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Mark Coyle Leaves SU

Insight on Mark Coyle’s decision to leave Syracuse from former Minnesota director of athletics

Sam Blum | Senior Staff Writer

After 11 months, Mark Coyle is leaving as Syracuse's Director of Athletics to take the same position at the University of Minnesota. His friend and former Minnesota AD Joel Maturi said it gave him a chance to return home.

By Connor GrossmanSenior Staff Writer

In just his first few months as Syracuse’s director of athletics, Mark Coyle phoned good friend and former Minnesota director of athletics, Joel Maturi, about another opportunity he was interested in.

Norwood Teague resigned as the Gophers’ AD in August among sexual harassment allegations, and an opportunity opened up at the school Coyle had worked at for six years. An opportunity, Maturi said, that offered Coyle the chance to return home.

“At that time (we talked) he was struggling because it was a good job for him at Minnesota,” Maturi said. “But I think he was struggling because he had just recently gone to Syracuse.

“Obviously the search firm and others convinced him that this would be the right time and the right place, and he made that decision.”

So on Wednesday, 311 days after Coyle began his job on July 6 as the Orange’s athletic director, he left. He’s expected to be announced as Minnesota’s athletic director on Wednesday afternoon. Syracuse landed on Coyle in June after a three-month search to replace former director of athletics Daryl Gross, who served in that capacity for 10 years.



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Coyle worked at Minnesota from 1999-2005, most recently as associate AD of external relations. Maturi took over as the Gophers’ athletic director in 2002, and leaned on Coyle to help transition the athletic department from having a distinct men’s and women’s division, to one single department.

The two grew close at Minnesota and remain friends, with Maturi offering Coyle guidance on taking future jobs at Kentucky, Boise State and eventually SU. Maturi said he wasn’t involved in Minnesota’s AD search and didn’t even expect Coyle to be a candidate so soon after arriving in Syracuse.

“I’m sure (Mark) in some ways feels badly about leaving after a short period of time,” Maturi said. “But these opportunities do not come up very often. It’s a place he’s been, it’s a place he knows and it’s a place I think he loves.”

SU cited “family reasons” as the cause for Coyle’s departure, and Maturi said his Midwest ties likely made a difference to Coyle in taking the Gophers job. His kids were largely born and raised in the Midwest and it may have been perceived as a negative in the SU community that Coyle wasn’t from the East Coast, Maturi said.

Maturi and others close to Coyle have spoken glowingly about his ability to relate to people, and show a genuine concern to individuals’ problems. With that in mind, Maturi said an angered Syracuse fan base, feeling cheated or wondering why Coyle is leaving after less than a year on the job, is likely going to weigh heavily on his shoulders as his time at SU comes to an end.

“I’m sure (the negative feelings) will hurt Mark, and one of the reasons I’m sure made it very, very difficult for him to make the decision that he made,” Maturi said. “But I think in the end … he felt, ‘You know what, this is a good long-term decision for me.’

“And he didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t do anything that’s inappropriate other than Syracuse put a lot of time and effort into hiring him and made a commitment to him, and he understands that. But that’s the nature of this crazy business.”





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