bobthomasiselite
New member
No there’s many others. Just funny when a grown man goes by a nickname!
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Minnesota Women's Hockey 2025-26
- Thread starter robertearle
- Start date
Still Eeyore
Well-known member
If you're making a long term hire based upon keeping one set of recruits, you're doing it wrong.
Still Eeyore
Well-known member
Sure, but that doesn't require an internal hire. It's been obvious for a while now that not extending Frost was a real possibility. If they hadn't already put out feelers to potential hires weeks ago, they should be fired for malpractice.
Bad easy way out hire
Timothy A
Let's go RED!
This hire seems very questionable. If you're not happy with your recruits, why are you going internal then? Surely he had to hand in that. If you don't like the way the team was playing, he was part of the problem because he was coaching them. I think your team needed a complete fresh start. You would have attracted top talent to coach because you've got a great Barn, some really good players and a great history. To gas Frosty and keep everybody else in place seems absolutely stupid and I'm plenty okay with that. All this firing really accomplished was getting Muzzy a big contract extension because they were afraid she was going to leave.
eastcoastgopher
Active member
I am happy with the recruits and I'm not pressed about the Pohl thing (I'm happy with the rest of that Gopher recruiting class). I'm not happy with the way the team was playing, but they have the horses. If they weren't going to land Muzerall or look far outside the program, this is the hire that makes me the most comfortable.
FiveHoleFrenzy
Well-known member
I agree with this. The recruiting has improved and this is really about getting more out of who you currently have comimg back and getting the recruting classes next year and following year on board with what direction the new head coach wants to go. Would honestly be happy with watching better team effort than some of the crap we witnessed at the end of this year. And yeah, I get that he was an assistant on the staff so he has some cupablility in what transpired. But now, he will be in charge and can choose who he wants on his staff.
Reddington
Well-known member
May received what is the norm - the four year deal to start so everything seems to be in order there. An NFL team just fired a head coach and promoted a coordinator and the reasoning was a new direction and continuity in equal parts so maybe apply that to this situation.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
These days, I'm not in the know at all when it comes to this program. There was a stretch of more than 10 years where I was close enough acquaintences with parents to have a better idea of what was happening. Some years, there were more stories and drama than I would ever have imagined. This team finished 2-7-1; that speaks for itself. Frost lost his father. Halldorson decided to step down after the I-35W Bridge collapsed not far from her office in 2007. Without knowing conversations involving Coyle, Frost, May, and whomever else may have had input over the last few months, it's easy to offer theories and easy to be wrong.
It's hard to keep up with the other programs in the WCHA if your players don't improve over the course of the season to the extent that others do. Brad Frost accomplished a ton at UM and has the banners hanging to prove it. In the three years after the the 2016 title, the Gophers were 3-3 in the NCAA Tournament. After the pandemic, they were 2-5 in the tourney. Things were heading in the wrong direction.
Still Eeyore
Well-known member
I am not especially happy with this choice. It has seemed to me for several years that something was wrong with the team culture. I have some thoughts on what some of it might be, but they are nothing more than speculation based upon flimsy evidence, so I don't want to share them. But there were clearly issues. Because of that, I wanted a thorough house cleaning.
That said, I have some more speculation based upon flimsy evidence that I will share. Back when May was hired to the staff, and given the title of Associate Head Coach, there were comments to the effect that he would be perfectly capable of stepping into the head coach role if necessary. I remember some of those comments coming from within the athletic department, though I could definitely be wrong about that. At the time, I dismissed this is the kind of puffing up the new hire that always goes on. In retrospect, though, it's possible to see them differently. It's clear that saying goodbye to Brad Frost has been a live possibility for at least a year. Maybe it goes back farther than that. I'll at least consider the possibility that May was, to some extent, the athletic department's hire rather than Frost's, and that he was always meant to be the guy that took over.
If that's true, May's direct contribution to the culture problems may not be so strong. If my speculation is true, it's likely also true the the indirect contribution of having this sort of arrangement may have contributed to them.
I also have seen nothing addressing the question of whether, and to what extent, this development was a decision by Frost to move on as opposed the the school's desire to do so. It could easily be some of both.
Maybe this is just me trying to rationalize a decision I wasn't in favor of.
That said, I have some more speculation based upon flimsy evidence that I will share. Back when May was hired to the staff, and given the title of Associate Head Coach, there were comments to the effect that he would be perfectly capable of stepping into the head coach role if necessary. I remember some of those comments coming from within the athletic department, though I could definitely be wrong about that. At the time, I dismissed this is the kind of puffing up the new hire that always goes on. In retrospect, though, it's possible to see them differently. It's clear that saying goodbye to Brad Frost has been a live possibility for at least a year. Maybe it goes back farther than that. I'll at least consider the possibility that May was, to some extent, the athletic department's hire rather than Frost's, and that he was always meant to be the guy that took over.
If that's true, May's direct contribution to the culture problems may not be so strong. If my speculation is true, it's likely also true the the indirect contribution of having this sort of arrangement may have contributed to them.
I also have seen nothing addressing the question of whether, and to what extent, this development was a decision by Frost to move on as opposed the the school's desire to do so. It could easily be some of both.
Maybe this is just me trying to rationalize a decision I wasn't in favor of.
eastcoastgopher
Active member
I would imagine and hope Jess Scott sticks around as the program's GM. Entirely possible Mitch Baker (D and goalies) does too but I'm less than 100% sure about that.
Would think there's a need to hire an associate head coach, whoever that may be.
Would think there's a need to hire an associate head coach, whoever that may be.
eastcoastgopher
Active member
Boom did play at Augsburg with the other Minnesota Frost assistant… Chris Johnson, Mark's son. Either one of those would be spicy. I honestly have no idea which way he'll look, though.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
While that might make sense for Decker, it isn't as good of a fit for the Gophers on the recruiting front. Given there aren't any former Gophers on staff, do you want someone to be your point person on recruiting who can explain to recruits why she chose Madison at a time when her teammates like the Lams, Schoullis, and Kessel all chose UM? I want a former Gopher on staff, period. Is Scott wearing two hats at present? (coach and GM) If so, maybe they can add more than one assistant.
Don't know him at all, but I think a change in goalie coach would be a benefit. Bench, Vetter, and Clark all had seasons where their play deteriorated late, when to be successful, your goaltenders have to be peaking down the stretch.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
I doubt that she's had time to do enough coaching to have qualified her for the job. Rumor was that she was planning to retire some time between the 2018 and 2022 Olympic cycles and Joel Johnson convinced her to keep playing. She was the type of player that the SID would want to send out to speak to the media when they weren't requesting anyone in particular because she would always say the right thing in the most meaningful way possible. I realize that the players who seem to me like they would be a good coach and those who excel at it aren't necessarily the same. I likely lean toward those who are going to change lives for the better, whether or not their winning percentage is going to be high enough to keep them employed. I think there is going to be more overlap between the winning coaches and the positive role model coaches when recruiting decisions are influenced by parents rather than agents. For someone like Bethany Brausen at St. Thomas, if she ever starts to win, she'll keep winning. However, the odds of that first success aren't great in the WCHA.
bobthomasiselite
New member
Yeah they should for sure keep the same underwhelming staff around! More of the same will lead to better outcomes!
Who do you guys think has been doing the recruiting? It sure wasn’t frost.
ManBehindTheCurtain
Great and powerful wizard
Nadine signaled that she wasn't interested and the nationwide search never got outside the doors of Ridder Arena.
On the subject of possible assistants who played at Minnesota: Ronda Curtin Engelhardt,
On the subject of possible assistants who played at Minnesota: Ronda Curtin Engelhardt,