Not too many Minnesota Gopher fans wept upon hearing that Tim Brewster's woeful three-year stint as head football coach ended Sunday with his long-overdue firing. If there were tears, they were tears of joy.
Now Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi says he wants to hire a high-profile replacement. "I've asked Tubby Smith (the Gopher men's basketball coach) if he wanted to coach football, but he's declined," Maturi joked to the Associated Press. "But we're out here to find a Tubby Smith. We're out here to find somebody that people can recognize, people have confidence in ... to bring instant credibility and notoriety to the football program."
Maturi struck gold when Tubby Smith landed in his lap a few years back, but those were a unique set of circumstances -- Tubby needed Minnesota nearly as badly as the Gophers needed him -- and the basketball program was not nearly in the
shambles the football team finds itself in.
It's a nice goal to land a household name in Minnesota, but I doubt Urban Meyer (Florida), Nick Saban (Alabama) or Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) will be calling this week. And it's doubtful any coach of their caliber would be willing to stake his reputation on the extreme makeover the Gophers need. Retired NFL coach -- and former Gopher -- Tony Dungy already turned Maturi down ... very politely, I'm sure.
ADVERTISEMENT
That's why Maturi should focus on landing a coach who will become a household name, not one who already is. He should make a call to arguably the top Division II football coach in the nation -- Minnesota Duluth's Bob Nielson. Nielson may be content leading his powerhouse Bulldogs and directing the school's successful athletics program, but he needs to be on Maturi's short list of coaching candidates.
Nielson's resume should jump to the top of that list: a national championship, two perfect regular seasons (11-0), three NCAA playoff appearances (including last season's run to the NCAA quarterfinals) and a winning percentage over .750. Don't forget that the Bulldogs were 4-6 in 2007 before Nielson returned from a four-year hiatus to guide them to a perfect season and the school's first national championship. And that's on top of his athletic director duties. With Nielson at the helm, the only drama surrounding most UMD games is whether the Bulldogs will win by six or seven touchdowns.
Understandably, choosing a Division II coach to lead a Division I Big Ten program isn't a sexy pick for deep-pocketed alums and boosters or frustrated fans, but how sexy are Ohio State's Jim Tressel and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly? Both coached highly successful lower-tier programs before advancing to the top of their profession in the D-I ranks, Tressel at Division I-AA Youngstown State (Ohio) and Kelly at Division II Grand Valley State (Michigan). Nielson knows a little something about Grand Valley -- his Bulldogs upset the Lakers on their own turf en route to their 2008 national title.
Nielson would bring exactly what the Gophers need -- a coach who recruits well, wrings every ounce of talent out of his players and hires talented assistant coaches to lead them. Plus, Nielson's cool, consistent demeanor, steady hand and disciplined leadership would be a welcome change from Brewster, who sounded more like a used car salesman than a college football coach.
At Minnesota, Nielson would immediately work on the Gophers' biggest problem -- the constant siphoning of homegrown talent into other major programs. He'd install top-flight coordinators and begin creating resource-rich recruiting pockets around the country like he's done around the region at UMD (the Bloomer-to-UMD pipeline being one example). He'd surely turn around the embarrassing Big Ten program and make it a competitive team again.
Sure, the demands of being a Big Ten football coach far outweigh those he faces right now, but coaching a highly successful football team and overseeing an entire athletic department with aplomb show Nielson can multitask and handle the stresses that would come his way. He wouldn't have to worry about anything other than football at Minnesota.
The last thing UMD wants is to lose Nielson and have to find a football coach and an athletic director to replace him, but that isn't Maturi's problem. He has one more chance to find the right football coach for Minnesota or he'll likely be peddling resumes to the far reaches of the NCAA along with Brewster.
He needs a winning coach with a proven track record. He needs to hire Bob Nielson.
ADVERTISEMENT
Contact News Tribune sports editor Rick Lubbers at rlubbers@duluthnews.com or at (218) 723-5317.
