Sid Hartman pulls a complete 180 on the Brewster hire

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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This thread is not a Brewster bashing thread or anything close to that, instead it's yet another example of how Sid praises a coach to no end, and then once they are gone, he pulls a complete 180. Sid wrote this in his Friday column:

"In Brewster's case, he should not have been hired in the first place because he didn't have any head coaching experience."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/119887614.html

I don't ever remember Sid being so critical of the hire initially (he never is, obviously) and a quick Google search found this from Sid on Oct. 26, 2008:

Column title: "U made right hire in Brewster" in the column he wrote: "But you have to give Maturi credit: he picked an unknown, and that unknown has done a fantastic job. Yes, Brewster has silenced the critics."

http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/33312799.html?page=2&c=y

Go Gophers!!
 

when will SID retire. its just horrible to have to deal with him.
 

Enjoy his stuff for what it is. It's great unintentional comedy. The guy is absolutely hilarious. He's been doing this since the 40's, let him go on his own terms. LEGEND.
 

BleedGopher said:
This thread is not a Brewster bashing thread or anything close to that, instead it's yet another example of how Sid praises a coach to no end, and then once they are gone, he pulls a complete 180. Sid wrote this in his Friday column:

"In Brewster's case, he should not have been hired in the first place because he didn't have any head coaching experience."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/119887614.html

I don't ever remember Sid being so critical of the hire initially (he never is, obviously) and a quick Google search found this from Sid on Oct. 26, 2008:

Column title: "U made right hire in Brewster" in the column he wrote: "But you have to give Maturi credit: he picked an unknown, and that unknown has done a fantastic job. Yes, Brewster has silenced the critics."

http://www.startribune.com/featuredColumns/33312799.html?page=2&c=y

Go Gophers!!
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Come on now; how many of us thought the same thing? How many of us supported Brewster as long as possible? It was a terrible hire but most of us had high hopes for at least the first couple of years. When he stated winning year 2008 most of us were upset because he was rumored to being considered for "higher profile" jobs. How quick we forget.
 

Atl Gopher said:
Come on now; how many of us thought the same thing? How many of us supported Brewster as long as possible? It was a terrible hire but most of us had high hopes for at least the first couple of years. When he stated winning year 2 most of us were upset because he was rumored to being considered for "higher profile" jobs. How quick we forget.
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Exactly right. I know I did, and then about 4 games into last year I made my 180 because I saw the writing on the wall. Foresight to me is being optimistic, hindsight is 20-20. I originally supported Brew as I looked ahead, and now in hindsight can see the hire was a mistake. Now, I only hope for Coach Kill to have success. Will he? I don't know. Can he? Yes.

Go Gophers!!!
 


Dr.Don said:
Exactly right. I know I did, and then about 4 games into last year I made my 180 because I saw the writing on the wall. Foresight to me is being optimistic, hindsight is 20-20. I originally supported Brew as I looked ahead, and now in hindsight can see the hire was a mistake. Now, I only hope for Coach Kill to have success. Will he? I don't know. Can he? Yes.

Go Gophers!!!
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I was in the same boat. Always liked Brew one on one, but I also felt something was "off" with the program. That "off" was the undercurrent of chaos. We see that now. But anyone who says the saw it then, is lying. I just don't want to do a 360...

"It's a 180, you..."
 

But anyone who says the saw it then, is lying. I just don't want to do a 360...
"It's a 180, you..."[/QUOTE]

Many of us spotted the chaos and general incompetence very early on. The 2007 season did not happen by accident.

Despite all that, I bought into it for a minute around the time of the 2008 NU Homecoming game. After our coach threw called passing plays with questionable field possession and only seconds left on the clock, , thus predictably blowing the game (and allegedly enraging Ted Roof) I knew it was over for him.
 

I made the mistake of watching the @FAU game.

Easily the dumbest Big Ten football game I've ever seen.
 




Sid's column is worth the "Jottings", nothing more, nothing less.
 

oak_street1981 said:
Many of us spotted the chaos and general incompetence very early on. The 2007 season did not happen by accident.

Despite all that, I bought into it for a minute around the time of the 2008 NU Homecoming game. After our coach threw called passing plays with questionable field possession and only seconds left on the clock, , thus predictably blowing the game (and allegedly enraging Ted Roof) I knew it was over for him.
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I chalked up 2007 to inexperience as a coach, I mean, we knew what we were getting, someone who didn't know how to coach. I thought he'd just get better and better. The Michigan game following that NU game is when I really started to worry some, but even throughout 2009, I was partially optimistic because of the "talent" we'd acquired. Watching the end of 2009 though, there were many causes for concern, big time. Plus, his attitude did him NO favors at all.

And then it all fell apart last season and now here we are, starting with a new regime once again, except this time, we did a 180 on the hire and got a coach with a plethora of coaching experience, and winning for that matter. The only knock on Kill is his lack of experience at the BCS level, so we'll see how he adjusts. His history says he will, but that remains to be seen. I'm pretty optimistic he's gonna do some good things here.
 

oak_street1981 said:
Many of us spotted the chaos and general incompetence very early on.
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Congratulations. Here's a cookie.

It doesn't exactly take Nostra-fricking-damus to predict that a Gophers football coach will fail.

When your kid came home with an F on a test, did you say, "I'm sorry...how can I help you get better?", or did you say, "Yup. I always knew you'd be a failure. I saw the signs back in kindergarten when you ate glue and wiped snot under your desk."

I'll bet I can guess.
 

Atl Gopher said:
Come on now; how many of us thought the same thing? How many of us supported Brewster as long as possible? It was a terrible hire but most of us had high hopes for at least the first couple of years. When he stated winning year 2008 most of us were upset because he was rumored to being considered for "higher profile" jobs. How quick we forget.
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For the first year or two of Brewster there was no 'group of people' more supportive than Gopher Hole. Anyone anti-Brewster was/would be ripped to no end.

The same is true now with Coach Kill and will be the same with the next coach.

Was Reusse on to something from day 1??????????????????????????????????????:eek:
 



oak_street1981 said:
Many of us spotted the chaos and general incompetence very early on. The 2007 season did not happen by accident.
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I'm sure you were saying this to all of your buddies minutes after the Illinois game in 2008.

It happened to most of us. I attribute it to the fact that we as Gopher football fans want them to have success SO BADLY that we will have blinders on. We see the 2007 season, we say "it's Mason's guys, it was his first year, minus the Illinois game, they really did improve from each game to the next from the NDSU game on, etc. etc. etc.. We see the 2008 season and say "it was a different team without Decker, we don't like Dunbar's offense, etc. etc. etc. 2009, we start to blame Weber & Fisch. As fans, we want to make excuses because we want our team to succeed so badly.

Everybody seemed to have a different point that they say the knew. Studwell says the FAU game in 2007; for me it was the NIU game last year (definitely late to the party). The bottom line though: I'm guessing no one was thinking this way after the Illinois game in 2008.

As for Sid, he probably could have just included "I thought such & such about Brewster, but now admit that I was wrong and he shouldn't have been hired." Just tossing out the "I was wrong" isn't a bad thing, especially in today's age of sports journalism.
 

oak_street1981 said:
Despite all that, I bought into it for a minute around the time of the 2008 NU Homecoming game. After our coach threw called passing plays with questionable field possession and only seconds left on the clock, , thus predictably blowing the game (and allegedly enraging Ted Roof) I knew it was over for him.
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In regards to this, my issue always wasn't that they played it too aggresively (I was saying at the time that I would have played for OT, but I was also saying I thought we should have kicked the FG against NIU the first game of the year instead of go for it on 4th down late, so I know nothing), but that two weeks later when in Madison, up 21-7, with the ball close to midfield, in a much better situation to be aggressive, they sat on it and went into the lockerroom instead of having the same aggressive mentality two weeks earlier. They could have SWEPT THE LEG, instead they sat on it.
 

Fans are fickle, not Sid. Sid's oddly consistent. How many of the "hire Horton" guys were there after his FIRST two games. Look how many there were after the Iowa game.

Sid never bought into Brewster because he never wanted Mason fired. Sid's M.O. is simple, always publicly support the guy in power. Read his book "Sid". Dead guys did not do well. If two guys are in power support the one that can help you long term. The best example is Giel and Holtz. Giel along with anybody who read the contract, said there WASN'T any Notre Dame clause. Lou needed people to believe there was. You know how that ended.

I hoped against hope that Brewster would turn things around. Still think he would have won some more damn games if he wasn't so stubborn about Weber and/or let his QB run the damn ball! I jumped-off after the NIU game. Add two or three wins in the last two years and what happens? Brewster and his staff stay. The wins would have made me feel beter, not sure about the outcome.

Rewriting of history is pretty rampant though. Hardly anybody praised the Brewster hire right away. The boards and the radio shows were full of people saying "Who the hell is Brewster". Had anybody heard of him? It was only after Shanahan, Mack Brown and Schottenheimer came out in support of the guy that people thought it could work. Reusse's constant patting himeslf on the back for ripping Brewster after his first press conference is pretty shallow. Brewster's " rah-rah stuff may have been genuine. His coaching and administrative skills ended-up being awful. Ruesse just ripped him for being phony.

The people who say they hated the hire but backed-off some after the 7-1 start sound pretty honest to me. It's the ones who say they know right away that is was a bad hire and never changed their minds that make me smile.

A whole lot of those guys were actually saying "Mason's my guy and I PRAY that Brewster is going to suck. I want him to fail and Maturi to be fired too." They weren't anti-Brewster they just loved Glen.
 


Atl Gopher said:
Come on now; how many of us thought the same thing? How many of us supported Brewster as long as possible? It was a terrible hire but most of us had high hopes for at least the first couple of years. When he stated winning year 2008 most of us were upset because he was rumored to being considered for "higher profile" jobs. How quick we forget.
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I can see your point. My response is that it's amazing the amount of change Sid has done since last year when he literally threw a tantrum of sorts during the press conference announcing Brewster had been canned. That was only a few months ago, not four years ago. Like others, I gave Brewster a chance for awhile, but Sid stuck with him until just a few months ago apparently. It therefore seems Sid's view changes with the proverbial direction in which the wind blows.
 

I too did a 180 on Brewster and I held on late. While I'm not a big fan of Sid, I do recognize the fact that he attempts to be positive when things are going well. That is more than other sportswriters who have more negative articles than positive ones.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Congratulations. Here's a cookie.

It doesn't exactly take Nostra-fricking-damus to predict that a Gophers football coach will fail.

When your kid came home with an F on a test, did you say, "I'm sorry...how can I help you get better?", or did you say, "Yup. I always knew you'd be a failure. I saw the signs back in kindergarten when you ate glue and wiped snot under your desk."

I'll bet I can guess.
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that's an A+ post right there.
 

MRJ said:
I can see your point. My response is that it's amazing the amount of change Sid has done since last year when he literally threw a tantrum of sorts during the press conference announcing Brewster had been canned. That was only a few months ago, not four years ago. Like others, I gave Brewster a chance for awhile, but Sid stuck with him until just a few months ago apparently. It therefore seems Sid's view changes with the proverbial direction in which the wind blows.
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There is no question that Sid is and always has been a homer. Thank goodness we have one such writer in the Twin Cities. Brewster lost me after year 2 and solidified that loss after year 3 when he showed he could not keep a staff together. Like Sid I still supported him to the bitter end.

In today's column Sid is writing about Trevor staying with the team. "Thursday in the Gophers basketball office, the 6-10 forward" Nice to see that Trevor is staying and that he has grown 2 inches. I don't blame the misprint on Sid. The Star and Trib is supposed to be a major metropolitan rag. Hey ya'll, where are your proof readers? I write articles for certain business trade publications. Anything I write, as a matter of fact, from a letter to a client on up, is carefully proof read by my staff members. How do errors like these jump out to us commoners but are missed by Sid's supposedly professional support staff?

Any publication that would keep folks on the payroll such P.R. (just can't bring myself to write or say the guy's name), consistently demonstrates its lack of professionalism.
 

I get tired of all the Sid-bashing. I look at Sid like a wacky uncle or Grandpa. You know he's goofy, but you can't help but like him.

The thing with Sid and Gopher sports is pretty simple - Sid loves the U. He wants all the coaches to do well. He also spends a lot of time with these people, and builds up a relationship, so it's understandable that he's upset when one of his "friends" is fired. And, I can see where Sid would buy into Brewster's BS - Sid thinks every kid at the U is a potential superstar, so he bought into all of Brewster's hype. Plus, Sid knows Shanahan, and Brewster worked for Shanahan, so Sid was pre-disposed to like/support Brewster.

I would rather read someone like like Sid, who's enthusiastic and positive most of the time, even if he gets his facts scrambled. I get so sick of Reusse and Souhan with their constant negative bashing of every team in town.
 

Studwell55 said:
I made the mistake of watching the @FAU game.
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lots of bad memories conjured up after reading through some of these threads and re-living the past 4 years.:eek:

that FAU road game in 2007 was a real treat.:eek::eek:

the team flew into Miami/Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, the day before the game. Just after the plane had landed and while the players were standing around in baggage claim waiting for their bags, the coaches all split to go recruit south Florida. they just took off.

the players were literally standing there in the bowels of the airport looking at each other. they didn't know where to go or what to do.:mad:

the over-riding thought each player had at that moment was that "the coaches don't think we're any good...they are putting all their time, energy, and focus into guys who are not even here." :eek:
"what are we supposed to do to get ready for the game against FAU?"

Joel Maturi was at least 3-1/2 years too late in pulling the plug on the disaster that was the Brewster experiment.:cry:
 

Dr.Don said:
Exactly right. I know I did, and then about 4 games into last year I made my 180 because I saw the writing on the wall. Foresight to me is being optimistic, hindsight is 20-20. I originally supported Brew as I looked ahead, and now in hindsight can see the hire was a mistake. Now, I only hope for Coach Kill to have success. Will he? I don't know. Can he? Yes.

Go Gophers!!!
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This describes my thoughts exactly too! I'm not too proud to admit my error in judgement...
 

dinkything said:
the team flew into Miami/Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, the day before the game. Just after the plane had landed and while the players were standing around in baggage claim waiting for their bags, the coaches all split to go recruit south Florida. they just took off.

the players were literally standing there in the bowels of the airport looking at each other. they didn't know where to go or what to do.
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I don't believe a word of this story. I've seen you claim this before, and I still don't believe a word of it.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I don't believe a word of this story. I've seen you claim this before, and I still don't believe a word of it.
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Much went on the past 4 years that never made it to these message boards.:eek:
believe what you want.
 

dinkything said:
Much went on the past 4 years that never made it to these message boards.:eek:
believe what you want.
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Seriously - we're supposed to believe that coaches, whose main job is the care and supervision of young adult male athletes, flew them 1,800 miles across the country and just walked away? Let them fend for themselves? How did they get anywhere? Did one of the players call and charter a bus? How did they pay for it? The entire coaching staff didn't get fired that day, let alone held on to their jobs for another 3 years? Yes, and I'm the King of Lino Lakes.

Tell us some more blatantly false stories, you big "insider" you.
 

dinkything said:
lots of bad memories conjured up after reading through some of these threads and re-living the past 4 years.:eek:

that FAU road game in 2007 was a real treat.:eek::eek:

the team flew into Miami/Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, the day before the game. Just after the plane had landed and while the players were standing around in baggage claim waiting for their bags, the coaches all split to go recruit south Florida. they just took off.

the players were literally standing there in the bowels of the airport looking at each other. they didn't know where to go or what to do.:mad:

the over-riding thought each player had at that moment was that "the coaches don't think we're any good...they are putting all their time, energy, and focus into guys who are not even here." :eek:
"what are we supposed to do to get ready for the game against FAU?"

Joel Maturi was at least 3-1/2 years too late in pulling the plug on the disaster that was the Brewster experiment.:cry:
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So what you are saying is that every single member of the staff, from Brewster on down to the lowliest of grad assistants, simply up and abandoned the team without instructing them what to do? Did they all scrape together pocket change for a cab to some seedy motel or something?

I've heard the story of Brewster and a few coaches leaving to recruit but c'mon, at least make your version somewhat plausible.
 

Kuato Lives! said:
So what you are saying is that every single member of the staff, from Brewster on down to the lowliest of grad assistants, simply up and abandoned the team without instructing them what to do? Did they all scrape together pocket change for a cab to some seedy motel or something?
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Actually, the word you just used..."abandoned"...is very accurate in describing the events of that day...and the feeling on the part of the players as they tried to prepare for the following day's game. ;)
 

Sid is good to the U so I give him a pass. Early 2010 season gopher D would get caught looking to the sidelines for direction. Esp. against SD- the kids just weren't ready to play.
 

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