BleedGopher
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http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_18991042?nclick_check=1
Tim Brewster, fired last year midway through his fourth season as University of Minnesota football coach, said he has one major regret about his tenure with the Gophers.
"I made a mistake trying to bring the spread offense into Minnesota," Brewster, talking extensively for the first time publicly since his dismissal last October, said Tuesday.
"It wasn't the right thing to do. It helped us in recruiting; it didn't help us on the field. That's a sincere regret that I have. I fixed it and changed. But coming out of the gate, if I would have done the things we did in our fourth year, we would have been much further ahead and had a much greater chance for success."
Brewster's Gophers teams finished 15-30 overall, 6-21 in the Big Ten.
"We came in with a spread offense because we did not have the athletes we needed to have to compete in the Big Ten, so I really felt running a spread offense would allow us to recruit better," Brewster said. "Once we got our recruits in, I wanted to evolve to more of a ground-based attack, what I call 'an all-weather attack.'
"What it did, though, is get me behind the eight-ball - the time we spent on the spread was not time well spent. That's something that I regret to this day."
Brewster said he later realized his teams needed to be a "ground-based offense, play-action pass, and then truly build your team around the defense. The biggest problem that Minnesota's had forever is that they haven't been able to stop anybody.
"The biggest regret, in my mind, is that we probably could have transitioned quicker."
These days, Brewster is a NFL and college sideline reporter for Fox Sports. He'll work Saturday night's Texas at Iowa State game, then drive to Kansas City, Mo., to work the sideline in the Chiefs-Vikings game Sunday afternoon.
"I'm enjoying it; it keeps me close to the game I love," Brewster said. "And I'm around good guys - (broadcasting partners) Charles Davis and Gus Johnson are two of the best. And Fox is a first-class operation. Next year truly becomes a battle between Fox and ESPN for the king of college football kind of deal."
Brewster's son Nolan, who was a starting junior strong safety for Texas this season, this week decided to quit playing football.
"A hard deal; football's been his life," Tim said. "He had a big-time concussion last week in the UCLA game, and he had been having some contact-related migraines. (Medical officials) have a hard time deciphering between the symptoms of a migraine and concussion. So, is it eight migraines, or is it five migraines and three concussions?"
Texas flew Nolan to see a specialist at the University of Michigan. After a consultation, Nolan, who will graduate in May with a double major in business, decided to stop playing.
"He made the right decision," his father said. "He said, 'My body was trying to tell me something, that maybe I don't need to be doing this right now.' This is the deal: Every time he lined up, he was playing Russian roulette. 'On this hit, was I going to get one (concussion), get a migraine? Maybe I didn't get it on this one, but ...' "
Brewster, who received a $600,000 contract buyout after annual compensation worth $1 million annually, still owns a house in suburban Minneapolis that he's renting out, has a condo in Naples, Fla., and has moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., where he's renting a home formerly owned by Texas coach Mack Brown.
"It's been a hard year, but it's all worked out really well," he said.
Brewster keeps track of and loves the Gophers.
"(Coach) Jerry Kill and I have had a previous friendship, and I love those kids," he said. "Those are my kids. They had such a great opening game (a 19-17 loss at Southern California). Those kids played really well and hard. The past couple of weeks have been unfortunate - they're going through a really hard situation (Kill's seizure disorder) with their head coach. That's a hard, tough deal. You'd like to see (Kill) take whatever time is necessary to fix it."
Brewster hasn't talked publicly about his dismissal by Minnesota.
"When you're as emotionally involved in a deal as I was in that one, and what happens happens, you sometimes get caught saying the wrong thing, being emotional about your responses," he said. "So I deliberately tried to back away from it. It is what it is, and you move on. That's kind of where I'm at now with it.
"I certainly still have very strong feelings about those kids I recruited to the University of Minnesota, and want them to have success. And I met some of the best people I've ever met in my life in Minnesota, some great, great people who are lifelong friends.
"I loved everything about it."
Will Brewster coach again?
"We'll see; I'm a coach by nature, that's who I am, and I'm a darn good one," he said. "I'm not a guy whose ego says I have to be a head coach. To me, it's all about the people, so much more than it is about the job itself. If the opportunity presents itself to work for somebody who would inspire me, fire me up, shoot, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Brewster's current focus is to see how good he can be as an analyst. His role with Fox is to be a third analyst from the sideline.
"For 25 years, I watched football from the sideline," he said. "This is to really get a coach's perspective from the field. At different points during the game, I give my views on what's happening on the field, what I'm seeing. I'm right where I've always been."
And what about the Vikings and the Chiefs on Sunday? Brewster hasn't lost any hyperbole.
"It's an absolutely huge game, a playoff game (in terms) of the mentality both teams have to take into it," Brewster said. "There's one team in National Football League history that opened the season 0-4 and made the playoffs - that's the 1992 San Diego Chargers."
Brewster spent three seasons as a Chargers assistant.
"I've got great experience in Arrowhead Stadium - I competed against the Chiefs twice a year, and it's one of the toughest places in the National Football League to play, extremely tough," he said. "To me, the Vikings will have to be on their 'A' game.
"The Vikings need to wear Adrian Peterson out. The ball's not heavy - give it to him a bunch. I would give it to him until he couldn't hold it anymore."
Go Gophers!!
Tim Brewster, fired last year midway through his fourth season as University of Minnesota football coach, said he has one major regret about his tenure with the Gophers.
"I made a mistake trying to bring the spread offense into Minnesota," Brewster, talking extensively for the first time publicly since his dismissal last October, said Tuesday.
"It wasn't the right thing to do. It helped us in recruiting; it didn't help us on the field. That's a sincere regret that I have. I fixed it and changed. But coming out of the gate, if I would have done the things we did in our fourth year, we would have been much further ahead and had a much greater chance for success."
Brewster's Gophers teams finished 15-30 overall, 6-21 in the Big Ten.
"We came in with a spread offense because we did not have the athletes we needed to have to compete in the Big Ten, so I really felt running a spread offense would allow us to recruit better," Brewster said. "Once we got our recruits in, I wanted to evolve to more of a ground-based attack, what I call 'an all-weather attack.'
"What it did, though, is get me behind the eight-ball - the time we spent on the spread was not time well spent. That's something that I regret to this day."
Brewster said he later realized his teams needed to be a "ground-based offense, play-action pass, and then truly build your team around the defense. The biggest problem that Minnesota's had forever is that they haven't been able to stop anybody.
"The biggest regret, in my mind, is that we probably could have transitioned quicker."
These days, Brewster is a NFL and college sideline reporter for Fox Sports. He'll work Saturday night's Texas at Iowa State game, then drive to Kansas City, Mo., to work the sideline in the Chiefs-Vikings game Sunday afternoon.
"I'm enjoying it; it keeps me close to the game I love," Brewster said. "And I'm around good guys - (broadcasting partners) Charles Davis and Gus Johnson are two of the best. And Fox is a first-class operation. Next year truly becomes a battle between Fox and ESPN for the king of college football kind of deal."
Brewster's son Nolan, who was a starting junior strong safety for Texas this season, this week decided to quit playing football.
"A hard deal; football's been his life," Tim said. "He had a big-time concussion last week in the UCLA game, and he had been having some contact-related migraines. (Medical officials) have a hard time deciphering between the symptoms of a migraine and concussion. So, is it eight migraines, or is it five migraines and three concussions?"
Texas flew Nolan to see a specialist at the University of Michigan. After a consultation, Nolan, who will graduate in May with a double major in business, decided to stop playing.
"He made the right decision," his father said. "He said, 'My body was trying to tell me something, that maybe I don't need to be doing this right now.' This is the deal: Every time he lined up, he was playing Russian roulette. 'On this hit, was I going to get one (concussion), get a migraine? Maybe I didn't get it on this one, but ...' "
Brewster, who received a $600,000 contract buyout after annual compensation worth $1 million annually, still owns a house in suburban Minneapolis that he's renting out, has a condo in Naples, Fla., and has moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., where he's renting a home formerly owned by Texas coach Mack Brown.
"It's been a hard year, but it's all worked out really well," he said.
Brewster keeps track of and loves the Gophers.
"(Coach) Jerry Kill and I have had a previous friendship, and I love those kids," he said. "Those are my kids. They had such a great opening game (a 19-17 loss at Southern California). Those kids played really well and hard. The past couple of weeks have been unfortunate - they're going through a really hard situation (Kill's seizure disorder) with their head coach. That's a hard, tough deal. You'd like to see (Kill) take whatever time is necessary to fix it."
Brewster hasn't talked publicly about his dismissal by Minnesota.
"When you're as emotionally involved in a deal as I was in that one, and what happens happens, you sometimes get caught saying the wrong thing, being emotional about your responses," he said. "So I deliberately tried to back away from it. It is what it is, and you move on. That's kind of where I'm at now with it.
"I certainly still have very strong feelings about those kids I recruited to the University of Minnesota, and want them to have success. And I met some of the best people I've ever met in my life in Minnesota, some great, great people who are lifelong friends.
"I loved everything about it."
Will Brewster coach again?
"We'll see; I'm a coach by nature, that's who I am, and I'm a darn good one," he said. "I'm not a guy whose ego says I have to be a head coach. To me, it's all about the people, so much more than it is about the job itself. If the opportunity presents itself to work for somebody who would inspire me, fire me up, shoot, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Brewster's current focus is to see how good he can be as an analyst. His role with Fox is to be a third analyst from the sideline.
"For 25 years, I watched football from the sideline," he said. "This is to really get a coach's perspective from the field. At different points during the game, I give my views on what's happening on the field, what I'm seeing. I'm right where I've always been."
And what about the Vikings and the Chiefs on Sunday? Brewster hasn't lost any hyperbole.
"It's an absolutely huge game, a playoff game (in terms) of the mentality both teams have to take into it," Brewster said. "There's one team in National Football League history that opened the season 0-4 and made the playoffs - that's the 1992 San Diego Chargers."
Brewster spent three seasons as a Chargers assistant.
"I've got great experience in Arrowhead Stadium - I competed against the Chiefs twice a year, and it's one of the toughest places in the National Football League to play, extremely tough," he said. "To me, the Vikings will have to be on their 'A' game.
"The Vikings need to wear Adrian Peterson out. The ball's not heavy - give it to him a bunch. I would give it to him until he couldn't hold it anymore."
Go Gophers!!
