Tobacco Road Report

By David

When the Northern branch of TRR heard that a Minnesota coach was fired I thought, well Glenn Mason, the football coach, had it coming. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was Dan Monson.

Yeah I hear you. 2 wins in your first seven games does not foretell a successful season. But we at TRR openly wonder whether this is the right move for this season. Jim Molinari is now at the helm, but I doubt he will be offered the job, regardless of his record (currently he is 1-1). The question now becomes how long until a new coach is in place and what type of recruiting class can he assemble.

Monson made no apologies for the performance of his teams. As well he shouldn’t. He took over after it was revealed that Clem Haskins program was rife with cheating and other academic fraud. Monson stepped in and restored academic integrity to the program, unfortunately the fans want a winning program too.

The reports may say he resigned, but let’s face facts: he was told there was too much pressure for him to survive it. If he stepped down he would get $1.3 million, if he fought it there may be less money. What would you do? Darn right you would. Take the money and run.

I expect we’ll see Monson on the sidelines somewhere in the next few years, and I suspect we’ll see an up and down year for the Gophers.