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Sometimes you wonder if a Coach gets to a point where he'd just as soon sit on his buyout an do something else. This article suggest Mason wants to get back into Coaching. Interesting candidate. Went to 7 Bowls with Minnesota though rarely dominated. Went to a couple of more with Kansas. Has shown moderate to good improvement at every head coaching job-but I doubt if he has won a championship against pretty overwhelming odds at second rung programs like Kansas and Minnesota.


Fired coach works for new TV network
Saturday, October 27, 2007 3:42 AM
By Jim Souhan

STAR TRIBUNE (MINNEAPOLIS)

Former Minnesota coach Glen Mason said he still disagrees with the decision to fire him after last season.

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MINNEAPOLIS -- In taking over the Minnesota football program, in dubbing the sparsely populated mud-hut hamlet containing jaded Minnesota football fans "Gopher Nation," Tim Brewster promised to accomplish the impossible, and the impossible is what he has wrought.

Brewster has made Glen Mason the most popular football coach in town.

"I don't know if that's a compliment or not," Mason said with a laugh. "If it is, thank you."

Mason, a former Ohio State player and assistant coach, sounded like he was in fine spirits, and why not? In the last year, he has gone from hearing "Fire Mason" chants to getting fired after the first year of a five-year deal to having Brewster's 1-7 start make him look like a genius in exile.

Last September and October, Mason's Gophers lost five consecutive Big Ten games and avoided an upset to North Dakota State by blocking a field goal try as time expired.

He heard "Fire Mason" chants. He responded by questioning the sobriety of the student section.

"A lot of drinking goes on in there," Mason said then of the Metrodome. "We serve alcohol in that stadium -- not a lot of (college) stadiums do that. I was at one game and I thought, 'Where's Fox News?' Because there's a lot of underage drinking going on out there, because I know that guy's not 21! Right?"

Just when you thought last season couldn't get worse, Mason seemingly saved his job, winning three consecutive Big Ten games by a combined 128-68 and landing a berth in the Insight Bowl.

At the promotional events leading up to the game, Mason railed against his critics and angered his bosses. Then the Gophers set a record by blowing a 31-point third-quarter lead to Texas Tech, and his bosses had seen enough.

This week, Mason called 2006 a "survival year" for the program, a transition season, and said a bad official's call against Penn State and the blown Insight lead kept him from an 8-5 record and continued employment.

"I can only speak for myself, and I've said this from the start, and I mean this as honestly as I can -- I wasn't happy with the decision that my superiors made, but I respected it," Mason said. "That's their prerogative. In saying that, I also have to admit that there are members of my organization and my family who are joyous that the Gophers aren't doing well.

"I can't say that. I recruited those kids, I know those kids, I know what they put into it, and I put 10 years of my life into this program, trying to make it better."

Mason is working as an analyst for the Big Ten Network. He raved about the joys of spending time on campuses, exploring quadrangles and libraries and chatting with fans who, he says, have been uniformly gracious.

He says he has thrown himself into his new profession, but that at heart he's still a coach, and those who know "Mace" expect to see him on a major-college sideline next season.

"Sure, I would have liked to have won more games and taken the Gophers to the Rose Bowl, but at the same time I felt like I did the best job I could, and I did it the honest way. No one ever questioned my honesty. My integrity is in place and the program was better when I walked out than when I walked in."

i think mason thinks he will get a turnaround job in a bcs conference

Mace is an excellent coach. Minnesota wasn't happy with simply going to bowl games. They got greedy. Kansas definitely would have kept him. Now, Mangino's pieces are coming together and the schedule is cooperative.

Mace would be a better pick than Terry Bowden who won with Dye's recruits. However, both Mace and Bowden would be very expensive.

Thanks to PB, SMU has some good pieces to work with. The team went to OT twice and nearly won at Tulsa. It's a very competitive program but the pieces haven't come together.

If I had a choice right now of the former head Coaches with extensive head coaching experience I would probably lean toward Mason over Bowden.

I think that this is an unsually decent year for SMU to be looking for what I hear SMU fans want. A proven head coach that has raised the profile of his program. Understanding that SMU ain't going to get a Bob Stoops, Steve Spurier et al-there are some decent Coaches in that Category availiable. Mason, Bowden, McCarney, Gibbs. Then if that group isn't interested then you take a group at a second level who have sparked programs.

I'll tell you right now that if Todd Graham is availiable he's almost certainly would be my choice-but also you could look to see if Gill continues winning at Buffalo. Winning a conference Championship at Buffalo at a program that was nothing would make Gill a very 'hot prospect". He fits the SMU Job-and just might be an ideal candidate

a lot of coaches will be coming out of nowhere, there'll be quite a few nice openings this year. The more high-quality candidates, the better SMU's odds of getting a good coach

ive been hearing a lot of people are interested in this job.

I'd be happy to have Graham but we'd only get him for one year

Todd got a 1.1million dollar deal at Tulsa, with a lot of stadium upgrades. It would take a bunch of bucks to get him to move again.....but I think he would be a good candidate. He has shown he can turn around a program quick, and he can recruit.

not only that but specifically he has proven for about 10 years that he is one of the best recruiters in DFW.

Stallion wrote:If I had a choice right now of the former head Coaches with extensive head coaching experience I would probably lean toward Mason over Bowden.

I think that this is an unsually decent year for SMU to be looking for what I hear SMU fans want. A proven head coach that has raised the profile of his program. Understanding that SMU ain't going to get a Bob Stoops, Steve Spurier et al-there are some decent Coaches in that Category availiable. Mason, Bowden, McCarney, Gibbs. Then if that group isn't interested then you take a group at a second level who have sparked programs.

I'll tell you right now that if Todd Graham is availiable he's almost certainly would be my choice-but also you could look to see if Gill continues winning at Buffalo. Winning a conference Championship at Buffalo at a program that was nothing would make Gill a very 'hot prospect". He fits the SMU Job-and just might be an ideal candidate

Other than he has the Bowden "name", I am not sure why we would want Bowden. There has to be some reason he has not coached in the years since he got fired at Auburn. That would be like hiring Bob Davie. He won at Auburn with Pat Dye's players, and then got fired, and hasn't seen a field since. Kind of like your analysis of most of our recruits, what other offers do they have? With him, apparently none since he left Auburn.

I totally agree with you about Graham. I would love to have him, and this SHOULD BE a better job than Tulsa.

Orsini will not mess this up. HIS job depends on it.

with Mason, he is respected, but he was fired for a reason. big 10 talent is wayyyy better than C-USA talent and the offense he ran there won't work here...ever. we don't have the players for a 2 headed RB system. unless he changes the offense to cater to our talent level, i don't see him working here. same goes for Bowdwn and Coker. They won with former players, couldn't recruit well, and got canned because their new players didn't pan out.

ponyfan84 wrote:with Mason, he is respected, but he was fired for a reason. big 10 talent is wayyyy better than C-USA talent and the offense he ran there won't work here...ever. we don't have the players for a 2 headed RB system. unless he changes the offense to cater to our talent level, i don't see him working here. same goes for Bowdwn and Coker. They won with former players, couldn't recruit well, and got canned because their new players didn't pan out.

yeah, but Minny plays in the big 10 and has a huge geographic recruiting disadvantage. not alot of talent to mine in Minn, ND, Iowa areas. and then he had to play Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State year in and out. I like the sound of a Mason, but my guy is Turner Gill. If we cant get Gill, would like Mason or Bowden as second choices, hard to separate the two, Bowden would bring recruiting and a name that smu desperately needs. Having said that, who knows if we can get any of them really.

yeah Minnesota is really no-man's land in recruiting. Minnesota spent a lot of time in Texas under Mason to recruit speed

and also Mason did build 3 teams not just Minnesota. I think he went to at least 9 bowls, I don't think there is any doubt that he would be a substantial upgrade than anything we've had around here-but is he the best choice-

Stallion wrote:and also Mason did build 3 teams not just Minnesota. I think he went to at least 9 bowls, I don't think there is any doubt that he would be a substantial upgrade than anything we've had around here-but is he the best choice-

mason also has a guy he recruited named marion barber that is a bad mofo in the dallas area