If Tracy Claeys did not send out the tweet that he did, do you think he is still the coach at Minnesota today?
Mason: "I really believed, I'm not so sure about just the tweet but if he handled the boycott from a stronger position. And lets not forget, he knew that boycott was coming and when it actually came out I don't believe he was even in Minneapolis. He decided to travel out to San Diego for the press conference for the Holiday Bowl. And I think Jerry (Kill) would agree with me that if I think that is coming as a head coach or a more experienced head coach I would say I'm not going to any press conference I better be right here trying to do damage control.
A long with it there have been side issues, there have been articles leading up to that the attendance in football was down this year. Then after the boycott it was coming out that especially after the petition that 70% of the season ticket holders were threatening not to renew their season ticket orders. You talk about the new facility, they're building that facility but they are not done fundraising. I know for a fact that fundraising isn't going as well as they would like, there were some potential contributors that because of this issue are putting their donations on hold right now. The way this whole thing was handled by Minnesota was very poor. You can point a finger at Tracy Claeys but you can also point a finger at a lot of other people as well.
I think it's a classic example of how not to handle a situation. How often have we talked about, you know you don't want to take a one day bad story and turn it into a two day bad story. This just goes on and on and on and on. You know when you talked about Tracy taking that three year contract, I know Tracy extremely well he was a student assistant for me at Kansas. While he was at the office one day I stopped in and said "Tracy let me give you advice as a friend, I said do not take this job under any circumstances unless you get a five year contract." He said "Coach I'll take it under any conditions I can." I said you're making a big mistake, they're in a bind, you got more leverage than you think, and they are not willing to pay the big bucks. If they pass on you they are going to go outside public opinion right now and they are going to have to hire an unknown assistant coach like a Tim Brewster. And he's not going to come for less than a five year contract, so you are exactly where you want it.
He took it on a three year basis, and I said there is nothing you can do about it now. But what you need to do is win at least 8 games, then hire me as your agent so I can get you a big time contract, and I won't even charge you. When it goes down again he won nine football games and by their standards and as many times as they have changed their thoughts so to speak. Dave I heard you talk about them being compared to Wisconsin, the other program that the Gopher faithful are compared to is Iowa. Iowa has had three athletic directors since 1968, they've had two football coaches since 1978. When you count up the number of athletic directors, I mean I had three during my tenure, my ten year tenure. When you look at the number of athletic directors, either full time or interim, and now the number of football coaches since I have been there it is alarming."
Mason: "I really believed, I'm not so sure about just the tweet but if he handled the boycott from a stronger position. And lets not forget, he knew that boycott was coming and when it actually came out I don't believe he was even in Minneapolis. He decided to travel out to San Diego for the press conference for the Holiday Bowl. And I think Jerry (Kill) would agree with me that if I think that is coming as a head coach or a more experienced head coach I would say I'm not going to any press conference I better be right here trying to do damage control.
A long with it there have been side issues, there have been articles leading up to that the attendance in football was down this year. Then after the boycott it was coming out that especially after the petition that 70% of the season ticket holders were threatening not to renew their season ticket orders. You talk about the new facility, they're building that facility but they are not done fundraising. I know for a fact that fundraising isn't going as well as they would like, there were some potential contributors that because of this issue are putting their donations on hold right now. The way this whole thing was handled by Minnesota was very poor. You can point a finger at Tracy Claeys but you can also point a finger at a lot of other people as well.
I think it's a classic example of how not to handle a situation. How often have we talked about, you know you don't want to take a one day bad story and turn it into a two day bad story. This just goes on and on and on and on. You know when you talked about Tracy taking that three year contract, I know Tracy extremely well he was a student assistant for me at Kansas. While he was at the office one day I stopped in and said "Tracy let me give you advice as a friend, I said do not take this job under any circumstances unless you get a five year contract." He said "Coach I'll take it under any conditions I can." I said you're making a big mistake, they're in a bind, you got more leverage than you think, and they are not willing to pay the big bucks. If they pass on you they are going to go outside public opinion right now and they are going to have to hire an unknown assistant coach like a Tim Brewster. And he's not going to come for less than a five year contract, so you are exactly where you want it.
He took it on a three year basis, and I said there is nothing you can do about it now. But what you need to do is win at least 8 games, then hire me as your agent so I can get you a big time contract, and I won't even charge you. When it goes down again he won nine football games and by their standards and as many times as they have changed their thoughts so to speak. Dave I heard you talk about them being compared to Wisconsin, the other program that the Gopher faithful are compared to is Iowa. Iowa has had three athletic directors since 1968, they've had two football coaches since 1978. When you count up the number of athletic directors, I mean I had three during my tenure, my ten year tenure. When you look at the number of athletic directors, either full time or interim, and now the number of football coaches since I have been there it is alarming."
