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calminnfan

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Want to make a end of the year apology and somewhat close the door on further discussions of the sort. I was one of the ones who did not buy into his reports he heard about things not going well during the Brew term of office. My basic contention was that while he was HC of the Gophers and that there were certain characteristics I felt were desperately needed at the U (optimism for ex), along with the fact I cannot justify getting overly negative on a forum like this, he was going to receive my support. Doogie was right and I was wrong.

Brewster was in over his head and probably the main reason he had a revolving door of assistants.

I know that there will still be Brewster discussions for a while, especially while the new HC and staff rearrange the team according to their program, which will probably bring up comments on occasion. That said, I am in an attitude of looking forward to Coach Kill and staffs coming accomplishments and watching them build up the program.
 

I'm with you. I heard a lot of rumblings from staff, players, and parents but I figured it was just "the usual". I was optimistic and I take the "support" position--players, coaches, AD through thick and thin.

That said, I always felt something was "off". It seemed like everyone was on edge and that things were just this side of "out of control". What transpired this season was building for a long time. I'm glad it's over, I'm glad Horton righted the ship, and I'm glad that we have an experienced, level-headed man in charge.

I think that the hiring of Jerry Kill continued the program and fan catharsis that began with the Illinois and Iowa victories.

Mr. Kill will end up being a significant hire for this program. I think that we will be very pleased with what transpires over the next twelve months.
 

What I got from someone connected to the situation was that kids aren't going to perform if they don't trust you. That was hard to believe, because Brewster always struck me as an optimist, player's coach.
 

Brewster generally knew his audience and played to that audience well. What I mean by that is that he was very different than what he portrayed.

Once the fans weren't around or the TV cameras were off, he was a totally different guy.

People near the program knew that. But Brew fooled a lot of people on here for a long time.
 

akgopher said:
That was hard to believe, because Brewster always struck me as an optimist, player's coach.
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Players have to buy it and the viewed his lines as BS, let's remember that he wasn't preaching to second graders, athletes portrayed on Friday Night Lights or Lebron James...the vast majority of his players were and are good students who no doubt have a good nose for BS.
 


anonymous said:
Brewster generally knew his audience and played to that audience well. What I mean by that is that he was very different than what he portrayed.

Once the fans weren't around or the TV cameras were off, he was a totally different guy.

People near the program knew that. But Brew fooled a lot of people on here for a long time.
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I think that there is a fine line some coaches try to tread. What you have described here is a person who is fake. I have no idea of whether this is true of Brewster. It is however a perfect description of my high school coach. Anyway, I remember reading in the Mitch Albom book, "Bo" that Schembechler claimed that he was always acting when he was coaching. I guess that some coaches can pull that off without being fake, and some can't.
 

Say what you want but if the Gophers did not have four straight years of some of the worst recruiting classes in the country (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 (all of them attributable to Mason) Brewster would still be the coach. I should not have to remind anyone that Brewster never once had the opportunity to coach the Gophers with all of his own recruits. If people don't acknowledge that fact they are revising history.

I don't think even one member of the local media (including Doogie) has ever written about Mason's pathetic recruiting after 2003. And I have never heard it discussed in an informed way even one time on KFAN or KSTP. The one thing I have read is a direct quote from Mason who said recruiting is 80% of coaching college football.
 

We didn't have a disaster this year because of Mason. Brewster made radical changes in the hopes that he could recruit into them. He couldn't. If Brewster had had an idea of what he wanted to do, he might still be the coach.
 

RodentRampage said:
We didn't have a disaster this year because of Mason. Brewster made radical changes in the hopes that he could recruit into them. He couldn't. If Brewster had had an idea of what he wanted to do, he might still be the coach.
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You missed my point. If the years 2004 - 2007 had been even average recruiting classes for Mason, Tim Brewster would have won more games without changing one thing about his coaching. With the recruits he ended up with it didn't matter who was Gopher coach. Nobody was going to be able to succeed. Nobody. If you don't agree than you don't think recruiting is important and you should not be taken seriously.
 



Brewster was over his head. Mason would have probably won more games with his guys regardless if the cupboard was empty. Brewster just wasn't a good coach.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
You missed my point. If the years 2004 - 2007 had been even average recruiting classes for Mason, Tim Brewster would have won more games without changing one thing about his coaching. With the recruits he ended up with it didn't matter who was Gopher coach. Nobody was going to be able to succeed. Nobody. If you don't agree than you don't think recruiting is important and you should not be taken seriously.
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He didn't miss your point at all. We all know Mason did a terrible job of recruiting. That still doesn't absolve Brewster of being a complete disaster this year. Quit trying to make it seam like Brewster wasn't really that bad. Regardless of who's players he was coaching he was still not very good at being a head coach.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
You missed my point. If the years 2004 - 2007 had been even average recruiting classes for Mason, Tim Brewster would have won more games without changing one thing about his coaching. With those recruits it didn't matter who was Gopher coach. Nobody was going to be able to succeed. Nobody. If you don't agree than you don't think recruiting is important and you should not be taken seriously.
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If Mason had recruited better, he probably will still be the coach.

You claim no other coach could have done better than Brewster. I most certainly do not agree with that. Good luck finding anyone who agrees with you.

I did not miss your point. And no, my disagreeing with you in no way, shape or form implies that I do not think recruiting is important. Coaches have done better than Brewster did with inheriting recruiting classes as bad or worse than Brewster inherited. Mason's recruiting classes don't even explain 2007, let alone 2010.

Recruiting is important, but not as important as coaching. A bad coach will fail even with good recruits. A good coach can get good results with less than stellar recruits.
 

Mason retired in the job, Brewster never was ready for it.
 



Can't we all just agree that Mason was never a good recruiter, and his last few years were even worse than normal? Can't we also agree that Brewster was not ready to be a head coach and was in way over his head?

Mason probably would have had a better record this year and in 2007 ('08-09 are debatable) but not significantly better.
 

Say what you want about Mason, but the guy truely had some great teeth.
 

HouseOfHagen said:
Say what you want about Mason, but the guy truely had some great teeth.
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So true. Now the gophers have a coach with some of the worst teeth I have ever seen in my life. Can Kill please fix those, it has to be tough for recruits to look at those choppers up close. I like Kill's message but a lot of it gets lost when you have to actually look at that messed up grill.
 

GopherGod said:
So true. Now the gophers have a coach with some of the worst teeth I have ever seen in my life. Can Kill please fix those, it has to be tough for recruits to look at those choppers up close. I like Kill's message but a lot of it gets lost when you have to actually look at that messed up grill.
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A strong late entry for dumbest post of the year.
 

GopherGod said:
So true. Now the gophers have a coach with some of the worst teeth I have ever seen in my life. Can Kill please fix those, it has to be tough for recruits to look at those choppers up close. I like Kill's message but a lot of it gets lost when you have to actually look at that messed up grill.
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So wait. You ragged on the last coach for putting flash before substance and now you want the coach who is full of substance to have more flash?

I have to hope this was an attempt at humor.
 

calminnfan said:
Want to make a end of the year apology and somewhat close the door on further discussions of the sort. I was one of the ones who did not buy into his reports he heard about things not going well during the Brew term of office. My basic contention was that while he was HC of the Gophers and that there were certain characteristics I felt were desperately needed at the U (optimism for ex), along with the fact I cannot justify getting overly negative on a forum like this, he was going to receive my support. Doogie was right and I was wrong.

Brewster was in over his head and probably the main reason he had a revolving door of assistants.

I know that there will still be Brewster discussions for a while, especially while the new HC and staff rearrange the team according to their program, which will probably bring up comments on occasion. That said, I am in an attitude of looking forward to Coach Kill and staffs coming accomplishments and watching them build up the program.
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I wish I could convince my wife to think like this :) In all seriousness, I am far from right 100% of the time... but do love interacting with passionate Gophers fans on here... But I can promise this: I never pass along tips/nuggets w/o getting it from at least one, and usually two trustworthy people.
Have really started to love the Kill hire. He kept the right people -- Hammock & O'Brien, and has really impressed many high school coaches. He deserved a shot to coach in a BCS conference.
 

loki said:
Brewster was over his head. Mason would have probably won more games with his guys regardless if the cupboard was empty. Brewster just wasn't a good coach.
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In my opinion, this just isn't a completely accurate statement.

"Bad coach". That can mean a million things and can be taken a number of different ways. Tha'ts like saying, he's a "bad boss"; well, be more specific; doesn't know his stuff, poor manager, poor knowledge of the business financials, doesn't understand the company's mission?

I highly doubt Brewster was a "bad coach". He had been around the game too long and was thought of too highly by too many people.

Brewster failed because he wasn't ready to be a head coach and worse yet, had no continuity with his coordinators. He failed because he didn't come in with a tried and true philosophy and offensive and defensive systems/schemes. He didn't come in with a group of coaches with whom he had been successful with before.

Calling him a bad coach is a copout and kind of lazy, IMO. Bad Head Coach, yes, I'll buy that. But those that think he just flew in here on a whim without knowing a damn thing about the game are just plain ignorant. He didn't just forget all he knew about football overnight. He wasn't ready for the HC gig. Period. Being a D-1/BCS Head Coach is probably about 10-15% "coaching" and the rest is management; managing the players, managing the coaching staff, managing practice schedules, film schedules, setting up the schedule, etc.


Anyway, the aforementioned is one of the reasons I'm more optimistic about Kill than I would have been about most of the names that were being thrown around; The U didn't just hire Kill, he brought his entire staff with him. A staff with whom he's worked before, with whom he's won before, with whom he's resurrected programs before, and one that he trusts. That's a gold mine, in my opinion. I'm anxious to see how things turn out.
 

GoAUpher said:
So wait. You ragged on the last coach for putting flash before substance and now you want the coach who is full of substance to have more flash?

I have to hope this was an attempt at humor.
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Not any funnier then the Cornhusker pretending to be Gopher fan.
 


Okay Ogee...Brewster was a "bad head coach." I went to every game during Brewsters tenure except one and what I saw was undiciplined football, a revolving door of coordinators, "highly rated" recruits that never saw the field for various reasons, and lots of losses. He is up there with Wacker and Salem as the worse coaches I have ever watched coach a Gopher football team. The best football I have observed in the past four years was when Coach Horton took over the team indicating that they do have some talent and that a good coach should be able ot squeeze some wins out of them. in short, Brewster did not know what he was doing as a head coach...he was way over his head.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
Say what you want but if the Gophers did not have four straight years of some of the worst recruiting classes in the country (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 (all of them attributable to Mason) Brewster would still be the coach. I should not have to remind anyone that Brewster never once had the opportunity to coach the Gophers with all of his own recruits. If people don't acknowledge that fact they are revising history.

I don't think even one member of the local media (including Doogie) has ever written about Mason's pathetic recruiting after 2003. And I have never heard it discussed in an informed way even one time on KFAN or KSTP. The one thing I have read is a direct quote from Mason who said recruiting is 80% of coaching college football.
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Brewster would not be coaching even with the best players in the country. give it up. Quit blaming recruiting, blame the rotating major staff members and lack of experience.
 

loki said:
Okay Ogee...Brewster was a "bad head coach." I went to every game during Brewsters tenure except one and what I saw was undiciplined football, a revolving door of coordinators, "highly rated" recruits that never saw the field for various reasons, and lots of losses. He is up there with Wacker and Salem as the worse coaches I have ever watched coach a Gopher football team. The best football I have observed in the past four years was when Coach Horton took over the team indicating that they do have some talent and that a good coach should be able ot squeeze some wins out of them. in short, Brewster did not know what he was doing as a head coach...he was way over his head.
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I agree except I place Brewster in a whole different category than Salem and Wacker. Part of a head coach's responsibility is to "manage expectations". Brewster was a complete failure in that regard. Never had I heard so much about going to the Rose Bowl or so & so was going to be a superstar for us (see Harold Howell, David Pittman, etc). He also had a revolving door of new and improved offenses, and lacked the ability to run a disciplined team.

Wacker stayed true to his offenses and stole a few games in the process.

Salem just continued the previous culture of fielding a lower tier team in a premier conference.

Brewster single handedly tore the hearts and souls out of the players and fanbase.

I am so glad that era is behind us. Kill may not bring us a Big Ten title, but he will bring some sanity back,
 

Rescooter said:
I agree except I place Brewster in a whole different category than Salem and Wacker. Part of a head coach's responsibility is to "manage expectations". Brewster was a complete failure in that regard. Never had I heard so much about going to the Rose Bowl or so & so was going to be a superstar for us (see Harold Howell, David Pittman, etc). He also had a revolving door of new and improved offenses, and lacked the ability to run a disciplined team.

Wacker stayed true to his offenses and stole a few games in the process.

Salem just continued the previous culture of fielding a lower tier team in a premier conference.

Brewster single handedly tore the hearts and souls out of the players and fanbase.

I am so glad that era is behind us. Kill may not bring us a Big Ten title, but he will bring some sanity back,
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We don't know that either, but it does seem he understands where the team is at today. I do believe he has and will have more talent to coach up at the U, so we get to see how good a coach he can be at the BCS level.
 

calminnfan said:
We don't know that either, but it does seem he understands where the team is at today. I do believe he has and will have more talent to coach up at the U, so we get to see how good a coach he can be at the BCS level.
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I agree, the verdict is still out for The Killer. At least we haven't seen him haul out a piece of Rose Bowl turf or hear him talking about the number of Stars a Recruit has behind his name.

I don't know by your moniker or not, but it has also been quiet regarding potential recruits until they've given a Verbal. This has lowered my blood pressure several points and I think everyone else likes the results rather than talk.
 

Rescooter said:
Wacker stayed true to his offenses and stole a few games in the process.

Salem just continued the previous culture of fielding a lower tier team in a premier conference.

Brewster single handedly tore the hearts and souls out of the players and fanbase.
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They all tore our hearts out. Wacker may have stayed true to his offense, but his teams were awful, he had a worse conference record from Brewster. Salem didn't continue the previous culture, the Gophers were not a lower-tier team under Stoll. Stoll gave us our last 6 win Big Ten season, and his final three years the Gophers were 4-4 each year. We haven't had three consecutive non-winning seasons since then. Salem took a decent team and destroyed it. That Nebraska loss in 1983 was just the worst of many epic-level destructions the Gophers had that season.
 

Rescooter said:
I agree, the verdict is still out for The Killer. At least we haven't seen him haul out a piece of Rose Bowl turf or hear him talking about the number of Stars a Recruit has behind his name.

I don't know by your moniker or not, but it has also been quiet regarding potential recruits until they've given a Verbal. This has lowered my blood pressure several points and I think everyone else likes the results rather than talk.
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No idea on recruits. It appears he has spent the last few commits making sure immediate holes are filled with JC players. How that all works with scholarships is not something I know a lot about, but I believe a few of them are being counted against the 2010 scholarships which I believe Brew was not able to fill up last year.

If that is the case, Kill should be able to go over the 25 commits this year and focus on trying to get some quality players. I hope he is able to get Sankley, but the RB that has expressed an interest shows promise as well.
 

RodentRampage said:
They all tore our hearts out. Wacker may have stayed true to his offense, but his teams were awful, he had a worse conference record from Brewster. Salem didn't continue the previous culture, the Gophers were not a lower-tier team under Stoll. Stoll gave us our last 6 win Big Ten season, and his final three years the Gophers were 4-4 each year. We haven't had three consecutive non-winning seasons since then. Salem took a decent team and destroyed it. That Nebraska loss in 1983 was just the worst of many epic-level destructions the Gophers had that season.
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I was referring to the end of the Stoll era (5th in Big 10 last 2 years) and Smokey Joe's 6th and 5th place finishes his first two. The last two years of Salem were Awful (as you say).

I think something we can all agree on is; Minnesota is nowhere near where we should be and we all long for the glory days to return.
 

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