Why are we comparing Tubby with Brewster? First off, that's not even fair. Tubby has developed himself into a full fledged HOF type coach. Brewster is in year 2. Secondly, to compare the talent in football and basketball ain't right. The basketball team here has had some decent talent roll through here, and yet, only one NCAA tourney berth. If you look at the recruiting classes that have come through here, they were of a decent level, 3 stars all over throughout. Look at the guys currently making hay for the Gophers, guys like Al Nolen, Blake Hoffarber, Damian Johnson, Lawrence Westbrook....all 3 star players, and in Hoffarber's case, was considered a top 100 prospect on ESPN. As much ribbing Tollackson takes, he was considered a highly rated 3 star guy. Dan Coleman was as well. There has been and is talent in Minnesota basketball to work with. It's unfortunate that for whatever reason, Dan Monson was unable to turn that into much. Whatever that reason is, he was not coaching them up to what they should have been. The basketball program wasn't in shambles like everyone tries to make it sound like. They just needed a good coach. In enters Tubby, with a HOF-like resume. We all KNEW he would have success, would have been quite disappointed if he hadn't really.
Now, we turn to the football situation. After the Texas Tech disaster, the Gophers were 6-7. They were going to lose their senior quarterback, and eventually 3 very important defensive starters, plus graduates. If you look at the recruiting classes from 2004-2006, you almost have to laugh. NO high level talent whatsoever. On Rivals, the highest rated prospect in 2004 was a 5.6. In fact, I think the basketball team drew in only one less 3 star recruit than did the football team (PATHETIC!!) In 2005, it was Alex Daniels, a 5.9, but we know what happened there, so the next highest rated was a swap of 5.5 guys. In 2006, it was 5.6, 3 of those guys never played a down here (Jamar Howard, Robert McField, and Terrence Sherrer, not positive on Sherrer). So...Brewster inherits a squad where the best talent was in that 5.5 rating range coming out of high school. Now there are diamonds in the rough, players like Decker, WVS, etc., but you can't expect to compete for long with that kind of scarcity of talent. And it was not always the case that this team was that depleted in the Mason era. Early on, he drew in some nice recruits. For some reason, after the Maroney year where they got some good players, it dried up. And with it, so did the quality on the field. Mason was about to encounter an embarrassing 2007 season, not 1-11 embarrassing, but likely 3 or 4 win embarrassing. They were already close the year before, starting 3-6 before Cupito salvaged the season. Recruiting was still sucking, Mason was sucking, and the entire program had ZERO heat at all. No one even cared about it. In comes Brewster, 1-11, bad, yes. Then now 7-6, while using the few good Mason players as well as sprinkling in some freshmen. Now, another season, another top 30 recruiting class where the worst player rated is some of the best stuff Mason had brought in the previous four seasons. Brewster is turning this program around, whether people here want to admit it or not. Bring in another one of these top 30 classes, and you will see Minnesota make noise in 2010 on a national scope.
