Minnesota Hires Cory Sauter As New Head Coach - majesty95's Dynasty

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Minnesota Hires Cory Sauter As New Head Coach

Posted on July 30, 2011 at 04:35 PM.

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The University of Minnesota announced today that former Golden Gopher Cory Sauter was named the football team's new head coach. Sauter was a quarterback for the Gophers from 1994-97.

Sauter, who had been the head coach at Southwest Minnesota State (Division II), was not considered a candidate for a Division I head coaching position. However, a strong lobbying effort by Sauter at the end of last season after the university fired head coach Tim Brewster put the ex-Gopher on the school's radar.

According to school officials, Sauter brought "fresh ideas" and "innovative concepts" to the table as he outlined his plan to return the U of M to national prominence. One of those "concepts" was bringing back the "Mouse" Davis-style run-n-shoot that was made popular by the record setting Houston Cougars in the late-80's and early-90's.

Mouse Davis was the eccentric head coach of Portland State in the late-70's who refined the concepts taught by Glenn "Tiger" Ellison as a high school coach in Ohio. Davis' RNS differs from the one used today by programs like SMU and Hawai'i in that Davis believed the quarterback should play "under center" as opposed to the more common shotgun formations used by those schools today. Sauter believes he can teach those concepts in a more simple form and create an offense that is almost impossible for defenses to stop.

Sauter began teaching the principles of the run-n-shoot as Southwest Minnesota State where he served as the team's quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and eventually head coach. As the offensive coordinator in 2009, Sauter turned the Eagles' offense into one of the most prolific in school history. He was promoted to head coach the following year where he led the team to a 4-6 record. The four wins ranked him 8th in school history while the .400 winning percentage ranked him third all-time. Prior to being hired by SMSU, Sauter had coached quarterbacks with the Hamburg Sea Devils (2006) and Berlin Thunder (2007).

Prior to beginning his coaching career, Sauter spent parts of six years on NFL rosters as either a third-string quarterback or practice squad member. Sauter spent time with Arizona, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Chicago. He also played one season with the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe.

As a Gopher, Sauter started 34 games in four seasons as the team's quarterback playing under head coaches Jim Wacker and Glen Mason. It was at Minnesota where the idea's of the run-n-shoot were first born within Sauter. Coach Jim Wacker was a proponent of "spreading the defense" and creating space for the offense to operate. While not a true run-n-shoot, Wacker's offense used many concepts of the RNS and was one of the most prolific in the nation at that time. Sauter would leave the university as the school's career leader in pass attempts, completions, passing yardage and passing touchdowns. He still ranks in the top four in each of those four passing categories on the school's all-time list.