Email to Bruininks...End the legacy of failure

[GopherinPhilly]

Dear Mr. Bruininks,

I was up this morning reading the Trib and some posts on Gopherhole.com regarding last nights embarrassing loss to Ohio St. and I felt compelled to write you an email and express my opinion.

I think we can agree that this season has been a disaster. It is a culmination of 4 years of ineptitude by an over matched head coach, high turnover with assistant coaches, mediocre recruiting and poor athletic department management.

While mediocrity has been a Gopher football tradition for many, many years...I believe we have now passed into total incompetence and ineptitude. Firing Tim Brewster was a start, but should have been done after last season. The question I have for you is why hasn't Mr. Maturi been held accountable for this debacle?

I am sure he is a great guy and I believe that he has not been a total disaster as an AD...but football is our largest and most important revenue sport. Football is key to branding the U and generating alumni support. Failing at football is failing as an AD. Saying Mr. Maturi has done a good job because we are competitive in some other sports, just not football is like saying the McDonalds manager is doing a good job because the bathrooms are clean and the milk shakes are tasty while the big macs and fries are being served cold and undercooked. If the food stinks...nobody cares about the bathrooms and if football stinks, alumni stop caring and giving.

You have put this University in a very bad place by not holding Mr. Maturi accountable and not firing Tim Brewster and Mr.Maturi last year and replacing them both. Now you are a short timer and are at risk of leaving a legacy of ineptitude for our Gopher football team that has never been matched by any President. I can see it is too late to fire Mr. Maturi as we have to hire a new football coach and can't wait for a new AD.

Since your lack of action last year has left us in this situation, you can't leave your mess for the next President to clean up...Mr. Maturi is your problem and you should at least have the guts to notify him he will not be renewed and allow the new President to not be encumbered by your weakness and failure as President. You have no choice but to leave a legacy of failure and pathetic football performance...worst in our 100 plus year history...please do not saddle the new President with your failures. End the legacy of failure with you, Matuir and Brewster so that we all can have a fresh start. New President, AD and Coach.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

If Bruininks holds Maturi accountable for what happens he also has to hold himself accountable because he was very closely involved with the Mason extension, the Mason firing, and the Brewster hiring. Bruininks has been doing his best to hide his role in all of this but those of us who have been paying close attention know better. Nobody should be foolish enough to think that if Bruininks is closely involved with hiring the new coach that we will have a better result then last time.

 

[GopherinPhilly]

If Bruininks holds Maturi accountable for what happens he also has to hold himself accountable because he was very closely involved with the Mason extension, the Mason firing, and the Brewster hiring. Bruininks has been doing his best to hide his role in all of this but those of us who have been paying close attention know better.

I agree...but since he is resigning in June...I didn't see any reason to beat that dead horse...the issue is that Maturi is the last one standing and he needs to go. He can't be extended and Bruininks needs to announce this before he resigns so the new President doesn't have to fire Maturi or worse...keep him for two more years. End the legacy...Maturi has to go!

 

[Nashvlgopher]

The difference is that the president is responsible for a lot more than athletics in general and football in particular. Football's important, but he should have bigger fish to fry. Last time around he trusted his AD to make the right decision. The AD botched the job and this time around, Bruininks is much more involved. I think it's a shame that the president cannot trust his AD to hire the most important coach at a university, but if the prez is unwilling to fire Maturi, at least he's going to be more involved with the hiring this time around.

 

[GopherinPhilly]

The difference is that the president is responsible for a lot more than athletics in general and football in particular. Football's important, but he should have bigger fish to fry. Last time around he trusted his AD to make the right decision. The AD botched the job and this time around, Bruininks is much more involved. I think it's a shame that the president cannot trust his AD to hire the most important coach at a university, but if the prez is unwilling to fire Maturi, at least he's going to be more involved with the hiring this time around.

I agree with the current hiring process...what I am saying is that Maturi needs to go after the coach is hired so the new President can hire his own AD. If Maturi gets a two year extension then the new Prez is saddled with the moron or has to pay him off to get rid of him...either way its a bad situation.

Can't undo Bruininks mistake of 12 months ago...but no reason the new Prez should have to deal with it going forward.

 

[Firejumper]

Flash back to the Insight Bowl vs. Texas Tech. Bruininks walks into the locker after the game and is upset that the players and coaches are not visibly shaken enough by the loss. He turns to Maturi and says something like - " I want him gone by tomorrow." Maturi fires Mason, and Bruininks leaves Maturi in a bad spot, being far behind other teams looking for available coaches. Maturi and Bruininks, under pressure to improve the situation from the Mason era, decide with the remaining pool available, that they need to roll the dice and gamble on an unproven coach.

I agree there is culpability on the part of Bruininks, maybe as much as Maturi, who needs to grow a spine and disagree, if he disagreed.

 

[RodentRampage]

The search process to replace Maturi will begin shortly after Bruininks replacement takes over.

 

[GreasyGopher]

While the failures of the footbal team may be the biggest disappointment of the Maturi era of the University of Minnesota let's not forget about the other teams that have been in a decline recently due to Maturi's inaction or his poor decision making when he does tak action.

Two examples of this include the womens basketball team and the mens hockey team.

Maturi has allowed a Women's Basketball program, which was once on the rise in the early 2000s, to crash into the cellar of the Big Ten.

The Men's Hockey team is the biggest indicator of the ineptitude of Maturi's tenure. The Men's hockey team should be one of the top 5 programs in the country every year. The state of Minnesota has te best high school hockey players in the country and there is absolutely no reason the flagship university in the state should struggle to get top talent. I know the current coach won back to back national campionships in 02 and 03 but that was 8 seasons ago now. How long can those seasons be used as excuse for the current pathetic state of the program.

The failures of the football and men's hockey teams can be tied directly to mental mistakes and lack of motivation. So I ask you what's the main function of a coach? That's right its to prepare your team mentally to put them in the best position to use their physical attributes successfully.

In the end it is the obligation of the AD to find the coaches that are able to prepare the team. Maturi isn't fulfilling this obligation at least when it comes to the sports that the University creates its identity from.