Brewster: U Preparation for MSU Special

[BleedGopher]

per David Shama:

Brewster: U Preparation for MSU Special

Tim Brewster has been the head coach at Minnesota for three years and involved with coaching for 20 previous seasons but the Gophers preparation during practice last week for the Michigan State game was special, he told Sports Headliners yesterday.

Minnesota, playing without wide receiver Eric Decker, defeated the Spartans 42-34 at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday to end a two game Big Ten Conference losing streak. “The story is our players and how they responded (having) for two years to lose our best player,” Brewster said. “This was the most prepared I have seen a team in 23 years of coaching. It’s a tremendous credit to the kids.”

Decker, the Gophers record setting receiver who will have surgery on his injured left foot later this week, will miss the last part of the season just as he did a year ago with an injured left ankle. But the players and coaches took inspiration from losing Decker and were motivated to improve their prospects for a bowl game as they prepared last week for Michigan State, a team that had lost four games by a total of 15 points.

Among Brewster’s coaching mantras is that how a team plays on Saturdays is how it prepares during the week. “The coaching staff did a phenomenal job,” Brewster said regarding the Michigan State game. “Jedd Fisch (offensive coordinator) did a great job. I was thrilled with our defense.”

The Gophers improved to a 5-4 overall record and moved within one game of bowl eligibility. The Gophers, who had been averaging 292.8 yards per game in total offense, had 505 against the Spartans. The defense played physical, aggressive football and made timely deflections of Michigan State passes. The defense held Michigan State to a fourth quarter field goal after the Spartans had first down on the Minnesota one yard line and an opportunity to take a 38-35 lead.

Gophers quarterback Adam Weber has been frequently criticized in recent weeks but he passed for 416 yards and five touchdowns. “He was absolutely spectacular,” Brewster said. “He played an extremely complete game. He did what great players do (responding to criticism).”

The Gophers led for most of the game but when the Spartans (4-5) narrowed the margin or even went ahead as they did at the end of the third quarter (31-28), Minnesota responded. The Gophers have come back three times in the second half to win games this season.

“This was a team that was going to find a way to win,” Brewster said. “It’s a belief in each other. We talk about it being a 60 minute fight.”

http://www.shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!

 

[wait!what?]

David Shama is the fella who commented that the U of M is the short bus of BT schools..right? He is dead to me.

 

[Monty519]

There is no way that could have been the most prepared team he's seen, but yeah, they were definitely ready to play, and that was great to see. They executed the gameplan very well, if not for all the penalties. The defense played well when they weren't busting coverages and things like that. 27 points given up, but two of those drives were pretty much due to HUGE plays given up and another on a very short field. Gotta clean that up, but they came up big when they needed to, which is really the most important thing IMO.

Gotta carry this through to Illinois now though, who now probably has some nice confidence after shredding Michigan.

 

[NewEngland_Gold]

per David Shama:

Brewster: U Preparation for MSU Special

Among Brewster’s coaching mantras is that how a team plays on Saturdays is how it prepares during the week. “The coaching staff did a phenomenal job,” Brewster said regarding the Michigan State game. “Jedd Fisch (offensive coordinator) did a great job. I was thrilled with our defense.”

Gophers quarterback Adam Weber has been frequently criticized in recent weeks but he passed for 416 yards and five touchdowns. “He was absolutely spectacular,” Brewster said. “He played an extremely complete game. He did what great players do (responding to criticism).”

The Gophers led for most of the game but when the Spartans (4-5) narrowed the margin or even went ahead as they did at the end of the third quarter (31-28), Minnesota responded. The Gophers have come back three times in the second half to win games this season.

“This was a team that was going to find a way to win,” Brewster said. “It’s a belief in each other. We talk about it being a 60 minute fight.”

http://www.shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!

Three things caught my attention here relative to issues that have been discussed repeatedly on this board:

#1 - Can Brew coach? Is he making progress as a HC?

One of his key jobs as HC is getting consistently good performance from his O/D/ST staff...he emphasized that against MSU and that should be expected in all games going forward. As HC, Brew can't let down in this area or on-field results will probably fade quickly.

#2 - Brew believes Weber responded well to all the criticism he has received in recent weeks..in various forms of media...that's a big tribute to Weber's maturity and bodes well for his future. If Weber keeps this type of performance going, he will launch himself back into the upper tier of BT qbs and that's very good for the Gs.

#3 - As HC, Brew deserves a lot of credit for the "60 minute fight", "never say die" attitude of this team. For those familiar with the previous regime, this is a huge turnaround for the program and an absolute necessity if Gs expect to compete with the BT's upper tier.

 

[Ole]

Three things caught my attention here relative to issues that have been discussed repeatedly on this board:

#1 - Can Brew coach? Is he making progress as a HC?
This game showed me(a self admitting Brewster guy) that he's got some good coaching in him, and progress is being made. Like I commented in one thread, at Sensors on thursday in talking with him, he called that first touchdown, this shows that they had MSU's number going in. Great prep for Fisch and Brew


#2 - Brew believes Weber responded well to all the criticism he has received in recent weeks..in various forms of media...that's a big tribute to Weber's maturity and bodes well for his future. If Weber keeps this type of performance going, he will launch himself back into the upper tier of BT qbs and that's very good for the Gs.
He stuck with his captain and leader through some pretty harsh criticism(I was dreading a Marquis Gray chant from the stadium, this would have crushed team confidence), kudos to Brew for sticking with his guns AND mixing Quis in more

#3 - As HC, Brew deserves a lot of credit for the "60 minute fight", "never say die" attitude of this team. For those familiar with the previous regime, this is a huge turnaround for the program and an absolute necessity if Gs expect to compete with the BT's upper tier.

Completely agree, tough games all season, taking blows and coming back is a testament to a close knit team who can rally for their teammates, fight for each other, and never give up, this is something we should all be excited about, even critics have to acknowledge this

 

[highwayman]

I shudder to think how many penalties they would have committed had they not had a tremendous week of preparation.

Typical Troll Comment. Preparation has little to do with penalties--it's the toleration of the ref crew. Have you every seen a worse officiated game? Both side were served poorly by these meatheads.

Roughing the passer on a play where the ball tumbles out of the QB's hand and out of bounds? Unsportsmanlike for holding the ball in the air to your own teammates and fans? Late hit on a player ON THE MSU BENCH? Holding on a play where the defender grabbed the blocker an THREW HIM TO THE GROUND?

Terrible crew, terribly called game. No prep in the world predicts that...

 

[Ole]

Typical Denial Comment.

If you truly are an older gentlemen who's been watching football for awhile, there's no way the refereeing could have been tolerable to you on Sat. Every call against the Gophers was ticky tack and reduced the "old schoolness" of the game, they were reducing the physical nature of the game and making it touch football with pads. Roughing the passer? Hit out of bounds? Those things probably didn't exist when Bobby Bell or Carl Eller were playing.

 

[Iceland12]

If you truly are an older gentlemen who's been watching football for awhile, there's no way the refereeing could have been tolerable to you on Sat. Every call against the Gophers was ticky tack and reduced the "old schoolness" of the game, they were reducing the physical nature of the game and making it touch football with pads. Roughing the passer? Hit out of bounds? Those things probably didn't exist when Bobby Bell or Carl Eller were playing.

Ole; if you're going to feed a troll like him very well played indeed!