Minnesota Football: Coaching Search... what we thought we knew, what we have found out
by JDMill on Nov 8, 2010 3:01 PM CST
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PrintBecause who really wants to talk about football anymore. We know what we're getting from the Gophers every week. Lots of effort, but an eventual loss.
What we thought we knew:
Based on what he said, and what President Bruinnicks reiterated, we thought Joel Maturi might be fully in charge of the new hire.
What we have found out:
Based on how frequently Bobby B. has answered questions about the coaching search, it seems pretty obvious at this point that he has and will have his hands all over this hire. He, of course, has to say that the ultimate decision is Maturi's, and he might even want Maturi to be under the impression that it is actually his decision. But based on how close he is obviously keeping himself to the situation, Bruinnicks' say will be supremely important in this search.
What has been a bit lost in all of this is that while Bruinnick's is squarely in the cross-hairs of the coaching search, the University as a whole is squarely in the cross-hairs of the search to replace Bruinnicks. In fact, the committee who is working on finding Bruinnicks replacement has already narrowed their search down to a (private) list of four.
What we thought we knew:
We thought we should maybe get really scared that Marc Trestman was going to be the next coach of your Golden Gopher Football team.
What we have found out:
While Trestman's name is probably still most certainly in the mix, as several folks have mentioned that Trestman is (for some unknown reason) a booster-favorite, it's beginning to look more and more like the U understands that there are much better candidates available.
What we thought we knew:
We thought that the University of Minnesota job might be viewed as a career-killer in coaching circles.
What we have found out:
If Joel Maturi is to be believed (And really, why wouldn't he be? Maturi can be called a lot of things, but "liar" isn't one of them.) the Minnesota coaching position might be a more desirable job than we thought. Truthfully, if you think about it, it isn't so far-fetched. There are two handfuls of elite college football coaching jobs, and certainly Minnesota is not one of those. But beyond those 8-10 premium programs, you're still talking about a college football team in one of the 3 best conferences in the country, making it, arguably, in the top 35-40 coaching destinations in college football.
Gary Paterson (TCU) and Chris Peterson (Boise State) have spent the last 2-3 seasons finding out first hand how hard it is to get any real national prestige unless you are playing the very difficult weekly schedules in a BCS conference, and for that reason, the Minnesota job probably gets a little more cache just because it resides within the historically difficult Big Ten.
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I don't see any reason why the job isn't fairly desireable
I don’t know enough about the administration situation to know if that’s the sort of thing that a high profile coach would like to step into, but beyond that, there are a lot of potential positives. A new stadium, a large urban recruiting area, a great conference, and an even better TV deal which promises consistent cash flow.
There’s no disputing that you’re down right now, but a coach willing to build from the ground up (obviously negative #1) could be the guy to bring Minnesota back to national relevance. Will it happen? No idea. But it wasn’t that long ago that we made the right hire in a certain Texan after being terrible for a really long time. It’s possible.
It never gets to be easy
Doogie tweeted today..
that he spoke with a top BCS school assistant who said that the Minnesota job is not as desirable as Colorado or AZ State (if it opens up), but like I pointed out, I still think Minnesota is a top 40 program at least, which isn’t something to sneeze at. If you’re a coach who holds the Big Ten in high esteem, Minnesota holds some attractiveness.
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I was under the impression
That Colorado’s administration was fairly anti-football, to the point where their facilities are somewhat sub-bar for a DI school, much less a BCS one, and the football team is cash strapped as well. I wonder what then makes CU a better opening than the U?
Could just be that I’m thinking about old news…
Couple factors that might be at play
- More recent significant relevance than Minnesota, although that’s getting stale as the days of Cordell Stewart are receding in the rearview pretty fast
- Close to California and school and state are chock full of transplanted Californians = ability to tap that recruiting ground, even moreso now that they’re moving to the Pac 10
- Easier conference in which to rise to the top than the Big Ten, at least historically (acknowledging the Pac 10 is right in the mix for best football conference in the country this year, but that’s far from the norm)
- If you’re not from the upper midwest, it wouldn’t be surprising if you’d rather live on the edge of the Rockies and 45minutes from downtown Denver than on the tundra
All that said, I don’t know that those would make CU a “better” job than the UofM. The new facility and fresh institutional commitment to the program, plus the shinier conference and chance to play Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin every year should be pretty attractive.
I wonder about Chris Peterson
Very likely he is going to go 25-0 over two full seasons (minus this year’s bowl game) and not get an opportunity to play for a BCS Title. Last year he beat Oregon and TCU, returned 20 starters, started the season #3 behind two teams that lost but will be shut out of the title game. Is there ANY chance that he’ll be fed up and ready bolt to a BCS school? Other jobs may be more desirable but if we get out in front of the process and snatch him up right away with a huge contract, is there even a chance?
I know it is slim but at what point does he throw his hands up and make a move.
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He'll stay to be a...
pioneer. This will give him more drive to stay put and keep beating teams until he’s put into “the show”.
What pisses me off is that he keeps landing great recruits…even though they KNOW they can’t play for the national championship!
Don’t you think that they’ll move to the Pac-10 or something if that is the case? We’ll see what happens the rest of the year with Oregon and Auburn, but if BSU (and actually, I think TCU has an even better argument this year) doesn’t get into the National Championship this year, I don’t see how they can think it’s ever going to happen.
In which case, being a pioneer is all well and good… but at some point the guy has to wonder if he can do it against a real schedule.
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I don't see how that is a valid argument
because I think his chances of playing in a title game, or even getting ranked in the top 10 are worse at Minnesota.
I agree
There’s no way to know the mind of Peterson, of course, but I would think he’s got to get frustrated at the way the system cannot get him to the title game. The conference S.o.S. isn’t good enough, but he can’t get enough autobid conference teams to play them out of conference to boost it. He’d basically have to guess in advance at two top 10 teams for the following year, get them both on the schedule, beat them both, and still watch a bunch of additional dominoes fall the right way to ever get a shot at the championship. Or hope that the BCS system falls. I don’t think the door’s open to the Pac-10 anymore now that it’s at 12, and I doubt it ever really was for Boise State. Despite its growing football reputation, it would bring nothing else to the conference – no academic reputation, no basketball or success in a wide variety of other sports in the mold of USC, Cal, UCLA, Stanford, Arizona.
So maybe he’ll go somewhere else. Where does he get his recruits? I’m guessing California, by and large? That may make ’rado pretty attractive to him. Not that far from Boise and better ties to the west coast. His reputation stays intact by staying in the same geographic region.
the Colorado job might be awkward
they just fired the guy who was the Boise coach before Peterson. I would imagine that he is close with Hawkins and wouldn’t take a job from the university that just fired him.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Nov 9, 2010 12:49 PM CST up reply actions
Didn't realize that, thanks.
Colorado would probably be less likely to go to that same well twice in a row, too.
Peterson will stay put
If Boise State wins out he’ll have 4 losses in 5 seasons. How does he improve on that by leaving for Minnesota? He also has what happened to Hawkins staring him in the face. He’ll stay.
point isn't that he'll have more success at Minnesota
but the theory is that he’ll be fed up with never getting a chance at a BCS title game. At a school in a BCS conference he’d have a chance at that, if he can get it done.
what you say here can, and will, be used against you The Daily Gopher
by GopherNation on Nov 11, 2010 10:59 AM CST up reply actions
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