brett larson has surfaced as one of the candidates interviewed as the University of Minnesota pushes through a men’s hockey coaching change that athletic director Mark Coyle says must move quickly, yet remains defined by a tightly controlled process with few public specifics.
What Mark Coyle has confirmed about the search
Mark Coyle spoke publicly on Monday for the first time since the Gophers and men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko parted ways last week. Coyle said he and his search committee have interviewed “numerous people” across the country and described the job as “very desirable, ” adding that it is on the department to identify the right leader “in this new age of Gopher hockey. ”
Coyle also framed the process as time-sensitive because of the anxiety players can face during a coaching change. He said he wants to be quick but not shortchange the process, and he did not provide a timeline for when a hire will be made.
In a separate detail about how the interviews are being conducted, Coyle confirmed he spent the weekend doing Zoom interviews with prospective candidates while attending the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in St. Louis. The university also introduced Greg “Boom” May as the new women’s hockey coach after a hiring announcement on Sunday.
Where Brett Larson fits — and what is actually known
People with knowledge of the situation identified St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson as one of the candidates who has interviewed with Coyle. Grant Potulny, the Hartford Wolf Pack coach and a Gophers alum, has also been identified as an interviewee.
As of late Monday, one account of the process described Brett Larson as emerging as the favorite. The publicly stated record from Coyle, however, has centered on the breadth of the pool and the continued vetting rather than singling out a frontrunner.
Larson’s background as described in the public accounts includes that he is a Duluth native and a former University of Minnesota-Duluth defenseman. He started at St. Cloud State in 2018, replacing Motzko. Under Larson, St. Cloud State has appeared in four NCAA tournaments, reaching the national championship game in 2021 and a regional final in 2023. His record and recent season results have also been laid out publicly: the Huskies went 16-19-1 this season, missing the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row, and Larson’s career record has been listed as 153-116-23.
Larson has also been identified as part of David Carle’s USA Hockey staff that won gold medals at the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors.
The stakes: a “new landscape” and a program built on pressure
Coyle has repeatedly tied the coaching search to the broader changes reshaping college athletics. He has said the next coach must be comfortable handling not only coaching and recruiting, but also the business side of the program, including the transfer portal, NIL money, revenue sharing, and Canadian major junior players coming south to the NCAA. Coyle also said the school might eventually hire a general manager, or multiple managers, to oversee that side of the operation.
Those expectations sit alongside the specific pressure points of the Minnesota job. Coyle said he wants someone who understands what Gopher hockey means to the state, calling it “a big, big deal, ” and stressed the need for a leader who can manage the program on and off the ice.
Coyle’s comments also put the departure of Motzko in a longer frame than a single season. Motzko had one year left on a contract paying $750, 000. Coyle said he began talking to Motzko about his future a month ago, then met with him last Monday and Tuesday to discuss the long-term direction of the program after the team finished its first losing season since 1999, closing with a loss to Penn State. Coyle said he and Motzko reached the same conclusion that the best long-term decision was for Motzko to step away and for the program to go in a new direction.
For now, the public facts are clear on the mechanics and the demands, but not on the endgame: the University of Minnesota is conducting a fast-moving, multi-candidate process, and brett larson remains one of the names directly connected to interviews as Coyle keeps the timeline and final decision points undisclosed.
