Whenever Mark Coyle gets the chance to return home to Waterloo, Iowa, he makes sure grab a meal with his old world history teacher and football coach, Gary Schnieders.

The 40-year veteran of Columbus (Iowa) High School might reminisce with Coyle about his senior year state championship when he was a shifty wide receiver, or the two might swap stories about life at work. Regardless of what cities and states Coyle’s work strung him to, this much was clear to Schnieders: Mark Coyle needs home.

“He’s maintained closer contact with me than a lot of students have,” Schnieders said. “That’s what makes (our relationship) for me very special.”

Coyle found home on Wednesday sitting on a stage in TCF Bank Stadium, pledging his allegiance to Minnesota’s athletic program the same way he did to Syracuse’s just over 10 months ago at his introductory press conference. He left behind an SU athletic program he never settled into. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t force the comfort and passion Coyle knows he’s capable of imparting toward the athletic program that employs him.

That’s what drove him to succeed at Minnesota from 2001-05, where he found a mentor in now-retired athletic director Joel Maturi. That’s what drove him to succeed at Kentucky from 2005-11, where he found a mentor in athletic director Mitch Barnhart. That’s what drove him out of Syracuse, because he found that comfort and passion somewhere else, a hand-picked job at Minnesota he surely wishes opened up just months earlier than it did in August.

Coyle needed an easier avenue to get home. It’s where his mother still resides, someone Coyle holds dearly after his father’s abrupt death several years ago. It’s also where his core values of good character and integrity were fostered, two traits that propelled him from football captain to athletic director in a couple of decades.

Syracuse didn’t provide a lens for Coyle to look home, and it promptly led to uncomfortable phone conversations with Maturi as Coyle struggled with entertaining the Minnesota job opening just months after arriving to SU.

“You need to know who you are (to do this job),” Maturi said, “and Mark knows who he is.”

He knew he was a people person with unmatched sincerity in Maturi’s eyes, who presided over Coyle in his last four years with the Golden Gophers. Coyle never got the chance to show as much to the Syracuse community, one that’s only left with a bitter taste in its mouth about Coyle and the recent association with the athletic director’s chair.

Maturi recalled the several conversations he had with his former apprentice about navigating career changes, something Coyle’s done frequently with four schools on his resume. As recently as last summer before he accepted the job with SU, the two talked about challenges that come along with new jobs, and when to know the match isn’t right.

“I’ve known many people that have chased the dream, ‘I want to be the AD at a BCS-level school,” Maturi said. “And they go on and it’s not a good fit for them, and it’s not a good fit for the school. Three years later they’re looking for a job. Make sure it’s the right fit for you. Don’t just leave early.”

Now, Coyle stands as the antithesis to his own mentor’s guidance. Perhaps he didn’t depart Boise State prematurely, but assuredly astray from Waterloo and what he holds close to his heart.

Wednesday offered a public homecoming, with the tears swelling in Coyle’s eyes affirming his arrival. He was flanked by Minnesota president Eric Kaler, who used the word “home” in the first sentence he uttered. In attendance was Maturi, who said that the tug to come home is what led Coyle to close the Syracuse chapter of his life. One that he couldn’t make it through without admitting he kept an eye on the Gophers’ job opening,

But now he’s claimed his prize, the one he sought for 300-plus days at Syracuse and never found. He caught a glimpse of it as he looked at his three children, wife, sister and mother in the crowd, all with strong ties to the Midwest.

Coyle needed home, and now he has it.

“There’s only one place I would’ve left Syracuse for,” he said. “and it’s Minnesota.”

Published on May 12, 2016 at 1:31 am

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman