The Gazette: Minnesota still hasn't found what it's looking for


Mason was finishing up a long run, Brewster was a dud, Kill left for health reasons, Horton & Claeys were temps, and Fleck was just hired. Bit of a stretch here. Got to love journalism.
 

Know very little about Horton, but felt he did a pretty good job as an interim coach when Brewster was fired. Was kind of hoping for a spot for him somewhere.
 

Mason was finishing up a long run, Brewster was a dud, Kill left for health reasons, Horton & Claeys were temps, and Fleck was just hired. Bit of a stretch here. Got to love journalism.

Horton was a temp, but Claeys got the short end of the stick and may have been here longer if not for some players who's moral compass may or may not point north he still might have a job here, and an AD, and president.
 

Mason was finishing up a long run, Brewster was a dud, Kill left for health reasons, Horton & Claeys were temps, and Fleck was just hired. Bit of a stretch here. Got to love journalism.

Claeys was not a temp. But your overall point is correct, it's silly to include Horton in the list. And, moreover, there are likely dozens of Power 5 programs who've had at least 5 head coaches during Ferentz's tenure.
 


I still don't include Claeys as he was not part of a hiring process when he was HC. He got an opportunity due to being part of Kill's coaches, but with a short leash that he proved he couldn't handle.
 

I still don't include Claeys as he was not part of a hiring process when he was HC. He got an opportunity due to being part of Kill's coaches, but with a short leash that he proved he couldn't handle.

He was a dead man walking regardless of what he did.
 

A lot of losing over that time period for the Gophers, only Horton with a winning record against Iowa.
 

Horton was a temp, but Claeys got the short end of the stick and may have been here longer if not for some players who's moral compass may or may not point north he still might have a job here, and an AD, and president.

Absolutely should include Horton, November 27th 2010.
 



Timing for Claeys was as bad as it could have been.

Someone from Kill's staff maybe could have weaved their way to a permanent HC position after Kill stepped down, but it would have taken a lot of correct steps and strategies to pull it off with the change that was occuring at the time.
 

Jeff Horton won 2 of 3 in November and was undefeated as a HC in trophy games....
 

3 bad ADs coincide with that long list of coaches.
 

Tracy was a great coach when it came to planning and executing defensive strategy. I always knew when he was our defensive coordinator that he would have the kids prepared. I am not sure he was a strong recruiter as he didn’t have much time and everything was a mess. I have a feeling recruiting would have been sub par and he would have struggled. Fleck seems to be able to recruit at a higher level. I don’t have a firm opinion yet about his coaching / teaching / ability to develop players. It appears s has done well at his prior coaching stops.
 



Tracy was a great coach when it came to planning and executing defensive strategy. I always knew when he was our defensive coordinator that he would have the kids prepared. I am not sure he was a strong recruiter as he didn’t have much time and everything was a mess. I have a feeling recruiting would have been sub par and he would have struggled. Fleck seems to be able to recruit at a higher level. I don’t have a firm opinion yet about his coaching / teaching / ability to develop players. It appears s has done well at his prior coaching stops.

I often suspect the whole Kill and Co experiment while successful in building a program.... plateaued....

Granted I would have been happy to keep going with all of them for a while and finding out.
 

I still don't include Claeys as he was not part of a hiring process when he was HC.

That doesn't make any sense. Is Pat Fitzgerald a temp coach? Was Bielema at wisconsin a temp coach?
 

He as a dead man walking regardless of what he did.

Someone had to pay for what a few knuckleheads did and it was him. He was indeed a dead man walking, but damn he could coach.
 

Someone had to pay for what a few knuckleheads did and it was him. He was indeed a dead man walking, but damn he could coach.

Let's see if the same thing happens to Fleck if he's in the same situation...it seems he's better at keeping it off of the front page...just hope it doesn't come to light.
 

Let's see if the same thing happens to Fleck if he's in the same situation...it seems he's better at keeping it off of the front page...just hope it doesn't come to light.

I truly believe that there are just rotten/bad/weird people out there, and it's just a matter of probability. You roll the dice on every new person who enrolls, and every new player who comes to a program. You try your best to screen out, sure. And I'm sure some are better than others at that.

But when you have 30ish new people coming to the team every year, and you have probably 10k-ish new people coming to the TC campus every year ... it's simply a matter of time before someone does something stupid.


I guarantee that every major university has actually had some kind of major scandal-worthy thing (or things) take place in the last few decades. It's just a matter of how well they cover it up/"fix" it. Now in the internet/FOIA age ... it's just getting harder and hard to hide it/"fix" it, and people are getting caught. And now every thing that happens above a parking ticket, every place, is national news for at least a cycle. Some one, some where, cares enough to click on it ... so it's content, for some one to write about. Content for some message board, some where on the internet.
 

Someone had to pay for what a few knuckleheads did and it was him. He was indeed a dead man walking, but damn he could coach.

I guess if your kids at the age of 16 to 18 went out and did something wrong or of this nature you should be held responsible ? I doubt you would want to serve time, be on probation or take their punishment even when it would be easier to keep an eye on a couple of kids than it is 120. I t was more that Coyle and Kayler didn't like him because he was Kill's leftovers and Coyle had this drop in his lap to give him cover to get rid of a 9 win season and awesome Bowl win coach. I hope you kids or grandkids donj't get in any trouble because I would hate for you to get held to the same standard.
 

I truly believe that there are just rotten/bad/weird people out there, and it's just a matter of probability. You roll the dice on every new person who enrolls, and every new player who comes to a program. You try your best to screen out, sure. And I'm sure some are better than others at that.

But when you have 30ish new people coming to the team every year, and you have probably 10k-ish new people coming to the TC campus every year ... it's simply a matter of time before someone does something stupid.


I guarantee that every major university has actually had some kind of major scandal-worthy thing (or things) take place in the last few decades. It's just a matter of how well they cover it up/"fix" it. Now in the internet/FOIA age ... it's just getting harder and hard to hide it/"fix" it, and people are getting caught. And now every thing that happens above a parking ticket, every place, is national news for at least a cycle.
I know that these coaches try recruit the best, brightest and most upstanding athlete possible but like you say there are some bad apples out there and you just don't know until they're faced with a certain situation. I also understand that the coach is the face of the team but there arfe other examples of coaches surviving these sorts of situations...bottom line they couldn't stand TC because he wasn't a Yes Man ! also I believe something has happened...just swept under the rug. Lord knows we don't need anymore issues around here so I guess that's a good thing.
 

I guess if your kids at the age of 16 to 18 went out and did something wrong or of this nature you should be held responsible ? I doubt you would want to serve time, be on probation or take their punishment even when it would be easier to keep an eye on a couple of kids than it is 120. I t was more that Coyle and Kayler didn't like him because he was Kill's leftovers and Coyle had this drop in his lap to give him cover to get rid of a 9 win season and awesome Bowl win coach. I hope you kids or grandkids donj't get in any trouble because I would hate for you to get held to the same standard.

I always felt that they didn't like him either (or at least didn't think he was a good long-term head coach) and the incident gave them an easy way out. I've always said I didn't think Claeys would have been a good head coach long-term, but I think he still should have gotten a chance for at least another year or two.

My hope is it all works out in the end. Fleck has a lot of success here and Claeys does very well as a coordinator somewhere else.
 


Let's see if the same thing happens to Fleck if he's in the same situation...it seems he's better at keeping it off of the front page...just hope it doesn't come to light.
Something like that will be on the front page, no matter who is in charge. If 10 Patriots gang rape a chick, not even Bellichik could cover that up

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Something like that will be on the front page, no matter who is in charge. If 10 Patriots gang rape a chick, not even Bellichik could cover that up

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I think it should make the front page but don't be so sure about other issues....just gonna leave it at that.
 


Something like that will be on the front page, no matter who is in charge. If 10 Patriots gang rape a chick, not even Bellichik could cover that up

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I don't know anything about a "cover up". Unless making it known that you are in favor of fair due process counts as a "cover up".
 

I know that these coaches try recruit the best, brightest and most upstanding athlete possible but like you say there are some bad apples out there and you just don't know until they're faced with a certain situation. I also understand that the coach is the face of the team but there arfe other examples of coaches surviving these sorts of situations...bottom line they couldn't stand TC because he wasn't a Yes Man ! also I believe something has happened...just swept under the rug. Lord knows we don't need anymore issues around here so I guess that's a good thing.


As far as I am concerned: prexy k, "macturian-candidate-coyle" and basically the entire management team at the University of Minnesota are oozing dead persons happening because of their lack of leadership and the horrible way they treated TC & the STAFFERS. But, that is just me. And, because of that I will ALWAYS judge the coaches of the University of Minnesota by their Big Ten win/loss records...ALL of them. That takes everything the coach does into consideration and provides an accurate comparison of them with other coaches in the conference. It is the only apples to apples way to judge all Big Ten Coaches at the University of Minnesota, only as far as I am concerned, of course. TC, the STAFFERS and ALL the players who were allowed to play against the PIRATE in that bowl game showed me MORE about the spirit of GOPHER football than I have seen since MASE and his staff and all those players walked into the HORSESHOE and brought down the Ohio State... Administrators at the U of M fired MASE too. They fired Murray too. They didn't even let Bierman pick his time to hang it up...after ALL those NC's. We get what we deserve, don't we boys and girls?

*of course, I am an ancient, old school, person of questionable intelligence, inability to communicate, off his meds, often scorned, frequently banned and much deserving of scorn, ridicule and cheap-shots. A mere punching bag of a fool who has been watching Gopher Football about 65 years, has seen the GOPHER win a NC who can never seem to learn to just keep his mouth shut and keyboard unplugged. But, I never really go away... at least not yet. ; 0 )
 

Glen Mason on with Barreiro a year or so ago explained some of the things Claeys could have done better to ensure a longer stay.

1. Either he didn't have an agent, or not a good one.
2. When he re-upped with the interim AD, he didn't play hardball which he should have when he had the chance and the interim AD had no options.
3. He was just the "aww shucks" type and thought he could trust his employer that they had his best interest at heart.

For anyone who has ever been employed for more than 5 years, you should be well aware #3 is never the case for any job.


In any case, I'm a firm believer he was going to be gone at the end of 2018 at the very latest no matter what and for the case of the majority of Gopher fans and the University, it was better to cut short the dead man walking sooner vs later.
 

In any case, I'm a firm believer he was going to be gone at the end of 2018 at the very latest no matter what and for the case of the majority of Gopher fans and the University, it was better to cut short the dead man walking sooner vs later.

It may be a conspiracy theory ... but I subscribe to the idea that Coyle wanted to hire "his own guy" for football, and saw a golden but very narrow window of opportunity to pursue Fleck, at the time.
 

I don't think so...but, of course, you do know all and see all, don't you? You might be guessing correctly OR you might just be "whiffing" I might as well take the other side of your conjecture. I could conger up an impression or two of my own, I guess. I'll be counting the Big Ten wins the new coach comes up with in his second year. He didn't fare so well in his first year zero...Things ARE what they ARE. That is all any of us can be certain of. We KNOW what the Big Ten record book tells us. Life is hard...and then the Big Ten keeps a record of the whole darn thing.
 




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