EAST GULL LAKE-Mark Coyle is tired, but with every road trip the new University of Minnesota athletic director reenergizes.
Coyle was refueling Tuesday during his visit at Cragun's Resort as part of the 16th annual U of M Golf Event to raise money for the Gopher Athletic Scholarship fund.
Coyle's first day on the job was May 31 and he spent it at Grand View Lodge meeting loyal Golden Gopher fans. This is second round of road trips across the state and he said, tired or not, this is one of the most important aspects of his new position. That and meeting the biggest Gopher fan-Dutch Cragun.
"I'm not going to lie, the first day on the job I was on the road for two days. I was back for two days and then we went on the road for a second time," Coyle said. "I wouldn't trade that for the world. It's a great experience just to meet people and to talk to them. I worked all day today and left the Twin Cities to come up here to spend time. Sometimes when you're down there day in and day out you lose sight of how much this program means across the state. We have great fans in the Twin Cities obviously, but we have great fans across the state. We want to make sure we reinvest in those people because they invest in us."
One priority during the outstate road trips to reassure people that the Gopher Athletic Department is going to do things the correct way. Recent news has not been kind and Coyle wasn't afraid to address past problems that have put a black cloud over the program like his predecessor Norwood Teague's sexting scandal and the current Xanax abuse issue facing the wrestling program. He said changing the image is paramount.
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"It's very important," Coyle said. "I had a chance to meet all of our freshmen-the freshmen started school a week ago. They came on campus-and I had a chance to talk to them that it's important that they understand that when they have Minnesota written across their chest it's not just them. It's our institution and it's our state.
"The great thing about traveling around the state and coming up here to Brainerd is you see the passion that people have for this program. We take great responsibility in that. It's important for me as an athletic director and our staff and athletes to understand we do represent this state and we want people to do it the right way. We want people to be proud that we are doing it the right way, academically, athletically and socially."
Coyle focused his speech toward the 100 plus Gopher supports at the Legacy Pavilion around the academic progress of all the U of M teams. He cited they were one of the top public colleges in the nation academically.
The former associate athletic director for external relations at Minnesota from 2001 to 2005 knows changing the culture will take more than just speeches from him.
"The first thing is to listen," Coyle said. "I've had a chance to sit down with a lot of the senior staff and a lot of the head coaches, with the exception of a few and I'll solve that in a week or so. Then I'm going to meet with each department head because I think it's important to listen to the staff and learn what's going on and what's not going on. I truly believe it's my job and our staff's job to do everything we can to put our coaches and student athletes in positions to succeed academically, athletically and socially. I can't make those decisions until I learn about where we are right now."
One man he's met and talked to is head football coach Tracy Glaeys. The two first met in a Dairy Queen because Claeys joked he probably wouldn't get fired in a public place.
Claeys, who enters his first full season as a head coach, said despite the absence of Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State on the schedule this season won't be a cakewalk.
"We don't have the brand names on there, but still the (Big Ten) conference goes to nine games and we play five of those on the road," he said. "It doesn't matter, when you play games on the road, it's hard to win in the conference. We'll pick up the advantage a year from now and we'll get the five conference games at home. I'm not a fan of the five and four.
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"I think that will have a play in who actually does well in the conference, but I just think if you look at the teams who have five home games, they'll probably have the advantage each year because of how it is. But obviously we don't have the big names on our schedule this year. There is no question it's more manageable, but I don't know about easier."
Claeys often referred to his former boss and former Gopher head coach Jerry Kill. He realizes despite this being his first year as a head coach, this isn't a new team. He can't call it a rebuilding time because he was helping Kill build the program brick-by-brick for the last six seasons. He's not worried though.
"We're far enough in the process that we feel really good about the football team that we have back," he said. "It never happens soon enough for anybody. I do think that we're to the point, and the best way to put it is, each year when we get toward the end of November, we should be in the talk of going to Indianapolis and playing for the Big Ten Championship. We get to those last two or three weeks of the season and we're not in that position we're going to be disappointed. We have our best group of kids and continually we've got a pretty good group of kids. We've got to jump up and take advantage of that, too."
Gopher softball coach Jessica Allister addressed the crowd as did associate head coach of the men's hockey team Mike Guntzel. The two are part of a Gopher athletic program that is ranked in the top 20 of the Directors' Cup, a measuring tool for a university's entire athletic department. It would be the first time the U of M has finished in the top 20.
JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 855-5856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jeremymillsop .
