Mark Coyle Announced As Minnesota Athletics Director

Well as usual the list of potential candidates for the Gopher's Athletic Director was exhaustive yet missing the name of the actual finalist.  But the University recently announced that Mark Coyle, current Athletic Director at Syracuse, is the lone finalist for the job.

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler has announced Mark Coyle as the finalist for the university's director of Gopher Athletics position.

Coyle is currently the director of athletics for Syracuse University where he has been since June 2015. Prior to Syracuse, he served as athletics director at Boise State University and as deputy athletics director at the University of Kentucky.

Coyle, 47, served as Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at the University of Minnesota from 2001 to 2005, where he was responsible for managing the marketing and sales unit, athletic communications, the ticket office and licensing. Under his guidance, the marketing staff was recognized as the top marketing staff in the Big Ten Conference.

Coyle is visiting campus Wednesday to interview with the search committee, and meet with coaches and other leaders in Gopher Athletics, faculty, and senior university leaders as part of the final steps of a comprehensive national search.

While Coyle is certainly an unexpected hire based on what we knew previously, early reactions are positive. We'll have more on Coyle's background and our thoughts (which are positive) up soon.