Kathlyn HotynskiHow important is a coach to a team’s success? I used to think it all depended on the type of players. Lately, I’ve begun to think a little differently about these types of situations and why so many professional teams are changing coaches so quickly these days.
A year ago I thought Bill Cowher would never leave the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, this year, he did. And the Steelers replaced him with a young defensive coordinator by the name of Mike Tomlin, whom Minnesota Vikings fans got to know very well this year. Well, at least from a statistical standpoint, as the Vikings had the No. 1 rushing defense in the NFL.
Usually when a coordinator leaves the team for another head coaching job, we think, “Congratulations, you’re moving up in the world.” In this situation, Vikings fans are left with one of the most conservative play calling coaches in the league and without a great young mind in the NFL.
This just reminds me of Tony Dungy, who will be coaching in the Super Bowl for the Indianapolis Colts. Yes, he did work for Minnesota once upon a time.
So, does Glen Mason ring a bell? Dan Monson? How about Dwane Casey? Wisconsin fans, are you lost a bit? Mike Sherman, remember him? He did fairly well in Green Bay until the 2005-06 season, when the Packers absolutely stunk, and then he got canned. There’s a pattern here, if you don’t see it.
These jobs don’t have a lot of security and while some fans complain about coaches having their bags packed and being sent home too soon to watch the games on television, the coaches know the business. Job security applies to a very limited percentage of professional coaches these days. In college sports it’s a lot higher, but if you’re at an elite program, you better keep winning.
Mason getting the pink slip was great for a non-Minnesota Gophers football fan like myself. The last time I honestly paid attention to this team was a few years ago (not too many) when Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney were handling the backfield and my high school classmate Rhys Lloyd was doing the punting and kicking.
Mason looked like he finally got the team headed in the right direction. Then he started settling for mediocre seasons again. Yeah, good luck keeping your job. College football is all about recruiting and Mason was nothing more than average when it came to that. So here comes Tim Brewster. They call him a “master recruiter.” I love it. I better see a good product in a few years.
Monson got out at a good time. I can’t remember where I heard this, but some commentator said it would be interesting to see the Gophers in a NCAA Division III league right now. That’s how bad things have gotten. We’re curious to see how the Gophers would play against teams in lower divisions. I mean, even Winona State beat the “Goofers” in an exhibition earlier this year at Williams Arena.
Badgers senior guard Kammron Taylor shouldn’t even be playing for Wisconsin right now. Where were the Gophers recruiters on that one? The first rule in recruiting – keep the in-state guys at home. Mason and Monson clearly couldn’t do that.
By the way, while I quietly cheer for the Minnesota Wild and Gophers hockey team, I will never come out and say I’m a huge hockey fan. So while Badger basketball fans enjoy their No. 2 ranking right now, a No. 1 ranking for Gopher hockey really doesn’t do any good when the rest of the teams stink.
Onto the team I adore the most – the Timberwolves. Last week, Casey got the can and assistant Randy Wittman was promoted. Hmm, anyone else see this coming? Wittman was an assistant for the Wolves at two other points in his coaching career and was brought back this past summer to be Casey’s top assistant. The writing was on the wall, people. Casey was even coaching a .500 team that some people felt was overachieving. As soon as the Wolves hit a losing streak, bang, Casey is gone. There’s your job security as a professional coach.
Yeah, the teams will continue to pay the rest of your millions of dollars on your contract, but we’re going to hand off the coaching duties to someone else. By the way, I’m in full support of Wittman coaching, just in case you were wondering.
I’ve already taken up enough space in this paper to talk about the Wolves before, but this is reality and I’m having a tough time sleeping at night. I will say thanks to Kevin Garnett and the rest of the Wolves, I slept great Monday night after their win against the Phoenix Suns to stop that 17-game win streak.
Final thought: you know Momma said days like these would be tough, but as a Minnesotan going to school in Wisconsin and all these coaching changes, Momma is tired of hearing me complain about all of this. Besides, the only team Momma likes is the Minnesota Twins and that’s because they got Ron Gardenhire coaching and Joe Mauer smiling.
Weise is a senior broadcast journalism major and staff writer of The Spectator.
