Dave Mona was retained as a consultant by the University of Minnesota in 2010 to assist in the search for a new football coach. It was a successful process leading to the hire of Jerry Kill as coach.
Hiring Northern Illinois’ Kill, a low profile coach who didn’t come from a football power conference, wasn’t enthusiastically endorsed by the public. However, Kill has improved the Gophers in each of his three seasons, demonstrating he has a plan and the ability to build a competitive Big Ten Conference program.
Mona, a University of Minnesota alum and now a recently retired business executive, isn’t surprised by Kill’s success. He and then Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi were repeatedly told during the search that Kill was viewed as a special coach by his peers.
Mona learned lessons during the search that apply to the Vikings who are looking for a head coach to replace Leslie Frazier. At some point there will be a candidate or two the Vikings will like a lot before completing their reviews. “There’s a bit of a panic factor that you don’t want to lose your guy,” Mona told Sports Headliners. “The thing (the search) gets compressed. In business, a search might take months, a series of interviews.”
The Vikings fired Frazier in late December. General Manager Rick Spielman wants to have a new coach by January 25, if not sooner. Spielman and Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf face that deadline and the competition of several other NFL teams looking for head coaches while knowing assistant coaches are in demand also.
Mona said if multiple NFL teams make hires before the Vikings, the organization can’t panic. “Can you stand up to the criticism you’re going to get in the media? ‘What’s wrong with the Vikings? Why aren’t they making their move?’
“I think no matter how tough Spielman is, it’s hard to resist that (pressure) when it looks like you’re falling behind the pack (even though) you may be doing it the right way.”
A factor sometimes receiving minimal mention during searches is “chemistry” between the decision-makers who have to work together. “You need to have strong chemistry between the ownership, the general manager and the coach who is hired,” Mona said. “…If there’s not good chemistry and you get off to a bad start, it rarely gets better. I think you’ve got to have people who philosophically are on the same page.”
Coaching searches often result in hires who are the opposite of the leaders they replace. A coach with a reputation for being offensive oriented is replaced by a defensive authority. A rah-rah leader is hired to take over for a coach who was quiet on and off the field.
Mona was warned by human resources experts about hiring opposites. “You have to be careful not to go too far because in solving one problem, you might create another,” he said.
The co-host for years of the Sunday morning WCCO Radio “Sports Huddle” program, Mona has followed the Vikings since the franchise began in 1961. How does he describe the type of coach the club should hire?
“Ideally, I think this person is going to have to identify and develop a quarterback that can lead the team for the next decade. Someone with proven experience recognizing and developing skill in quarterbacks.
“I (also) think a good evaluator of people and the ability to put out a team that reflects what’s happening in a changing league. We’ve been a solid 4-3 team. There’s a lot of success out there with 3-4 defenses. There are offensive schemes we’ve probably stayed away from.”
Worth Noting
Expect a high school quarterback and junior college linebacker to enroll at the University of Minnesota later this month. Both would take part in spring football, with the quarterback having four years of eligibility and the linebacker three.
Gophers offensive tackle Ben Lauer has been named to the Football Writers Association Freshman All-America Team. He was a first team selection.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will visit Rice Lake, Wisconsin later this month to see highly recruited prep star Henry Ellenson, brother of Gophers sophomore forward Wally Ellenson.
The Gophers basketball team plays at Penn State tonight against a Nittany Lions roster that includes freshman guard Graham Woodward from Edina. Woodward has played in 12 games, averaging 2.6 points per game.
The Gophers avoided a 0-2 start in the Big Ten season by defeating Purdue, 82-79, on Sunday at Williams Arena. Coach Richard Pitino’s Gophers lost their first conference game last Thursday against Michigan at Williams Arena.
“Coach said it wasn’t really a must-win (Sunday) but we felt it was a must-win as a team,” said Minnesota guard DeAndre Mathieu. “…0-2 in the Big Ten wouldn’t have been what we expected. We expected to be 2-0 and we came out 1-1. We’ll just have to be satisfied (with) 1-1.”
The Gophers wore gold home uniforms for the Michigan game and then brought out their home whites on Sunday. Are they superstitious about uniforms? “I think so because we won every game in the whites so far,” Mathieu said. “Even the big game over Florida State we wore the whites.”
The Gophers led Purdue by 19 points multiple times but the game was close in the final minutes. Pitino said the first 35 minutes of the game’s 40 minutes “absolutely” were his team’s best of the season.
A look at the most immediate games ahead on the schedule indicates how important the Purdue win was. Although PennState is 0-2 in the Big Ten with 16 and 20 point losses to Michigan State and Illinois, Minnesota knows road wins don’t come easy (last season the Gophers lost eight of nine away from home). After Penn State the Gophers have consecutive games with top 25 ranked teams—at Michigan State, home against Ohio State, at Iowa and home with Wisconsin. OSU, MSU and Wisconsin are ranked among the top five teams in the nation.
Gophers forward Oto Osenieks was inspired as a teenager in his native Latvia when he watched American basketball on TV. He came to the United States where he first played AAU basketball followed by one year of high school competition. He has become a starter for the Gophers as a redshirt junior and turns 23 in March. “I am old,” he said.
There is an extraordinary new sports book on Ted Williams that reports on his life including the 1938 season with the Minneapolis Millers. There are other Minnesota references including to Bob Short who moved the Lakers from Minneapolis to Los Angeles before buying baseball’s Washington Senators and making Williams his manager. The Kid The Immortal Life of Ted Williams is written by investigative journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. and is 855 pages.
Right wing Eriah Hayes, a La Crescent, Minnesota native, has played in two games for the NHL Sharks since being recalled from Worcester of the AHL. The former Minnesota State, Mankato player had eight points in 29 games for Worcester, his first full season of pro hockey. During the 2012-13 college season he led the nation in shots on goal with 186.