Brewster Supporter Question- Part II

[Iceland12]

Duluth, I figured that with the amount of "ignore" lists that I'm on I'd be able to slip this one in. I'd also say that my support for the Coach is far from unqualified and I'm REAL tired of 6 win seasons. That said, here you go.

Replacing Brewster with a "Big Name" Coach would be great, but I don't think it will happen. You'd have to find a coach with a large enough ego to succeed but enough humility to know he'd always be second-best to the Vikings. Very tough to find. That's probably why the ones who are successful and stay are in "College towns". The way around that is to have somebody with area or University ties. You'd need an alumni. Dungy said he "didn't want his career to be based on the decisions of 17 and 18 year olds. Maybe Honensse or Sid's boy Trestman. They've had some success but could they recruit? The days of Mason's "four gimmee" Non-Conference Schedules are gone. The Gophers are going to need schemes and talent to get 8-10 wins a year.

I watched the Iowa/GT game and loved it. That paradoxically enough, is why I still have hope for Brewster. Iowa did it mainly with Defense. That's how Gutey hung in there for a few years and that's how Stoll was actually competitive. Both of those guys, particularly Stoll, had killer Non-Conference Schedules. They won 6-7 games 7 times between them. Give them Mason's Non-Conference games and they win 9-10 times; with Brewster's probably 8-9. Those I can certainly live with. Get a break or two and a 10 or 11 win season turns the public around.

At least for awhile.

Brewster's biggest mistake, in my humble opinion, was understandable but a mistake none the less. He thought he could get a lot of big time "speed" kids to come to Minnesota to run the spread. Small, quick RBs and fast Wideouts. He couldn't. Throw in Dunbar, a guy that openly mocked him, and Dunbar and his spread were gone. Not from the payroll or the roster yet but you get the idea. Then last year, Brewster watched Iowa, Ohio State and Wisconsin crush his O-Line and decimate his D-line and he decided he needed to get giant "Big Ten Lineman". He should have known both those things but it is his first Head Coaching job and Purdue and Dunbar's Northwestern "run and gun" teams did succeed in the Big Ten.

A Big Ten Contender and a Big Ten Title. That's what he appears to be shooting for and that's what a LOT of us want.

When Brewster realized his mistake, he wanted to go to a Pro Style Offense. One where his professional contacts would help. The problem is he was turned down by his first two choices for Offensive Coordinators, Applewhite at Texas and the Oklahoma guy with South Dakota ties. He ended up with JF. Judd's play book may have been a little thick. Weber had a bad year and losing Decker killed them.

The saving grace may be that there are some large O-Line guys that have been recruited and the Defense, considering how much time they put on the field, has looked better then any Gopher Defense in 10 years. Talent and Depth played into it. I think it will even look better next season. I didn't say that at the end of last year.

Better QB play, a couple of good looking Freshmen Running Backs and a Defense that gets to get off the field once and awhile should make 2010 far more entertaining to watch then last season.

Now, about that schedule......

 

[ruralgopher]

Good post Ice, Being Icelandic myself I've always had a soft spot for you.

My favorite part about Brew, and why I can look past some of his rookie mistakes, is that he has a high goal. He wants bt and national championships and is not afraid to say it. I also think he is naive enough to think that he can turn this into a gopher first town again and become this programs second coming of Bernie Bierman. I love the attitude, as I don't think you can set your goal at upper tier of the conference and hope that you luck into a rose bowl every now and again. The goal needs to be higher and then work toward it. He has the goal and I have never heard anybody question his work ethic. Those two things are great traits for success.

Also I feel comfortable that we will never have a Kansas, Texas Tech, or USF situation with Brew at the helm. He seems to genuinely care for the kids he is in charge of. His passion for the program as a whole has bought him his full five years for me.

 

[dpodoll68]

Honest question -

Why do so many people care if the coach is a Minnesota alum? If he is a great coach who happened to go to school here (Dungy - but it's not happening), then wonderful. But I don't understand the purpose of accepting a subpar coach (Trestman, Hohensee) just so we can get an alumnus. The fallacy, of course, is that people assume alums will stay even if greener pastures call. They may indeed, but there's no way to know.

I'd rather have a great coach, and I couldn't care less where he went to school. But that's just me.

 

[Iceland12]

Honest question -

Why do so many people care if the coach is a Minnesota alum? If he is a great coach who happened to go to school here (Dungy - but it's not happening), then wonderful. But I don't understand the purpose of accepting a subpar coach (Trestman, Hohensee) just so we can get an alumnus. The fallacy, of course, is that people assume alums will stay even if greener pastures call. They may indeed, but there's no way to know.

I'd rather have a great coach, and I couldn't care less where he went to school. But that's just me.

"Replacing Brewster with a "Big Name" Coach would be great, but I don't think it will happen. You'd have to find a coach with a large enough ego to succeed but enough humility to know he'd always be second-best to the Vikings. Very tough to find. That's probably why the ones who are successful and stay are in "College towns". The way around that is to have somebody with area or University ties."

As you said they probably would leave before they get the job done; see Holtz and think Mason. But at least you'd have a better chance of getting them to stay.

 

[RodentRampage]

Honest question -

Why do so many people care if the coach is a Minnesota alum? If he is a great coach who happened to go to school here (Dungy - but it's not happening), then wonderful. But I don't understand the purpose of accepting a subpar coach (Trestman, Hohensee) just so we can get an alumnus. The fallacy, of course, is that people assume alums will stay even if greener pastures call. They may indeed, but there's no way to know.

I'd rather have a great coach, and I couldn't care less where he went to school. But that's just me.

If all things were equal, it would be a nice bonus to have the coach be an alumni. The only real benefit that I can see to having an alumni head coach is that the coach is less likely to be using this job as a stepping stone to another job.

 

[dpodoll68]

But at least you'd have a better chance of getting them to stay.

The only real benefit that I can see to having an alumni head coach is that the coach is less likely to be using this job as a stepping stone to another job.

That was the whole point of my post. I just don't buy that premise. What coach in his right mind (even an alumnus) is going to stay here for $1.5 mil (or whatever) when, for example, Notre Dame, is offering $4 mil?

The whole "getting coaches to stay" thing is an institutional problem, not a coach problem. Until this turns into a destination job, that's the way it will always stay, along with every other school outside of the top 10 or 15 in the country. And even for them, they have to worry about coaches leaving for the NFL.

Coaches are going to leave, my friends. You can do things to stem the tide (hiring alumni not being one of them), but trying to stop it completely is like trying to ice skate uphill.

 

[Gopherlovin]

Pat Fitzgerald is the perfect example of this philosophy. His name was being thrown around as a possible candidate for some of the vacancies this year, but he passed up some great opportunities to stay at his alma mater.

Additionally, Minnesotans have a HUGE love for their own, and want to root for a "hometowner" or someone who has been "one of us" (see commentary on signing Joe Mauer or posts on this site about why SH should come to MN instead of somewhere out of state). Fans from MN are more willing to take a coach who has ties to the state or university, regardless of his past performance, and would give him the benefit of the doubt over an outsider. If Brewster went to the U, I think a lot more people would be giving him a bit more slack.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I'm not sure how it all played out, but I wouldn't have been surprised if Fitzgerald had left Northwestern for Notre Dame. I don't think Notre Dame went that hard after the guy (I think they tested the waters with the big names (Meyer, Stoops, etc.) and then set their sites on Kelly).

Iceland had a great post, but I do sort of disagree with you on a couple premises...

I really do think Brewster was able to recruit speed to come to MN. In his first class, he was able to sign some highley recruited receivers (Brandon Green, Brodrick Smith, David Pittman (I know, turned out to be a bust), the prototypical spread QB (Gray), and the speedy RB (Whaley). He was also able to surround the team with quite a bit of just general speed in guys like Stoudermire. Whaley was fast, but he didn't work out and essentially we just have failed to land a good RB (independent of our system). I think Brewster has continued to do a very good job of recruiting WRs (Kiese, Hawkins, Allen, Green)

 

[Iceland12]

Pat Fitzgerald is the perfect example of this philosophy. His name was being thrown around as a possible candidate for some of the vacancies this year, but he passed up some great opportunities to stay at his alma mater.

Additionally, Minnesotans have a HUGE love for their own, and want to root for a "hometowner" or someone who has been "one of us" (see commentary on signing Joe Mauer or posts on this site about why SH should come to MN instead of somewhere out of state). Fans from MN are more willing to take a coach who has ties to the state or university, regardless of his past performance, and would give him the benefit of the doubt over an outsider. If Brewster went to the U, I think a lot more people would be giving him a bit more slack.

All true and it's not an unusual move or just felt in Minnesota. The "glamour" and winning schools may not need to do it but the less-popular ones seem to think that they may have to. Below are a few guys who were/are Head Coaches at their Alma Mater. Some of the guys who were fired from their post may even have gotten a longer leash because of school connections. If you add guys that grew-up in an area or who were Assistant Coaches previously at the school the list would get pretty long.

Rick Neuheisel - UCLA
Al Groh - Virginia
Dave Wannstedt - Pittsburgh
Foge Fazio - Pittsburgh
Brad Holce -San Diego State
Steve Fairchild - Colorado State
Mark Snyder - Marshall
Steve Spurrier - Florida
Art Briles - Baylor
Mike Gundy - Okie State
Randy Shannon - Miami
Frank Beamer - Virginia Tech
Phil Fulmer - Tennessee
Houston Nutt - played at Arkansas, graduated from Okie State.

Heck Mason turned down MSU and LSU waiting for his Alma Mater to call.

To save a lot of trouble let's say dpodoll is right. The problem then is you may need a LOT more money then the "U" has and a extremely compliant faculty and administration to pull off a big time coach.

I'm hoping Brewster can make a go of it.

 

[Iceland12]

I'm not sure how it all played out, but I wouldn't have been surprised if Fitzgerald had left Northwestern for Notre Dame. I don't think Notre Dame went that hard after the guy (I think they tested the waters with the big names (Meyer, Stoops, etc.) and then set their sites on Kelly).

Iceland had a great post, but I do sort of disagree with you on a couple premises...

I really do think Brewster was able to recruit speed to come to MN. In his first class, he was able to sign some highley recruited receivers (Brandon Green, Brodrick Smith, David Pittman (I know, turned out to be a bust), the prototypical spread QB (Gray), and the speedy RB (Whaley). He was also able to surround the team with quite a bit of just general speed in guys like Stoudermire. Whaley was fast, but he didn't work out and essentially we just have failed to land a good RB (independent of our system). I think Brewster has continued to do a very good job of recruiting WRs (Kiese, Hawkins, Allen, Green)

No argument from me there Bob. I was just speculating that Brewster thought it would be a lot easier to do then he found out it was. Maybe once he'd been through the Big Ten a couple of times he may have doubted that the spread would have been very successful.

Or maybe he was just as tired of Dunbar as Ruesse was of him!

 

[littlebigboy]

You have to give him credit for not being stuck in one system. He has adapted to BT play and realized some of his coaches were not what fit. I like that he has set his goal on the BT champ and Rose Bowl. And has stuck to his plan of how to build a program. A goal without a plan is just a wish, and he has to be allowed to complete his plan. That is at least 5 yrs.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think much of the heat Brew is getting is because he is doing the right things. He could throw the more athletic kids out there as freshmen and probably have had better results overall but at the expense of the future. The fact that he decided to redshirt so many when we had obvious depth needs is commendable. The change from the spread was an acknowledment that he needed a short yardage game and Dunbar wasn't up for it, and so given the choice of living with Dunbar's dificiencies or moving on, he moved on. Again putting future goals ahead of short term needs. All these decisions are the right ones, all will payoff down the line.

 

[Iceland12]

I think much of the heat Brew is getting is because he is doing the right things. He could throw the more athletic kids out there as freshmen and probably have had better results overall but at the expense of the future. The fact that he decided to redshirt so many when we had obvious depth needs is commendable. The change from the spread was an acknowledment that he needed a short yardage game and Dunbar wasn't up for it, and so given the choice of living with Dunbar's dificiencies or moving on, he moved on. Again putting future goals ahead of short term needs. All these decisions are the right ones, all will payoff down the line.

We've had a number of Assistant Coaches around here the last 10 years. They've had quite a miss mash of jobs after they left. Dunbar is now at New Mexico State. Browning is at Akron. David "The Little Buckaroo" Gibbs is with the Kanas City Chiefs. Everett Withers is at North Carolina. Greg Hudson is at ECU and may be heading to FSU. Gordy Shaw, well he's probably still hanging around here ...

Let's hope for some success and stability for a long while around here.

 

[AhliBobwa]

I think much of the heat Brew is getting is because he is doing the right things. He could throw the more athletic kids out there as freshmen and probably have had better results overall but at the expense of the future. The fact that he decided to redshirt so many when we had obvious depth needs is commendable. The change from the spread was an acknowledment that he needed a short yardage game and Dunbar wasn't up for it, and so given the choice of living with Dunbar's dificiencies or moving on, he moved on. Again putting future goals ahead of short term needs. All these decisions are the right ones, all will payoff down the line.

+1