I’ve never been confused for a Robert Bruininks / Joel Maturi lover. When writing about blaming Bruininks for the slide in high profile sports, it got me reminiscing about Glen Mason, in a good way. I remember being really frustrated with the Gophers in 2006 (especially the NDSU escape) but now I find myself pining for his return, much like you might think about an ex-girlfriend.
You know that there are reasons why she is an ex, but you remember all the good things and compare her to subsequent girlfriends. Yeah, she nagged me about my clothes and how I didn't take her out enough but man she was better in the sack than the other girls I've been with. You have that mental image of the best picture she ever took with you as being how she looked back then. She hung out with you and your boys at the clubs, pool halls, the beach, etc. You remember her for the good things and don't dwell on the bad. That's how I'm feeling about Mase right now.
The return won’t happen so I’ll just look back and ponder on if Mase really should have been let go and what the reasons for his dismissal were.
The team hit a plateau
2003 season – A solid start with decisive victories over OOC opponents and NW and took a game from PSU. Then we suffered through the heart breaking 3 point loss against Michigan and a letdown the next week against MSU. Thrashed ILL and Indy and we watch Rhys Lloyd kick a game winning FG and race his teammates to the Axe. There was a let down against Iowa but we beat Oregon in the Sun Bowl. Victories against Oregon, PSU and Wisconsin. Solid victories over NW, IL and Indy and we ran the OOC schedule. With a 10-3 finish (5-3 in the B1G) and we should have gone to a January 1 bowl game but were snubbed yet again.
2004 season – A solid start with decisive victories over OOC and NW and then took a game from PSU, 3 point loss to Michigan and a letdown the next week against MSU. Any of that sound familiar? We blanked ILL and then fell to Indy and Wisconsin and fell just short against Iowa. Despite the poor finish to the season the Gophers ran on an Alabama defense that was supposedly impossible to run against. Victories over PSU and Alabama are always good and we just fell short against Michigan and Iowa. The loss to Indy was tough to swallow. We finish 7-5 (3-5 in the B1G) for the season. Pretty much the only difference was we beat Indy and Wisconsin in 2003 and not in 2004.
2005 season – Another breeze through the easy OOC games and Mase finally beats Joe Tiller. We get stomped by PSU (and lost Brandon Owens) but bounced back the next week to finally get the Michigan monkey off our back and hoisted the LBJ high above our heads. Mase had us knocking at the door and the third time was apparently the charm. As glorious as the Michigan victory was it was equally painful to see us squander away a chance to regain the Axe the next week. A loss to Ohio State and a couple victories against Indy and MSU and we’re looking good until Iowa hits us in the mouth and we couldn’t get up. The team wasn’t exactly inspired to play against Virginia as Mase’s contract situation was making even bomb squad guys sweat a little. The team lost that game but signed Mase to a new 5 year contract. Victories over Michigan, Purdue and MSU are good. Without playing NW and ILL we finished 7-5 (4-4 in the B1G) which wasn’t too bad in my book.
2006 season – This season started just like the last three years where they tore up a weaker non-conference opponent in the opener. Then they took on a very talented Cal team lead by Desean Jackson and Marshawn Lynch and couldn’t keep up. Crushed another non-AQ opponent and it was time to start the B1G season. Michigan took back the LBJ in a game where the Gophs were never really in it. Then PSU came in and the refs handed them a W on a non-exist pass interference call. The Gophs started to nosedive after that stuffing a squeeked victory over D1AA NDSU in between two schellackings at the hands of Wisconsin and Ohio State. Staring at the possibility of not making a bowl game for the first time in four years the Gophers rallied and won their last three regular season games against MSU, Indy and Iowa. Their reward? The right to play the worst matchup they possibly could in the high powered offense of Texas Tech. Despite a fast start, the Gophers couldn’t hold on and lost in an embarrassing fashion in overtime. Joel Maturi was so disappointed with the lack of fire shown on the sidelines that he fired Grinnin’ Glen. We finished with a 6-7 record (3-5 in the B1G) with victories over Iowa and MSU.
Had we hit a plateau? The finishes of right around .500 in the B1G could indicate that we had and we never finished higher than 4th in the B1G. The Gophers hadn’t really been relevant in the B1G for decades. We had lost respectability amongst out peers before Mase but we currently had some. Mase beat every team in the B1G in his 10 years. Ohio State once and Michigan once with two other very competitive games, Penn State three victories, 4 W’s over Iowa and only two victories over Wisconsin. Granted most of these wins listed were in 2003 or before. Perhaps a better question is had we hit our ceiling in the Metrodome? Mase had closed the chasm that existed between Michigan and Minnesota into a small divide. The problem was the neighbors to the east and south. Captain Kirk has won two conference championships in 2002 and 2004 during Mase’s tenure and Wisconsin has played in three Rose Bowls since Mase started coaching at Minnesota. There’s really no good reason why those two schools can have the success that they have had and Minnesota cannot, which is what many people were frustrated with. Enough where it was justifiable to fire Mase? Probably not.
His recruiting wasn’t up to par
The general consensus was that Mase had alienated the majority of high school coaches in Minnesota. Due to this strained relationship, Mase was unable to effectively recruit Minnesota athletes with other viable options. He was lazy on the recruiting trail and pretty much disappeared in the off-season choosing to work on his golf game as opposed to selling recruits on Minnesota.
Let’s take a look at the instate recruits and their recruitments:
Class of 2002
John Stocco – Offers from Wisconsin and Minnesota. He said “Wisconsin is close, but not too close” and chose to be a Badger.
Mark Setterstrom – only offer was from Minnesota and he committed the summer before his senior year
Brandon Archer – offers from Illinois, KSU, Iowa and Minnesota. Ultimately chose KSU over Illinois and cancelled his OV to the U. Rumblings were that how his brother was treated as a U player had to do with his lack of interest.
Anthony Longe – picked Illinois over an offer from the U. Didn’t seem to have too much interest in the U
Brian Sykora – chose Minnesota over Wisconsin whom he had visited
Tyson Swaggert, Mo Buchanan, Brian Goblirsch and Fletcher Terrell all chose the U as their only offer.
Matt Spaeth – chose the U over offers from Nebraska, Wisconsin and Alabama
Scott Stephenson – chose the U over offers from North Carolina, Iowa, Purdue and Kansas St.
Joe Ainslie – picked the U over an offer from Pitt
12 guys in the class of 2002 and Mase landed nine of them. Stocco stung a bit as did Longe and Archer at the time. But the class was still fairly solid from an in-state perspective. Outside the Minnesota borders was another story. Greg Eslinger proved to be a great camp find. Greg Pruitt Jr had a nice offer list but he never got his act together in the classroom. Anthony Montgomery panned out but his signing wasn’t exactly considered a victory. Aaron Hosack did OK for a JUCO WR and Brian Cupito turned into a three year starter for the Gophers. This class wasn’t heralded but did produce some nice players.
Class of 2003
Trevor Laws picked ND over Michigan and Iowa. Minnesota wasn’t much of a factor in his recruitment.
John Carlson chose ND over the U and Stanford. The U was in the mix but couldn’t compete against ND.
Chris Moore chose Duke over offers from Iowa and NW. Mase was interested but never pulled the trigger on an offer for Moore.
Ryan Harris picked ND over offers from Michigan and Miami. The Gophs were in the mix for a while but didn’t make the final cut.
Tom Busch picked Iowa over an offer from Minnesota. He also had offers from ISU and Cal.
Marcus Coleman picked Wisconsin over offers from Iowa, Illinois, KSU and Minnesota. The quote of “I've pretty much decided I want to leave the state. I won't be going to Minnesota more than likely” could be taken that he wanted to get away from home or from Mase.
Steve Shidell, Jeff Sundsmo and Mark Mullaney picked Minnesota as their only offer.
John Shevlin picked Minnesota over an offer from Northwestern.
Tony Brinkhaus picked Minnesota over an offer from Air Force. He picked Minnesota because they wanted him on the DL not at OL.
11 guys in the class of 2003 and Mase landed five of them. It was a strong class in-state but on the other hand this was Mase’s highest ranked recruiting class in the Rivals era with guys like Brandon Owens, Ernie Wheelwright, Laurence Maroney, Justin Valentine, Micah Rucker, Amir Pinnix and Paris Hamilton. Other recruits of note that we were heavily involved with included Jerome Jackson, Jon Jackson and Greg Bracey.
Class of 2004
Lydon Murtha was committed to the Gophers for a very long time but something happened on his official visit and he decided to sign with Nebraska instead.
Brandon Robinson chose BC over offers from Stanford, UCLA, Vandy and Colorado. Minnesota was really not a player in his recruitment.
Jerod Arlich picked Stanford over a Gopher offer and it seemed like a close race between the two schools.
John Carlson, Dom Barber, Steve Moore, Willie VanDeSteeg and Tommy Leavitt chose the Gophers as they were their only offer.
Nate Swift chose Nebraska as it was his only offer although Minnesota was close to offering as well.
Everett Pedescleaux picked the Gophers over offers to play hoops from Tulsa, SIU and Northern Iowa.
Joe Vanstrom picked ISU as it was his only offer
Tony Mortsensen picked the Gophers over an offer from Wyoming.
Tony Sparkman picked Illinois over an offer from U Conn. He wanted a Gopher offer but it never surfaced.
Non-Minnesotan recruits of note included Leland Jones, Nhemie Theodore, Hussain Shakir, Gary Russell and Jack Simmons. We had a shot at Courtney Grixby, Lorenzo Washington, Taylor Mehlhaff and John Thompson. The fact that Mase brought in 5 QB type athletes was certainly a head scratcher and none of them panned out for the Gophers. The class wasn’t even good by many standards. This is the class that fans remember as being “Mason-esque”
Class of 2005
Rafael Eubanks picked Iowa over offers from the U, ND, Miami, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Minnesota came a close second in the race but runner-up finishes don’t help you on the field. He was part of the great Iowa recruiting class of 2005 which was appealing for him.
Joey Hiben really wanted no part of the Gophers as he wanted to get away for school. Hiben verballed to Purdue before opening back up to Pur, Stanford and ND before ultimately picking ND.
Walker Ashley strung along USC, PSU, Ohio State and the Gophers before selecting USC on national Signing Day.
Jay Thomas picked the Gophers over an offer from NIU. He was the #18 RB in the country.
Marcel Jones picked the Gophers very early over an offer from Wisconsin.
James Laurinaitis initially selected the Gophers but later switched his commitment to Ohio State. This marked the second year in a row that the Gophers lost a big verbal to a helmet program.
Ned Tavale committed to the Gophers over offers from ISU, Illinois and UNLV.
Ryan Ruckdashel selected the Gophers over offers from ISU and MSU.
Reggie Rock had an offer from the Gophers but things cooled off for him when he didn’t have a qualifying test score in December. Iowa State signed him once he got his qualifying score.
Paul Backowski initially picked Indiana over an offer from Wyoming but switched to Gary Barnett’s Colorado Buffaloes once they offered. He really seemed to want a Gopher offer.
Eric Decker accepted a summer camp offer which was his only offer at the time.
Chris Joppru selected Utah without any other offers.
Nate Triplett and Matt Stommes chose the Gophers as they were their only offers.
The 2005 class should have been a much better class than usual due to the success of the 2003 season. They say that when you have a good season that you reap the benefit with the next recruiting class. Since the class of 2005 started getting recruited in February 2004 this was going to be the class to watch.
While Mase didn’t end up with a Top 50 class, he was knocking at the door and was really close to a breakthrough class. It was right down to the end for Eubanks, Ashley, Jarret Brown and McDonald’s AA Ryan Bain. We had a verbal from James Laurinaitis and managed to steal Alex Daniels out of Ohio State’s backyard as a little payback for steal Laurinaitis. Richie Rich the #5 all-purpose RB in the country was practically begging Mase for a scholarship. We also signed Steve Davis, Dom Jones, Keith Massey, Mike Chambers, Boyd Coleman and Eric Decker.
Class of 2006
Jordon McMichael was a one-time Rivals 100 recruit but never proved enough to Mase to earn an offer. He chose BC over offers from Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
Matt Carufel was another Rivals 100 player who had offers from all across the nation but wanted to go to ND all along.
Adam Weber picked the Gophers over offers from Oregon, Wisconsin, MiamiOH and Western Michigan.
Brandon Hoey picked Wisconsin over offers from Minnesota, Neb, Arky, Mizzou, Colo, Indy among others.
Kim Royston picked Wisconsin over the Gophers in what has become a six year old joke on Gopher Illustrated. Oregon, Kansas, Indy and ISU also offered Royston.
Sean McWhirter selected the Gophers over offers from MSU, ISU, NW and CSU.
Alexander Robinson chose ISU over a possible slow play from Minnesota and an offer from Kentucky.
Tommy Becker chose the Gophers over offers from ISU and Kansas.
Karl Klug picked Iowa as his only offer.
Eric Ellestad, Andy Brinkhaus and Justin Jenson picked Minnesota as their only offer.
Isaac Anderson picked Wisconsin over offers from Minnesota, Iowa State and U Conn.
The class of 2006 wasn’t a stellar class for the Gophers and it wasn’t too surprising given that Mase was coaching in the final year of his contract without an extension. Recruits are likely going to balk at the chance to commit to a school when they are not certain of whom the coach is going to be. The odds of signing a blue chip recruit under those circumstances was between slim and none. The slim odds that we had hit on Aundre Henderson changed to none when his parents got a divorce and he chose to play closer to home. We also had an early start with Jeff Cumberland and Mark Jackson that didn’t pay off. We did have some highly ranked visitors come along but none of them really considered the Gophers at the end. Once Mase did sign his extension he was able to steal Robert McField away from Mizzou. There seemed to be more genuine interest in Minnesota from blue chip recruits but if you’re always a bridesmaid and never the bride then you’re not going to get to where you want to be.
Class of 2007
Mase decided to get a jump start on the class of 2007. Seeing many of the top in-state guys leave, Mase decided to change how he approached recruiting Minnesota kids. At a March junior day Mase offered Anthony Jacobs, Andre Tate, Trey Davis, Phil Haig, Shane Potter and Ryan Wynn and received commitments from them shortly after. While in the past Mase had waited to extend offers he finally gave into what other schools were doing and it paid off nicely for him.
Ryan Orton, Chris Bunders both earned offers at summer camp and committed shortly after that.
David Gilreath was a one time Gopher commit but when Mase was fired GIlreath switched over the Wisconsin. That may have been in the works if Mase was still the coach or not.
Bryce McNaul and Blake Sorensen both wanted Gopher offers but never got them from Mase and ended up signing with Northwestern and Wisconsin respectively.
Broderick Binns chose Iowa over many offers including the Gophers.
The new recruiting philosophy really paid off for Mase. The fact that TCF bank stadium plans became a reality also was paying off on the recruiting trail. The Gophers had hit pay dirt with some lower rated recruits named Greg Jones and JJ Watt who went on to become a future All-American and the #11 NFL draft pick respectively. Other commitments/recruits of note were JUCO LB Devin Bishop, Cedric Everson, Vic Reynolds, Ernest Owusu, Robert Hughes, Sean Cattouse and Andre Anderson.
Historic Collapses were a staple during the Mase regime
When you think of the big collapses during Mase’s 10 years, the big ones seem to be Michigan in 2003, Wisconsin in 2005 and the biggest choke job in the history of bowl games against Texas Tech, which cost Mase his job. But what about the other times that Mase grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory?
How about blowing a 24-0 lead against NCST in the MicronPC Bowl?
Blowing a 14 point lead against NW in the 2000 homecoming game where NW successfully executed a hail mary, as time expired, to win the game.
The 2001 Purdue game where we’re up 3 with 17 seconds to go and Purdue has the ball at their own 19 yard line and no timeouts but that is no match for Mase’s prevent defense.
The 2006 PSU game where it goes into overtime and we get the ball first score a TD and then miss the XP. We get PSU to 4th down and there’s an incomplete pass so Gopher fans celebrate another victory over PSU. But wait, there’s a flag. A totally bogus pass interference call (which the B1G office later apologized for) which gave PSU a fresh set of downs and an undeserved victory.
How about the lesser talked about Michigan loss in 2004 where we’re up 24-17 in the 4th quarter but manage to choke another game away as we lose 24-27.
Mase’s first year he’s playing #1 rated PSU and he has a 15-3 lead in the 4th quarter. Gophs lose 15-16.
Then there are the losses that are tough to swallow such as losing to Ohio (no, not Ohio State, just Ohio) 23-17 in 2000. Losing to Houston 43-45 at the Dome. A Houston team that ended up going 3-8 that season. And let’s not forget getting spanked by Toledo 7-38 in 2001
The narrow victories over what were seemingly outmatched opponents like a 20-17 W over Memphis in 1997, the 1998 17-14 squeeker over Arkansas St. and the 2006 W over NDSU.
There are some painful memories here, but nothing too out of the ordinary when you coach at a school for 10 years. 10 years and 121 games gives you a lot of opportunities for heartbreak.
Fan / Media Relations
This is where it is tough to defend Mason. Even before the Texas Tech debacle, the fans were not behind Mase. The students were steadfast in their “Fire Mason” chants. The local media didn’t like Mase and his “I don’t need you” attitude he displayed towards them. It would have been an uphill battle to get fans back on his side, perhaps something like an 8 or 9 win season.
Maturi and Bruininks received plenty of e-mails hating on Mase after the TT loss. I think the administration were shitting their pants at the prospect of entering the TCF era with so many bad vibes between the fans and the coaching staff. Rather than risking TCF starting off on the wrong foot, Maturi and Bruininks decided to start fresh with a new regime. Someone with charisma who could sell the dream to the Gopher faithful. January isn’t the time to start a coaching search when you don’t have any viable candidates lined up. That was a poor choice.
My feeling
Mase had the Gophers moving in the right direction. We were consistently in the 4th-7th range while playing in the Dome. The move to TCF alone could have really helped take the program to the next level. We had an offensive identity and perhaps the necessary recruits to be able to play something that is reminiscent of defense.
Yes, things had become stale around the program and some changes could have helped that. Bray left for the ASU DC job and rumors were that Mase was thinking about Jack Brewer as a replacement. That could have sparked some things. Letting Luke Tressel go for someone who could recruit and had more experience coaching WR’s definitely could have helped.
But the answer was not to fire Mase when it all went down.
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