Minnesota Golden Gophers: Looks Like Norwood Teague Was A Horrible AD Anyway
The University of Minnesota can either really spin a story just the way they want it or Norwood Teague was a really horrible Athletic Director, looking solely at the job, or maybe both. The man, the myth, the legend that is Sid Hartman wrote about the former AD’s relationship with head football coach Jerry Kill for Sunday’s Star Tribune saying that their relationship was strained.
According to Sid, Kill and Teague would go weeks without talking at some points and Teague would schedule opponents without Kill’s knowledge, blessing or approval. Sid points to associate athletic director Dan O’Brien as the middle man for the two which made it work, but still not how the relationship between two of the biggest names of the school’s athletic department should be.
At almost every college, only football and men’s basketball makes any money. Minnesota does have hockey which probably brings in money too, but not being able to openly communicate with the face of the football team is not acceptable.
Most are comparing Teague to his predecessor, Joel Maturi, now. Maturi tried to make every sport feel important across campus and Teague allegedly focused on only the major ones. The news of his apparent riff with Kill even puts that in doubt for Teague. Teague didn’t play nice with Kill and didn’t make many friends in the coaching staffs at the U.
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Also Teague was not a great fundraiser, something that really shouldn’t be an issue at the University of Minnesota. The U is one of the largest public universities in the country, the only full-fledged D1 school in the state, so money shouldn’t be that hard to come by. In over three years and change as AD, the school raised $70 million of the needed $190 million for the wanted new sports facility.
This whole ordeal is embarrassing for the University, but in the long run it could be a good thing. The Gophers are in desperate need of those new facilities and it seems like anyone will do a better job of getting that done than Norwood Teague.
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