Ted Roof

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It was a real shame when we lost Roof to Auburn but tough to fault a coach for taking a job that offered twice what he was making at the U of M. Everett Whithers is the DC at Ohio State, he was Brew's first DC who was a failure here but has since adapted his coaching style to the college game and has done very well since then. Brew was able to identify quality coaches he just wasn't able to keep them around or settle on a system.
 

MNVCGUY said:
It was a real shame when we lost Roof to Auburn but tough to fault a coach for taking a job that offered twice what he was making at the U of M. Everett Whithers is the DC at Ohio State, he was Brew's first DC who was a failure here but has since adapted his coaching style to the college game and has done very well since then. Brew was able to identify quality coaches he just wasn't able to keep them around or settle on a system.
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Completely agree. Our TE coach went to Florida, OL coach Davis went to Utah. With the exception of Cosgrove and the 1st OC, most of the assistant coaches have moved on and appear to be doing pretty well.
 

Brew's two biggest coaching blunders were going to a spread and Dunbar with a team that was not in any way setup to run that offense. And then he hired his "kill shot" Jedd Fisch when he should have hired Jeff Horton.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Brew's two biggest coaching blunders were going to a spread and Dunbar with a team that was not in any way setup to run that offense. And then he hired his "kill shot" Jedd Fisch when he should have hired Jeff Horton.
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Fisch was a failure here, but he has done a nice job with Miami. He had Harris playing the best ball of his career. I'm not saying that he worked out here, but I think sometimes coaches fail because they don't have the right kind of talent for their system.

The same goes for Whithers. I agree, he might have gotten a bit better as a coach, but I think it's more likely that he was surrounded by so much more talent. Look at who that Whithers' defense started, it was scary bad.
 


Great coaches are rendered ineffective by poor leadership, direction and vision. Brewster had an eye for good coaches but he had no plan and that's what killed him.
 



Well IIRC Horton was not available early on. I can't remember the whole of the Dunbar situation, but I think Brewster either thought the spread would help with recruiting top offensive talent or that Dunbar was the best of what was available.

Regarding poor/ ineffective leadership, that started at the top with years of poor attitudes toward football by multiple administrations. Brewster may have not had the attention to detail necessary to be successful, but I think his mile high vision was correct. He swung for the fences and missed.

Anyway, Go coach Kill! and Go Gophers!!! Beat UNLV!
 



Beyond the knee-jerk reaction of firing Mason and then hiring Brewster it is not the fault of the U Admin. Brewster had more resources than any of his predecessors plus a brand new stadium. He failed because he thought the only thing he had to do to be successful was recruit top athletes. Never mind what you do with them once they're here. That was literally the extent of his plan. The first step in implementing it was hiring coaches he perceived were big name successful coordinators. All his decisions seem centered around what pitch he could make in a kids living room. He ended up with a bunch of primadonnas who partied more than they practiced. I knew the end was nigh when he fired Dunbar and switched to a pro-style power run game offense. He brought the spread because it was trendy and not because he understood it or felt he could recruit the type of athletes to implement it more so than another offense. Same goes with Fisch. Some NFL buddy probably told him Fisch was an up-n-comer. Fisch's back story was far better than Horton's, so Jedd Fisch it is. But none of that really matters compared to the culture of no accountability that Brewster created among the players. You can go around blaming whatever faceless U Provost or VP you want, but ultimately it's the coaches responsibility to keep the kids he brings to campus on the right path. Brew did not do that and he was fired.
 

I remember Brewster saying that "kids want to play in the Spread offense." As I remember it, Brewster thought that 'big-time' athletes wanted to play in a wide-open offense, and he put in the spread to "help" recruiting.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I remember Brewster saying that "kids want to play in the Spread offense." As I remember it, Brewster thought that 'big-time' athletes wanted to play in a wide-open offense, and he put in the spread to "help" recruiting.
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It probably did help recruiting.

Gray was only considering schools that employed the spread offense. I'm not saying that's a great way to decide on an offense.
 

gophmeister said:
Beyond the knee-jerk reaction of firing Mason and then hiring Brewster it is not the fault of the U Admin. Brewster had more resources than any of his predecessors plus a brand new stadium. He failed because he thought the only thing he had to do to be successful was recruit top athletes. Never mind what you do with them once they're here. That was literally the extent of his plan. The first step in implementing it was hiring coaches he perceived were big name successful coordinators. All his decisions seem centered around what pitch he could make in a kids living room. He ended up with a bunch of primadonnas who partied more than they practiced. I knew the end was nigh when he fired Dunbar and switched to a pro-style power run game offense. He brought the spread because it was trendy and not because he understood it or felt he could recruit the type of athletes to implement it more so than another offense. Same goes with Fisch. Some NFL buddy probably told him Fisch was an up-n-comer. Fisch's back story was far better than Horton's, so Jedd Fisch it is. But none of that really matters compared to the culture of no accountability that Brewster created among the players. You can go around blaming whatever faceless U Provost or VP you want, but ultimately it's the coaches responsibility to keep the kids he brings to campus on the right path. Brew did not do that and he was fired.
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I agree with parts of this posting, but a lot of it seems way off to me.

Brew was not nuts for bringing in Fisch. I know a lot of people still hate Fisch but the guy has gone on to become the OC at Miami and he did a nice job.

Brewster failed and it that was largely because he couldn't keep kids in school (that we agree on), but I think he brought in good coordinators because he knew he didn't have a network like Coach Kill. I never imagined I would hear an argument against a coach for bringing in too good of coordinators. He did a nice job in that area, but again, with those coaches there was no cohesiveness.

Brew failed at a lot of things, but he did a nice job of picking assistant coaches.
 



gophmeister said:
Beyond the knee-jerk reaction of firing Mason and then hiring Brewster it is not the fault of the U Admin. Brewster had more resources than any of his predecessors plus a brand new stadium. He failed because he thought the only thing he had to do to be successful was recruit top athletes. Never mind what you do with them once they're here. That was literally the extent of his plan. The first step in implementing it was hiring coaches he perceived were big name successful coordinators. All his decisions seem centered around what pitch he could make in a kids living room. He ended up with a bunch of primadonnas who partied more than they practiced. I knew the end was nigh when he fired Dunbar and switched to a pro-style power run game offense. He brought the spread because it was trendy and not because he understood it or felt he could recruit the type of athletes to implement it more so than another offense. Same goes with Fisch. Some NFL buddy probably told him Fisch was an up-n-comer. Fisch's back story was far better than Horton's, so Jedd Fisch it is. But none of that really matters compared to the culture of no accountability that Brewster created among the players. You can go around blaming whatever faceless U Provost or VP you want, but ultimately it's the coaches responsibility to keep the kids he brings to campus on the right path. Brew did not do that and he was fired.
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Not saying that Brewster didn't do many things incorrectly. Obviously he did. To say that the administration hasn't whiffed is missing the big picture. 50 years proves that point. Kill is just starting to catch up to his peers. I will not totally let the administration off of the hook till we are in the upper half of the BigTen. We have a long ways to go before we can live off of reputation.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Brew was not nuts for bringing in Fisch.
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I never said he was nuts, I said he chose him over Horton for PR reasons.

Bob_Loblaw said:
I never imagined I would hear an argument against a coach for bringing in too good of coordinators.
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You did imagine it because I never made that argument. I said that he chose the spread not because he understood it, but because it was the trendy offense and then switched to a pro-set which is its complete antithesis requiring entirely different types of players when it didn't work out quite like he'd hoped. No where in that was I arguing that he failed because he hired too good of coordinators. Also I seem to recall Brewster was a long time college and pro football assistant coach. How someone in a business built on relationships could never develop any strong enough to have any inkling who I could trust to do what when is beyond me. I don't know why three of Brew's coordinators quit after only one year, but I can't imagine it reflects well on Brew. If I were to venture a guess it would be that they got out while the gettin' was good.
 

gophmeister said:
I never said he was nuts, I said he chose him over Horton for PR reasons.

You did imagine it because I never made that argument. I said that he chose the spread not because he understood it, but because it was the trendy offense and then switched to a pro-set which is its complete antithesis requiring entirely different types of players when it didn't work out quite like he'd hoped. No where in that was I arguing that he failed because he hired too good of coordinators. Also I seem to recall Brewster was a long time college and pro football assistant coach. How someone in a business built on relationships could never develop any strong enough to have any inkling who I could trust to do what when is beyond me. I don't know why three of Brew's coordinators quit after only one year, but I can't imagine it reflects well on Brew. If I were to venture a guess it would be that they got out while the gettin' was good.
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I guess we'll agree to disagree on the Horton thing. You seem pretty confident that it was a PR thing and I just don't see how that's possible. Fisch and Horton had similar resumes as far as sitting in a recruits living room. What is the angle that made Fisch more of an attractive candidate than Horton? They both coached a ton of NFL players. So I don't see how Fisch could have possibly been a PR move.

I understand the switch from the spread to a pro-style offense hurt us, but you said in your last post that Brewster ignored what happened to the players once they got here, you made a bold assertion "that was the extent of his plan". Isn't hiring effective coordinators/position coaches part of the process in developing players? You don't think Brewster hiring guys that seem coveted at the top programs around the country helps develop a player, at least in theory?

Onto his losing 3 coordinators, well, that's the rub. You really think they "got out while the gettin' was good"?
Every coach who left (with the exception of Fisch) took an OBVIOUS better job.

Whithers went to his home state, state with more talent, and more money.
Roof got a ton more money and a job at Auburn.

You don't think getting a better job might have had something to do with it more than simply jumping ship?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I remember Brewster saying that "kids want to play in the Spread offense." As I remember it, Brewster thought that 'big-time' athletes wanted to play in a wide-open offense, and he put in the spread to "help" recruiting.
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Or maybe he hired Dunbar first because that's who was available and then just said "kids want to play in the spread" as a marketing tactic. Brewster was very good at salesmanship (and whether you want that in your head coach is a whole other discussion that I don't want to get into).
 


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