Gophers AD leading 'low ego, high output' mentality amid 'seismic' college changes

Coyle was complementary of how Gophers sports fared in 2023-24.

University of Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle talked to Big Ten Network Monday, recapping the 2023-24 athletics year and how the Gophers performed.

The Gophers' eighth-year AD mentioned how "seismic" the changes have been to college athletics over the past few years. It is a tough ask for anyone to navigate through some of these situations and Coyle acknowledged that.

"We want to embrace this change," Coyle said of the changing college landscape. "We talk a lot about low ego, high output. If we can create an environment where people thrive in that low ego, high output mentality, we'll be able to navigate our way through this changing landscape."

Coyle called Minnesota football going 5-7 last season a "disappointment," but he says Fleck "continues to build this program" and "he's got a lot of optimis going into this year."

Hiring P.J. Fleck in 2017 was one of his biggest moves since taking over the position at Minnesota. It was reported many times how close Fleck was to taking the vacant UCLA head coach job this offseason, but Coyle was complimentary of everything he had done with the football program.

"He's doing a lot of firsts for our program, and it's just a really exciting time to have him here at Minnesota," Coyle added.

He was then asked about the state of both the men's and women's basketball programs and he seemed very bullish on the 2024-25 season for both teams.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of Ben [Johnson], I mean being a basketball coach on the men's side in this league as well as the women's side, it's a tough tough task," he said. "He's a first-time head coach, if you think about everything we're going through with the transfer portal, with NIL everything going on in college athletics right now, for him to navigate our program and to do the things we've done is phenomenal and I think we have a chance to be a top-25 team next year with some of the kids we have returning."

Coyle highlighted returning players like Dawson Garcia, Parker Fox, Mike Mitchell Jr. and some "really good additions."

Before a handful of key players left the Gophers via the transfer portal, Coyle was on record saying he was bullish on the men's team in 2024-25 if they could bring everyone back. That didn't happen as star freshman Cam Christie entered the NBA Draft and starters Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne transferred.

Minnesota's new-look roster does feature some promising additions from the transfer portal, but outside of Garcia, Mitchell and Fox, Johnson and the Gophers are once again starting from nearly scratch.