Kill Me Now

Well you got the breakdown of who Derek wanted a couple weeks ago, so of course you've got to be clamoring to his reaction on who the University of Minnesota ultimately hired in it's latest attempt to resurrect it's dormant (that's dormant, not doormat) football program.  The consensus around town seems to be that if you like puns, it's a Kill-er move, otherwise not so much:

In a word: Underwhelming. When I heard his name on Friday, I thought I might like it more, but I just can’t get excited yet, perhaps because of all the initial negativity. Frankly, that shouldn’t bother me, because none of the commenters on the Strib, or people in the media, know much about college football, so I just need some time for this to sink in.


Maturi obviously couldn’t sell it to any of my top 7 or 8 guys, and had to start bouncing down his list. Sounds like we are paying him about $1M per season, which is not the “$2M-plus” that I had heard we had available to hire a big name guy. Having a new Prez and being a lame-duck AD didn’t help us either obviously. I have never been a hater of Maturi like many others. (I am not a huge fan or anything, but he has done some great things for the Athletic Dept.) He is an honest, passionate guy, but just doesn’t have the charisma to sell this job to anyone of note. His first mistake was to ridiculously declare that he was going to make a “Tubby Smith-like” hire. While that is fine as an aspiration, don’t set us up for disappointment by actually saying it. To get a major coach in basketball to come to the U is a realistic expectation, for football, just been too long since we were good.



On the hire itself, my pros and cons as of now:



Pros:


• He has 17 years of head-coaching experience, so he won’t have to learn that on the job like Brew did or like Chryst (Wisco OC that was reportedly on the radar this week, but Joel already promised he wouldn’t hire another guy without HC experience) would have.


• His coordinators are extremely loyal to him. He has had success, and anytime you have that, you often have coordinators that look for other jobs. IMHO, the biggest problem of the Brewster era (there were a few) was three offensive and three defensive coordinators in four years. Nearly impossible to gain momentum when that happens. We shouldn’t have this problem with Kill.


• He has had success everywhere he has been, slowing rising on the ladder.


• Say what you want about this, but he is a cancer survivor. He knows adversity, and won’t crumble under it like Brewster, Mason, Wacker, Gutekunst, Salem, et. al.


• He has a pretty cool surname. Lots of creative things we can do with the word “Kill”.


• From a money standpoint, at $1M per season, we probably won’t have another Mason/Monson situation where we hamstring ourselves for years buying out their contracts. I hate that I am listing this as a “pro”; almost like I am expecting this guy to fail.


Cons:


• Most of his experience is not FBS, only three years at NIU. And he hadn’t even had a “great” year until this season at NIU.


• He doesn’t appear to have the charisma that it takes to recruit. And, frankly, there aren’t a ton of big battles that you are involved in by coaching in the MAC. It is a good mid-level conference overall, but these schools are searching among the two-star recruits, and there are hundreds and hundreds of those, and most of them likely have just one or two offers.


• People saying that he “turned around” Northern Illinois aren’t 100% accurate. Yes, in 2007, the year before his arrival, they went 2-10, but they had a ton of injuries that year and actually had winnings seasons from 2000-2006, and made two bowl games in there. So, it’s not like he stepped into Doormat U, righted all the wrongs and had success.


• He just isn’t the sexy hire we needed to inject life into the program. I can completely understand the lack of interest in Mike Leach. The guy is a prick, doesn’t get along with people, is suing his former school, locks players in closets, has some baggage, and the list goes on. But, at some point you have to roll the dice. When Golden, Hoke, Calhoun, and Fedora weren’t interested, you need to see the writing on the wall, and get him in for an interview, at the very least. You could have structured the contract in a way that would absolve the University of responsibility if he did certain things that he has done in his past. He would have sold tickets, and right now.


• The continued apathy for the football program won’t help to raise money for anything else. Yes, we are saving money on hiring him that may be spent on the new baseball stadium or the basketball practice facility. But, when you have a good football program, all ships rise. If he wins, they will come back, but that may take a while.

 

In the end, no one truly has any idea whatsoever how he will do. We are upset because we think the chances are smaller, but we have no idea. Current case in point: Gene Chizik (5-19 at Iowa State before hired as HC at Auburn) took the Gophers defensive coordinator (typically not good defensive football) with him and is playing for the national title. So, only time will tell.



Bottom line: Gopher football is my favorite team on the planet (insert one-liners here), and he is my coach, and I will support the coach from right now going forward. That’s the thing about college sports, players and coaches alike make the decision to come be a part of my team, so I will support them. Go Kill!!!



A couple ways that I will be monitoring his abilities/progress prior to the start of the season:



• National signing day is February 2, 2011. Do we keep all 15 commits that we currently have (14 three-star kids and one two-star kid)? We are currently rated 6th in the Big Ten for next year’s class, so not great, but decent. Do we get additional guys that have the U on their radar? Most importantly in my mind, do we keep Max Shortell? See link below. I like the sound of a 6-6 qb who plays pro-style offense.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/minnesota/football/recruiting/player-Max-Shortell-95202;_ylt=AmVgDaMQXKrbMQM9Sb3oEnXPspB4


• Is he visible? Probably Brewster’s greatest asset (that turned into a negative over time), was his ability to get people excited, to be positive and to get press on the Gopher program. Do we see articles in the Strib during the offseason? Does he have passion?



Here’s to 2011. We open against USC (yes, that USC) in Los Angeles on September 3rd. I plan to be there with The Killer.



Go Gophers! Ski-U-Mah!



For my one-liner, I will go with: Have you considered trying out another planet?  But serious, I think we all hope things go well and this hire isn't Kill-ing our chances at a turnaround.
 
That will not get old for a very long time.