is coming out of fall camp. It has caused me to change my 5-7 projection to a 7-5 season. I am high on Kill.
 

Gopher028 said:
My guess was Brady Hoke was a guy he went after hard.....
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I think (only a guess on my part) Hoke was the guy he wanted most and after that didn't come to fruition, it boiled down to a few guys and I think Kill was firmly in that mix. The rumor was that Edsall agreed and then he reneged and the job immediately fell to Kill. Don't know if that constitutes "falling," as everything I've seen of Kill makes me think he's going to do a very good job.
 

Pete Carroll was something like the fifth choice for coach at USC. It's just a matter of finding the right fit.

If I had to guess a 'realistic five' it would be Coach Kill, Randy Edsall, Brady Hoke, Troy Calhoun, and Dan Mullen.
 

JFR, Kill was not the first choice but he was the only one offered the position.
 



Maturi handled this terribly. His press conference after the Brewster firing gave people legitimate hope that the University was going to extend itself to find the best coach and that a big name was more than possible. When leaks started coming out about guys like Hoke, Golden, Fulmer, etc, most people thought these were tier 2 guys and we would actually being hiring a more established coach. Maturi's quotes about being surprised at the amount of interest and one mystery interested candidate fanned the flames. When reports started to leak out that Maturi was being rebuffed left and right by mid major coaches, nobody believed it. The University announced that a new coach would be announced on facebook first and this attempt at social media buzz furthered the notion that someone established was coming to the "U".

Then Kill is hired on a Vikings Sunday in an under the radar move that had many people very upset (I certainly was one). Maturi certainly didn't make a splash and it sure looked like he got desperate. It didn't help when Maturi was quoted as saying I knew a big name would not take THIS job. Guess what Maturi? The job is a reflection of you. He then dug his hole deeper with the whole Barry Alvarez fiasco.

Time will tell if Maturi lucked in to a good hire with Jerry Kill, but he certainly wasn't the type of coach that the school was looking for initially. If they were considering a 50 year old MAC coach from the start, the search would have been run entirely differently. I think it's pretty clear that Maturi was turned down multiple times prior to reaching an agreement with coach Kill.
 

During the search Maturi looked at many candidates, but time after time, day after day, one name kept coming up...
 


manaaging expectations

EG#9 said:
Maturi handled this terribly. His press conference after the Brewster firing gave people legitimate hope that the University was going to extend itself to find the best coach and that a big name was more than possible. When leaks started coming out about guys like Hoke, Golden, Fulmer, etc, most people thought these were tier 2 guys and we would actually being hiring a more established coach. Maturi's quotes about being surprised at the amount of interest and one mystery interested candidate fanned the flames. When reports started to leak out that Maturi was being rebuffed left and right by mid major coaches, nobody believed it. The University announced that a new coach would be announced on facebook first and this attempt at social media buzz furthered the notion that someone established was coming to the "U".

Then Kill is hired on a Vikings Sunday in an under the radar move that had many people very upset (I certainly was one). Maturi certainly didn't make a splash and it sure looked like he got desperate. It didn't help when Maturi was quoted as saying I knew a big name would not take THIS job. Guess what Maturi? The job is a reflection of you. He then dug his hole deeper with the whole Barry Alvarez fiasco.

Time will tell if Maturi lucked in to a good hire with Jerry Kill, but he certainly wasn't the type of coach that the school was looking for initially. If they were considering a 50 year old MAC coach from the start, the search would have been run entirely differently. I think it's pretty clear that Maturi was turned down multiple times prior to reaching an agreement with coach Kill.
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Maybe Kill was on the radar screen from day 1, but Maturi did a pisspoor job in the PR dept of managing fans' expectations. I can understand not sharing every detail via twitter. And I'm sure at a minimum feelers went out to Peterson, Hoke, Mullen and a couple of other sexy candidates (or their agents). But if you're going to the supermarket and all you have money for is chicken, you don't tell your family "boy, a steak would taste good tonite!" That's essentially what Maturi did during the search process with all this mystery candidate BS.

I agree that Kill appears to be a solid hire. Time will tell if he's a great one. But if Maturi did the right thing by hiring Kill, it falls into the "it's better to be lucky than good" category.
 

It was built up and local media leaks really contributed to the notion that we were getting a coach with name recognition. I wonder who the "one" surprisingly interested candidate was that Maturi dropped.
 

Too Long in the Wasteland said:
I agree that Kill appears to be a solid hire. Time will tell if he's a great one. But if Maturi did the right thing by hiring Kill, it falls into the "it's better to be lucky than good" category.
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Complete Bullsh*t. The Maturi haters in GopherHole will never cut him any slack no matter what the facts are. Jerry Kill was hired by Joel Maturi and we know Kill was identified very early in the search process. If Kill is able to turn the football program around that will mean Maturi will always be remembered as one of the U's greatest AD's ever. And he will certainly be considered the best AD since the 1960's. Nobody can name a better AD than Maturi since the Gopher's last won a Big 10 football championship.
 

Go4Broke said:
And he will certainly be considered the best AD since the 1960's. Nobody can name a better AD than Maturi since the Gopher's last won a Big 10 football championship.
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Maybe that's why we haven't won the Big 10 in football since the 1960's?

Actually, I've defended Maturi repeatedly on this board. He has done a lot of great things. Getting TCF built, managing the non-revenue sports, bringing in Tubby. Yeah, he hired Brewster, but everyone makes mistakes. And if it was his intention to bring in Kill from day one, so be it. But then Maturi did a crapazz job of managing the public (& the media's) expectations of who our next coach would be. And if Kill was a leading candidate, why did we flirt around with a bunch of guys like Hoke, Peterson (possibly) & Mullen that Maturi should have known we didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of hiring?
 

akgopher said:
It was built up and local media leaks really contributed to the notion that we were getting a coach with name recognition. I wonder who the "one" surprisingly interested candidate was that Maturi dropped.
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Um, I think Maturi saying we'd hire a coach with name rec and then never walking that comment back were the biggest creator of that notion.
 

The only things we know for sure about the coaching search?

If Kill does a good job, then he "fell into Maturi's lap". If he does a lousy job he will have been "Matuti's first choice all along."
 

I think who Maturi hired is FAR more important than how the search was carried out. I feel like you guys just want something to hate on Maturi about.
 

mattw1067 said:
I think who Maturi hired is FAR more important than how the search was carried out. I feel like you guys just want something to hate on Maturi about.
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So an AD shouldn't be critiqued on whether he is able to competently execute one of the most important aspects of his job (the process of hiring/firing coaches)? Really?
 

Mystery Candidate

I think the mystery candidate was Randy Shannon, who was still the HC at Miami at that point in time. He knew his head was on the chopping block, so he was trying to beat them to the point. Given the tough sell he was experiencing, Maturi was surprised that a sitting HC from a "helmet" school would be interested in the Gophs. If so, we dodged a bullet on that one, given the NCAA investigation into the Canes shenannigans.
 

krusp said:
If so, we dodged a bullet on that one, given the NCAA investigation into the Canes shenannigans.
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That, plus the fact that he wasn't that great of an HC either. :)
 

mattw1067 said:
I think who Maturi hired is FAR more important than how the search was carried out. I feel like you guys just want something to hate on Maturi about.
Click to expand...

GoAUpher said:
So an AD shouldn't be critiqued on whether he is able to competently execute one of the most important aspects of his job (the process of hiring/firing coaches)? Really?
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Strangely enough, the Kill hiring process could--if not now, but somewhere down the line--look like it was perfectly executed. I, for one, don't believe now this was luck or a "fall back choice". As I said earlier, this choice appears to have been made by the Iowa game, if not before. In my theory, Bruinicks (and maybe Kaler) gave the choice a green light and lame-duck Maturi "fell on his sword" for them, process-wise. Yeah, there have been plenty of examples of the AD's "bumbling," but our own expectations may have tainted our review this process as well--it may have been the plan all along. Why did they hire Dave Mona? PR or misdirection?

Conspiracy Theories aside, I was initially disappointed as well, just like many of you. However, it took about 5 minutes of that introductory press conference to make me adjust my attitude, a month to really like him, and six months to sip the koolaid. It's starting to taste pretty sweet.
 

If Kill does well, then Maturi will look good in retrospect. When the coach doesn't do well, no one ever talks about how great the hiring process was.
 

highwayman said:
Strangely enough, the Kill hiring process could--if not now, but somewhere down the line--look like it was perfectly executed. I, for one, don't believe now this was luck or a "fall back choice". As I said earlier, this choice appears to have been made by the Iowa game, if not before. In my theory, Bruinicks (and maybe Kaler) gave the choice a green light and lame-duck Maturi "fell on his sword" for them, process-wise. Yeah, there have been plenty of examples of the AD's "bumbling," but our own expectations may have tainted our review this process as well--it may have been the plan all along. Why did they hire Dave Mona? PR or misdirection?
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That's all pretty complex. Isn't it just more likely that Maturi sucks at PR? There shouldn't be any need for anyone to fall on their sword if expectations are properly managed.
 

akgopher said:
I think too think we had a verbal agreement with someone else or were close to one based on speculation in the media a week earlier and Coach Kill's comments about not being the first choice and saying it came together really fast.

I'd think Edsall makes sense because I think I remember there being a candidate close to being named before the weekend before we hired Coach Kill that doesn't coincide with the "it came together quick" statement. It would make sense that Edsall would be the guy based on beating South Florida that weekend to earn a berth to the Fiesta Bowl and Edsall not even traveling home with UConn to take the job with Maryland for 1.3 million.

If there was another guy, Edsall or someone else, then it appears that Maturi might have gotten lucky because I can't imagine a better fit for Minnesota than Jerry Kill who was a realistic candidate. He moved me from being someone who went from buying seats on the street for three games at a 2 for1 discount to becoming a season ticket holder.
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+1. I think Edsall was the first choice and bailed on them after the BCS birth. That said it probably all worked out for the best. We'll find out. Maryland isn't that much better of a job than MN.
 

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