0:01 Speaker 1 All right. 0:01 Speaker 2 Thank you, Paul. 0:02 Speaker 1 Good afternoon, everybody. 0:03 Speaker 1 We appreciate everybody taking time to come out today. 0:05 Speaker 1 And it's ironic, we just did this yesterday with Boone and Coach May, so excited to be back here today to introduce our next men's hockey coach. 0:13 Speaker 1 Of course, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to President Cunningham, our Board of Regents. 0:19 Speaker 1 We have such great alignment on this campus, and just really grateful for their support in our Board of Regents. 0:25 Speaker 1 I also want to thank our men's hockey student athletes. 0:27 Speaker 1 I see some of them spread throughout here. 0:29 Speaker 1 Any time you go through a change, it creates anxiety, and I'm really grateful how you all handle that. 0:33 Speaker 1 I appreciate your support, your patience as we worked our way through this process. 0:37 Speaker 1 I want to make sure I thank the search committee, Peyton Owens, who chaired that search committee, our Deputy Athletics Director did a wonderful job. 0:45 Speaker 1 We also had Jenny Yaeland, Tricia Budkey, Dusty Clements, Kevin Gohmert, our FAPT Athletic rep, Francis Holmans, and of course, Lou Nanny was a part of that committee. 0:54 Speaker 1 So I'm really grateful for the work of our search committee. 0:59 Speaker 1 You know, when we made our choice of Brett Larson, when I think of Minnesota hockey, I think of competing at the highest level and having success at the highest level. 1:09 Speaker 1 And when you look at Brett, you see his involvement with four National Championship games. 1:14 Speaker 1 You see that he's been a part of three gold medals. 1:17 Speaker 1 This dude has competed the highest level. 1:19 Speaker 1 He has great experience. 1:20 Speaker 1 He has great connections. 1:22 Speaker 1 We talked yesterday how college hockey has changed dramatically, and I'm absolutely convinced we've got the right person to lead our programs and move forward. 1:29 Speaker 1 So please join me in welcoming head coach, Brett Larson. 1:47 Speaker 3 I always wanted one of those when I was getting recruited as a kid, but never got offered one, so nice to find the whole one. 1:53 Speaker 3 First off, same, I want to thank President Cunningham and Mark Coyle right off the start for this amazing opportunity, and one that to me is such a huge honor. 2:06 Speaker 3 It means the world to me to be here right now and be a part of a program like this and be in front of you, and I want to thank them so much. 2:12 Speaker 3 I want to thank Peyton Owens and the search committee as well, and Lou Nanny, and we're getting our band back together on TV there. 2:19 Speaker 3 We got Jim Rich and Pat McAleti back, so we used to work with them quite a bit up at St. 2:23 Speaker 3 Cloud, and we're really looking forward to that again. 2:24 Speaker 3 So I think the biggest thing for me is just this. 2:29 Speaker 3 It's really being a part of something this special. 2:32 Speaker 3 The tradition, the most storied hockey program in college hockey, the history. 2:38 Speaker 3 I grew up in Minnesota, and when you see the Gophers play, you knew them. 2:42 Speaker 3 You're a little kid, they were men, and you might as well be watching the Montreal Canadiens. 2:45 Speaker 3 I mean, they were big time. 2:47 Speaker 3 And I'll never forget my first college game. 2:49 Speaker 3 It was up in Duluth at the deck, and we got to play the Gophers that first game, and Puck went in the zone. 2:53 Speaker 3 I was a defenseman, started coming around the wall, and I went down a pinch to keep it in, and this guy named Trent Clatt just absolutely rolled me right over, hammered me right down, got up, helmet turned, snot bubbles out of the neck. 3:04 Speaker 3 One of those, you can't find your way back to the bench, and I realized I'm in big boy college hockey now. 3:09 Speaker 3 And it was a moment when I realized that this program just has something special. 3:15 Speaker 3 The history of it, the championships, I think more importantly than that, the people. 3:21 Speaker 3 And the people that I've been hearing from today has been so much fun. 3:24 Speaker 3 The guys that I played against, a lot of the former Gophers and the guys that I got to coach, whether it be in the Olympics or a couple of World Juniors, the people is what makes this place special. 3:35 Speaker 3 And that's very clear. 3:36 Speaker 3 It was so much fun to sit down in the locker room today. 3:38 Speaker 3 And I told the guys, I said, when we sat there, I said, Hey, do you guys still feel this a little bit? 3:43 Speaker 3 Because it feels pretty cool to sit here right now. 3:47 Speaker 3 Don't forget it, right? 3:49 Speaker 3 Don't take it for granted. 3:50 Speaker 3 Every day, let's make sure we know we're walking into something special. 3:53 Speaker 3 And we're playing for all the people that built this program before us and all the people that put the bricks in the wall. 3:58 Speaker 3 And every day we come to the rink, we're playing for something bigger than us. 4:01 Speaker 3 So that's something that I'm really, really proud to be a part of. 4:04 Speaker 3 You look at the history from, from, you know, John Mariucci, to John Beasich and, and then all the great coaches and players in between, all the way up to Coach Motzko and, and Coach Motzko did such a great job here. 4:15 Speaker 3 So many good things. 4:16 Speaker 3 Did a great job with the alumni. 4:18 Speaker 3 Got the stands going again. 4:20 Speaker 3 The fans are back. 4:22 Speaker 3 So many good things at college hockey. 4:23 Speaker 3 Bob, just a legendary master of the game and somebody that's given so much. 4:27 Speaker 3 And I'm just in a unique position, I think as a coach and he's given me two programs in a row and they're darn good when I get there. 4:35 Speaker 3 And I got to thank him for that. 4:36 Speaker 3 So I am really, really honored to be here today. 4:40 Speaker 3 It's a special place and I'm proud to be a part of it. 4:42 Speaker 3 So thanks for welcoming me today. 4:44 Speaker 2 Thank you. 4:46 Speaker 3 We'll now take questions. 4:47 Speaker 1 As a reminder, if you have a question, please raise your hand and we'll bring a microphone to you. 4:55 Speaker 2 Hey Chris. 4:55 Speaker 2 Brett Chris Long from Gen5. 4:57 Speaker 2 How are you? 4:57 Speaker 2 Good to see you. 4:58 Speaker 2 Congratulations. 4:58 Speaker 4 Thank you. 5:00 Speaker 2 How different is the landscape in college hockey? 5:03 Speaker 2 How did you adapt to it in St. 5:04 Speaker 2 Cloud? 5:05 Speaker 2 And how different is the ability to adapt to that here in Minnesota? 5:09 Speaker 3 I think we've got a really unique situation where we can adapt quickly and fast. 5:14 Speaker 3 Obviously, straight change quick with the transfer portal, NIL, CHL players being eligible. 5:21 Speaker 3 I think this puts us in a place, I think to be really aggressive to get out after the recruits that we want. 5:26 Speaker 3 Obviously, for the most part, we've got such great homegrown talent. 5:29 Speaker 3 You're going to base your recruiting out of here. 5:32 Speaker 3 But boy, there are some opportunities now to supplement with difference makers. 5:36 Speaker 3 I think you need to be nimble, you need to be ready for it, and I think it puts us in a really good spot. 5:46 Speaker 5 To jump off that, the recruiting class of Bob has left you coming in and put the gentlemen that are here already. 5:54 Speaker 5 How happy are you to be able to be in that position to take this talent forward to the next generation? 6:00 Speaker 3 Well, the guys here, they all want to be on the power play, so that's why they should look to them. 6:03 Speaker 3 So that's probably why they're here. 6:05 Speaker 3 But obviously, I'm very excited. 6:07 Speaker 3 This is not a rebuild, right? 6:10 Speaker 3 This program has been winning championships, and I know last year didn't go the way it hoped, but it's not a rebuild. 6:16 Speaker 3 It's maybe a little bit of a retweak, right? 6:18 Speaker 3 And I know when I went into St. 6:20 Speaker 3 Cloud and came in behind Bob, the first time I asked the players, what are the little things, what are the little areas where we can get better? 6:26 Speaker 3 How do we find that little bit of a margin? 6:27 Speaker 3 That's the difference between winning and losing games at this level, because that margin is pretty small, everybody's good. 6:32 Speaker 3 So that's going to be my job is to identify some of those little things. 6:36 Speaker 3 And I think it's going to be to bring some of what Bob always did so well. 6:40 Speaker 3 And hopefully I can build on that and take some of the things that I learned along the way and put us right back to where we want to be this year. 6:49 Speaker 7 Go up here, Timmy. 6:53 Speaker 6 Hey, Brett. 6:55 Speaker 7 I don't know, I started to look, I guess, at filling your staff or where you guys come out with that. 7:00 Speaker 3 Yeah, I'll meet with the current staff here over the next couple of days and I've reached out to a few other people that may be interested. 7:06 Speaker 3 So I would think over the next few days we'll fill that out. 7:09 Speaker 7 Randy, do you have a question? 7:10 Speaker 4 Yeah. 7:13 Speaker 8 I'm Randy Johnson, the Star Tribune. 7:14 Speaker 8 Brett, you grew up in Duluth. 7:17 Speaker 8 You're a bulldog. 7:18 Speaker 8 How do you become a gopher and who are the biggest influences in your career? 7:22 Speaker 3 From the Gophers? 7:23 Speaker 8 Overall. 7:24 Speaker 3 Overall. 7:25 Speaker 3 I mean, there's a ton of them. 7:26 Speaker 3 You know, I grew up playing in an era with some guys that I just got to know in the select 16 and 17 camps, Craig Johnson, Darby Hendrickson, some of these guys that I grew up with every summer. 7:38 Speaker 3 Craig would come up to my cabin up in Duluth in the summer and we'd hang out quite a bit. 7:43 Speaker 3 You know, some of those guys, Corey Leyland, Joe Dedzik, kind of the guys in my era that I've always kind of looked up to and played against and we're still good buddies to this day. 7:52 Speaker 3 So, I just saw John Brill up at the rink the other day and he's a guy that I used to spend some time with. 7:57 Speaker 3 So, I signed a contract in Slovenia one year. 8:00 Speaker 3 My career wasn't obviously going great because that's the best place I could find to play. 8:04 Speaker 3 But it was me, Corey Leyland and John Brill were the three imports there, so me and a couple of Gophers. 8:10 Speaker 3 The one thing about becoming a Gopher is I think it's pretty clear we're going to all be in this thing together right away. 8:16 Speaker 3 There's no doubt this team wants to win. 8:18 Speaker 3 We want to be good. 8:18 Speaker 3 We want to be special this year for me to get into that locker room. 8:22 Speaker 3 I have to be genuine. 8:23 Speaker 3 I have to be with these guys every day. 8:24 Speaker 3 They have to know I'm with them and I got to build trust. 8:27 Speaker 3 I think the biggest thing is building trust, building relationships with them and making sure they know I've got their back and we're in this thing together and we're going to get it done. 8:34 Speaker 3 So it's not going to be hard for me to come and go for quick. 8:38 Speaker 3 There's too much history, too much tradition, too many people put the bricks in the wall and it's too exciting to be part of it. 8:45 Speaker 6 All right, Mike Russo, the athletic, can you reflect back on how you became a coach and to get to this point, I was told today that Scott grabbed you out of medical sales. 8:56 Speaker 3 Yeah. 8:56 Speaker 6 I bet you could not have envisioned that you'd be standing here at that point. 9:00 Speaker 3 Yeah, that's funny. 9:01 Speaker 3 I don't know if I want to bore people with this, this whole story, but so yeah, I got out of playing and like a lot of players, medical sales was a big thing. 9:09 Speaker 3 I'd run into Brian Bon and he was selling stuff and there are other guys and so I signed out with this company called Ab Laboratories and they didn't tell me what my product was going to be. 9:18 Speaker 3 So you go into some training and then eventually they tell you what you're going to be selling. 9:22 Speaker 3 And my product was Simlac Infant Formula and I had no kids. 9:28 Speaker 3 I had no idea what I was doing. 9:29 Speaker 3 I was going into United Hospital here in St. 9:32 Speaker 3 Paul, trying to convince the nurses in the NICU and in some of the other areas to use Simlac. 9:40 Speaker 3 And so how I did that actually turned United Hospital from an Infant Formula Hospital to Simlac. 9:46 Speaker 3 I'm really boring people now with this. 9:49 Speaker 3 All right. 9:50 Speaker 3 But how I did it was this. 9:52 Speaker 3 Me, Joe Dizic, I'm trying to think of who else would have been there. 9:55 Speaker 3 Multiple Gophers would play Tuesday night hockey out of Parade Arena and we'd finish about 1030. 10:02 Speaker 3 We'd go down to the Green Mill, hang out for a little bit. 10:05 Speaker 3 And when I'd finish up at the Green Mill, I'd grab a big fresh pizza and then I'd go feed the night nurses at United. 10:11 Speaker 3 And I'd just go in there, my stuff, and hang out with them. 10:14 Speaker 3 And I found out real quick sales is mostly about people liking it. 10:18 Speaker 3 They didn't care if it was in for the other semi-lac, it was those relationships. 10:21 Speaker 3 And it's a little bit about coaching too, right? 10:23 Speaker 3 A big part of it is mostly the relationship. 10:26 Speaker 3 So I think I learned a little bit. 10:27 Speaker 3 My formula slinging days. 10:33 Speaker 8 Eric Vegoe, Gopher Puck Live. 10:35 Speaker 7 Throughout this whole process, I've been hearing from a lot of people in Duluth about the relationships you formed. 10:40 Speaker 7 One of them is special, it's Hogi. 10:42 Speaker 3 Yeah. 10:42 Speaker 7 And at Celebration of Life, you spoke very well about him. 10:46 Speaker 7 What do you think he'd say to you, seeing you up here? 10:52 Speaker 3 How many people know him? 10:54 Speaker 3 But Hogi has been a part of the Bulldog program forever. 10:57 Speaker 3 60-something years old with the program for 40-something years. 11:01 Speaker 3 Mentally handicapped and just one of the best friends of the program you could ever ask for. 11:05 Speaker 3 Just an unbelievable human being. 11:07 Speaker 3 I could get a lot of stories on that guy, too. 11:09 Speaker 3 When I was playing out in San Diego, he'd say he was coming out for a week and then out for two. 11:13 Speaker 3 And then somehow he found a way to get on our flight to Anchorage for another week to go play up there. 11:17 Speaker 3 So anyway, a lot of stories about Hogi. 11:20 Speaker 3 Yeah, I've got probably my phone has never blown up like this, but with text messages today and most from Duluth are saying, Hogi would be turned over in his grave today. 11:32 Speaker 3 But he's a special person and I'm a really good friend. 11:35 Speaker 4 Thanks. 11:40 Speaker 8 Right with all the changes in college hockey, NIL, transfer portal, Canadian juniors coming in, do you feel you'll need to have a GM type of a position on your staff? 11:49 Speaker 3 Yeah, it's something I'm looking at right now. 11:51 Speaker 3 It's interesting because that GM role is a name of a role, right? 11:56 Speaker 3 Technically, they're still just one of your assistant coaches. 11:59 Speaker 3 I think back in the day, we used to call it recruiting coordinator, right? 12:02 Speaker 3 So where one of your three assistants is really focused on recruiting the most. 12:06 Speaker 3 What I'm going to do is meet with the staff. 12:07 Speaker 3 I think I have a pretty good feeling of whose strengths are where and where they lie, and then what we'll do is put the people in the right spots. 12:13 Speaker 3 It's kind of like the power play. 12:15 Speaker 3 I know I got really great people right now, but the biggest part of the power play is where you put the right people in the right spots and we'll be successful. 12:21 Speaker 3 So definitely looking at something like that. 12:24 Speaker 3 I'm not sure that we'll use that exact title, but we will definitely have somebody whose priority is recruiting. 12:30 Speaker 3 We want to be a staff though that everybody recruits. 12:32 Speaker 3 I think recruiting is critical. 12:34 Speaker 3 I'm a big believer in that we all are. 12:36 Speaker 3 I know the staff in the room is as well. 12:38 Speaker 3 We've got some of the best recruiters in the world sitting back here and it's the lifeline of the program. 12:44 Speaker 3 It's got to be a team effort. 12:45 Speaker 3 The head coach has to be very involved. 12:47 Speaker 3 So for me, it's going to be the priority number one here starting a few minutes ago. 12:54 Speaker 6 Brett, it's less than a week since Bob left. 12:57 Speaker 6 What was this process like for you? 12:59 Speaker 6 How much anxiety? 13:00 Speaker 6 How often did you talk to Mark and the committee? 13:03 Speaker 6 All that? 13:04 Speaker 3 Yeah, these hockey world is funny. 13:07 Speaker 3 Everybody wants a scoop, kind of like your world. 13:10 Speaker 3 Everybody wants a scoop. 13:11 Speaker 3 Everyone's trying to figure out who's in, who isn't, who they're talking to, who they're not. 13:15 Speaker 3 But for me, it was a pretty seamless process. 13:19 Speaker 3 Mark and I talked a few times. 13:21 Speaker 3 Obviously, we go through the interview process with the committee. 13:24 Speaker 3 For me, I was strategically trying to have some people that I thought had a good opinion on things and why they thought I should be here, reach out to Mark, and I appreciate the people that did that. 13:36 Speaker 3 I had some really good people in my corner that are friends and people that I've worked with before. 13:42 Speaker 3 So it was really nice to kind of just feel a lot of people pushing for me and get behind me and believe in that I could do it. 13:54 Speaker 9 I brought John Shipley with the St. 13:55 Speaker 9 Paul Pioneer Press. 13:58 Speaker 9 You kind of joked that when they gave you that jersey, you said, I wish I had gotten one of these out of high school and get it from Duluth, and that to me that tells you something about this program, right? 14:06 Speaker 9 Yeah. 14:08 Speaker 9 Do you feel like you're still there? 14:09 Speaker 9 And like that this, the Gophers, are still that premier program? 14:13 Speaker 9 Absolutely. 14:15 Speaker 9 I'm curious, what was it like to compete against it? 14:19 Speaker 3 When you're competing against the Gophers? 14:20 Speaker 9 Yeah, they were recruiting and... 14:21 Speaker 3 Well, the one thing I would say, when you're competing against them, they always get the other team's best, because to be honest, you're trying to prove that you can beat them. 14:30 Speaker 3 You know the Gophers are the best. 14:31 Speaker 3 You know they're the premier of college hockey. 14:35 Speaker 3 It's kind of the standard bearer that you want to prove that you're better than somehow. 14:39 Speaker 3 So I think the Gophers, the one thing is they better be ready. 14:42 Speaker 3 We need to be ready this year because I know that every team playing us, their best punch is coming because they want to prove something against us. 14:49 Speaker 3 And the other teams kind of enjoy that sometimes too, right? 14:51 Speaker 3 It's that little guy mentality. 14:53 Speaker 3 So I think the most important thing for us is to understand that, making sure we're playing to our identity every night. 15:02 Speaker 4 Hey Brett, congratulations. 15:04 Speaker 7 Who's your greatest coaching influence and why? 15:07 Speaker 3 Oh boy, I've got a few, you know, and that's why I, you know, I kind of looked at being prepared or believing I was prepared for this job. 15:18 Speaker 3 And I thought, you know, I've been really fortunate at Duluth to build two national championships with Scott Sandlin. 15:26 Speaker 3 Very fortunate to with Killer and David Carl, you know, a couple of gold medals and the World Juniors, fortunate to work at Ohio State with Steve Rollock. 15:37 Speaker 3 And I would say that probably the shining moment of my career as a recruiter was, you know, I had been at Duluth for three years. 15:46 Speaker 3 No, sorry, I was at Ohio State for two, went to Duluth for three, recruited both those teams for the most part, or helped, obviously, it's always helped the staff as well. 15:54 Speaker 3 And in that Frozen Four that year, Duluth played Ohio State when I was back at Duluth again. 15:59 Speaker 3 And so the Ohio State guys all came back and gave me the fist bumps. 16:02 Speaker 3 And I just felt very proud to be part of, you know, recruiting to national championship teams or Frozen Four teams. 16:09 Speaker 3 So with that said, it's all my experiences. 16:11 Speaker 3 It's hard to pick one, you know, Scott Sandlin, national championships, David Quinn in the Olympics, David Carle in the World Juniors, Steve Rollock at Ohio State trying to do something to rebuild the program. 16:22 Speaker 3 So I think it's just kind of all those experiences together that really helped me. 16:28 Speaker 7 Eric Vegoe again. 16:29 Speaker 7 What's the difference in those championship teams and how do you intentionally try to foster that in the parts of championships and gold medals? 16:36 Speaker 7 What's the key? 16:36 Speaker 3 Yeah, well, I think number one is, well, it starts right away with everybody being on the same page. 16:42 Speaker 3 Every common goal, everybody focused on what they want to do. 16:46 Speaker 3 A lot of it is the selection process of picking those teams, right? 16:50 Speaker 3 You want to make sure you have the right talent, the right spots. 16:52 Speaker 3 You want to make sure your power plays are set up the right way. 16:56 Speaker 3 Most importantly, though, I think once you get through those steps that you're looking for, recruiting is the biggest piece. 17:02 Speaker 3 I mean, you want to find kids that are hungry to win. 17:04 Speaker 3 You want to find kids that they want to beat their buddy if they're playing checkers. 17:09 Speaker 3 You want to find the kid that they don't take an off day of trying to beat somebody. 17:12 Speaker 3 And I think when you put talent combined with that kind of gritty hard work, competitiveness, I think that's when you win. 17:19 Speaker 3 And I think you also have to build your team the right way. 17:21 Speaker 3 Every player can't be the same. 17:23 Speaker 3 You've got to have players that just will do anything to be on the third or fourth line and not only accept it, but embrace it. 17:29 Speaker 3 And they know they're supporting the guys in the first or second, trying to work their way up. 17:33 Speaker 3 But when you have that feel that everybody's got that common goal, everybody's skilled, but gritty, everybody is together on the mission that they're trying to accomplish, and I think that's when it comes. 17:45 Speaker 10 Brett, you talked a little bit of identity in a couple of set sequences back. 17:50 Speaker 10 What does that identity look like, not to say next year, but year two, year three, when you're really getting up and going? 17:55 Speaker 3 I just like gritty skill. 17:58 Speaker 3 Getting after, playing fast with skill, being on the attack, attacking in the defensive zone to turn pucks over quickly so we can transfer fast, attacking in the neutral zone so we can create turnovers and transfer fast. 18:10 Speaker 3 The offensive zone, being able to use our speed and skill and sticks to be able to attack quickly. 18:14 Speaker 3 I think this team has got a ton of, well, I don't think, I know it's got a ton of skill. 18:19 Speaker 3 Let's play fast and aggressive, a little gritty, a little bit of structure. 18:23 Speaker 3 And I think when you play that way, you can be successful. 18:25 Speaker 3 I think we can get up and down the sheet with anybody. 18:27 Speaker 3 And I think, well, you know we can. 18:29 Speaker 3 I see a look on your face. 18:31 Speaker 3 We get up and down the sheet with anybody. 18:32 Speaker 3 I think we continue to build our structure a little bit, play gritty and have everybody play in that way. 18:39 Speaker 3 That's the plan. 18:41 Speaker 3 I'll share, right? 18:42 Speaker 4 Yeah. 18:44 Speaker 2 I don't know, just to describe, I guess, your eight years at St. 18:47 Speaker 2 Claude State. 18:48 Speaker 7 Obviously, there were some great moments. 18:50 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, it was. 18:51 Speaker 3 I mean, it's just so hard to believe that eight years ago, I mean, I was driving down 35 and making a right at Hinkley, and Bob was driving down 94 and had known this way at pretty much the same time. 19:02 Speaker 3 And again, he left me a great team and great kids, the Palin kids and the Schultz and all those kids that I got to coach there. 19:11 Speaker 3 We made a really, really nice run over those three and four years to get to that national championship game and obviously a tough one to lose that night. 19:20 Speaker 3 But being Mankato in the NCAA frozen four semi-finals was one of the highlights, for sure. 19:28 Speaker 3 And then a couple of years later, we played some great games with the Gophers. 19:32 Speaker 3 I always joke, we beat them up in St. 19:36 Speaker 3 Cloud and then we played here the next night. 19:38 Speaker 3 It was one-one went to overtime. 19:40 Speaker 3 We're hanging in there in overtime too. 19:42 Speaker 3 We're not half the skill. 19:43 Speaker 3 And then I look out there, last three that go out with 30 seconds left were Nye's, Faber and Cooley. 19:49 Speaker 3 And I got like two Finns and a guy from Minnetonka that played a little bit, but they scored with eight seconds left to beat us. 19:58 Speaker 3 But anyway, we had a great game with them up in Fargo that year too, to go to the Frozen Four. 20:02 Speaker 3 So a few years later, we're back in that position to get back to the Frozen Four, one game away, playing Minnesota. 20:11 Speaker 3 Last year, obviously a difficult year for us, as you know, losing Isaac Posh at Christmas. 20:15 Speaker 3 And Christmas or January 10th, I think we were 10th in the country, lose our top two players with a really young team that wasn't ready to score yet, really struggled in the second half. 20:23 Speaker 3 And I was really proud of the team this year as far as digging out of a pretty dark hole and starting to come right back up again, where we couldn't beat anybody in the country. 20:31 Speaker 3 We did win in North Dakota, had two over 10 games with Duluth. 20:36 Speaker 3 I believe we're back on that path again. 20:38 Speaker 3 Every program at that level, you have some ebbs and flows to your seasons. 20:42 Speaker 3 And I felt like now we're right back where we needed to be going. 20:46 Speaker 1 Take one or two more for coach if there are additional questions. 20:49 Speaker 4 Go ahead, Barbara. 20:51 Speaker 7 Hi, Brett. 20:52 Speaker 1 Nice to meet you. 20:53 Speaker 3 Nice to meet you. 20:53 Speaker 7 I'm Jason from the Minnesota Daily. 20:56 Speaker 7 Just want to ask you, why was this the right job for you at this point of your career? 21:00 Speaker 3 Well, a little bit of what I said before. 21:03 Speaker 3 This is the best opportunity in college hockey. 21:05 Speaker 3 It's the best tradition, the best culture. 21:08 Speaker 3 It's got the best players. 21:09 Speaker 3 It's got the best facilities. 21:10 Speaker 3 It's the place you want to be as a coach. 21:13 Speaker 3 And I felt it was the best opportunity because finally, I felt ready. 21:18 Speaker 3 And it was because of all those experiences we talked about. 21:20 Speaker 3 It was going through those national championship games. 21:23 Speaker 3 You know, I was fortunate to meet four of them. 21:25 Speaker 3 One, two and lost two. 21:26 Speaker 3 So I know what it feels like on each side to go through those gold medals. 21:31 Speaker 3 And to be honest, to go through a tough season last season and learn how to have to grind through it and get through some difficult times and help your players get through moments that aren't fun or hard. 21:41 Speaker 3 When you lose hockey games, it's hard on everybody. 21:42 Speaker 3 It's hard on the staff. 21:43 Speaker 3 It's hard on the players. 21:44 Speaker 3 And I think as a coach, you want to be able to make sure you're coaching through those moments and you're able to keep your team growing even when it's tough. 21:50 Speaker 3 So I just felt like the body of work finally matched up with the best opportunity a coach could ask for. 21:57 Speaker 8 We have a final question for coach. 21:59 Speaker 8 We'll go back to Randy. 22:02 Speaker 8 You were a player coach in the minors. 22:04 Speaker 8 Yeah. 22:05 Speaker 8 What did you take away from that and how did it send you on your coaching career? 22:08 Speaker 3 Well, that's when I was in San Diego and actually, it was a St. 22:11 Speaker 3 Cloud alum, Steve Martenson, that was the head coach. 22:14 Speaker 3 That's where I got the bug for coaching and I really enjoyed it. 22:19 Speaker 3 Now, on the ice, in the games, you weren't coaching much, but what I really enjoyed was practice planning. 22:24 Speaker 3 I really enjoyed learning when to push guys based on how much we've been playing and learning how to push or pull or have them ready. 22:33 Speaker 3 Putting the roster together in the summer was a lot of fun. 22:35 Speaker 3 So it led me into wanting to be a college coach someday because it was a little bit like that. 22:40 Speaker 3 It was the practices and it was a lot of the recruiting. 22:42 Speaker 3 So I didn't mind doing it in San Diego for four years. 22:46 Speaker 3 It wasn't a bad spot to be. 22:48 Speaker 3 So we always were told who could recruit San Diego. 22:52 Speaker 4 But anyway. 22:53 Speaker 1 All right. 22:54 Speaker 1 Thank you, coach. 22:54 Speaker 1 We appreciate your time. 22:55 Speaker 3 Thanks everybody. 22:57 Speaker 6 We now have Director of Athletics Mark Coyle back at the podium. 23:00 Speaker 1 Once he gets up there, we're going to take questions. 23:02 Speaker 1 As a reminder, please raise your hand. 23:03 Speaker 6 We'll bring the microphone to you. 23:10 Speaker 6 Mark, just what set Brett apart during this process? 23:13 Speaker 1 Well, obviously, when I talk about my opening remarks, you look at the four National Championship Games, the three gold medals. 23:21 Speaker 1 If you go back a year ago, we actually know Nico's here, Coach Medved. 23:25 Speaker 1 We hired him a year ago today. 23:27 Speaker 1 If you remember when we talked about hiring Nico, we tried to get smarter with each hire. 23:31 Speaker 1 If you look at Nico who had great success at his previous stops, Keegan Cook is back there. 23:36 Speaker 1 Keegan Cook is part of that mold where we've hired people who had success. 23:39 Speaker 1 When you look at Brett and what he's done at each stop, he talked about recruiting when I was at Kentucky and worked for Coach Kyle Perry. 23:46 Speaker 1 Coach Kyle, you saw his talk about the importance of recruiting. 23:49 Speaker 1 Brett checks that box. 23:50 Speaker 1 He checks the box of being in national championship games. 23:52 Speaker 1 He checks the box with the gold medals. 23:55 Speaker 1 And then when I talk to people around the country, whether I'm talking to David Carl out at Denver, or I'm talking to Lou Nanny or Pat McAleady or whoever I may be talking to, his name just kept coming up over and over again. 24:06 Speaker 1 So we're really, really excited. 24:07 Speaker 1 He believes in Minnesota and that he's here in Minnesota today. 24:15 Speaker 7 Brett mentioned that he had a lot of people reach out to you to recommend him or speak of him. 24:19 Speaker 7 Who are the kind of people you talk to and what kinds of things do they say? 24:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, well, you know, it's, I'm not dodging your question, Eric. 24:27 Speaker 1 My week, you know, I think I said yesterday, I'm in the air when the news about Bob became public, and then I land in St. 24:34 Speaker 1 Louis, and my phone absolutely starts to blow up. 24:37 Speaker 1 I'm sure like your phone did today, Brett, will be announced, he was our new coach. 24:41 Speaker 1 And you start to get text messages from people and so forth. 24:43 Speaker 1 But as I mentioned, I heard from a lot of alum, spoke with David Krall, talked to a lot of other coaches who spoke so highly of him, and the work that he did at St. 24:54 Speaker 1 Cloud, just stood out to me in terms of the eight years he's been there, what he's done. 24:59 Speaker 1 But again, just got a lot of positive feedback. 25:02 Speaker 1 And when we talk to our student athletes, again, Peyton's done a wonderful job with our student athletes. 25:08 Speaker 1 We talk about the experience we give them, and you talk about the relationship that Brett has. 25:12 Speaker 1 You learned about that from the people who reached out to me about him, his relationship that he builds, those things, all that, and up to make him the perfect fit for us now. 25:21 Speaker 1 If you have a question, go ahead and raise your hand. 25:22 Speaker 1 Don, we'll go to you. 25:25 Speaker 5 Mark Brett spoke about greediness and bringing greediness to the program. 25:29 Speaker 5 So what did you like about that, hearing those words? 25:33 Speaker 5 And also in your years here, have you seen now the circular kind of how Minnesotans are now a pipeline for coaches as well when it comes to you? 25:42 Speaker 1 Yeah. 25:42 Speaker 1 Well, it's good to see. 25:43 Speaker 1 Don, I remember you interviewing my first day here. 25:46 Speaker 1 Can you believe I made it 10 years? 25:48 Speaker 1 It's good to see you again. 25:49 Speaker 1 So nice to see you. 25:49 Speaker 1 But a little flashback moment there. 25:53 Speaker 1 But the Minnesotans, this is a great, great state. 26:00 Speaker 1 And I talked about this yesterday. 26:01 Speaker 1 We introduced Boone, who was back there. 26:03 Speaker 1 Well, when we introduced Boone yesterday, we talked about in Minnesota, doing things the right way matters. 26:09 Speaker 1 And there's just a certain work ethic in Minnesota. 26:12 Speaker 1 I love the blue collar mentality. 26:14 Speaker 1 You rope your sleeves, we work hard. 26:15 Speaker 1 And we talk all the time inside our walls here in Minnesota. 26:19 Speaker 1 We don't have to have the biggest house in the neighborhood, but we want to be in the neighborhood. 26:23 Speaker 1 And I firmly believe that coaching matters, leadership matters. 26:27 Speaker 1 And again, when you look at the coaches that we've been able to bring in as a department, and a lot of them are here today, we have brought in people who understand our core values of doing things the right way academically, athletically, socially. 26:38 Speaker 1 We focus on that every day. 26:39 Speaker 1 There's a reason why we have athletic success. 26:41 Speaker 1 There's a reason why we're one of the top schools academically across the country, because we have great, great coaches who understand what it means to represent this institution. 26:49 Speaker 1 And you know, Brett talked about when you play the Gophers in hockey, you get the A game from the opponent. 26:54 Speaker 1 I want all of our sports to feel that. 26:56 Speaker 1 And I feel like we're making great progress doing that. 26:58 Speaker 1 So again, there's no doubt that Minnesota Connection helps in a lot of ways. 27:07 Speaker 7 You mentioned you think Brett's the best guy to handle this program in the modern landscape, and I'm sure, and he said this is the best job in the country. 27:14 Speaker 7 I'm sure you talked to a lot of people. 27:15 Speaker 7 What is it about Brett's message that stood out from other people interested in the job? 27:19 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm gonna disappoint you, Eric, because I'm really simple. 27:23 Speaker 1 And you know, when we talked on the phone, I think the first time we talked was last Wednesday. 27:28 Speaker 1 We talked multiple times, and every time I talked with him, my wife Kristen is back here, she'll tell you every time I talked with him, I wanted to talk more with him. 27:37 Speaker 1 Like, it's so engaging. 27:38 Speaker 1 And again, I put myself in the mindset of a student athlete, the mindset of recruit, and there's just this passion and this caring and this empathy to be a part of this program. 27:49 Speaker 1 And as he talked about what Minnesota hockey meant to him, you know, I have a lot of respect for saying it to Luth. 27:54 Speaker 1 I probably can't say it as the Athletic Director of Minnesota, but what they've done there is super, super impressive. 27:59 Speaker 1 And I've had a chance to spend time with him, and I have a lot of respect for him, the fact that he worked there for so long, and the fact that Ohio State, he was a big part of those recruiting classes, as he talked about, they're all in the frozen form, it was here a few years ago in St. 28:11 Speaker 1 Paul. 28:11 Speaker 1 So all those things kind of stood out to me. 28:13 Speaker 1 But again, just when I talked with him, I wanted to talk more with him. 28:16 Speaker 1 And I can tell you, you know, the search committee had a chance to visit with him on Sunday, and spent time with him. 28:21 Speaker 1 And when I had a chance to get done with, after the search committee got with him, I had a chance to talk to Peyton, and Tricia, and others. 28:27 Speaker 1 They just all talked about how engaging he was, how genuine he was. 28:31 Speaker 1 He holds people accountable. 28:33 Speaker 1 He wants to compete at the highest level. 28:34 Speaker 1 So those are all things that kind of led to this moment. 28:39 Speaker 2 Mark, how much do you expect with the conversations you have with Bob, that he'll be a resource that Brett can rely on, the way things ended with Bob? 28:46 Speaker 1 Yeah, well again, everything ended well with Bob. 28:49 Speaker 1 As I said yesterday, Chris, Bob had seven great years here. 28:52 Speaker 1 I mean, three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, two Frozen Four appearances, had a lot of success here. 28:57 Speaker 1 And as I talked about yesterday, Chris, when Bob and I sat down, I'm a big believer in your past experiences, right? 29:05 Speaker 1 And Chris Peterson at Boise State, when he and I would talk, we always talked about what's the next best right decision, right? 29:11 Speaker 1 And when Bob and I talked last week with Peyton and we had those conversations, we talked about the next best right decision for Minnesota. 29:17 Speaker 1 We all agreed that a change in leadership was probably the next best right thing. 29:20 Speaker 1 And Bob has been nothing but supportive. 29:22 Speaker 1 I mean, Bob has been awesome. 29:24 Speaker 1 The other coaches I've talked to across the country have been awesome. 29:26 Speaker 1 So Bob's a part of this program. 29:29 Speaker 1 What he's done here has been unbelievable. 29:30 Speaker 1 And we're just really grateful for Bob's involvement with us. 29:34 Speaker 1 Any additional questions for Mark? 29:38 Speaker 1 OK, thank you, Mark. 29:39 Speaker 1 Thank you, guys.