STrib: Mark Coyle arrives to a full agenda as Gophers AD tenure begins

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per STrib:

As he tries to rebuild the department’s integrity, Coyle also will need to make major leadership decisions over the next year. His three highest-profile coaches all face uncertain long-term futures. Pitino has yet to reach the NCAA tournament. Don Lucia’s hockey team also missed the NCAAs, and he now enters the final year of his contract. Tracy Claeys will be met by win-now pressure in football, with a minimal contractual buyout.

“I think Mark Coyle,” regent Michael Hsu said this week, “is going to have his work cut out for him.”

http://www.startribune.com/mark-coy...agenda-as-gophers-ad-tenure-begins/381222261/

Go Gophers!!
 

Not in the blurb but included in the story is also the whole mess surrounding the Wrestling program right now. Way everything is playing out we will get to see Coyle in action making some tough decisions very early in his tenure as AD.

Probably needs to do something with Lucia right away given his contract status and the Robinson matter may be out of his hands if he ends up facing criminal charges for his involvement. As for football and basketball I think it is safe to say that it is a make or break year for both coaches. One more basketball scandal though and Pitino might not even get to his season.

Coyle was well aware of the revenue sport issues when he took the job. The wrestling thing had to be a nice shock though.
 

Considering all the other problems/issues, I suspect Claeys will have a longer leash than some coaches. As long as the FB team doesn't have a complete bust of a season, or have major off-field issues, I suspect Claeys is safe for a couple of years.

The last thing Coyle wants to deal with right now is multiple coaching searches. (I'm assuming J Robinson is toast - no way he survives covering up felony drug sales by athletes.)
 

Zero Chance Robinson survives. I think Kaler's release yesterday that the U isn't doing anything right now at the request of the PD was transparent for "why we haven't fired him yet." You can't cover up a drug ring in exchange for a 1-page essay and expect to stay employed at a University in any role.


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Robinson may be fired. Leadership starts with the coaches. When they a> Cover up crimes committed by players; b> Not reporting serious criminal activities in clear violation of the law and university policy; c> Lost control of player behaviors. Time for a fresh start.

Players involved may face criminal charges and/or suspended from the team indefinitely.

Reggie Lynch whether he escapes criminal charges or not may possibly be done playing for the Gophers. This is a real iffy situation. I think Richard Pitino gets a year (thanks to the $7 mil buyout) reprieve to show that he can shape up the discipline, academics, and turn around the dismal record. The sex scandals is not what Gopherland want to be reading in the headlines.

Mark Coyle needs to rein in control of the program and will do a lot of cleaning house no doubt. I think Don Lucia's situation may get a slight reprieve with J Robinson jumping in front of the headlights ahead of him. He may get a conditional contract of some sorts.

Zero tolerance for future players committing crimes. It will have to be ingrained in the players that they represent the university at all times. They can lose their scholarships for conduct unbecoming a university athlete. This includes what you put in social media.

Mark Coyle will show his leadership by hopefully reigning in all the programs and administrative staff. Teach and enforce discipline. It is not just coaches. Staffers may be gone too, especially ones that are leaking information to the media without the control of a communications point person.

This is about turning the whole culture of athletics at the university. For too long, there is complacency and indifference. By golly, Jim Carter may be right after all.

These are interesting times. Stay tune. I expect there will be sweeping changes.

They need to sign Beth Goetz long term as Mark Coyle's second in command. You expect a quality organization, you must have quality people.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Considering all the other problems/issues, I suspect Claeys will have a longer leash than some coaches. As long as the FB team doesn't have a complete bust of a season, or have major off-field issues, I suspect Claeys is safe for a couple of years.

The last thing Coyle wants to deal with right now is multiple coaching searches. (I'm assuming J Robinson is toast - no way he survives covering up felony drug sales by athletes.)
Click to expand...

The trick with Claeys situation is that given his contract status a decision will have to be made (probably after this season) as to whether to extend him or cut him loose. Football coaches are the first to tell everyone that they can't recruit unless they have a long term deal in place.

While it wouldn't be desirable to have a bunch of coaching searches going on at the same time that really wouldn't be the case here. Odds are he has to move on Robinson in the near future. Lucia probably needs an extension of some kind if he doesn't want to make a decision right off the bat with him. Claeys gets looked at around the end of 2016 and if he has to replace Pitino that doesn't happen until March or so of next year. Lots of coaching searches but most of them would be going on at a time where they would be the only active search in progress.
 

The one sport where he does not need to give an extension is hockey, let Lucia earn it next season. A little pressure on Lucia would be fine. The recruiting situation for hockey is completely different than it is for fb or hoops. One year of recruiting difficulty in hockey is not an insurmountable problem with this much talent in the area and a rep as a hockey helmet school. Hoops and football would be tough, with FB being a real disaster just because of the number of kids we need every year and the fact practically even in a very good year we can only get half of them locally.
If Coyle is as smart as he is supposed to be, he will realize that this staff deserves at least two years to show what they can do, and even if he eventually wants a change he better have a plan lined up before he makes one. No more Brewsters ever. It was a much worse hire than Wacker, we were lucky stuff like what is going on with wrestling did not happen then.
 

Spoofin said:
Zero Chance Robinson survives. I think Kaler's release yesterday that the U isn't doing anything right now at the request of the PD was transparent for "why we haven't fired him yet." You can't cover up a drug ring in exchange for a 1-page essay and expect to stay employed at a University in any role.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Agreed, and the AD doesn't need to step in it just after getting hired by not firing Robinson, and firing him would allow him an easy "AD sets an example" put in.

I'm sure it's just a question of time.
 

If J broke laws, I don't see how he survives. I would doubt he even understood he was breaking laws, but that will not matter much if he did.
 



Our Alma Mater is at a critical sports juncture. Football, basketball and hockey fund the department with help from women's basketball and hockey. All three of the men's teams have questions. How Coyle deals with them may very well determine our future for the next decade and a half.

Cleay's decisions on offense and quick quality hires gives me a lot of optimism for football. Pitino's recruiting seems to have us headed in a positive direction, but the jury is out on his coaching ability and his association with daddy, unfairly or not, raises character issues. The hardest may be Lucia. Any time you kill a national championship coach there are potential problems.

Good luck Mr. Coyle, please make the correct decisions. Oh yeah, please follow this board for some well reasoned ideas and broad support for all you might do...well, maybe not.
 

ncgo4 said:
Our Alma Mater is at a critical sports juncture. Football, basketball and hockey fund the department with help from women's basketball and hockey. All three of the men's teams have questions. How Coyle deals with them may very well determine our future for the next decade and a half.

Cleay's decisions on offense and quick quality hires gives me a lot of optimism for football. Pitino's recruiting seems to have us headed in a positive direction, but the jury is out on his coaching ability and his association with daddy, unfairly or not, raises character issues. The hardest may be Lucia. Any time you kill a national championship coach there are potential problems.

Good luck Mr. Coyle, please make the correct decisions. Oh yeah, please follow this board for some well reasoned ideas and broad support for all you might do...well, maybe not.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of your agenda today...but the bolded part seems a bit harsh. Murder?
 

If nothing else works, resort to murder.

That oughta take care of all the loose ends.
 





hungan1 said:
Robinson may be fired. Leadership starts with the coaches. When they a> Cover up crimes committed by players; b> Not reporting serious criminal activities in clear violation of the law and university policy; c> Lost control of player behaviors. Time for a fresh start.

Players involved may face criminal charges and/or suspended from the team indefinitely.

Reggie Lynch whether he escapes criminal charges or not may possibly be done playing for the Gophers. This is a real iffy situation. I think Richard Pitino gets a year (thanks to the $7 mil buyout) reprieve to show that he can shape up the discipline, academics, and turn around the dismal record. The sex scandals is not what Gopherland want to be reading in the headlines.

Mark Coyle needs to rein in control of the program and will do a lot of cleaning house no doubt. I think Don Lucia's situation may get a slight reprieve with J Robinson jumping in front of the headlights ahead of him. He may get a conditional contract of some sorts.

Zero tolerance for future players committing crimes. It will have to be ingrained in the players that they represent the university at all times. They can lose their scholarships for conduct unbecoming a university athlete. This includes what you put in social media.

Mark Coyle will show his leadership by hopefully reigning in all the programs and administrative staff. Teach and enforce discipline. It is not just coaches. Staffers may be gone too, especially ones that are leaking information to the media without the control of a communications point person.

This is about turning the whole culture of athletics at the university. For too long, there is complacency and indifference. By golly, Jim Carter may be right after all.

These are interesting times. Stay tune. I expect there will be sweeping changes.

They need to sign Beth Goetz long term as Mark Coyle's second in command. You expect a quality organization, you must have quality people.
Click to expand...

But at what point does she have to take some of the blame for everything that's going on there right now? Just saying, everyone is quick to blame Teague, but she was his right hand woman, and several things have happened since he left that he's taken the blame for happening. And now that J Robinson is at least saying he told her about it (who knows), it at least adds some more question as to whether she should stay.

My guess is that Robinson probably told her something but didn't put it in writing, so it'll be he said/she said and Robinson will get canned and Beth will "move on to a better position at a different university" or "move due to family issues" or "want to go back home" or whatever other euphemism means quit because she was asked to leave in the next year.
 

If Goetz knew about the wrestling situation, she has as much (or more) responsibility to go to the police with that information as Robinson does. That means she should also be fired if this is true.
 

Looks like J Robinson might make some of the cleaning house pretty easy. Hasn't J Robinson been a pain in the butt for many years? Maybe this is just helping show how poor the leadership has been at the U. He will may lose his job, but I don't see any reason for Goetz to keep her's.

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

From the latest article, it sounds more like Robinson informed Goetz he knew of some wrestlers using drugs, and wanted her to approve drug testing. Sounds very likely she knew nothing of the selling
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Looks like J Robinson might make some of the cleaning house pretty easy. Hasn't J Robinson been a pain in the butt for many years? Maybe this is just helping show how poor the leadership has been at the U. He will may lose his job, but I don't see any reason for Goetz to keep her's.

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Click to expand...

That or it is an agent doing what he's supposed to do for his client. That dude has no reason to tell the truth either...
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Looks like J Robinson might make some of the cleaning house pretty easy. Hasn't J Robinson been a pain in the butt for many years? Maybe this is just helping show how poor the leadership has been at the U. He will may lose his job, but I don't see any reason for Goetz to keep her's.

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Click to expand...

Obviously anything the agent says needs to be taken with a grain of salt since he is biased towards his client. That said, if it turns out that Goetz knew what was going on then she should join Robinson on the way out the door. Coyle has to be shaking his head about this one, first day on the job and dealing with a potential drug ring and coverup in the wrestling program. You can't make it up. I am sure he would much rather be getting settled and meeting the staff instead of dealing with this crap, on the plus side, should give him whatever ammo he needs to fire the people that he wants to fire in order to create "his" staff.
 

DLguy said:
From the latest article, it sounds more like Robinson informed Goetz he knew of some wrestlers using drugs, and wanted her to approve drug testing. Sounds very likely she knew nothing of the selling
Click to expand...

This is a big distinction - being informed that some wrestlers were using drugs is much different than being informed that some wrestlers were selling drugs.
 

That is pivotal: What was Goetz told: Players using drugs vs players selling drugs?

I will bet that she only knew about the drug use.
 

The wrestling coach (robinson?) is using an unfriendly gopher media to bring down people with him. It's a VERY minor sport - just fire him and replace him with whatever meat-head with deformed ears wants the 'job.'
 

It is very sad that the ability to do not only the right thing but in the long term the easy thing becomes harder if you have never been held responsible for your actions.
Robinson functioned in relative obscurity, had his little empire that no one in the AD ever took a hard look at because no one really cared.
I am sure he is surprised at how things are playing out.
 

olddoc said:
It is very sad that the ability to do not only the right thing but in the long term the easy thing becomes harder if you have never been held responsible for your actions.
Robinson functioned in relative obscurity, had his little empire that no one in the AD ever took a hard look at because no one really cared.
I am sure he is surprised at how things are playing out.
Click to expand...

Robinson did have his own little empire, but I doubt that it was because nobody cared. He was very successful, so they kind of let him be eccentric.


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olddoc said:
It is very sad that the ability to do not only the right thing but in the long term the easy thing becomes harder if you have never been held responsible for your actions.
Robinson functioned in relative obscurity, had his little empire that no one in the AD ever took a hard look at because no one really cared.
I am sure he is surprised at how things are playing out.
Click to expand...

Just a reminder about one hard look, here's J Robinson's mess from 2009 and yes lying was a Robinson strategy:

Coaches, wrestlers and former wrestlers at the University of Minnesota have accumulated large quantities of real estate in near-campus neighborhoods, sometimes selling and renting to one another, while J Robinson has been the head coach.

Over years of transactions, the three-time national championship coach has owned more than $3 million in real estate in southeast Minneapolis.
At least six wrestlers have owned property while on the team. Two others bought property from Robinson months after graduating. Shortly after leaving the team, an assistant coach acted as a real estate agent for a wrestler he helped recruit.

In total, people affiliated with the team have owned at least 55 different properties near campus, according to property records. This includes Robinson, two assistant coaches, a team staff member, a former assistant coach, a current wrestler and seven former wrestlers. All but one of the properties are located in the Marcy-Holmes and Southeast Como neighborhoods.
University Athletics Director Joel Maturi expressed surprise at the number of properties that have been owned by people with ties to the team in a recent interview with The Minnesota Daily.
“To say to you that I’m not concerned would not be entirely accurate,” Maturi said.

When asked about a number of specific transactions, Maturi repeatedly said they needed to be looked into by the University’s Athletic Compliance Office.

When Robinson was asked about real estate transactions conducted with former wrestlers, he first denied that any had taken place.
“I haven’t sold any houses to anybody, and they haven’t bought any houses from me, so there’s no story there,” Robinson said.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Just a reminder about one hard look, here's J Robinson's mess from 2009 and yes lying was a Robinson strategy:

Coaches, wrestlers and former wrestlers at the University of Minnesota have accumulated large quantities of real estate in near-campus neighborhoods, sometimes selling and renting to one another, while J Robinson has been the head coach.

Over years of transactions, the three-time national championship coach has owned more than $3 million in real estate in southeast Minneapolis.
At least six wrestlers have owned property while on the team. Two others bought property from Robinson months after graduating. Shortly after leaving the team, an assistant coach acted as a real estate agent for a wrestler he helped recruit.

In total, people affiliated with the team have owned at least 55 different properties near campus, according to property records. This includes Robinson, two assistant coaches, a team staff member, a former assistant coach, a current wrestler and seven former wrestlers. All but one of the properties are located in the Marcy-Holmes and Southeast Como neighborhoods.
University Athletics Director Joel Maturi expressed surprise at the number of properties that have been owned by people with ties to the team in a recent interview with The Minnesota Daily.
“To say to you that I’m not concerned would not be entirely accurate,” Maturi said.

When asked about a number of specific transactions, Maturi repeatedly said they needed to be looked into by the University’s Athletic Compliance Office.

When Robinson was asked about real estate transactions conducted with former wrestlers, he first denied that any had taken place.
“I haven’t sold any houses to anybody, and they haven’t bought any houses from me, so there’s no story there,” Robinson said.
Click to expand...

That is weird....
 


DLguy said:
From the latest article, it sounds more like Robinson informed Goetz he knew of some wrestlers using drugs, and wanted her to approve drug testing. Sounds very likely she knew nothing of the selling
Click to expand...

Anyone know which drugs can be tested for under current NCAA rules?


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2727Gopher said:
If Goetz knew about the wrestling situation, she has as much (or more) responsibility to go to the police with that information as Robinson does. That means she should also be fired if this is true.
Click to expand...

Ya, there would be absolutely no reason to doubt Robinson's agent because he certainly wouldn't be planting his version of the story to make Robinson less guilty. And, God knows, it would be impossible to find a couple of hack sports "journalists" who are so desperate for scoops they'd throw any garbage against the wall in the hopes some of it would stick.
 

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