What credentials should the next Gopher coach have?

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stevedave23

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Instead of talking specific names I'd like to see what everyone thinks about where the next coach should come from, and why.
 

Frankly, if it's not a guaranteed success-type coach (Meyer, Saban, Stoops, etc.) it's all a crapshoot, anyway. Coaches from all backgrounds have succeeded and failed at the BCS level.

I personally would like a BCS coordinator from a southern school, but such a coach is no more or less likely to succeed than any other type.
 

resume

MUST have a proven successful track record at the D-1 level: Jim Harbaugh, Kevin Sumlin, Gary Barnett, Phil Fulmer, etc.
 

stevedave23 said:
Instead of talking specific names I'd like to see what everyone thinks about where the next coach should come from, and why.
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1. Defense, or known entities brought with to run defense
2. Outstate recruiting success track record(TX, FL, CA, OH, PA)
3. Preferably some sort of offense which can be easily transitioned in, slowly modified to whatever scheme is the coaches' preference
4. Success/experience against BCS opponents, BIG10 opponents, wisky/iowee
5. A name/background to get fans excited, OR a long track record of winning, OR a local connection to smooth over fanbase
 

dpodoll68 said:
Frankly, if it's not a guaranteed success-type coach (Meyer, Saban, Stoops, etc.) it's all a crapshoot, anyway. Coaches from all backgrounds have succeeded and failed at the BCS level.

I personally would like a BCS coordinator from a southern school, but such a coach is no more or less likely to succeed than any other type.
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Brewster, once upon a time, was a coordinator at Texas and a Mack Brown protege.

I agree, there really is zero way to know if a coach will be successful or not (at least as fans)
 


I think the next coach should actually be a committee of 'gopher fans' who don't drink the "kool-aid". They are way smarter than the rest of us.
 

scher215 said:
Brewster, once upon a time, was a coordinator at Texas
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If you want to get technical, yes, but no one considers a "recruiting coordinator" a coordinator, much in the same way no one considers an "executive assistant" an executive.
 

#6

6.Pictures of Reusse buggering a goat so the Fulda flash sticks to writing about the Vikings, or some golf course.

Actually having jpg's of a number of TC sports personalities in compromising situations would be a tremendous asset for the new coach.
 

Too Long in the Wasteland said:
6.Pictures of Reusse buggering a goat so the Fulda flash sticks to writing about the Vikings, or some golf course.

Actually having jpg's of a number of TC sports personalities in compromising situations would be a tremendous asset for the new coach.
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I almost put in something about being either intimidating or having something on the local media.
I'm just not sure I remember a coach in this market that got the benefit of any media support.

Anyone chime in, has there been a coach who the local media liked enough to refrain from ripping to shreds. I suppose Gardy, maybe TK? Definitely no viking or gopher coaches since I've been alive.
 



dpodoll68 said:
If you want to get technical, yes, but no one considers a "recruiting coordinator" a coordinator, much in the same way no one considers an "executive assistant" an executive.
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He was also TE and Special Teams coach. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Brewster is the greatest coach ever. But he had past experience with a very proven coach. Much of the reason in the NFL that Eric Mangini, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, etc. have also gotten head coaching jobs somewhere. Just re-iterating what was said above, a coaches history is not always going to determine their future success.

You hope that the guy you hire sticks around and becomes a Joe Paterno, but they could also fall flat on their face.
 

Defense. The ability to get the maximum out of players. Defense. Discipline. Defense. And Defense.

Oh, I suppose we need an offense too.
 

Ole said:
I almost put in something about being either intimidating or having something on the local media.
I'm just not sure I remember a coach in this market that got the benefit of any media support.

Anyone chime in, has there been a coach who the local media liked enough to refrain from ripping to shreds. I suppose Gardy, maybe TK? Definitely no viking or gopher coaches since I've been alive.
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You're right about T.K. and Gardy. They were also pretty kind to Clem, Dutcher and Tubby. They loved Jerry Burns and they were fairly kind to Tice knowing the situation he was in. So it's possible to be liked, but you got to win, but you're right, it wouldn't guarantee even-handed tretament. Which is all one could ask for really.
 

scher215 said:
He was also TE and Special Teams coach. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Brewster is the greatest coach ever. But he had past experience with a very proven coach. Much of the reason in the NFL that Eric Mangini, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, etc. have also gotten head coaching jobs somewhere. Just re-iterating what was said above, a coaches history is not always going to determine their future success.

You hope that the guy you hire sticks around and becomes a Joe Paterno, but they could also fall flat on their face.
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Agreed. My point in wanting to hire a coordinator, and not a position coach, is that a coordinator has experience calling and diagramming plays. A good offensive coordinator knows what he wants to do with his offense, and the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing D, and how to exploit them. Vice-versa for a D coordinator. Either way, someone in a position to move up to a head coach has been successful running their system and has an identity.

A position coach's job is primarily skill-building, working on very specific movements, and lots of repetition. He may or may not have an idea of what he wants to do from a strategy standpoint, but he doesn't have the empirical data of running his own O or D to know what will work and what won't.

Brewster knew what he wanted to do, but it didn't work for him here. He figured out an identity that would work better for him and his recruiting, but it took him until year 3 to do so. Unfortunately, he is now in a situation where he is really like a second-year coach in terms of building strategy, but truly is in his fourth year as HC, and is being judged (rightfully so) by the latter (that is to say, as a fourth-year instead of a second-year coach.) Don't get me wrong, it's definitely his own fault - but an established coordinator shouldn't have those growing pains and should come more closely to hitting the ground running.
 



Sad Choice

I think it really depends on what your expectations are.

If you are interested in returning to 6-6 and a chance at 8-4 and regular bowl games, I think you bring in a headcoach retread. These guys are good enough to recruit okay instate, allow you to have high expectations at the start of the season (then always fall short), and can usually coach up the talent available as they don't need to waste a significant amount of time learning the 'head coach' part of the job. Also, if they are a long time retread, they can typically have some consistency in their coordinators.

If we are interested in really breaking the mold and winning the Big Ten, etc, I think you can not go after a former head coach unless they were fired for something other than the on field results (Leach, etc). With these guys, it is a crap shoot and may lead to another Brewster like coach. On the up side, they may deliver some near term wins and excitement - but I can also promise that they will be looking at other jobs (NCAA and NFL) within about a year of turning the program around.

I am almost at a crossroad here where I say go with the retread. After the destructions and steps back under Brewster, the program needs to be put into more capable hands for at least a few years to regain some respectability. If we have another 1-11 to 3-8 year followed by a new coach with the same results in his first year, I think the program will have given back all the positives in fan base from the Mason years. I truly don't know if the program would ever recover from that. Say what you want about Mason, but he is the reason why we have an on campus stadium. If a Brewster-like coach had been hired rather than Mason, we would be sharing a stadium w/ the Vikings right now. As much as that kills me to say, I think it is in the best long term interest of the program.
 

I prefer a defensive guy. The college game is a lot about capitalizing on mistakes of college game. I like to watch defenses that forces offenses into mistakes instead of waiting for them to happen.

I prefer the coach that is willing to be part of the marketing program, creating excitement about the team and the players. There are a lot of noises in this town and you need to be able to talk over them and stay loud and proud.
 

First of all I hope we have a solid rest of the season so all this speculation stops.

If there is a change it should be someone who has Minnesota ties. Otherwise any success he may have, he will ride it to a better job.
 

must be a mind reader and able to fly.
 

tap said:
First of all I hope we have a solid rest of the season so all this speculation stops.

If there is a change it should be someone who has Minnesota ties. Otherwise any success he may have, he will ride it to a better job.
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That got us Joe Salem. He would have never wanted to go anywhere else. If he had worked out, he might be just now thinking of retiring after a 30+ year career with Minnesota. But it didn't work out, the 1982 team finished 0-8 after a 3-0 start, and the 1983 team had the disastrous 1-10 season.

There's nothing wrong with a coach with local ties, it actually is a plus. But we must not let that weigh too heavily. Besides, if a coach is able to get another job, that might just mean that we're left in pretty good position. After being here just two years, Holtz left us in good enough position to have two winning Big Ten seasons under Gutey. Gutey's teams would have taken us to three more bowl games had there been as many then as there are today.
 

It's really a crap shoot with coaches...

stevedave23 said:
Instead of talking specific names I'd like to see what everyone thinks about where the next coach should come from, and why.
Click to expand...

Who would have thought than a middle-aged coach with about a .500 record elsewhere would light a fire under Iowa and create a half-century dynasty? Alvarez had no head coaching experience but took Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl in his fourth year (irionically, his only loss that year was to Wacker). Fry and Barnett did about the same.

My philosophy is that a winning 1A head coach will probably win for you. Mason rescued Kansas from oblivion and gave them a modest winning record (.540?), some bowl games, some highly publicized players and a couple of really good seasons - he did the same at Minnesota. Wacker was a loser at TCU and continued to be here. Hotlz won big at Arkansas and probably would have here, too. I'm convinced a guy who can win nearly 70% of his games in the SEC (Mark Richt of Georgia) could win in the Big Ten, too - as Warmath did. Murray won two thirds of his conference games in the Sixties when the Big Ten was so competitive that nine teams went to the Rose Bowl or won the conference championship (the tenth, Northwestern, had some great seasons under Parseghian). Go for a winning 1A coach and pay the bucks to get him and you may beat the odds - but it's a crap shoot.
 

Actually in charge of something where his butt is on the line. O or D coordinator is fine, but his area must have shown improvement as the season progresses. Also, having loyal assistants would be a plus. Recruiting ties in the Midwest. Winning will bring recruits from the south.
 

I agree that ideally we'd land a proven winner.

I'd prefer a guy who beat expectations at a non-BCS FBS school and shows promise he can recruit the type of talent to win and compete for Big Ten Championships.

Problem is, I'm not so sure these types of coaches are interested in the Minnesota job.
 

I'm not as concerned about head coaching experience as long as the guy is smart, has a solid plan and has been upwardly mobile through the ranks. What I don't want is someone that has kind of languished at a mid level for awhile like Brewster has.

An added bonus would be a minority candidate. There is such a woeful, inexcusable, downright embarrassing dearth of minority head coaches at the FBS level it would be nice to see the Gophers help break up the old boy network and give an up and comer a shot who may not look the part in the eyes of too many crusty old school presidents and ADs.
 

stevedave23 said:
Instead of talking specific names I'd like to see what everyone thinks about where the next coach should come from, and why.
Click to expand...

considering how unlikely it is that we will land a highly successful D-1 coach, i would go after the 5 most successful coaches at any collegiate level that are under the age of, say, 55. in addition, i would attempt to structure a contract that had huge incentives on the back-end to motivate the coach to stick around and to reward success. for example, pay him a $500,000.00 per year salary and give him an additional $5 million bonus if he stays for at least 7 years and has a winning record in the big ten. give him an additional bonus after 7 years for each victory he had the preceding 7 years over wisc., iowa, mich, ohio state and penn. st. and yet another bonus for each victory over a top 20 opponent. perhaps tack on a bonus after 7 years for each major bowl (defined in the contract) the team made it to the preceding 7 years and finally an additional bonus for each major bowl victory.
 

BreakTheGopherCurse said:
considering how unlikely it is that we will land a highly successful D-1 coach, i would go after the 5 most successful coaches at any collegiate level that are under the age of, say, 55. in addition, i would attempt to structure a contract that had huge incentives on the back-end to motivate the coach to stick around and to reward success. for example, pay him a $500,000.00 per year salary and give him an additional $5 million bonus if he stays for at least 7 years and has a winning record in the big ten. give him an additional bonus after 7 years for each victory he had the preceding 7 years over wisc., iowa, mich, ohio state and penn. st. and yet another bonus for each victory over a top 20 opponent. perhaps tack on a bonus after 7 years for each major bowl (defined in the contract) the team made it to the preceding 7 years and finally an additional bonus for each major bowl victory.
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Good luck getting a coach to take a contract like that because if he gets fired earlier he is hosed.
 

GopherGod said:
Good luck getting a coach to take a contract like that because if he gets fired earlier he is hosed.
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you're absolutely right. so, there would have to be contingencies incorporated in the event he is fired to reward him for his success (assuming he achieved some of those hurdles). i neglected to mention that, so thanks for bringing it up. however, i think you'd agree that the likelihood of him being fired is slim if he's achieving that kind of success. if he's fired for breaking ncaa rules, sexual or other harassment that's proven, or other improprieties, he would lose his incentives, although the school may agree to pay him some of those incentives he's "earned" in order to obtain a release from him of any claims for wrongful termination.
 

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