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The strib has an interview between Sid Hartman and Eric Kaler. I don't know how to link stuff, so you'll have to go to the Strib website to read the whole thing. Short version, he likes Fleck.
But, one line just jumped out at me:
Q What about the “Row the Boat” campaign?
A It’s a catchphrase. It has worked for him in the past. If you look at what he did at Western Michigan that is a pretty remarkable turnaround. He took over a Western Michigan program that was in worse shape than our Gophers program by quite a bit and got them to the Cotton Bowl and one interception away from potentially winning it. That is the guy I want to see coaching our Gophers.
That is simply not true by any stretch of the imagination. The coach before Fleck at WMU, Bill Cubit, had a winning record (51-46) in 8 seasons, with 4 winning seasons, 1 .500 season, two 5-7 seasons, and his last year (the last year before Fleck, WMU was 4-8.
The Gophers before Fleck: under Kill and Claeys: 3-9; 6-7; 8-5; 8-5; 6-7; 9-4. (40-37 overall). If you extend it out to an 8-year period to match Cubit at WMU, the Gophers during that same time period were 49-53. In other words, WMU had a better overall record than the Gophers during the same time period.
So - where did Kaler get the idea that WMU was "in worse shape than our Gopher program by quite a bit.?" Did he pull that out of the blue, or did someone tell him that? And who might that someone be? Hmmm.
But, one line just jumped out at me:
Q What about the “Row the Boat” campaign?
A It’s a catchphrase. It has worked for him in the past. If you look at what he did at Western Michigan that is a pretty remarkable turnaround. He took over a Western Michigan program that was in worse shape than our Gophers program by quite a bit and got them to the Cotton Bowl and one interception away from potentially winning it. That is the guy I want to see coaching our Gophers.
That is simply not true by any stretch of the imagination. The coach before Fleck at WMU, Bill Cubit, had a winning record (51-46) in 8 seasons, with 4 winning seasons, 1 .500 season, two 5-7 seasons, and his last year (the last year before Fleck, WMU was 4-8.
The Gophers before Fleck: under Kill and Claeys: 3-9; 6-7; 8-5; 8-5; 6-7; 9-4. (40-37 overall). If you extend it out to an 8-year period to match Cubit at WMU, the Gophers during that same time period were 49-53. In other words, WMU had a better overall record than the Gophers during the same time period.
So - where did Kaler get the idea that WMU was "in worse shape than our Gopher program by quite a bit.?" Did he pull that out of the blue, or did someone tell him that? And who might that someone be? Hmmm.