Jeremy: Obliging Jeffrick, Bashing Maturi

I would now like to oblige Jeff and comment on Dan Monson.
Comparing what is happening with Monson to what happened with Glen Mason and the football program is fair. The calling card of both men at the head of the Gopher programs has been mediocrity. The value of a coach, at some point, has to be measured based on the production he pulls out of his players. There are coaches that can mold mediocre talent into fantastic results, and then there are coaches that can take good talent and only pull the bare minimum out of them. The latter would be the description of both Mason & Monson's programs. Both men have had the luxury over the last two years of having the most talent in their tenures that they've been able to put on the field/court, and yet they have nothing better than the same old results to show for it.
So, based on how Maturi handled the Mason situation, and based on how he is also, now, handling the Monson situation, we have only one thing left to conclude: Mason & Monson are not at fault... Maturi is.
Guess what? Gopher fans are NOT okay with mediocrity, the state of Minnesota is NOT okay with mediocrity. Joel Maturi is. I'm beginning to believe that Maturi is preparing himself to run for public office. This was my favorite quote from Maturi regarding Monson: "I've told this to Dan, 'If this were the Timberwolves and I were the GM, maybe he wouldn't be coaching next year. But I don't want to be the Timberwolves and I'm not the GM. I'm the athletic director at an academic institution that has some values, has some integrity and we're going to live that and walk the talk."
All I wish is that Maturi would have gone on to explain what those values are, because I guarantee you that absent from that list of values would be winning. Dan Monson is paid a lot of money, and his job, his only job, is to win basketball games. There are other people employed by the athletic department to tutor the athletes, to get them to class, the advise them in academic matters. These things are not Dan Monson's priorities, winning basketball games is. Joel Maturi, by the way, is also paid a huge amount of money, and his list of duties is more complicated than Monson's, but I would imagine that two of his top duties would be putting all of the athletic programs in the best possible position to win, and making the athletic department as profitable as it can be. By keeping the status quo, and hanging onto coaches who are able to only produce mediocre results, Maturi is failing at both of these priorities. It's obvious by his constant support of mediocrity that loyalty is more important to Joel Maturi than winning is.
Look, I understand, the University of Minnesota is a public research university. We hear this time and time again. If the University is going to continue to ignore athletics, and oh, by the way, ignore the fact that the athletic department is the largest financial contributor to research at the U of M, then please let the fans know so that we can plan accordingly.
Better yet, please lower ticket prices, please decrease the number of athletic scholarships, and please, let's become a Division II school. At least that way we'll be competitive, we'll know exactly where we stand and what we're shooting for, and our actual place in the collegiate athletic world will be consistent with our actions.
Of course, replacing Maturi with an athletic director who has his priorities as an athletic director in the right order might also be an option.