So, is it worse to lose 63-0 to Oklahoma or 84-14 to Nebraska?
Salem, and it's not close.
I have to take issue with the OP's comment about Stoll: "Took a stable on the rise program and made it inconsistent." The number of conference wins following the 1967 championship were, in order, 5, 4, 2, 3. Neither stable nor rising. Stoll immediately won 4 then 6. He was .500 or better in five of seven seasons, the model of consistency. Not great, but good compared to what followed.
Salem, and it's not close.
I have to take issue with the OP's comment about Stoll: "Took a stable on the rise program and made it inconsistent." The number of conference wins following the 1967 championship were, in order, 5, 4, 2, 3. Neither stable nor rising. Stoll immediately won 4 then 6. He was .500 or better in five of seven seasons, the model of consistency. Not great, but good compared to what followed.
I will second that. Coach Stoll should not even be under consideration in this poll.
why is this back again?
Salem, and it's not close.
I have to take issue with the OP's comment about Stoll: "Took a stable on the rise program and made it inconsistent." The number of conference wins following the 1967 championship were, in order, 5, 4, 2, 3. Neither stable nor rising. Stoll immediately won 4 then 6. He was .500 or better in five of seven seasons, the model of consistency. Not great, but good compared to what followed.
How the F#$* can there be any votes for Mason in this poll?
How the F#$* can there be any votes for Mason in this poll?
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I agree that Stoll did not belong in the discussion, since he almost got over the little 8/ big 2 hump, but fell short. No once broke through that until Hayden Fry and Mike White at Illinois finally broke through in the early 80s.
The Salem run was odd, in that his teams looked pretty good when he had the talent recruited by Cal Stoll to work with. Sid Hartman will suggest that the cheapness of the U of M AD cost Salem most of his good assistants (like Mike Shanahan) and that is what doomed the recruiting and then the gameday coaching in later years. The last team to play at Memorial Stadium under Salem in 1981 looked pretty good at times, with the OSU win, but 1982 was a disaster at the Dome. I was at the '82 Wash State win with my dad and everything looked great, then shortly afterwards the wheels came off for good in the much discussed Illinois collapse, where a lead turned into at 24-42 loss. I commented that first night that I hated the dome (as a 15 year old) and that someone really screwed up by moving the Gophers over the bridge from a still standing historic stadium. I despised that Metrodome from day one for both football and baseball. I blame the Metrodome, Malcom Moos, Ken Keller, Sid Hartman, and a few others for all this failure as much as I blame the coaches.
Wacker had an equally odd tenure, in that he looked pretty good on paper before arriving and seemed like he could had Joe Tiller type results, but the teams he had here had such subpar talent, on the O line and on defense and they had no chance.
For me of course, the winner of this contest is Brewster, since he inherited something that was not completely off the tracks, and he wrecked it in a hurry. The guy was also annoying, a fraud, and had the amazing advantage of having TCF Bank Stadium at his disposal and he screwed it all up. Had Brewster not been fired on the spot in 2010, he would have certainly produced sub Wacker results for a couple more years. Brewster had no ability to organize a staff, a system, or even a practice and he had no business being head coach at St. Thomas, much less at a Big Ten school. I am not kidding about St. Thomas either, Coach Caruso would have done a much better job at the U of M then what Brewster did.
I voted for Joe Salem - he took a pretty good team (from the underrated Cal Stoll) and went downhill quickly, culminating in probably the worst Gopher Football team of all time (1983). I'd rate them (worst to best) Salem, Brewster, Wacker, Gutey, Holtz, Mason and Stoll.
Why was Cal Stoll fired?
Wacker's teams lost to San Jose St. and San Diego St. Wacker finished his career with 3 seasons with 1-7 Big Ten records.
Brewster's teams lost to Bowling Green, Florida Atlantic, South Dakota, North Dakota St., and Northern Illinois.
South Dakota St. was 3 points away from being added to that list as well.
Brewster was 6-21 in the B1G, a winning percentage of 0.222.
And there's little doubt he would have had a second if he wasn't canned halfway through year 4.
we could have had Kill 3 or 4(?) years earlier
Bowling Green was an 8-5 MAC team. Why are they on your list? Northern Illinois was an 11-3 MAC team. Why are they on your list? NDSU was undefeated and probably would've won the I-AA national title in 2007 had they been eligible. No Big Ten team should ever lose to teams like this, but much better Big Ten teams have lost to teams far worse than any of these.
We're holding wins against him now? Give me a freaking break.
Wacker was 8-32 in the Big Ten, a winning percentage of 0.200. What is your point?
I say he would've won all 5 remaining Big Ten games and gone to a bowl game. My prediction is equally valid. This is why untestable ex post facto predictions are so stupid.
We weren't going to hire Kill from Southern Illinois in 2007. He wasn't on anyone's radar for major conference jobs. Tressel was hired to a Big Ten job from a I-AA school after winning multiple national titles.