Rand: Gophers AD Mark Coyle preaches preparedness in his coaching searches

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per Rand:

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle is not the most dynamic speaker or a dominant personality, but the man knows how to play to his strengths.

Chief among them is preparation, particularly when it comes to coaching searches — and that attribute is setting Minnesota up to win. Talking to reporters after the introduction Friday of his latest high-profile hire — new women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen — Coyle explained his process without patting himself on the back.

“I like to be very prepared. I have a short list of coaches. If you came to my house in St. Paul, I can open up a desk drawer and I’ve got green files of every sport, coaches we want to go after,” Coyle said. “We constantly update that list because you never know when something is going to happen. When something happens, I believe you have to go quickly.”

Those last two sentiments are important because in college sports, and particularly at Minnesota, it seems as though something always happens. And past searches under his predecessors have not always been so smooth or quick.

Coyle has hired six head coaches in less than two years as AD, including three of the school’s highest-profile programs.

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...paredness-in-his-coaching-searches/479828043/

Go Gophers!!
 

Coyle quote: “I like to be very prepared. I have a short list of coaches. If you came to my house in St. Paul, I can open up a desk drawer and I’ve got green files of every sport, coaches we want to go after,” Coyle said. “We constantly update that list because you never know when something is going to happen. When something happens, I believe you have to go quickly.”

GopherHolers love the way you go about making new hires, Mark. And the large majority of us love all the coaches you have hired. Don't let the haters bother you. They are outliers among Gopher fans. Even in GopherHole.
 

GopherHolers love the way you go about making new hires, Mark. And the large majority of us love all the coaches you have hired. Don't let the haters bother you. They are outliers among Gopher fans. Even in GopherHole.

Speak for yourself.

I have no problem with the Hockey hire or the Women's BB hire. As far as FB, the jury is still out. Fleck might bring the program to new levels, or he might not. That does not change the fact that Coyle - at the very least - had issues with the handling of the boycott and the firing of Claeys. And, it does not change the fact that Coyle is not a good public speaker.

So, he's not perfect. who is? If the only job of the AD was to hire coaches, then Coyle deserves a good grade, up to now. But, that is not the only job of the AD. I would still prefer an AD who can conduct a coherent press conference or at least deliver a clear statement without confusing people. You have to look at the totality of the AD's job - can't just cherry-pick the things you like and ignore the rest.
 

Speak for yourself.

I have no problem with the Hockey hire or the Women's BB hire. As far as FB, the jury is still out. Fleck might bring the program to new levels, or he might not. That does not change the fact that Coyle - at the very least - had issues with the handling of the boycott and the firing of Claeys. And, it does not change the fact that Coyle is not a good public speaker.

So, he's not perfect. who is? If the only job of the AD was to hire coaches, then Coyle deserves a good grade, up to now. But, that is not the only job of the AD. I would still prefer an AD who can conduct a coherent press conference or at least deliver a clear statement without confusing people. You have to look at the totality of the AD's job - can't just cherry-pick the things you like and ignore the rest.

!) He is not an inspiring speaker, but he can speak a coherent sentence.
2) No one could have done a much better job of getting through the TC/suspensions time period. I wish Coyle would have been more clear about the fact there was no clear procedure for handling this, but as far as I can see the U was making up the process as they went because of the fact it was multiple players publicly involved (The U's fault for sure) at a time period where there were no good answers.
The absolute dumbest thing Coyle could have done was come out with some brave statement about what was going to happen while the Pres and the BoR were still trying to figure it out. It was an ugly, uncomfortable period of time when there was no good answer, and I believe there was a lot of dissent about what should happen between the BoR and the Admin. I think the EOAA is the most procedurally screwed up administrative function i have encountered at the U and that is a really high or low bar depending on your perspective. Once the idiot leading that office came out with a ridiculous decision, the school and the team was screwed. Maybe Coyle could have spouted platitudes, but he could not have said anything of substance because no one knew what actually happened and they did not find out from the EOAA.
3) He is a decent person, can recognize people who get stuff done from pretenders, and if we don't jerk him around will be the best AD here in 60 years, which although not a high bar is a big improvement.
 

Speak for yourself.

I have no problem with the Hockey hire or the Women's BB hire. As far as FB, the jury is still out. Fleck might bring the program to new levels, or he might not. That does not change the fact that Coyle - at the very least - had issues with the handling of the boycott and the firing of Claeys. And, it does not change the fact that Coyle is not a good public speaker.

So, he's not perfect. who is? If the only job of the AD was to hire coaches, then Coyle deserves a good grade, up to now. But, that is not the only job of the AD. I would still prefer an AD who can conduct a coherent press conference or at least deliver a clear statement without confusing people. You have to look at the totality of the AD's job - can't just cherry-pick the things you like and ignore the rest.

I'd say the jury is still out on all three.
 


!) He is not an inspiring speaker, but he can speak a coherent sentence.
2) No one could have done a much better job of getting through the TC/suspensions time period. I wish Coyle would have been more clear about the fact there was no clear procedure for handling this, but as far as I can see the U was making up the process as they went because of the fact it was multiple players publicly involved (The U's fault for sure) at a time period where there were no good answers.
The absolute dumbest thing Coyle could have done was come out with some brave statement about what was going to happen while the Pres and the BoR were still trying to figure it out. It was an ugly, uncomfortable period of time when there was no good answer, and I believe there was a lot of dissent about what should happen between the BoR and the Admin. I think the EOAA is the most procedurally screwed up administrative function i have encountered at the U and that is a really high or low bar depending on your perspective. Once the idiot leading that office came out with a ridiculous decision, the school and the team was screwed. Maybe Coyle could have spouted platitudes, but he could not have said anything of substance because no one knew what actually happened and they did not find out from the EOAA.
3) He is a decent person, can recognize people who get stuff done from pretenders, and if we don't jerk him around will be the best AD here in 60 years, which although not a high bar is a big improvement.

Per reporting players said that at meeting that preceded the boycott MC didn’t seem to know the particulars of the hearing and appeal process and indicated his replies either made no sense or there was a refusal to answer questions in general. Considering what we’ve seen from him publicly in terms of giving a straight and accurate answer I’m not surprised in the least.

Given that suspensions happen very frequently in college sports and there are rarely boycotts...seems like the players concerns and questions were handled poorly which precipitated anger and the walkout. Claeys was in San Diego and by the time he arrived back at campus the emotion had built so much the genie couldn’t be stuffed back into the bottle. Surely TC shares some scorn for not being able to defuse the situation but MC was at least partially to blame for precipitating so much anger. It came down to the regents finally explaining the hearing and appeal process to end the whole thing.
 

GopherHolers love the way you go about making new hires, Mark. And the large majority of us love all the coaches you have hired. Don't let the haters bother you. They are outliers among Gopher fans. Even in GopherHole.

Do you hate winning?
 

GopherHolers love the way you go about making new hires, Mark. And the large majority of us love all the coaches you have hired. Don't let the haters bother you. They are outliers among Gopher fans. Even in GopherHole.

Do... you think you're talking to Coyle with that post?
 

I still wonder how thorough the list is. If you asked a very casual fan (one who didn't know other teams and coaches in depth at all) who to hire for the last three coaching hires, at least two of the three would have been who was hired and the third would have been a split between Les Miles and Fleck. There's a side of me that says that's great because how many years would the "obvious choice" not even talk to the U, but there's another side that wonders if there were better options that weren't pursued because the search wasn't thorough.

Sometimes taking a little more time and getting it right is better than just being quick.

Time will tell how these hires and others work out.
 



I still wonder how thorough the list is. If you asked a very casual fan (one who didn't know other teams and coaches in depth at all) who to hire for the last three coaching hires, at least two of the three would have been who was hired and the third would have been a split between Les Miles and Fleck. There's a side of me that says that's great because how many years would the "obvious choice" not even talk to the U, but there's another side that wonders if there were better options that weren't pursued because the search wasn't thorough.

Sometimes taking a little more time and getting it right is better than just being quick.

Time will tell how these hires and others work out.


For me it's refreshing to see how promptly he's finding the hire.
It's obvious he's prepared and that's good to see. It hasn't always been that way in the past.

In any of these hires, we have no idea if they will work out until a few years have passed. We'll only know early in the case the hire was a failure.
But in the case of all three coaches, he seemed to identify the resource, he contacted the resource, and secured the resource without wavering.
At this point, (regarding hiring) that's all I can ask for.

Discussions can be had about handling other situations.
 

For me it's refreshing to see how promptly he's finding the hire.
It's obvious he's prepared and that's good to see. It hasn't always been that way in the past.

In any of these hires, we have no idea if they will work out until a few years have passed. We'll only know early in the case the hire was a failure.
But in the case of all three coaches, he seemed to identify the resource, he contacted the resource, and secured the resource without wavering.
At this point, (regarding hiring) that's all I can ask for.

Discussions can be had about handling other situations.

Coyle definitely did a good job having a plan in place and executing it successfully. I think was Lakeville is alluding to is that Fleck was an obvious choice, so I hope Coyle didn't just say "this Fleck guy is hot right now, so let's develop a plan to sign him" and instead chose Fleck after a detailed search that involved him thoroughly getting Fleck and several other potential options.
 

You can move quickly if you already have a list. Any AD who doesn’t have a list of AT LEAST five replacements they would hire tomorrow isn’t doing his job.
 

Coyle definitely did a good job having a plan in place and executing it successfully. I think was Lakeville is alluding to is that Fleck was an obvious choice, so I hope Coyle didn't just say "this Fleck guy is hot right now, so let's develop a plan to sign him" and instead chose Fleck after a detailed search that involved him thoroughly getting Fleck and several other potential options.

I believe Coyle reached out to Fleck while at Syracuse, and PJ declined at that point. (Rutgers also was rumored then to reach out).
So at that point, one could presume Coyle and Fleck had talked / discussed a type of job Fleck would go for.
So Coyle may have already taken the U of M job knowing Fleck would be a top candidate before Fleck's Cotton Bowl season.
 



You can move quickly if you already have a list. Any AD who doesn’t have a list of AT LEAST five replacements they would hire tomorrow isn’t doing his job.

Seems easy, right?
But it was never done right prior to Coyle. Seemed like we had to go through a few names before landing a coach the last few times for men's BB and FB.

So the options need to be realistic for what you're able to sell as well, not just names on a list.
 

You can move quickly if you already have a list. Any AD who doesn’t have a list of AT LEAST five replacements they would hire tomorrow isn’t doing his job.

Yeah I would expect any AD to have a list. Let alone a list of say guys you might take a shot at but aren't likely to get and folks who you feel you're more likely to get.


Maybe make some discrete calls to agents or have someone contact them to gauge interest.
 


Coyle definitely did a good job having a plan in place and executing it successfully. I think was Lakeville is alluding to is that Fleck was an obvious choice, so I hope Coyle didn't just say "this Fleck guy is hot right now, so let's develop a plan to sign him" and instead chose Fleck after a detailed search that involved him thoroughly getting Fleck and several other potential options.

Exactly. It's the question of did he legitimately consider other Women's basketball coaches or did he just figure everyone would want Whalen and go after her, for example. Did he wake up and read the Strib and say "Lindsay Whalen - that's a great idea!" the day after Stollings left?

I'd be curious who is on his list for football today if he really is prepared. Not that I want to go down that road!!!!! Just curious who he's identified as potential replacements should something have to happen.
 




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