Gophers were Top 6 APR last year



Were they top 5 or were they tied with the other 5 schools?
 

It's a good thing we're changing the culture. This is unacceptable.
 



Well we were tied for 2nd in FBS for 2014-15 academic year in football...so we're slipping!

FBS 2014-15 APR
1. Duke (995)
2t. Minnesota (992)
2t. Northwestern (992)
2t. Wisconsin (992)
5. Vanderbilt (990)
 


Well we were tied for 2nd in FBS for 2014-15 academic year in football...so we're slipping!

FBS 2014-15 APR
1. Duke (995)
2t. Minnesota (992)
2t. Northwestern (992)
2t. Wisconsin (992)
5. Vanderbilt (990)

We can't say for sure we weren't tied for 1st in 2015-16. The information is incomplete. We are listed at #5. So anything below top 5 in 2016-17 will be moving the culture in the wrong direction going forward. To be clear, my issue is not with PJ. It is with Mark Coyle's nonsensical reasons for needing a change in coaches.
 

We can't say for sure we weren't tied for 1st in 2015-16. The information is incomplete. We are listed at #5. So anything below top 5 in 2016-17 will be moving the culture in the wrong direction going forward. To be clear, my issue is not with PJ. It is with Mark Coyle's nonsensical reasons for needing a change in coaches.

But he didn't say their academics were bad.
 



But he didn't say their academics were bad.

Coyle’s statement:

I made a difficult decision today on behalf of the University of Minnesota. With the support of Board of Regents’ leadership and President Eric Kaler, I have decided to take the Gophers football team in a different direction with new coaching leadership.

I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program. We need strong leadership to take Gopher football to the next level and address these challenges.

This decision is about the future of Minnesota football.

Moving forward, we need a leader who sets high expectations athletically, academically, and socially.

Then from his initial press conference introducing PJF: Coach Fleck, when we had a chance to meet the other day the very first thing that stood out to me was his authentic energy and passion. He's a leader. If you look at his success on the field, went from a team 1-11 to 13-0 and an opportunity to play in the Cotton Bowl, if you look at academic success of the students and how they set record marks academically in the mid American conference, and if you look at his vision, you know, I talked last week or earlier this week about a vision that we want to compete at the highest level with great integrity and character, academically, athletically and socially, and I feel like his teams have done that.

Please enlighten us oh great and all knowing JB as to what he was talking about here in the two statements above.

I have no problem with the hiring of PJF. My problem lies in the way the previous staff was let go and the implied lack of anything good.
 

He said he wants a leader in all three facets? It's a line he uses often even when he was first hired at Syracuse.

"We want to have those expectations, we want to have that culture where we expect to excel academically and athletically. We're excited about the opportunity here."

There's that culture buzzword that everyone hates. It's almost like he's been saying the same thing for years.

http://www.espn.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/82729/qa-syracuse-athletic-director-mark-coyle
 

Wow. Amazing considering we don't have someone doing the basketball players homework anymore.
 

We can't say for sure we weren't tied for 1st in 2015-16. The information is incomplete. We are listed at #5. So anything below top 5 in 2016-17 will be moving the culture in the wrong direction going forward. To be clear, my issue is not with PJ. It is with Mark Coyle's nonsensical reasons for needing a change in coaches.

You see the situation clearly 60's.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 





We can't say for sure we weren't tied for 1st in 2015-16. The information is incomplete. We are listed at #5. So anything below top 5 in 2016-17 will be moving the culture in the wrong direction going forward. To be clear, my issue is not with PJ. It is with Mark Coyle's nonsensical reasons for needing a change in coaches.

Just because the program was doing well academically doesn't mean there weren't valid reasons for a coaching change.
 

Just because the program was doing well academically doesn't mean there weren't valid reasons for a coaching change.
It does show that Coyle overstated his case and unnecessarily threw the previous staff under the bus. It would have been enough to say that while some things were going OK others were not and that he felt the need for a change of direction to lift up all areas.
 



It does show that Coyle overstated his case and unnecessarily threw the previous staff under the bus. It would have been enough to say that while some things were going OK others were not and that he felt the need for a change of direction to lift up all areas.

+1
 

It does show that Coyle overstated his case and unnecessarily threw the previous staff under the bus. It would have been enough to say that while some things were going OK others were not and that he felt the need for a change of direction to lift up all areas.

Ding, ding, ding. The culture thing was beyond stupid, and the previous staff was right to be pi$$ed about it. What they did with the program was incredible. I don't know Mark Coyle personally, but he strikes me as either incredibly inarticulate or incredibly spineless. Again, I hate to attack him when we're not acquainted, but I couldn't shake the feeling he was trying to assign some sort of blame where very little fell. In my opinion, a man with backbone stands at the podium and says it like it is: "Jerry Kill, Tracy Claeys, and the rest of the staff made incredible strides with this program. The academic success is unprecedented -- near the top of the nation. Athletic success has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, ticket sales, recruiting, and general excitement around the program have not followed. Our football team is committed to winning a national championship and I've felt for months that it wasn't going to happen under the current regime. While the program may have maintained current levels of success, I could not foresee the next step being taken. As such, I made the difficult decision to change course and bring in a new leader."
 


Ding, ding, ding. The culture thing was beyond stupid, and the previous staff was right to be pi$$ed about it. What they did with the program was incredible. I don't know Mark Coyle personally, but he strikes me as either incredibly inarticulate or incredibly spineless. Again, I hate to attack him when we're not acquainted, but I couldn't shake the feeling he was trying to assign some sort of blame where very little fell. In my opinion, a man with backbone stands at the podium and says it like it is: "Jerry Kill, Tracy Claeys, and the rest of the staff made incredible strides with this program. The academic success is unprecedented -- near the top of the nation. Athletic success has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, ticket sales, recruiting, and general excitement around the program have not followed. Our football team is committed to winning a national championship and I've felt for months that it wasn't going to happen under the current regime. While the program may have maintained current levels of success, I could not foresee the next step being taken. As such, I made the difficult decision to change course and bring in a new leader."

Give Coyle a call so you can start writing his press announcements.
 

Ding, ding, ding. The culture thing was beyond stupid, and the previous staff was right to be pi$$ed about it. What they did with the program was incredible. I don't know Mark Coyle personally, but he strikes me as either incredibly inarticulate or incredibly spineless. Again, I hate to attack him when we're not acquainted, but I couldn't shake the feeling he was trying to assign some sort of blame where very little fell. In my opinion, a man with backbone stands at the podium and says it like it is: "Jerry Kill, Tracy Claeys, and the rest of the staff made incredible strides with this program. The academic success is unprecedented -- near the top of the nation. Athletic success has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, ticket sales, recruiting, and general excitement around the program have not followed. Our football team is committed to winning a national championship and I've felt for months that it wasn't going to happen under the current regime. While the program may have maintained current levels of success, I could not foresee the next step being taken. As such, I made the difficult decision to change course and bring in a new leader."

+1000 AMEN!!!
 

Coyle didn't think Claeys was the guy to get it done here long term. It's his job to assess that and it's within his right to replace the coach because of it.

Unfortunately, Coyle wasn't man enough to say it. Instead, he made up reasons and it makes him look like an ass.
 

Coyle’s statement:

I made a difficult decision today on behalf of the University of Minnesota. With the support of Board of Regents’ leadership and President Eric Kaler, I have decided to take the Gophers football team in a different direction with new coaching leadership.

I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program. We need strong leadership to take Gopher football to the next level and address these challenges.

This decision is about the future of Minnesota football.

Moving forward, we need a leader who sets high expectations athletically, academically, and socially.

Then from his initial press conference introducing PJF: Coach Fleck, when we had a chance to meet the other day the very first thing that stood out to me was his authentic energy and passion. He's a leader. If you look at his success on the field, went from a team 1-11 to 13-0 and an opportunity to play in the Cotton Bowl, if you look at academic success of the students and how they set record marks academically in the mid American conference, and if you look at his vision, you know, I talked last week or earlier this week about a vision that we want to compete at the highest level with great integrity and character, academically, athletically and socially, and I feel like his teams have done that.

It occurs to me that people interpret these statements two completely different ways, depending on your impression of Mark Coyle...

I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program.
Pro-Coyle: Recruiting rankings near bottom of B1G, ticket sales had fallen off in last couple years, and team had just gone through sexual assault case involving expulsions and suspensions. This was unacceptable and needs to be corrected.

Anti-Coyle: Recruiting rankings are not Wins and Losses. Team coming off 9 win season. Ticket sales also impacted by rising donation costs and opponent. Aside from the infamous night in September, the team has largely been well behaved and done well in the classroom.


Moving forward, we need a leader who sets high expectations athletically, academically, and socially.
Pro-Coyle: Who could disagree with this? We need a leader in all 3 areas.

Anti-Coyle: Since we fired Claeys, Coyle must be insinuating that TC was not strong in these areas.


If you look at his success on the field, went from a team 1-11 to 13-0 and an opportunity to play in the Cotton Bowl, if you look at academic success of the students and how they set record marks academically in the mid American conference
Pro-Coyle: Coyle is touting the accomplishments of his new hire. That's what you do at a hiring press conference.

Anti-Coyle: Coyle again must be implying that Claeys' team was not successful academically, since he fired him.


None of these takes is necessarily wrong, it just depends on your perspective.
 

Coyle didn't think Claeys was the guy to get it done here long term. It's his job to assess that and it's within his right to replace the coach because of it.

Unfortunately, Coyle wasn't man enough to say it. Instead, he made up reasons and it makes him look like an ass.

A good summary. It isn't what he did, but how he did it that alienated so many.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Coyle didn't think Claeys was the guy to get it done here long term. It's his job to assess that and it's within his right to replace the coach because of it.

Unfortunately, Coyle wasn't man enough to say it. Instead, he made up reasons and it makes him look like an ass.

What did he make up?
 

What did he make up?

Coyle voiced public support of Claeys on November 29, after the regular season ended. Two things happened after that: the boycott and Washington State win. Academics did not change after November 29. The record improved; there were no additional half time leads lost. The incident that led to boycott and suspensions took place in early September; the culture that may or may not have contributed to that did not change after November 29.

The boycott, Claeys's tweet and public disagreement with the suspensions were new. Coyle could have said, "I don't like the way Claeys handled the boycott/suspensions," and we would all buy that as true. Or he could have said, "I don't think Claeys is the guy."

What did he make up? Any reference to academics, culture, record, losing half time leads, recruiting as reasons to fire Claeys were made up. Coyle made it clear on November 29 that he did not believe these were reasons to fire him.
 

I wouldn't get too hung up on the old AD "vote of confidence" thing. They happen only because rumors exist that the coach will be fired. These rumors negatively impact recruiting, so they must be addressed. The AD's only choices are to 1) Fire the coach or 2) Publicly back the coach.

Its plausible that Coyle was 60/40 on keeping Claeys on November 29. So he chose to the "vote of confidence" route. Then the suspensions/boycott happened and swung the scales in his mind that Claeys needed to go. That doesn't make any of the other reasons invalid or made up, only that they weren't enough to fire him on their own.
 




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