Western Illinois job appears to be Nielson’s for the taking
December 18, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Western Illinois will likely announce Minnesota Duluth’s Bob Nielson as its new football coach today. Continue Reading
Western Illinois job appears to be Nielson’s for the taking
14 Comments
Coach is a great guy, but this is one of those times the selfish side hoped someone else would be hired.
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A finer gentleman I have yet to meet. Good Luck Bob.
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UMD Athletics, and especially Football are in trouble. This is a worst case scenario for the school.
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Bummer! But do you penalize a guy for being successful? (only if he’s a 2%er, i guess) GOOD LUCK BOB!
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Maybe I missed something, but the 2-3 Bulldog games I go to each year have had 4-5 thousand people there. Pretty good attendance for a D2 school.
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Former State Senator Jim Gustafson proposed a new stadium, when built, have a minimum of 7000 seats for a University the size of UMD. The new current stadium has only 4500 seats, far smaller than Mankato, Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks and on and on. Some games later in the season only had a few hundred fans, whereas Camp Randall Stadium in Madison has 80,000 people regardless of the weather. And how many Bulldog basketball games have you attended? You can shoot a cannon in the PhyEd Building and barely hit a soul, yet you have 10,000 students attending UMD (maybe more, depending on how you count them). Duluth, the Iron Range and surrounding environs constitute approximately 200,000 people. What marketing has been done to reach those people, especially those outside Duluth proper?
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I am originally from Texas and did not go to UMD. I love football and go to 3-4 UMD games a year. I knew this guy was special the 2nd year they won the National Champtionship. That season, he had the absolute worst luck in terms of injuries and suspensions. I think at one point in the playoffs he was down to his 3rd and 4th string tight ends. Other positions were also hurting and depleted. His star running back was out. They were still a good team but there is no good reason they should have won it all. Watching those games, it was clear to me that Nielson was the difference. He coached an undermanned, outgunned team to a National Title. How the Gophers have ignored him is beyond me. I know a DII straight to D I move is quite a leap, but what did the sorry Gophers have to lose anyway….
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And I agree with you, Dan, on your comment.
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They ignored him because their current & former AD’s are a bunch of window-licking artards, that’s why.
I will say my one gripe with UMD football, and it’s not just a Coach Nielson thing, they really need to stop ignoring 9-Man players. Two years ago you had a kid (and I hate using this word) “literally” carry Cromwell to the state title. Nothing. Not a peep. And it’s been that way since the Malosky days. Hopefully whoever comes in will start paying more attention to our local talent.
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Best of luck Mr. Nielsen. Thank you for the great work at UMD!
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I guess he should leave if his D2 program can’t outdraw the Wisconsin Badgers.
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What a thing to say about Bob Nielson. Shame on you deemer, he is a good coach, AD probably wasn’t his cup of tea.
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Bob Nielson brought the UMD football program to a new level, and this accomplishment has brought UMD recognition across the board. He did everything he was asked to do and more – the AD position was a no-win deal due to the intrusion of Katie Martin and her decidedly biased levels of support within the entire UMD Athletic Dept. Best of luck to you, Bob – thank you for showing us what we can achieve!!
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