PiPress: Gophers make a commitment to diversity in search for new football coach

[ruralgopher]

People shouldn't be excluded because of skin color, obviously. But no one should be hired because of it either. Get in the candidates an pick the most qualified one (cough, Leach, cough).

 

[13 Lined Ground Squirrel]

Political correctness is a stale term

Political correctness is a stale motivation.

 

[13 Lined Ground Squirrel]

Kirksey's thing about it helps recruiting is complete BS. Hiring Sumlin or Shannon doesn't raise the number of black head coaches in NCAA but hiring Dungy would.

Ha. Good point.

Does this guarantee a two year run by Leslie Frazier between NFL gigs?

 

[minngg]

Get the best coach. I don't care and they should not care if he is black, brown, white, green, or red.

 

[Bo Darville]

Coupling the "diversity" comments with the "Minnesota-like" comments is like holiding up a mirror to a mirror.

 

[MrGopher]

Coupling the "diversity" comments with the "Minnesota-like" comments is like holiding up a mirror to a mirror.

Haha! True! Basically it leaves us with a choice between Dungy and Sean Henderson!

 

[Iceland12]

Here's the operative quote from the article:

"And would it be awkward for the university to give Dungy a significant voice in the process, then decide to hire a white coach?

Bruininks doesn't think so.

"There are some really good young African-American coaches out there that we should take a serious look at," the university president said. "But in the end, we have to pick the person that best fits what we think the profile is that we need to succeed."

The St. Paul paper either didn't get this quote, pretty doubtful but possible, or chose to leave it out. Journalistically they made the wrong decision but if they were looking for web hits and creating some buzz they absolutely made the right decision.

Nothing creates more angry responses then poking the "anti- P.C. " crowd. They're the easiest people in the world to get a rise out of and by leaving-off the "we'll pick the best guy to get it done" like quote you stir all these guys up.

The Marketing people must LOVE this article!

On second thought, maybe that's why the Strib put the quote at the END of the article. The "easily riled" crowd wouldn't even MAKE it to the end!

See what I mean..

 

[kellyleeks]

What about a white coach that wore blackface on recruiting visits?

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

Their dilemma arises from the conflict between the University’s commitment to diversity in the process and the desire to hire (and I am paraphrasing, not quoting anyone) a proven and well-known coach who has a winning record at an FBS school. That list of criteria completely defensible given where we are as a program and where we want to go. It is also racially neutral on its face. But when you adopt those criteria and then start to look around to see who fits the profile, you realize that pool looks pretty white. If you only want to hire someone with prior success, then by definition your pool of candidates includes only those who were given a chance in the first place and then succeeded. For FBS level head football coaches, that eliminates a lot of otherwise qualified candidates including most of the non-white ones. That’s the genesis for the Rooney Rule in the NFL and a subject that Tony Dungy speaks about often–without the opportunity, you can’t achieve the success; without the success, you can’t get the opportunity.

I believe that there are numerous qualified coaches out there of many different races (and ages, religions, economic backgrounds, experience levels, etc.) who, if hired, would do a good job here. But if we want “big time” head coaching experience and success, the number of “diverse” candidates is pretty small.

 

[Too Long in the Wasteland]

The absolute dearth of minority coaches in FBS football is an embarrassment and leads me to believe there are a ton of great coaches out there that have yet to get a shot. That does not mean I think they should hire a minority coach just to hire one, but failing to hire one of the good 'ol boys does also won't mean we're not getting the best guy.

I agree that there should be more minority coaches. But we made the mistake of handing the keys to an inexperienced, unqualified candidate once already. Just so happened he was a honky. Given the state of Gopher football, we need someone with HC experience at the college level, and preferably from a BCS conference.

My guess is that they'll at least bring in one or two qualified minority candidates. If they didn't we'd have Al Sharpton on the steps of Northrup Hall with a megaphone, and we don't need that. And like others have said, I could care less what color our next HC is, provided he was the best candidate available. What would concern me, however, is if we hired an unproven minority coordinator over someone like Leach or Calhoun just because it was the PC thing to do. Given all the boner moves this University has made over the past half century, it wouldn't surprise me though.

 

[13 Lined Ground Squirrel]

What about a white coach that wore blackface on recruiting visits?

Al "Jolson" Golden?

 

[Oneoldgopher]

Nice job and

Their dilemma arises from the conflict between the University’s commitment to diversity in the process and the desire to hire (and I am paraphrasing, not quoting anyone) a proven and well-known coach who has a winning record at an FBS school. That list of criteria completely defensible given where we are as a program and where we want to go. It is also racially neutral on its face. But when you adopt those criteria and then start to look around to see who fits the profile, you realize that pool looks pretty white. If you only want to hire someone with prior success, then by definition your pool of candidates includes only those who were given a chance in the first place and then succeeded. For FBS level head football coaches, that eliminates a lot of otherwise qualified candidates including most of the non-white ones. That’s the genesis for the Rooney Rule in the NFL and a subject that Tony Dungy speaks about often–without the opportunity, you can’t achieve the success; without the success, you can’t get the opportunity.

I believe that there are numerous qualified coaches out there of many different races (and ages, religions, economic backgrounds, experience levels, etc.) who, if hired, would do a good job here. But if we want “big time” head coaching experience and success, the number of “diverse” candidates is pretty small.

The reality is that the A coach is not necessarily the most qualified. It is the guy that will fit best to the criteria we have laid out. I think the U is looking for more candidates and is asking one applicant pool to step it up a bit and apply. That opens up the opportunity to look at more candidates who are well qualified as the A candidate. Might mean we want to see more OC/DC applicants as well as HC. Too often the search criteria is so tough to achieve, no candidate becomes eligible to be a qualified applicant and everybody is in a tough spot because the position remains vacant. We want God to be the Head Coach, but he isn't available today. He is happy in his current position. Ever wonder why anybody gets hired at all!

 

[Khaliq]

It's amazing how the word 'diversity' can put so much fear into the conservative/establishment crowd. Political correctness is a stale term...we've gone beyond it. It's reality. We are a public university, at some point the NCAA has to start looking to improve the diversity among their coaches. Why not be out front on the issue? To fear that you cannot find a quality coach that is not white is hateful and absurd. Notice how I didn't use the word 'racist.' Nothing makes a racist more upset than being called a racist.

Being called a racist upsets anyone and it's not limited to the conservative crowd.

 

[Nine]

Dungy

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_16461688?nclick_check=1

Go Gophers!!

Our number one choice is Tony Dungy, he said no.

Kevin Sumlin is probably in the top 5 after some big names. Randy Shannon has zero appeal and no chance here.

They will hire the best coach and our first choice is black but obviously not because he is black. Sumlin will get offered if the feelers out to a few proven game changers are not well received. Sumlin would be a great hire but you have to check in on Patterson, Petersen and Harbough and maybe a few others first as their resume's are larger and more proven.

Sumlin will be a great plan 1B guy.

 

[Section2]

Does that mean I could be a candidate? Just kidding!

I don't care if they're black, white, or even a redhead...I'm with you guys, just win.

You were kidding about the redheads, right? We can't have a ginger HC!

 

[13 Lined Ground Squirrel]

You were kidding about the redheads, right? We can't have a ginger HC!

We've got a ginger QB in the incoming class. A ginger HC would improve the teams ability to recruit more ginger athletes.

Imagine if a guy as athletic as Saul Alvarez had turned to football rather than boxing.