Category: Gophers Football

 

Who is the next Gophers football coach going to be?

Fans of the program will spit out the words P.J. Fleck in a heartbeat but other names are worth mentioning including a favorite here—Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano.

Gophers’ athletic director Mark Coyle comes from a marketing and fund-raising background and might be attracted to someone like 36-year-old Phillip John Fleck who is (to some admirers) a charismatic leader. He gave a fiery speech before Monday’s Cotton Bowl against Wisconsin, telling his underdog Broncos they were “trailblazers” coming from the Mid-American Conference and taking on a Power Five Conference team.

Fleck upgraded Broncos football from mediocrity to this season’s 13-0 record and top 20 national ranking before losing to the Badgers, 24-16. The Gophers, operating in a pro town and confronted by a giant “purple shadow,” are going to have issues selling tickets and raising revenues in the months ahead regardless of the new coach’s name but Fleck could stir some excitement before next fall and also prompt a willingness in the marketplace to engage in product sampling early in the season.

Schiano, 50, resurrected Rutgers football, which historically has been an absolute graveyard for coaches. Schiano won more than half of his games at Rutgers and had one 11 win season, two nine win seasons, two eight win seasons and was recognized as one of America’s better coaches during a career there that started in 2001 and ended in 2012. He made a mistake in leaving the Scarlet Knights for the NFL Bucs where his disciplinary ways stirred controversy. He lasted two years and had a losing record.

Schiano recruited with success while at Rutgers, attracting players from not only the East but the talent-rich state of Florida. He offers a lot to the Gophers, including head coaching experience. Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer endorsed Schiano in the most meaningful way by hiring him last year. Schiano likely wants to be a head coach again and knows that at his age not too many big time opportunities are coming along. His age could be a plus for the Gophers because if the wins and is successful here, he might be inclined to finish out his career at Minnesota.

The same certainly can’t be said about a hotshot like Fleck. He could see the Gophers as a stepping-stone job, following a career path like Meyer who once made a splashy debut while leading Bowling Green of the Mid-American Conference before quickly moving on to Utah and after two seasons to powerhouse Florida.

There is something to be said too about considering candidates who know the state of Minnesota and this region’s people and culture. Wyoming coach Craig Bohl fits that reference. Bohl was an assistant coach at Nebraska before he built North Dakota State into a powerhouse FCS program. Bohl already has established relationships with Minnesota high school coaches. His name might interest Coyle. or current NDSU head coach Chris Klieman who is a Waterloo, Iowa native like the Gophers AD.

Coyle’s favorites list could include Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin. When Coyle was the AD at Boise he hired Harsin to replace Chris Petersen who quit to take the Washington job. Harsin has a 31-9 record in three seasons but hasn’t impressed like Petersen.

Another name that perhaps will surface is Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin. The Aggies have found the transition from the Big 12 to the SEC challenging and perhaps Sumlin, whose wife is a Minnesota native, might find the thought appealing coming back to the U where he once was a Gophers assistant coach. Sumlin is one of the few African-Americans who have been given an opportunity to be a head coach at a Power Five Conference job.

When University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler hired Coyle last year he told a prominent Gophers football booster he had brought a “superstar” to Dinkytown. Well, after about seven months on the job no one else is ready to label Coyle that way but he sure has a golden opportunity while hiring the next Golden Gophers football coach.

Who to bet on in the coaching sweepstakes? Toss a few bucks on Fleck, but perhaps there could be a Sumlin homecoming.

Mark Coyle’s Statement on Tracy Claeys

The following statement from Coyle was released yesterday regarding the termination of Tracy Claeys as Minnesota’s head football coach: “I made a difficult decision today on behalf of the University of Minnesota. With the support of Board of Regents’ leadership and president Eric Kaler, I have decided to take the Gophers football team in a different direction with new coaching leadership.

“I determined that the football program must move in a new direction to address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program. We need strong leadership to take Gopher football to the next level and address these challenges.

“This decision is about the future of Minnesota football.

“Moving forward, we need a leader who sets high expectations athletically, academically, and socially.

“I also want to address the unfortunate blurring of the football suspension decision.

“On December 13, 2016, coach Claeys, deputy athletics director John Cunningham and I met to discuss 10 student-athletes.

“I informed coach Claeys of my judgment that athletic suspensions were appropriate.

“Without any objection, coach Claeys said he understood that decision to bench student-athletes.

“Coach Claeys, deputy athletics director John Cunningham, and I met with the student-athletes to advise them of our decision. Coach Claeys subsequently informed me that he agreed with the suspension decision.

“And let me be clear: this was the right thing to do.

“Coach Claeys’ tweet later that week was not helpful. I accept that coach Claeys intended it to support the boycotting players. Understandably others did not see it that way. I hope you will appreciate I cannot say more about the athletic suspensions in this case.

“I will say, as a general matter, athletic suspension decisions – essentially a decision to bench a player – are different from a prosecutor’s decision to charge someone with a crime.

“Different standards, different policies.

“An athletic suspension decision is also different from a panel decision whether there has been a student conduct code violation.

“Different standards, different policies.

“For example, we suspend student-athletes for attitude problems. We suspend student-athletes while criminal investigations are ongoing. We suspend student-athletes when University investigators present credible evidence of inappropriate conduct. What happens in a student conduct process is not for me to say. Like the U and all involved, I simply want a just and fair process. That is not determined by who prevails; if justice is done, then the University of Minnesota and the public win, no matter the outcome.

“Again, this has been a difficult decision. I thank Coach Claeys and his staff for their years of service. Coaches Dan O’Brien and Mike Sherels have agreed to remain during the coaching transition to ensure that our student-athletes have strong and active leadership in the interim.”

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The Gophers play Washington State in the Holiday Bowl tomorrow night. The most important outcome will be whether Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys still has a job by early January.

The embattled first-year coach has publicly acknowledged his fragile situation resulting from a tweet supporting the team’s temporary bowl boycott earlier this month. The team protested the suspension of 10 players for reasons that included what they viewed as lack of due process. The public stance of Claeys put him at odds with University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler and first-year athletic director Mark Coyle.

Coyle has infrequently engaged the media in recent months, including the future of Claeys who has only two years remaining on his contract and a $500,000 buyout. Fan interest in the team nosedived this season, and there was speculation more than a month ago whether Claeys will receive a contract extension or even retain his job. Season tickets declined in 2016 and all signs are for a further drop next year.

It’s easy to assume Kaler and Coyle are upset their coach didn’t follow the company line last week. With litigation and hearings expected involving the suspended players, are Kaler and Coyle looking for a start-over in the head coaching position?

Making that move means dismantling a quality coaching staff, a group of assistants Claeys inherited from Jerry Kill last year. It also means giving up on Claeys, a gifted defensive coach who produced an 8-4 overall record and 5-4 record in the Big Ten. While the team played the program’s easiest schedule in years and was often unimpressive even in winning, the Gophers were competitive and played above .500 in league games for the second time in three years—and for just the third time since 2000.

An external source who has been close to the athletic department for years believes money is a deterrent to dismissing Claeys and his assistants. While the buyout with Claeys is minimal, adding the total buyout amount for the assistants and the head coach would push the final payout to about $3 million, according to another Sports Headliners source.

Maybe that is a factor about whether to retain Claeys and staff, but it’s doubtful. When Kaler has wanted to spend money on athletics, he has done so. The U dumped basketball coach Tubby Smith in 2013 with a reported buyout of $2.5 million. The school broke ground in late 2015 on the $166 million Athletes Village, a project partially financed with borrowed money and with an emphasis on football.

Former president Bob Bruininks didn’t back off because of an unplanned buyout of Glen Mason. After the December 29, 2006 Insight Bowl, Bruininks fired the Gophers football coach who had finished the regular season with a 6-6 overall record. Mason had revived the program after the Jim Wacker era that saw the Gophers produce a 16-39 record.

Early January that year proved to be a difficult time searching for Mason’s replacement. Tim Brewster, who had never been a head coach, was Mason’s successor and sort of a Wacker replay—espousing a lot of optimism but delivering minimal results after three years.

If there was a handbook for college athletics directors the chapter on “proceed with care” would include caution about hiring a head football coach in January. The field of prospects is smaller than in November and December when most vacancies are filled. By early January coaches can be less likely to accept another offer because the National Signing Day in early February for high school players is just weeks away.

Here is another problem: How many quality head coaches will even be interested in the Gophers job? A new coach inherits the mess of guiding the program through the suspensions and sex scandal. Several key players could transfer and the publicity surrounding the program puts a dark cloud over recruiting. Then, too, it’s no secret that for decades the U administration and faculty support for football has been mixed at best, and the program hasn’t won a Big Ten title since 1967.

Kaler and Coyle could easily end up hiring a new head coach and staff with fewer skills than the present group. Warning: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Could Kaler and Coyle be deterred from letting Claeys go because of legal action? Minnesota employment law attorney Marshall Tanick told Sports Headliners that if Claeys is fired he may have a legal claim against the U under the state’s human rights act. An employer can’t discipline an employee who supports a claim involving human or civil rights activities, Tanick said. In Claeys’ situation he supported players who contend they have been denied due process.

If there is a coaching change, Gophers fans are right to be skeptical about how adept Kaler and Coyle will be at hiring a high quality replacement for Claeys. It was Kaler who hired Norwood Teague as athletic director in 2012. The impact from that decision was staggering, with the University taking a major hit in image during Teague’s tenure. Teague’s problems ranged from allegations about sexual harassment to controversial scholarship seating donations for football games. He also had a chilly relationship with Kill who was a much superior fundraiser. Friends of Kill insist that the coach’s resignation last year because of health problems was related to carrying too much of the fundraising load in the athletic department.

Under Teague’s and Kaler’s watch, basketball coach Richard Pitino was hired to replace Smith in 2013. Early this year Pitino worked his way through a sex scandal involving his players. During Pitino’s tenure he also received a much criticized contract extension and compensation increase from the U administration. His team last season produced the program’s worst Big Ten record ever, 2-16, although his current Gophers are much improved and 12-1 in nonconference games.

It was the decision of Kaler and Coyle to part ways earlier this year with wrestling coach J Robinson. The University investigated Robinson last summer over how he handled allegations his wrestlers used and sold the drug Xanax. In June both Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis declined to file charges that Gophers wrestlers used and sold the anti-anxiety drug, and that Robinson covered up the alleged activity.

Robinson coached the Gophers to three national championships, and produced a long list of Big Ten team and individual champions, and All-Americans. He positively impacted the lives of U wrestlers and thousands of youth attending his summer camps. He is regarded as a high character educator by admirers.

When Kaler had an opportunity last year to hire Kill as an assistant athletic director, he passed. Like Robinson, Kill is a strong leader who would have contributed to a winning culture in the athletic department. Externally, Kill was the one individual who could have raised a lot of money for the Athletes Village project because of his popularity in reviving Gophers football.

Coyle has hired two head football coaches as an athletic director. When he was AD at Mountain West football power Boise State, head coach Chris Petersen left for the University of Washington. Bryan Harsin, a former Petersen assistant at Boise, was head coach at Arkansas State and a natural choice to lead the Broncos. Harsin has continued the success at Boise but not at the level Petersen achieved.

About 13 months ago as Syracuse’s athletics director, Coyle fired Scott Shafer who he had inherited. He replaced Shafer with Dino Babers who had two years of head coaching experience at Bowling Green. Babers likes a circus passing offense and one of Syracuse’s losses this fall was by a score of 76-61 to Pitt. He was 4-8 in his first season at Syracuse.

If Kaler and Coyle decide to change coaches, the best move among possible candidates might be 36-year-old Western Michigan head coach P.J. Fleck. He has the 13-0 Broncos in the Cotton Bowl on January 2 against Wisconsin. The charismatic Fleck, who has worked for Kill, is already a national media favorite with write-ups that have included the New York Times and Sports Illustrated.

The Gophers football program is caught in a firestorm right now and no one thinks all of this will disappear any time soon. Criticism is directed across the board at Kaler, Coyle, Claeys, the players, the U Board of Regents and others. Among critics is former governor and passionate Gophers fan Arne Carlson who jumped on Kaler and the board last week while talking to WCCO Radio’s Mike Max. Carlson said Kaler hasn’t demonstrated effective leadership in guiding the regents through the latest scandal and previous difficulties.

“He (Kaler) does keep the Board of Regents in his back pocket, and that’s because the Board of Regents doesn’t see itself as responsible for providing oversight. The Board of Regents from my perspective—and I don’t mean to be utterly blunt—is perfectly worthless. And you can’t have it (that way). You’ve gotta have Minnesota’s best and brightest, and most talented, and most successful people sitting on the Board of Regents.”

While a lot of developments surrounding the controversy at the U will require more time, one storyline that won’t is the future of Claeys. That will be answered soon. But how?

The guess here is that the appeal of new leadership, more immediate public support for the football team and the opportunity to have Coyle make his first signature hire will win out.

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