Ad Disclosure
Minnesota’s new AD really had a Gopher moving truck waiting for him in Syracuse
Published:
It was bad enough for Syracuse that it had to watch its athletic director leave for Minnesota after less than a year on the job.
What happened on Wednesday might’ve rubbed some salt in that wound.
According to Syracuse.com‘s Chris Carlson, newly hired Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle had a Gopher football equipment truck outside of his home. The moving truck took up roughly half the street.
Who sent a Minnesota moving truck come all the way to Syracuse to get Coyle’s belongings? That remains a bit of a mystery.
RELATED: Minnesota hires athletic director from Syracuse
According to the university, the school doesn’t own the truck and neither Minnesota or Coyle had prior knowledge that would be the truck to move Coyle to the Twin Cities.
“A University of Minnesota football equipment truck has occasionally been used to move new employees to Minnesota,” Minnesota director of public relations Paul Rovnak told syracuse.com. “In this situation, a different truck should have been used by the transportation company who owns the vehicle. Mark Coyle and members of the Minnesota athletic department were not aware that this truck was being used.”
It wasn’t the first time a new B1G face was welcomed with an oversized moving truck from his new school. James Franklin got similar treatment when he left Nashville for Penn State in 2014:
PSU's new football coach moving his stuff out of Nashville. My aunt took this pic. Lives 2 doors down. Pretty Cool! pic.twitter.com/hOCxS2aYfD
— Adam Berg (@AdamBergNBC6) February 25, 2014
Perhaps there’s a secret B1G voice coordinating these moves. Or perhaps it’s just schools making sure there newest hire has ample space — and recognition — as they move across the country.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.