Monday, December 6, 2010

Who did you think would coach the Gophers?

It's amazing to hear the negative reaction about Jerry Kill's hiring as the football coach at the University of Minnesota.
You'd think the new coach has no chance of ever being successful with the Gophers. Why?
Because he's never coached at a major program? Because he's never won a national championship?
Kill has had a nice career, making incremental steps toward this job. His Northern Illlinois team was certainly better than the Gophers this season so why couldn't Kill do a better job at Minnesota?
It should be clear now that no big-time coach, outside of of Mike Leach, wanted to be the Gophers coach. This job is a coach-killer. No coach has left this job for a better one since Lou Holtz broke the faithful's hearts by jumping to Notre Dame.
It's time for the fans to realize that this is not a good job. You're playing in a power conference against a couple of the top teams in the country. Adding Nebraska next season isn't going to help the record. It's a program that lacks any vibe, either from the administration or the public.
The Tim Brewster experiment was such a failure that the program is years away from being competitive in the Big Ten. 
Coaches with options don't come here, which is why Leach publicly lobbied for the job. You have to take a chance on an up-and-comer who's willing to work hard to build something from scratch.
Is that Kill? We'll find out. History suggests that no one can make the Gophers into perennial winners.
Why not give Kill a chance? He can't do much worse than the coaches here for the last 40 years.

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