Coach Mo
Mohamed Ibrahim was a star running back at Minnesota from 2017 to 2022, set numerous school records and left the Baltimore native with a business and marketing education degree as one of the most productive backs in Big Ten history.
Now, the two-time All-American and 2020 Big Ten Running Back of the Year is back in Dinkytown. On the sidelines as Coach Mo., Ibrahim was hired as running backs coach in January, and this fall will be his first on the sideline in that capacity.
“Yeah, it’s been new to me,” said Ibrahim, sitting at his Bierman office desk. He moved into coaching after a brief NFL career was derailed by injury, first as a volunteer coach with the Gophers in 2024, then at Kent State as running backs coach in 2025.
“When I came here two years ago, I had some people on the team that I actually played with. It wasn’t natural for them just to call me Coach Mo yet,” he recalled. “Now coming back two years later, none of these guys I played with are here, so now naturally, it’s been unique just being in the building and just having a different role.”
Fall camp will be upon us in a couple of months, and Ibrahim said he can’t wait for the entire squad, including first-year players, to be in tow.
“I want to make sure that I meet everybody’s needs come summertime, just to make sure that they’re all at an equal spot … that they’ve all mastered the playbook. Just to see what do they know? What can they keep getting better at? Who do they need help with? Stuff like that,” he said.
With his playing days behind him, Ibrahim believes that experience greatly helps him now as a coach. “As a coach, you want your players to know everything, right? Then you come to realize that you have to teach them the basics first,” he said. “Technique is important, and that’s up to them, and that’s the maturity level of a college athlete.”
Being a coach has also fully opened his eyes. “I didn’t know how much coaches cross their t’s and dot their i’s,” Ibrahim said. “Behind the scenes, everything has a purpose behind it. I’m making the most of my opportunity right now.”
FURTHERMORE …
Former Hamline coach Chip Taylor, the school’s first Black head football coach, was hired in April as Lehigh’s special teams coordinator and safeties coach. Taylor was at Hamline for 13 seasons, the last 10 as head coach, and also served as the Pipers’ special teams coordinator. He has been in coaching since the mid-2000s.
“I’m excited to be part of a winning championship program,” said Taylor, a Willingboro, N.J., native. Lehigh is a private research university in Pennsylvania and a two-time Patriot League champion (2024, 2025).
A difficult year
The Minnesota tennis team’s 2026 season ended last month on a high note. The Gophers won their final matches on Senior Day, defeating Nebraska 4-2.
Seniors Sofia Pinto, Arina Valitova and Aiva Schmitz each won their final singles matches, and Schmitz’s set clinched the win for Minnesota. Head Coach Lois Arterberry said afterward, “All three seniors stepped up in singles and clinched the match for us.”
The victory brought a brief bright spot to an otherwise difficult year for the Gophers, who finished the regular season 11-16.
Arterberry spoke with us shortly after the season concluded. “I think we went into the season really promising based off of how we competed in the fall, and we were really excited to see … basically having the exact same team again,” she said.
“And we started off really well with a good win against Iowa State,” recalled Minnesota’s only Black head coach. But things took a difficult turn. “We had a couple of injuries start off the year unexpectedly. One of our top players was out basically for the entire season, and I think that just kind of changed things.”
“We had to change around doubles, and not having her for singles was definitely tough. We ended not the way that I would have liked,” said Arterberry, whose third season in Dinkytown was perhaps her most frustrating since being hired in 2023 after two seasons as St. Thomas head coach.
“I’m not gonna lie,” she continued, “it was a difficult year for me. I have not had a season like this in maybe my entire career.” The Grenada native has more than a decade of head coaching experience, including coaching both men’s and women’s tennis at Jackson State.
“It was difficult balancing, dealing with the injuries … it impacted us quite a bit. It took a bit of a toll on players. We weren’t expecting it.”
A season like this one also forces self-analysis, Arterberry said. “You’re questioning yourself as a coach… am I doing the right things? Am I following the right path? You begin to ask yourself these questions.”
Now it’s back to work as Arterberry and her staff prepare for the upcoming season. “I’m expecting that it’s going to be pretty busy here,” she said.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.