We believe that Glen Mason is incapable of leading the University of Minnesota football program to the next level.  We also believe that the current level of "success", while preferable to recent pre-Mason times, is just not good enough.  We believe that the immediate dismissal of Glen Mason will pay dividends in the long run.  In other words...and in Glen's own words, actually...Fire Mason!!!  Get rid of 'im!!! This website is in the Developmental Stage (we capitalize it because, well, it should be). Expect it to be completed sometime after our second multiyear contract extension. This is a part time gig and our schedule is B-R-U-T-A-L.

FM.COM Poll What is your current mood regarding Gopher football? elated cautiously optimistic flat concerned disappointed View results Version 2.03

Send feedback about this website to glen@firemason.com

Poll Archive

12/31  Holy Crap!  It actually happened!  The loss to Texas Tech in the insight bowl in classic Mason fall-from-ahead fashion has apparently led to the coach's dismissal.  The late-season three game rally that qualified the gophers for the bowl had admittedly and obviously left me lacking motivation, as I assumed that the coach's future was secure for another year.  The firing is a welcome and surprising holiday gift.  Kudos to everybody who took the time to write to Joel Maturi and the other big-shots.  This could have and would have gone on longer if we had let it. 

I sure hope that the Insight Bowl actually had nothing to do with Mason's dismissal.  Really, what's one more win or loss in a crappy bowl game?  The case against Mason was made a long time ago.  Oh well.  I'll take it!

11/30  Mea Culpa.  A while back I put forth a lukewarm defense of Joel Maturi.  Well, that was just plain wrong.  I watched the Dan Monson press conference today and couldn't believe the drivel that was spilling from the AD's mouth.  Good night. He seems to think he's the AD of a small, overmatched high school, where athletics is not a business and the development of young people into decent adults is the only concern.  Yeah, sure, academics, student-athletes, I know...it's not that those things don't matter at all.  They just cant be the only concern at a major university.  It doesn't work that way.  The reality is that Joel Maturi is essentially running a multi-million dollar business. 

The traditional, idealized mission of a college athletics department - where the athletes grow and learn life lessons and become well-rounded leaders and/or team players  - doesn't apply to major universities.  It's ridiculous to pretend that it does. 

The Insight Bowl will be the Gophers' reward for their strong finish.  Many of you may be surprised to hear that I don't have any problem with this at all.  Those who are outraged that that mediocre teams don't decline their invitations to third-rate bowls don't really get it.   Creating a bowl game for middling teams isn't immoral or unethical, nor is accepting a bid to play in one when it is offered.  It's not like the Gophers are tarnishing the storied history and proud reputation of the Insight Bowl by playing in it.  The Insight is sixth in line among Big Ten affiliated bowls, which means that they will often get the 7th team from the conference when the top team qualifies for an additional BCS spot.  This team will usually have a 3-5 record.  Therefore, the Gophers are the quintessential Insight Bowl team, and need not apologize for their appearance in Tempe.     

The trick is to ignore the misleading hype.  It is the duty of the bowls to make their matchups appear as appealing as possible because they need to create interest and sell tickets.  It behooves the university to hype its bowl appearance, in order to enhance the reputation of its football program.  We the fans end up buying into the hype (subconsciously at least) and are shocked when we realize that the teams playing in the game are actually kinda crappy.  That's when cognitive dissonance and the annual outrage about the bottom end of the bowl system kick in.  If you ignore the hype, it all makes sense:  The bowls make a little money (their whole reason for being), the networks get to sell more ads (ditto), and we get to watch more games (that's why we're fans).  The upside is that the players get another game and more practice time.  There are too many bowls only when the money runs out, and there's nothing wrong with that.

It's fine when the University spins mediocre bowl bids into some kind of real achievement, so long as that spin is directed toward potential fans and recruits.  The University is selling a product, after all.  The problem is that the University of Minnesota is getting suckered by its own Musical Insight Sun City Bowl sales pitch.  Glen Mason regularly qualifies his teams to participate in a modest commercial enterprise, and nothing more.   He never really achieves anything.  But because the University can't separate the bowl hype from reality, they reward him as if he does.  Now there's something to be outraged about. 

Great win for the Gophs!  Those kids showed a tremendous amount of heart this year, and I hope they have a great time on their trip to Tempe.  I'll leave it at that for now.  I want to enjoy the victory over the Hawkeyes for a bit before diving back into the anti-Mason pool.  Go Gophers!

Another win, this time over a struggling Michigan State team that lost its quarterback early. 

This game featured perhaps my all-time favorite Glen Mason play call.  After starting the game with a grounding penalty and a couple of runs, the Gophers had a punt blocked and returned for a TD.  The next drive was no better for the Gophs, with another penalty, a pair of incompletions, and a short pass that left the Gophers facing 4th and 14 at their own 19.  In an incredible stroke of motivational genius, Mase called for a fake.  His kicker's wobbly toss fell to the ground.  The Spartans, who barely had a reason to show up for the game, suddenly had the lead and were in the red zone before their doomed veteran QB could take a snap.

His charges got the message.  They realized, all at once, with absolute clarity, that they wouldn't be led to victory on this day.  No, if they wanted to win they'd have to look deep within and find a way to do it despite the efforts of their head coach.  The Gophers responded, and Bowl Eligibility remains a possibility for one more week. 

Today's blowout of Indiana provided a nice reprieve from the steady drumbeat of negativity surrounding the program (as opposed to my rants, which are aimed directly at the coach, are supportive of the program, and will continue).  Suddenly, another 4th-tier bowl is a possibility again.  Michigan State is reeling and Iowa has stumbled as well, so wins over those two teams aren't at all unrealistic.  The lopsided win after three straight weeks of sleepwalking wasn't totally unexpected, either.  Inconsistent effort has been the hallmark of Glen Mason's teams at Minnesota:

When a team is consistently inconsistent over such a long period of time, only the coaching can be blamed.  A team can't ever truly perform above its inherent talent level.  It can only fulfill its potential with a maximization of effort, flawless execution, and superior strategy.  Mason has found a way to lead his teams to top performances often enough (not in critical games, but that's another story), but far too often has failed to lead his charges to solid, respectable performances.  It's the season-killing stinkers that need work.  The Gophers have talent to win out.  I doubt they have the leadership. 

ESPN 360 Is the only way that anybody can watch the Gophers-Hoosiers game today.  Well, I suppose you could actually go the Metrodome, but since Glen Mason and his bobos (with help from the Twins and Vikings) have spent years telling us that it's no fun to watch a football game there, I can't blame anybody who wouldn't want to go. 

Today's game will not be seen on television - not here in Minnesota or down in the Hoosier State.  ESPN 360 is a streaming internet media package that is free to the subscribers of the broadband internet service providers that happen to carry it.  The problem is that none of the largest ISPs provide the service; it reaches only 6 million potential customers nationwide, almost none in the Twin Cities.  You see, ESPN is attempting to establish a new operating paradigm for internet media. Currently, content producers (like ESPN.com) make money through advertising revenue or direct subscription fees.  ESPN 360 would work like "free" cable TV, where the ISPs pay for the content and pass the costs along to their customers in their monthly bill.  The big ISPs have been understandably reluctant to go along with this scheme. 

So why is this game, the second of the year for the Gophers,  on 360?  It works like this:  The Big Ten and ABC/ESPN sit down to negotiate a broadcast deal.  They work out the general terms, then ABC/ESPN says "we want to put some exclusive games on 360.  We'll give you a little more cash or slot an extra game on the big network if you let us put ten games a year there."  The Big Ten agrees, they shake hands and light Cuban cigars and everything is great.  ESPN then uses the games as leverage.  If you can't get the game and go to ESPN.com in search of it you'll wind up looking at a page that says "fill out this form and we'll petition your ISP for you."  Well, it sure is nice of them to do that for you, huh?  Of course, it's a complete perversion of reality - you're really doing the petitioning for ESPN. 

And which games get stuck on 360?  Not Michigan or OSU games.  No sir.  Games like Minnesota-Indiana are the ones relegated to the 360 outpost.  The weaker programs are denied even local television exposure a couple of times a year, exposure that helps PR and ticket sales and recruiting.  This widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots.   Shame on Joel Maturi for going along with this scheme. 

The coach's defenders in the local media have been falling over themselves to make excuses for their guy the past few days.  A 44-0 drubbing at the hands of what is perhaps the best big Ten team in years provides precious little good news for anybody.  If you're a supporter of the team, you look for good individual performances, especially from unexpected sources and younger players, and look to the future.  If you're a Mason apologist, however, you see the mismatch as a symptom of a hopeless malaise that infects the program and makes such results inevitable.  "We're lucky to have a coach who can keep it to a run-of the-mill lopsided shutout.  The old guys would've set records!  At least It wasn't 63-0!  Or 84-13!  Now that's a spanking!  With our minimal talent base and our dysfunctional administration and our lousy facilities and our lazy fans who don't like to go to El Paso during the holidays...who'd want to play here?  Of course we're outgunned!   We're lucky to have a great leader to keep us marginally competitive, except for these pesky and inevitable down years!"

Even crazier is the fact that the coach doesn't flinch when his lackeys make those pitiful excuses.  Think about it.  Say your boss screwed up and disappointed some of your company's customers, and assigned you to smooth over the situation.   You then proceeded to tell those customers that your company is so fundamentally messed up that, despite your boss' best efforts, the poor result was unavoidable.  Well, those customers aren't coming back, and if your boss was the owner of the company he might strangle you.  Unless your boss was an uncommitted employee looking for another job with one of your competitors, you'd get fired!  And you'd deserve it.  A good boss would act as the owner would by putting the long-term health of the company over his short-term personal reputation. Glen Mason is the CEO of Gopher Football Inc, and he's letting his de facto PR department tell his customers that his product will always be mediocre at best.  Sometimes he even does it himself   He's putting his personal reputation before that of the company. 

The fans will support the program when it is headed by a coach whose priority IS the program, rather than his own resume.  Sure, Holtz moved on as soon as the Notre Dame job was offered.  The important thing is that while he was here the program was his top priority. 

Let's remember why Mason is paid the salary that he is.  It's not just because of his coaching abilities.  He is the university's highest paid employee because the football program is a big source of revenue.  Millions of dollars are riding on the results of his actions.  Winning football games is one way to increase that revenue, but being an Xs and Os guy and a teacher isn't enough.  He's responsible for the overall, long-term health of the program.  Promotion of the program is a crucial part of that job.  If the coach believes that promotion is beneath him, or if he's incapable of sincere enthusiasm, that's a big problem.  Mason goes beyond the pale when he allows influential media gatekeepers to denigrate the program in order to serve his personal goals.  That's absolutely inexcusable.  It should be a fireable offense even with on-field success.

And speaking of fan support...If, like me, you've been energized by the anti-Mason campaign, I encourage you to join the Goal Line Club.  Memberships start at $50, and the money directly supports Gopher Football.  Go to goallineclub.com for more information.  The GLC (unlike the coach) has enough sense to publicly support all aspects of the program, so don't let the pro-Mason sentiments on their web site turn you off.  They welcome Gopher fans of all stripes, and once you've joined you can attend GLC events and privately discuss the coach's situation with with influential boosters, or at the very least those who can influence the big dogs. 

New Content has been added to the site each of the past few days, just not here on the front page.  I'm doing a bloggish commentary on each poll.  Ideally, I'd put the comments on the front page for a day, then move it, but the poll app acts funny when I try to have an old poll display on the same page page an active one. Anyways, click on the Previous Polls link above to see it. 

Ohio State is taking care of business.  Nothing today has been unexpected. 

Glen Mason always dreamed of coaching the Buckeyes, and his dream job came open after the 2000 season.  Mason's charges had taken a small step backward that year but did post a nice victory over OSU.  Mason's reputation was still near its peak.  He was qualified for the job, an OSU alum, and always placed on the short list of candidates by the national media.  In the end, Ohio State took Jim Tressel from division 1-AA Youngstown State.  Mase didn't even get an interview. 

Good football coaches are out there.  Ohio State found one.  It's crazy to keep Mason because he's not Jim Wacker. 

We know Mason will never be the head coach at Ohio State.  Where will his next job be?  Who would hire him right now?  It's possible, even likely, that he'll have to take a job at a non-BCS conference school.  A long-time doormat like North Carolina might take him, but he'd have to take a big pay cut. 

Why in the world should the University of Minnesota employ a football coach that none of its direct peers would hire?

"And let's face it, people have short memories. I've been here 10 years. Some of those [students] were 8 years old that might be booing me. Where was this program when they were 8 years old? Huh? Where was it?"

That's right Glen! It's been a while since the program was in abject disarray. Those kids that are booing you now were playing with Pokemon cards and Bratz dolls back then. Of course, they were still into Pokemon and Bratz as 11-year-olds in 1999, when you led the Gophers to a 5-3 Big Ten record and the Sun Bowl. 

Those Kids have come a long way since 1999.  They passed through the awkward years of early adolescence.  They went through high school, got driver's licenses, tried drinking (gasp!) and sex and drugs, but overall they made good enough decisions to develop into self-sufficient young adults and University of Minnesota students.

Now they're booing you.  Could it be because they've changed so much in the last seven years, while you've managed one more 5-3 year, one more Sun bowl, and nothing more?  Maybe it's because that 1999 team (which still had plenty of Wacker's guys in big roles) was arguably your best squad?  The three conference losses that year were in OT to #20 Wisconsin, by 3 to #22 Ohio State, and by 5 to Drew Brees and #18 Purdue.  You beat #2 Penn State and Iowa on the road.  The only other loss came in the Sun Bowl when Oregon pulled it out in the last two minutes.  Those were four tough losses to four good teams.  You haven't coached a stinker-free year since.

Some kinds of development take time.  Those heckling lil' bastards are in the 18th year of the developmental stage of their lives. You, however, are in your 7th year of arrested development.

Maturi Too?  I've received a lot of e-mail asking me if I think Joel Maturi should be dismissed as Athletic Director.  Quite a few others have wondered why I don't advocate Maturi's firing right along with Mason's.  A couple even want the entire administration replaced.  Most of the emails point to the equally sorry condition of the men's basketball program. 

I'll admit that I can't give an especially strong endorsement of Maturi, based largely on the recent failures of the university's two highest-profile programs.  Still, the AD job goes beyond the two biggies, and as far as I know the athletic department as a whole is doing just fine.  The minor sports win far more often than not, sometimes even claiming NCAA championships.  Let's also give Maturi credit for getting a new football stadium. 

Most of all, if I really wanted to get rid of Maturi, I'd have built firematuri.com instead.  FireMason.com wouldn't even be necessary since it would probably be a package deal.  Once Maturi goes, Mase hits the road along with him. 

I'm just not yet convinced that this man deserves to lose his job.  The book on Joel Maturi hasn't been written yet.  I think it has with Mason.  We've seen what the coach can do; his strengths and weaknesses are obvious.  He squandered his one chance at real success and doesn't have the tools to make it happen again.  Maturi, on the other hand, can still salvage his story by firing Glen Mason and picking a good replacement.

Joel Maturi shouldn't have to lose his job.  He will if he doesn't see the light and fire Mason soon.  I invite you to send an email to maturi@umn.edu encouraging him to FIRE MASON!

I was wrong when I said the Gophers wouldn't be seriously challenged by NDSU.  This has something to do with the Gophers' performance and a heck of a lot to do with my misunderestimation of the strength of very good 1-AA teams in general the NDSU program in particular.  I guessed that there was only a little overlap between the best 1-AA teams and the dregs of 1-A.  I figured a team like NDSU should be roughly comparable to the bottom-dwellers of the MAC or Mountain West or C-USA.  Yesterday's game (among others) convinced me that a top 1-AA team like the Bison can be equal to a decent MAC team or weak BCS conference squad. 

The upshot of this is that it's possible to directly compare the Minnesota and NDSU programs.  Let's take a look at the relative recruiting advantages of each program.  Who has a natural edge, and how big is that advantage?

	Minnesota	NDSU	Advantage
City	Minneapolis	Fargo	Huge U of M
Weather	Cold	Even Colder	Small U of M
Stadium	Metrodome, TCF coming	Fargo Dome	Big U of M
Cachet	Big-time, Big Ten, BCS	not even close	Huge U of M
Tradition	Long and storied, but bad recently	3 years at 1-AA since move up from D2	U of M
TV	Almost every game, many national	Media guide lists every televised game ever	Big U of M
Talent Base	Plenty (ask Notre Dame)	Can I borrow some of yours?	Huge U of M
Other	Tenth year of self-described "developmental stage", limiting expectations	Third year of five in NCAA mandated "transitional phase" limiting scholarships and postseason	Small NDSU, will get bigger

Mason didn't win by 45, but he certainly should have.  The crazy thing is that all of the Masonites' favorite excuses are here (bad campus bad stadium bad weather blah blah blah), and we see that, point for point, NDSU has it even worse!  Yet somehow, some way, NDSU  has managed to build a team that seems to be every bit the equal of Mason's.  Geeyaaah.

Geezo Beezo.  What a game that was.  Mason and the Gophers prevailed despite being outplayed by the North Dakota State University Bison. 

And they were certainly outplayed.  The Gophers were outrushed 142-98 and outpassed 236-149.  NDSU piled up 23 first downs while the Gophers managed only 12.  The time of possession gap was nearly ten full minutes.  Minnesota managed exactly one sustained drive the whole game, and that drive needed two 3rd & long conversions to survive, as well as a ridiculous gamble on 4th & 1 from the 7.  The Gophers were saved only by two costly turnovers and a field goal attempt that clanged solidly and harmlessly off the left upright.  Then there was the questionable tripping call that took a NDSU touchdown off the board.

Take a few seconds and reflect on what it means for a Big Ten school to get outplayed by a team - any team - that only recently moved to division 1AA from division II.  Think of all the advantages that Glen Mason has over a program like NDSU's.  This kind of result is absolutely inexcusable.  Mason should be fired at once.

It's Bison Week!  We're hearing all kinds of worrying and gnashing of teeth over the chance of the North Dakota State University Bison leaving the Metrodome with a victory over the Golden Gophers this week.  Well, relax.  NDSU is in a different class than the U.  Sure, they're a very good 1-AA team.  But those kind of teams just don't beat BCS conference teams.  OK, New Hampshire beat Northwestern, but the Wildcats are unusually bad.  They haven't been competitive in Big Ten games at all.  They lost to Nevada.  The Wildcats' only wins were over a pair of weak (1-11 combined) teams from the MAC.  NU is just plain terrible.  Then there's Indiana's loss to Southern Illinois.  Hey, it happens...but not very often.  Gophers by 45.