Glen Mason to the white courtesy phone, please

I like Mason (I've covered him once, and he actually seemed genuine) but he's been on the losing end of more unbelievable collapses than any other coach in the country. The articles keep mentioning this year's bowl game, the 2000 MicronPC bowl collapse to N.C. State (24-0) and the Michigan game in 2003 (28-7), but Minnesota blew a 35-14 lead to Northwestern in 2000 and lost on a Hail Mary. And last year the Gophers lost to Wisconsin when the punter dropped a snap in the final seconds. I think there were a couple other games where about 8 to 10 different things had to go wrong for the Gophers to lose and they did.

Still, they have been to 12 bowl games in their history. Mason has coached seven of them. I don't know who they think they're going to get to do much better right now, especially since they'll be hamstrung by the buyout of two coaches at the same time ($5.3 million combined, I think).

 

Still, this reeks of a program thinking it's bigger than it really is. Minnesota isn't exactly a college football powerhouse, and hasn't been since the 1960s. The program was wretched for about a decade and a half from the time Lou Holtz left for the Domers until Mason took over, and the Gophers went from a last-place program to a mid-pack Big Ten program under Mason's tutelage, which is about as good as it can really expect.

Indiana made the same mistake with Bill Mallory a decade ago -- buckling to alumni pressure and getting rid of a coach that took it from big, big depths to the middle of the Big Ten. Since, the Hoosiers are on their third coach and only now look to be returning to that level.

 

N_M_C and crimson, you get it.

The people in Minnesota, they don't.

 

I've seen the basketball equivalent in the past year ... a program and its fans wallowing in self-delusion. Should be interesting to see who they think they can get - or who's crazy enough to take the reins.

 

They have that new stadium coming in '09 - i.e. corporate sponsorships, luxury suites to sell. I guess they figure a change at head coach will help spur optimism (and sales). And I bet a lot of assistant coaches who have never been head coaches would be more than happy to take that job.

 

Do you think that Minnesota will finally get through on the telephone line and finally get John Wooden?

They missed out on him the first time around when he took the UCLA job. Minnesota's line got disconnected due to a storm to offer him the basketball job and when UCLA called, he accepted.

 

At the presser, Maturi (the AD) talked about how the U "needed a new vision, a new voice and new leadership to bring a football championship to the University of Minnesota." I'd set my sights a little lower, like a winning record, wins in the Big Ten, being able to beat (not just not lose to) North Dakota State.

The mere fact that a coach takes a team to a bowl isn't that big in an era when more than 50 percent of Division I football teams go to one.

 

Dreadful timing, at the least.

 

Please. Mason had been preaching about taking the U to a higher level. That equates to Big Ten title, finishing in the upper division of the league and going to a New Year's Day bowl or better yet head to San Antonio. Beating ND State 10-9 does not, in any way, mean being able to beat them. It means that you have better vanquish their asses back to Fargo and hang a half-a-hundred on the scoreboard.

Just being good enough isn't, well, good enough. Too many talented players, decent facilites, a new crib in '09, and a good fan base for Mason to dick it away year after year in Big Ten play.

 

But.. but... but... always-right-troll-fudgepack said that Mason wouldn't go... I read his words on another thread, so it must be true...

 

A stadium that will be one of the smallest (45,000) in the Big Ten?
A program not known for being a football power in the modern era?
A team that presently plays in a 3/4-empty dome each week?
Minnesota is a lot closer to Temple than Michigan.

 

If you thought Glen Mason was genuine about anything, you need to adjust your bullshit detector.

Good riddance to bad rubbish...