MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota’s athletic director Mark Coyle spoke publicly on Monday for the primary time for the reason that Gophers and males’s hockey coach Bob Motzko parted methods final week. Despite a formidable poker face, it’s clear that Coyle and the search committee are properly on their approach to hiring a alternative.
After introducing Greg “Boom” May as the brand new girls’s coach — a hiring that was introduced Sunday — Coyle confirmed that he spent the weekend conducting Zoom interviews with potential males’s candidates whereas he was on the NCAA males’s basketball match in St. Louis.
According to a number of sources, two of the candidates have been St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson and Hartford Wolf Pack coach and Gophers alum Grant Potulny. As of late Monday, Larson appeared to be rising as the favourite.
Larson, a local of Duluth and former University of Minnesota-Duluth defenseman, began at St. Cloud State in 2018, changing Motzko after successful a nationwide championship at UMD as an assistant. He was additionally half of David Carle’s USA Hockey workers that received gold medals on the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors.
Potulny, a former Gophers captain and assistant coach, received two nationwide championships as a participant, including being the MVP of the 2002 Frozen Four after scoring the additional time winner within the title recreation towards Maine. He started his head coaching profession at Northern Michigan. Leading the Gophers would undoubtedly be his dream gig.
Coyle did say it’s not a prerequisite for the job to go to a Gophers alum.
With the school panorama altering, Coyle clearly understands the significance of discovering a coach who can deal with every part from coaching to recruiting to the enterprise side of this system. The subsequent coach will need to have a consolation degree with the switch portal, NIL cash, income sharing and Canadian main junior gamers coming south to the NCAA.
The college may also finally rent a common supervisor (or a number of managers) to supervise that facet of the operation.
Coyle stated he started speaking to Motzko about his future a month in the past. He had one yr left on a contract that pays him $750,000. After the Gophers misplaced to Penn State to wrap up their first dropping season since 1999, Coyle met with Motzko final Monday and Tuesday to debate the long-term future of this system. The purpose was to give you the most effective determination for the following a number of years of Gophers hockey — not the following 12 months — as Motzko started to ponder retirement.
Coyle gave credit score to Motzko for coming to the identical touchdown level as him.
“As that conversation went on and we talked about it for a day or two, I think we both realized that the best long-term decision … was for him to step down and step away from our program and for us to go in a new direction,” stated Coyle, who’s extraordinarily shut with Motzko. “We have seen more changes in college athletics in the last four or five years than you’ve seen for the last 50 years. What is going on, it impacts hockey.”
Coyle needs to rent a coach who understands what Gopher hockey means to the state.
“It is a big, big deal,” Coyle stated. “We pay attention to it, but we need someone that can manage this program, on and off the ice, in the new landscape of college athletics.”
As far as conducting Zoom interviews as against in-person interviews, Coyle stated that is no totally different than the best way he employed males’s basketball coach Nico Medved and girls’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit, who took solely three years to get this system again to the Sweet 16.
Coyle stated he and his workers and the search committee, which consists of a couple of half dozen folks, are being thorough with their vetting and due diligence, however he added that he realizes {that a} coaching change creates anxiousness for present athletes, incoming athletes and recruits.
So he needs to behave “very quickly,” particularly with the switch portal opening April 13.
“We have a very desirable job,” he stated. “We have people who want to be here, and it’s on us to find the right person that can lead this program in this new age of Gopher hockey. We have to find somebody whose knees aren’t going to buckle, because these aren’t easy jobs. There’s a lot that comes with this job.
“My number one thing is we need to find somebody when they get here, they can step in and understand the expectations.”
Motzko turns 65 on Friday, and Coyle stated Motzko informed him that is the primary time he wasn’t coaching on his birthday.
“Bob didn’t like it. Nobody liked what happened this year,” Coyle stated. “We need to find someone that can get this program back to where we want to be.”
On the ladies’s facet, May spent the previous three years on Brad Frost’s workers as affiliate coach. Frost led the workforce to nationwide championships in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, however the Gophers haven’t made the title recreation since 2019.
“We need to compete at the national level,” Coyle stated of a program that has seen Ohio State and Wisconsin surpass it.
Greg May and Mark Coyle pose collectively on Monday. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)
“This is not a complete overhaul. This is more of a reboot,” stated May, who grew up in California and performed at Burnsville. “I’d say it’s a fresh voice with fresh expectations. And we’re close, and we have been close, but unfortunately, obviously, as you know, close isn’t what we want here at Minnesota, and there’s some change that has to be made to make sure that we get over the hump.
“We have to raise our level of compete and intensity. We have to raise our level of discipline and accountability, and we need to have that unwavering belief that this is truly the best place to play college hockey in the country, because it is.”
