Glen Mason fired as Gopher football coach

At a Sunday evening news conference, University of Minnesota athletics director Joel Maturi said it was a tough decision to give football coach Glen Mason his pink slip, but a lot of factors were involved.

During Mason's 10-year tenure, the Gophers have never won a championship. Fans have been lukewarm. And, Maturi says, the team's embarrassing 44-41 loss against Texas Tech on Friday played a role as well.

"I think if we had not lost the way we lost, we probably would not be here today," said Maturi. "But when the season concluded in the manner it did, I thought it was best for the long term interests of Gopher football that we make a change."

Glen Mason, 56, is widely credited for rescuing the Gophers from a reputation as a losing team. His overall record was 64-57. And after years of the team not making it to any bowl games, Mason took the Gophers to seven of them -- although they were considered mostly second-tier bowls. The team won three of those bowl games.

Exactly one year ago, Mason was given a five-year contract extension. But the meltdown at the Insight Bowl proved to be too much for Maturi to accept.

The Gophers led the Red Raiders 38-7 in the third quarter on Friday before Tech orchestrated the biggest comeback in bowl history. The 44-41 loss dropped the Gophers to 6-7 for the season, the first time they have finished under .500 in five years.

Maturi said he received plenty of e-mails from angry fans and alumni after the historic collapse in Arizona, two months after chants of "Fire Mason!" started springing up at home in the Metrodome.

"I try not to let any influence like that make any significant difference, but at the same time, I'm sure those kinds of things are involved in what is the long-term future of Gopher football," Maturi said. "And how positive can it be? Are students going to be behind us? Are fans going to be behind us? Are we going to have the energy that's necessary that we would like to move forward."

If we had not lost [the Insight Bowl] the way we had lost, I don't think we'd be here today.

Way too many questions for him.

Maturi says it's time for the Gophers to have a new vision and leadership, and he'll begin the search for Mason's replacement right away.

"I promise our fans, I promise our recruits, and I promise the fans of the University of Minnesota, and especially its football program, to do all I can to find the best fit for the future of Gopher football," he said.

Mason could not be reached for comment, but issued a statement saying he was notified of his dismissal by a telephone call from Joel Maturi and by a couriered letter. Mason said "no specific explanation was provided." He said while he is "extremely disappointed," he respects the decision and wishes the Gophers the best.

University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks supported Maturi's decision to let Mason go.

"I think coach Mason has done a good job over the years in rebuilding the Gopher football program, but we weren't making the kind of progress we felt was necessary to restore the confidence of the public that the University of Minnesota intends to be competitive in the Big 10, and nationally."

"Changing coaches here hasn't solved the problem," said Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman, who attended the press conference regarding Mason's ouster.

Hartman scoffed at the move and says the problem with the Gophers goes beyond the coaching staff.

"They have not won an undisputed championship in 40 to 50 years. They won a tie for championship in 1967. They've gone 39 years here without winning a championship, with about 10 coaches," Hartman said. "I don't think firing the coach is going to have anything to do with it. I don't think that makes any sense."

In Dinkytown, the neighborhood around the University of Minnesota, Gophers fan Patrick Gorman had a similarly negative reaction to the news that Mason was fired. Gorman attends Arizona State University, but is a Minnesota native and follows the U of M teams.

"I think it's a disgrace. Mason had the program going in the right direction. And because of one bad loss -- I agree it's a bad loss -- we fire him, just all of a sudden out of nowhere," said Gorman. "If we want to go back to the old years, we don't get any bowl games. We don't get any press. That's fine, but Mason was doing a good job. It was stupid, and too quick to pull the trigger."

But John Triscari, a valet at Loring Pasta Bar and a sophomore at the U of M, says Mason should've been dumped long before now.

"I thought Mason was a pretty terrible coach," said Triscari. "Last season especially, we had a lot of talent on the football team, and I thought it was really unacceptable that he lost as many games as he did. I think it's time to move on."

For the second time in just over a month, the university will be forced to buy out the contract of a high-profile coach. Men's basketball coach Dan Monson was ousted on Nov. 30, just seven games into the season.

Mason was being paid $1.65 million annually and it will cost the university more than $2.2 million to buy him out. He will receive another $1.3 million in deferred compensation. If Maturi had waited even one more day, into 2007, the amount would have been higher.

Bruininks says the cost of Mason's buyout will have to come out of the athletics revenue budget over time. But he says there are other costs to consider, like opportunity costs and potential losses of revenue.

"You have to weigh all these things when you make a decision like this. But we didn't make it on monetary grounds," said Bruininks. "We made it because we felt it was necessary to move the University of Minnesota forward at this time. And we felt it was necessary to have a change of leadership to improve our situation."

Bruininks says he's grateful for Mason's service to the university, and says it's hard to let him go.

The search for Mason's replacement will be hastened by the fact that national signing day is a month away, so now is a prime time for recruiting.

"It will certainly make us hurry the search, but I don't want to do it so quickly that we don't hire the best long-term fit for the University of Minnesota," Maturi said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

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