2011 Coaching Hires - I think we did pretty good

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Go Gophers Rah

Go Gophers Rah

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I say we should count our blessings.


Several of these used the teams that hired them as stepping stones...
Hugh Freeze - Arkansas State (now Ole Miss)
James Franklin - Vanderbilt (now PSU)
Darrell Hazzell - Kent State (now Purdue)
Todd Graham - Pitt (now ASU)

Two have been fired within the past few weeks...
Will Muschamp - Florida
Bill Blankenship - Tulsa

One is likely to get fired this week...
Brady Hoke - Michigan

A couple have fielded very disappointing teams...
John Embree - Colorado
Kevin Wilson - Indiana

A couple have seen a regression from the previous staff...
Paul Pasqualoni - UConn
David Shaw - Stanford

One is a jerk...
Randy Edsall - Maryland

Two are pretty darn good...
Al Golden - Miami
Jerry Kill - Minnesota


http://www.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Coaching-changes-in-college-football-for-2011-012411
 

Good list, Go Gophers Rah. Though I think you are being very generous to Golden to lump him in with Kill as "pretty darn good." They took a pretty big step back this year, finishing 6-6/3-5 in a relatively weak ACC. I'd want to see a significant improvement next year to get a better feel if he can build a sustainable winner there.

Go Gophers!!
 


Pasqualoni was fired from UConn last year, Embree in 2012.

Golden is on a major-league hot seat, but probably won't be fired until next year.

Out of this crop of hires, Kill is the only one to show continued improvement (among those that didn't jump to a bigger pond). Shaw has had great seasons at Stanford but they took a step back this year.
 

Edsall may be a jerk, but his progression at Maryland is similar to Kill's. He looks like the 2nd best hire ahead of Golden who was 6-6 in an awful ACC.
 


Whoever covered college football for The Sporting News that year predicted in a column that "of all the new hires Minnesota did the best in landing Jerry Kill". (or something like that)
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
I say we should count our blessings.


Several of these used the teams that hired them as stepping stones...
Hugh Freeze - Arkansas State (now Ole Miss)
James Franklin - Vanderbilt (now PSU)
Darrell Hazzell - Kent State (now Purdue)
Todd Graham - Pitt (now ASU)

Two have been fired within the past few weeks...
Will Muschamp - Florida
Bill Blankenship - Tulsa

One is likely to get fired this week...
Brady Hoke - Michigan

A couple have fielded very disappointing teams...
John Embree - Colorado
Kevin Wilson - Indiana

A couple have seen a regression from the previous staff...
Paul Pasqualoni - UConn
David Shaw - Stanford

One is a jerk...
Randy Edsall - Maryland

Two are pretty darn good...
Al Golden - Miami
Jerry Kill - Minnesota


http://www.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Coaching-changes-in-college-football-for-2011-012411
Click to expand...
Did pretty well...
 

Go Gophers Rah said:
I say we should count our blessings.


Several of these used the teams that hired them as stepping stones...
Hugh Freeze - Arkansas State (now Ole Miss)
James Franklin - Vanderbilt (now PSU)
Darrell Hazzell - Kent State (now Purdue)
Todd Graham - Pitt (now ASU)

Two have been fired within the past few weeks...
Will Muschamp - Florida
Bill Blankenship - Tulsa

One is likely to get fired this week...
Brady Hoke - Michigan

A couple have fielded very disappointing teams...
John Embree - Colorado
Kevin Wilson - Indiana

A couple have seen a regression from the previous staff...
Paul Pasqualoni - UConn
David Shaw - Stanford

One is a jerk...
Randy Edsall - Maryland

Two are pretty darn good...
Al Golden - Miami
Jerry Kill - Minnesota


http://www.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Coaching-changes-in-college-football-for-2011-012411
Click to expand...

Your assertion on Shaw is incorrect both in theory and fact. He's the best coach in the group.
 

goldengophers said:
Your assertion on Shaw is incorrect both in theory and fact. He's the best coach in the group.
Click to expand...

I'd argue it's incomplete right now. He has had an excellent run after walking into an excellent situation - but sort of fell off this last season. If the Cardinal play again next year to a 7- or 8-win season, hard to say he's made progress after taking over a 12-1 team.
 




Gopher07 said:
I'd argue it's incomplete right now. He has had an excellent run after walking into an excellent situation - but sort of fell off this last season. If the Cardinal play again next year to a 7- or 8-win season, hard to say he's made progress after taking over a 12-1 team.
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At worst he's equal to Harbaugh, to say it's a regression from 12-1 when Andrew Luck was your QB is rediculous. Lack of improvement from 12-1 doesnt indicate he hasn't done a terrific job and isn't the best coach in the group.
 

goldengophers said:
At worst he's equal to Harbaugh, to say it's a regression from 12-1 when Andrew Luck was your QB is rediculous. Progress from 12-1 doesnt indicate he hasn't done a terrific job and isn't the best coach in the group.
Click to expand...

I'll go ahead and disagree with you and say at best he's equal to Harbaugh right now. Harbaugh brought a program that won 10 games once since 1940 to 12-1, a team that won a combined 16 games in the five years before his arrival to 29 wins in his four years as head coach.

Shaw did a fine job of maintaining that level of success for three years, but without a bowl game victory this year will go down as their worst since 2008. Is that a result of Shaw's recruits now being the upperclassmen, having less of that Harbaugh influence? Could be. Could also be a fluke down year. Right now if I'm getting an answer from my Magic 8-ball, it's "reply hazy ask again."
 

Who from that list said 'no thanks' to Maturi before he talked to Kill? I know Hoke, Golden and Edsall for sure.
 




DarrenTheGreek said:
Who from that list said 'no thanks' to Maturi before he talked to Kill? I know Hoke, Golden and Edsall for sure.
Click to expand...

I believe we walked away from Hoke. Went to see him and never offered.
 

gopherjay said:
I believe we walked away from Hoke. Went to see him and never offered.
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We went to see him and basically told him the job was his if he wanted it. He didn't want it and so we "didn't offer".
 

gopherjay said:
I believe we walked away from Hoke. Went to see him and never offered.
Click to expand...
Dave Mona confirmed what you say here on the Sports huddle, after Sid speculated about Hoke getting a Gopher offer.
Mona vehemently denied that the Gophers offered him anything or offered Hoke the Gopher job, he even suggested he was a little bit arrogant and Hoke was a complete waste of time to even go out to San Diego for even a visit with. HE was a name on the search comittee's list and the Gophers were interested but Hoke was clearly not intereste in the Gophers.
Very short visit, and I think Maturi and Mona were not impressed with Hoke and glad they avoided him.

We got lucky that coach Kill and Staff were hungry from NIU and hadn't gotten a bigger offer before Minnesota came knocking. There was a real chance Illinois or someone like that would have swooped him up if the Gophers had not taken a chance.
Like the saying goes you miss 100% of the chances you do not take or make, we have fired a lot of coaches at Minnesota, so Kill taking a chance on us was a blessing in disguise and us taking a chance on him because of his past health issues for the most part has worked out well for both party's. We are lucky as fans that the timing of everything coming together in 2011 went our way and that coach Kill and his staff have had the players buy in enough to excellerate the progress that has been made. What they did this weekened competing for conference championsip game attendance isn't as far off as it once seemed it would be. These Gophers have raised the bar and expectations of what can happen.
 

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