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Posted January 11, 2007
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Search Expectations High for U Football
Thunderbolt or thud. When the University announces its new football
coach the reaction will either generate immediate enthusiasm or none at
all. Present us with former Gopher quarterback Tony Dungy,
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano or West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez
and listen to the telephone ring in the ticket office. Hire an
offensive or defensive coordinator, or head coach from the Mid- American
Conference, and watch for some yawns.
A hot
coordinator like LSU’s Bo Pellini or Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst,
or a not so well known head coach like South Florida’s Jim Leavitt,
might eventually establish a superb program at Minnesota. Such a hire,
although greeted with a whimper by the masses, isn’t necessarily a
flawed strategy but it is the wrong approach if the University doesn’t
first move heaven and earth to first find a heavenly head coach.
Perhaps never before have the University president and athletic director
communicated such high expectations as heard during the last few weeks
from Bob Bruininks and Joel Maturi. Bruininks expects a
football program that can at least occasionally win Big Ten Conference
championships. Maturi talked championship at the news conference
announcing the firing of Glen Mason who during 10 seasons never
finished better than fourth in the conference: “I want to assure the
fans of Minnesota that we are committed to bringing a championship here,
and we’re going to do everything we can to do that.”
It’s
not just Bruininks and Maturi who are creating expectations but also
fans and media who don’t accept all the excuses as to why Gopher
football has to be mediocre. I can never recall a time, not even when
Minnesota football was at its lowest lows, when there was so much
optimism about a better future.
Steve and Dorothy Erban’s Creative Charters company has been
organizing trips to away Gopher football games for many years. They
recently e-mailed their customers with an upbeat message that included
this: “We have a GOLDEN opportunity to be part of bringing a football
championship to the University of Minnesota. Gopher fans, the time has
come to support our leadership and ask what we can do to bring a Big Ten
Football Championship to our new on-campus stadium. I can vision it
now, sparkling GOLD letters in the end zone, 2009 BIG TEN CHAMPIONS.”
Yes,
there is optimism but also angst over “what undoubtedly is the most
important hiring decision in Golden Gopher sports in the past 60 years,”
according to Mike Wilkinson, a zealous fan since the 1950s. And
this from a former Gopher football player who e-mailed the following:
“The U has a chance to do things correctly and
get winners on and off the field. They need to do it.” |
Perhaps never before have the University
president and athletic director communicated such high expectations as
heard during the last few weeks from Bob Bruininks and Joel
Maturi.
"I want to assure the fans of Minnesota
that we are committed to bringing a championship here, and we’re going
to do everything we can to do that.”
Joel Maturi
There is optimism but also angst over the
hiring decision.
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Here’s How to
Approach the Search
Start this search with
the premise that no successful head coach who interests the University
is unavailable. Learn the facts about availability and narrow the
search from there. Be prepared and willing to enter the “college
football arms race,” including an annual contract of $2 million or more,
plus plenty of personal perks and a detailed commitment from the
administration to help the coach win. Part of a successful search
process, too, is that Bruininks and Maturi must be stubbornly determined
to hire a great head coach, resisting the discouragement of “no” from
various coaches. Push on and then negotiate as if they had doctoral
degrees in personal persuasion.
The search needs to
focus on Dungy after the playoffs end for his Indianapolis Colts. If
that takes awhile, then so be it. It’s far more important for the
University to select the right coach, then
to hire someone in a panic because the national signing day for prep
players is February 7.
If
not Dungy, then who else? Schiano, 40, took over a horrible football
program at Rutgers after leaving the University of Miami as an assistant
coach following the 2001 season. He coached the Scarlet Knights to an 11
win season in 2006 including the school’s first ever bowl victory.
Rodriguez, 43, turned down Alabama to stay at West Virginia where his
six year record includes three straight New Year’s Day bowl games and
Big East Conference titles, and six wins over top 25 teams since he
became coach for the 2001 season.
Gary Patterson, 46, from TCU, is a Wilkinson favorite. Patterson
has a .754 winning percent in six seasons as head coach and graduated
86% of his players, according to Wilkinson. Patterson, TCU’s defensive
coordinator before being promoted to head coach, has a win at Oklahoma
over the Sooners among his impressive victories. His recruiting
connections in Texas would be a huge asset for the
Gophers.
Navy’s Paul Johnson, 49, is intriguing. Before coming to
Annapolis he won two Division II-A national championships at Georgia
Southern. At Navy he uses an offense called the triple option and his
teams will either lead the nation in rushing each year or be near the
top. At the service academies the talent is often undersized physically
and underwhelming in ability, yet Johnson’s records are impressive and
his teams compete with college football’s big boys better than Army and
Air Force. Navy’s record was 1-20 in the two seasons prior to Johnson
coming to Annapolis in 2002 but the last four years Navy has won at
least eight games. If Johnson can win at Navy, do you think he can win
at Minnesota?
Bo
Pellini, 39, might be the best candidate among all the assistant
coaches in the country. A former player at Ohio State, Pellini coached
nine seasons in the NFL including with the Green Bay Packers before
going to Nebraska where he was so successful as defensive coordinator
players wanted him to succeed Frank Solich as head coach.
Pellini then became defensive coordinator at
Oklahoma and now at LSU. His name is synonymous with top 10 national
defensive statistics.
Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst has created much
speculation here already. Wisconsin football should be a poster program
for the Gophers, providing a model for success and encouragement that
Minnesota football can be much better. Impressive about Chryst is he
left the Badgers after the 2002 season to take a job with Oregon State
as offensive coordinator. Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez hired
Chryst back for the 2005 season and that’s a compliment.
Whoever the Gophers hire this much is clear: with expectations and
optimism higher than in the past, a new stadium opening in 2009 and
challenges that include stadium funding, buyouts for coaches, and
critics in the state legislature, the high schools, media and general
public, Bruninks and Maturi have a thunderbolt opportunity.
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Joel Maturi
The search
needs to focus on Dungy after the playoffs end for his Indianapolis
Colts.
Whoever the Gophers hire this much is
clear: with expectations and optimism higher than in the past, a new
stadium opening in 2009 and challenges that include stadium funding,
buyouts for coaches, and critics in the state legislature, the high
schools, media and general public, Bruninks and Maturi have a
thunderbolt opportunity.
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McCants’ Talent Upgrades Wolves
The
Timberwolves will learn two important things about
Rashad McCants in the next 18 months.
First, will he fully recovery from the career threatening microfracture
surgery on his right knee. Second, can he emerge as a potentially star
player?
Assistant coach Randy Wittman told Sports Headliners on
Sunday that McCants has had no “set backs” in his recovery. “Hopefully
here within a week he can get on the floor and do everything with the
team, and then you really have a better understanding of how long it’s
going to take him to get ready (to play in games),” Wittman said.
Once
McCants is practicing the projection is he will be playing limited
minutes in games within a couple of weeks. McCants, 22, looks like the
player, along with rookie guard Randy Foye, who can dramatically
increase the Timberwolves’ talent level and perhaps push the team toward
the top in the Western Conference.
In
his rookie season last year McCants closed fast, scoring almost 15
points per game and becoming a starter in the last 12 games. The
6-foot-4 guard showed his advertised athleticism driving to the basket
with ease and shooting outside from near and far. He made a franchise
record 37.2% of his three point shots.
Wittman, who coached in Orlando last year, is looking forward to
coaching McCants. “He’s got talents that this team is missing in terms
of he can stretch the floor but he can also create something going to
the basket,” Wittman said. “Very good basketball IQ. You can’t have too
many of those.”
Although McCants may play small forward and big guard, a future lineup
of Foye playing point guard and McCants at big guard is intriguing.
“With Randy at the one and he (McCants) at the two, it’s a pretty good
combination of two guys that can handle the ball and play inside and
out,” Wittman said. “With either one of them, they give us a little bit
more options or matchups, and making the other coach think ‘how are we
going to guard these guys?’”
McCants, who also can play small forward, will find himself competing
for playing time with similar sized players including Ricky Davis,
Marko Jaric and Trenton Hassell. Wittman acknowledged
“that’s a good question” as to where McCants’ minutes will come from but
first the Wolves want to ease him back on the court. Later, in March or
April, Wittman said “guys will have to step up and show the coach they
are worthy of minutes.”
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Rashad McCants
“He’s got talents that this team is
missing in terms of he can stretch the floor but he can also create
something going to the basket.”
Randy Wittman on Rashad McCants
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Worth Noting & Quoting
Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey said 6-foot-7, 250- pound rookie
Craig Smith is a “few years and pounds” away from being able to
successfully guard small forwards. Although shorter, Smith has been
guarding centers and power forwards.
The
Gopher hockey team defeated Wisconsin in two low scoring games (2-1 and
3-1) back in November and the goals could be few this weekend in
Madison, too. The
Badgers are fourth in scoring defense in the WCHA allowing 2.27 points
per game, the Gophers 1.91. The last seven games in Madison between the
Gophers and Badgers have been decided by two goals or less.
Prep
super star Kevin Love, from Oregon’s Lake Oswego High School, made a
big impression here last weekend playing in the Gatorade Shootout at
Target Center. Love, a 6- foot-10 center, who scored 41 points in his
team’s win against Osseo, might be the nation’s best player and has
committed to UCLA. His father Stan played in the NBA and his
uncle Mike is one of the Beach Boys.
Iowa
football fans here and elsewhere aren’t happy with the Hawkeyes late
season collapse and 6-7 record including losses to Indiana and
Northwestern. Part of the discontent focused on senior quarterback
Drew Tate who stirred up Hawkeye fans with comments in the Des
Moines Register before Iowa’s Alamo Bowl game with Texas. When asked
about fan reactions, Tate described Iowa as a state where there is much
less happening than in his native Texas. “That’s just the way the state
is,” he said on DesMoinesRegister.com. “There’s nothing really going on
there, no pro teams or anything like that. The big news in the media is
how the corn stock is doing, or something like that.”
Was
it budget constraints in the Star Tribune sports department that
dictated not sending a reporter to cover the national championship game
between Florida and Ohio State on Monday?
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Craig Smith
The last seven games in Madison
between the Gophers and Badgers have been decided by two goals or less.
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