Of course the gophers should fire Mason. I started saying this last year after the collapse at Michigan and the destruction at the hands of MSU the following week. It is not an emotional reaction to losing to Wisconsin or PSU, this evidence on this coach is in and as long as he stays Minnesota will languish at the middle to bottom of the conference. Mason is a poor sideline/gameday coach as the Wisconsin game clearly shows and his history of late game melt-downs is unacceptable. He did not even think to try to get Wisc to jump offsides on fourth down and then call a timeout if it doesn't work. I know its small and seemingly trivial but it shows that this guy is not a thinker at all and I do not have any confidence in him to manage a lead in the 4th quarter unless we are up by 35 with less than 5 minutes to go. Mason will continue to get the occasional (rare) surprising win - like Mich this year, Ala last year, but he cannot sustain momentum or win on a consistent basis, thus we have yet to win 6 big ten games in a season under this moron. I would think that a 20 year veteran head coach could think to sneak the punter on the field with the regular offense to keep Wisconsin's kick returner off the field and then punt and let the ball bounce and roll to take time off the clock and instruct his line to hold Wisc so they have no chance to block the kick. But does Mason think of this...NO! In addition, his inability to recruit defense or address the D in any way over the last 5 years is sign that he is a poor judge of D talent. He publicly stated in 2004 that it would be the best D in his tenure- what a joke! How many 3rd and 7,8,9,10 + has minnesota given up in the last 5 years? Our stopping percentage is better at 3rd and 3 or less than it is 3rd and 7 or more- ridiculous! The basic ponit here is that Mason does a nice job making a program competitive with his 1970s Woody Hayes style of football but if Minn wants to get into the top tier of the conference and be a consistent challenger to the top teams in the same way that Wisc has been under Alverez or Iowa is under Fer. (or fry before him) then Mason has to go. As much as I loved and savored that Michigan win it is not enough and Saturday's melt-down should not be surprising to anyone. On a side note I just talked to Ron (from the census) and he said this last loss he will remember forever! because it hurt that much. I said you can thank Mason for that horrible memory and he said Mason doesn't get enough credit for turning this program around. I then went on to explain the 5 options Mason had on 4th down that would have been better than what Mason decided to do and he looked at me like I had 4 heads. I seriously think that casual gopher fans and some rabid ones too have been so beaten down over the last 40 years that Mason actually looks like a very successful coach to them. I know that the other legs of the gopher 3 are more supportive of Mason and fearful of a return to the Big ten basement but I think I would rather risk that than continuing to go 3-5 in conference with one collapse a year and settling for a trip to Nashville. Plus the comments Mason made after the game really infuriate me- you win 50% of those games and you lose 50% of those games. Are you kidding me Mason?! Show me those other 15 games where the other team blew a big lead in the 4th quarter and we won the game since you have been here- I can think of one. Plus he publicly blamed the punter rather than doing what a good coach would do and blame himself even if he thought it was the punters fault just to make the poor kid feel better. This guy pisses me off. I feel sorry for the players b/c they have played really well in many games only to have Mason lose it for them. I could go on but it's time for Mason to return to the MAC and leave us alone.
After reading that I almost agree that Mason should be fired. But the reality is Minnesota would be in danger of returning to the permanent BT cellar. I still think the bet thing that could happen would be a 10-2 season or so, and then Mason could move on to any number of dream jobs that he has in mind and the Gophers could capitalize on that success to hire another coach.
4 comments:
Of course the gophers should fire Mason. I started saying this last year after the collapse at Michigan and the destruction at the hands of MSU the following week. It is not an emotional reaction to losing to Wisconsin or PSU, this evidence on this coach is in and as long as he stays Minnesota will languish at the middle to bottom of the conference. Mason is a poor sideline/gameday coach as the Wisconsin game clearly shows and his history of late game melt-downs is unacceptable. He did not even think to try to get Wisc to jump offsides on fourth down and then call a timeout if it doesn't work. I know its small and seemingly trivial but it shows that this guy is not a thinker at all and I do not have any confidence in him to manage a lead in the 4th quarter unless we are up by 35 with less than 5 minutes to go. Mason will continue to get the occasional (rare) surprising win - like Mich this year, Ala last year, but he cannot sustain momentum or win on a consistent basis, thus we have yet to win 6 big ten games in a season under this moron. I would think that a 20 year veteran head coach could think to sneak the punter on the field with the regular offense to keep Wisconsin's kick returner off the field and then punt and let the ball bounce and roll to take time off the clock and instruct his line to hold Wisc so they have no chance to block the kick. But does Mason think of this...NO! In addition, his inability to recruit defense or address the D in any way over the last 5 years is sign that he is a poor judge of D talent. He publicly stated in 2004 that it would be the best D in his tenure- what a joke! How many 3rd and 7,8,9,10 + has minnesota given up in the last 5 years? Our stopping percentage is better at 3rd and 3 or less than it is 3rd and 7 or more- ridiculous! The basic ponit here is that Mason does a nice job making a program competitive with his 1970s Woody Hayes style of football but if Minn wants to get into the top tier of the conference and be a consistent challenger to the top teams in the same way that Wisc has been under Alverez or Iowa is under Fer. (or fry before him) then Mason has to go. As much as I loved and savored that Michigan win it is not enough and Saturday's melt-down should not be surprising to anyone. On a side note I just talked to Ron (from the census) and he said this last loss he will remember forever! because it hurt that much. I said you can thank Mason for that horrible memory and he said Mason doesn't get enough credit for turning this program around. I then went on to explain the 5 options Mason had on 4th down that would have been better than what Mason decided to do and he looked at me like I had 4 heads. I seriously think that casual gopher fans and some rabid ones too have been so beaten down over the last 40 years that Mason actually looks like a very successful coach to them. I know that the other legs of the gopher 3 are more supportive of Mason and fearful of a return to the Big ten basement but I think I would rather risk that than continuing to go 3-5 in conference with one collapse a year and settling for a trip to Nashville. Plus the comments Mason made after the game really infuriate me- you win 50% of those games and you lose 50% of those games. Are you kidding me Mason?! Show me those other 15 games where the other team blew a big lead in the 4th quarter and we won the game since you have been here- I can think of one. Plus he publicly blamed the punter rather than doing what a good coach would do and blame himself even if he thought it was the punters fault just to make the poor kid feel better. This guy pisses me off. I feel sorry for the players b/c they have played really well in many games only to have Mason lose it for them. I could go on but it's time for Mason to return to the MAC and leave us alone.
Good post! I would fear the replacement, though.
After reading that I almost agree that Mason should be fired. But the reality is Minnesota would be in danger of returning to the permanent BT cellar. I still think the bet thing that could happen would be a 10-2 season or so, and then Mason could move on to any number of dream jobs that he has in mind and the Gophers could capitalize on that success to hire another coach.
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