The names will come fast and furious now in the search for a new Gophers football coach. Head coaches and coordinators with jobs, and ex-coaches without jobs will pursue the position.
Agents for coaches will call the University Athletic Department. Former players, fans and influential donors will be touting the names of coaches they think should be considered.
And why not? Despite 40 years of fleeting triumph mixed with mediocrity and embarrassment, the head football coaching job at the University is a darn attractive position.
Minnesota is an admired land grant school with membership in the prestigious Big Ten Conference. The campus is located in one of America’s most attractive urban areas. The two-year-old stadium is stunning not only for its amenities but in comparison to the relics from the 1920s that so many college teams call home.
There’s no other major college football program in the state to battle for high school recruits, and the recruiting base isn’t nearly as bad as the naysayers have argued for years. That feeder system is certainly competitive, if not better than found in Iowa and Wisconsin where prep players from those states have made major contributions over the years to top 20 teams for the Hawkeyes and Badgers. (See prep film on the likes of Minnesotans Steve Walsh, Joe Mauer, Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, James Laurinaitis, David Gilreath, Karl Klug, Broderick Binns, Seantrel Henderson and others).
And if all that’s not enough, the Gophers job has the potential to pay damn well. Basketball coach Tubby Smith makes about $2 million. The football job has the potential to pay a lot more with a stadium that can be expanded to 80,000 seats. In a major market like this fees from TV and radio shows, and other sources of outside income such as camps, have high buck potential. Plus, corporate leaders will kick in major dollars to keep the right man happy.
Who is the right guy? Before answering that question go read Monday’s Sports Headliners if you haven’t already done so. Click on the archives to find the October 18 column that describes the criteria for making the correct hire.