When Mark Coyle left his post as Syracuse AD last month for the same job at Minnesota, a stunned Orange football coach Dino Babers blinked to reporters at the ACC spring meetings: "Are you serious?"
Syracuse fans not thrilled with Gophers-themed semi in Mark Coyle's neighborhood
When photos of a Gophers football equipment truck in front of Mark Coyle's home in New York appeared online, Syracuse fans sounded off.
June 9, 2016 at 6:27AM
Yes, Dino. Coyle up and left. He's been in Dinkytown for a week now but apparently not everything is here along with him just yet.
An eagle-eyed TV weatherman in Syracuse spotted a Gophers football semi-truck in the area Wednesday.
The folks at syracuse.com took it a step further, dispatching a reporter to Coyle's former home in the Syracuse suburb of Dewitt. Upon arrival, the giant maroon and gold vehicle was parked in the cul-de-sac.
Photos of the truck on the news website clearly show the "Allied Van Lines" moving company logo on the steps of the truck.
This is indeed a moving van.
No one answered the door at the Coyle home, and Gophers football spokesman Paul Rovnak insisted neither Coyle nor the university knew the moving company planned to use this specific equipment truck this week.
This sort of thing is not a new practice. A Penn State football equipment trailer showed up to move coach James Franklin from Nashville to Happy Valley in 2014.
Still, Wednesday's images didn't sit well with Syracuse faithful, clearly still upset Coyle left the school after less than a year.
By midnight more than 145 comments had been posted on the syracuse.com story. Most had the same tone: This was no accident.
A sampling:
"Wow, that is really in poor taste! Isn't "Minnesota nice" supposed to be something?"
"This was intentional. Good riddance."
"Here's hoping there isn't a major pileup on 90 from a jackknifed truck on 90 tonight (wish no harm on the driver though, just the contents inside)"
"All's fair in love, war, and football. Doesn't mean it's not embarrassing though. . . not cool. And, what an ugly truck."
"What do you expect from a program named after rats? There, I feel better."
"Big Ten= No Class. Could have used Allied to do the move. Trying to understand this and not act thin-skinned, but really??!!"
"Totally classless. Wow. Minnesota still bitter from the Texas Bowl loss in 2013?"
"Sure is alot of dislike for Minnesota on here one of the most gentle, not pushy, not in your face parts of the country with teams that dont dominate any sport it plays both collegiate or professionally"
Who says New Yorkers don't get offended?
Two standouts for Minnesota were Tori McKinney (17 points) and Annika Stewart (20), as Prairie View A&M fell to 2-6.
