"Brewster's future positively in question"

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I was extremely upset when I saw this headline. You have to be kidding me. Will they not go to any lengths to get more readership??? They are starting to remind me of a tabloid trying to stir up controversy so they can spike there readership circulation. Oh well, I have always been a PP fan.
 

So what do they think will happen? Fire the only coach who has a point to prove and wants to take the program to the next level or bring in a coach who will use Minnesota to get a better job? Stupid article, give Brew 2 more years before we start calling for heads.......
 

thailleagle said:
So what do they think will happen? Fire the only coach who has a point to prove and wants to take the program to the next level or bring in a coach who will use Minnesota to get a better job? Stupid article, give Brew 2 more years before we start calling for heads.......
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2 years after this one or this year and next?

Personally I think we'll have a good idea where the program is headed by the end of this season, but that of course doesn't necessarily have anything to do with wins and losses.
 

It's too bad they continually need to spin things in a negative light. The article wasn't that bad, pretty decent actually, they didn't need to twist it in such a poor way with that headline. All part of Ruesse's anti Brewster campaign. Set up an unrealistic expectation so the most likely result is failure, and now to outline what failure means. It's sick.
 


This thread is garbage because it's based upon a garbage StarTribune article that it's helping publicize. Brewster has done nothing but improve the team and the program. Stop being negative or spend your time listening to KFAN and leave this site.
 


Mostly the headline. But there are other ways to approach the situation. They chose to cast doubt on his future. Every head coach is in a tenuous situation, but by there approach you can only draw a negative conclusion about his status and the program. The timing is questionable. Coupled with Ruesse's gambit it becomes downright strange. Ruesse has outlined what failure is, this article has outlined what failure means for Brewster. This is now the public's perception.

No matter what realistic expectations are, and no matter what growth the program is actually having, it won't matter in the eyes of the public if we should lose just one of the next three games. Absurd.

And where is the local champion. Who in the media has the balls to deal with this and work professionally. I don't see anyone. Not one voice of reason in the entire metro under the age of 80. Not even our own. Only the national media, and once Ruesse creates the news, even the national media will report on it. Politics of sports and hacks.
 

Gopherprof Quote: "What exactly makes this article negative?"

The headline is what makes it negative. It doesn't really match the contents of the article. Maturi's quotes indicate that he understands the past futility of the Gopher football program, and that it might take more than three seasons to assess whether Brewster is going to be the guy to finally start turning it around. The following quote is instructive about Maturi's thought process:

"If we're going to stop [the losing, the 2009 Big 10 season is critical], "But the other thing is it's not life and death. In the 27 years in the dome, we finished in the top half of the conference five times. That's all. Never first. Never second. Tied for third once. ... Don't misread this, but if we aren't real good this year, it probably ain't going to shake the world. But if we're going to change it, if this guy is going to change it, it's got to start soon. He'll say that and I'll say that. That doesn't mean it's pressure. I'm not trying to say it's got to happen tomorrow. I'm going to be patient. Changing coaches hasn't been the answer. Just automatically changing coaches. How many have they had since Murray Warmath? They've had quite a few, and none of them have been successful."

I consider the above quote to be a shot at Mason's Big 10 record of 32 - 48, and his failure to take the Gophers to a significant bowl game. It doesn't appear that Maturi is going to be pressured into making a decision about Brewster's future this year no matter how the team does during the Big 10 season. If he has to wait until next year to decide on a contract extension for Brewster, he seems to be willing to do that. And Maturi certainly is not going to fire Brewster even if the Gophers fail to qualify for a bowl game this year.
 



Name a Gopher coach who

has done a better job of recruiting top quality players than Tim Brewster. Until he is allowed time to use the full compliment of players he has recruited, this should not even be a topic of discussion. The media in general and the Star Tribune in particular is an ass.
 

Schnoodler said:
It's too bad they continually need to spin things in a negative light. The article wasn't that bad, pretty decent actually, they didn't need to twist it in such a poor way with that headline. All part of Ruesse's anti Brewster campaign. Set up an unrealistic expectation so the most likely result is failure, and now to outline what failure means. It's sick.
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Schnoodler, I usually agree with almost all of your posts, but I'm calling a big B.S. on this one. You have got to be kidding me with that comment! The STrib has given the Gophers INCREDIBLE coverage this year, absolutely incredible. Yet for some reason hardly anyone on here talked about the 24 page TCF Bank Stadium special, the huge profile on Decker right before the season, the profiles of the 1967 team captains returning to TCF Bank Stadium, the front page above the fold of the main section of the three generational family who couldn't wait to get to their seats at TCF Bank Stadium and on and on.

I challenge you to validate your comment that I bolded above. Please look back at the coverage that the STrib has given the team this year and let me know how they continue to spin things in a negative light. Let's just say for the sake of argument that this was the most negative article ever written on the Gophers, and it would still be positive coverage outweighing negative coverage in the STrib at lest 10 to 1, if not more this year.

It amazes me how Youngblood wrote positive profile after positive profile and many of these went completely unnoticed by GHers, or at least no one chose to post about it. Why is that? Why were there only a handful of posts about a 24 page special section?? Why was a huge Decker profile a few weeks back completely ignored on here? And how does the STrib continue to spin the negative? The facts just don't back that up.

Go Gophers!!
 

#93fanclub said:
has done a better job of recruiting top quality players than Tim Brewster. Until he is allowed time to use the full compliment of players he has recruited, this should not even be a topic of discussion. The media in general and the Star Tribune in particular is an ass.
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#93fanclub, I just did a quick search of your recent posts and I noticed you didn't post a single time about the STrib's overwhelmingly positive coverage this year, its 24 page special section on TCF Bank Stadium, the great coverage from the Pioneer Press this year, the stadium profiles from KARE, KSTP, etc. or the extensive profiles of Decker in the STrib and Pioneer Press this year. How come? You say that the media and the STrib in particular are "ass" but despite incredible coverage this year (and 99% positive) you never once posted about those. Why?

Go Gophers!!
 

point is this: if he has a .500 year hes not going anywhere, so why does the STrib need to put headlines in the paper saying his "future is in question", trying to stir the pot. All it does is give something to Beau or Tobi to read the next day and it weighs on their decision. Kind of undermining the program in a way. I mean we were 7-5 last year, a year that would rank high in a list of records for the Gophers in the last 40 years and here we are trying to made headlines seem like we're about to oust a coach.

Article itself was pretty good, lets just hope people read it and just didn't glance at the headline.
 



What I most appreciated about the article was having to click through no fewer than 5 pages.

In retaliation, I have put duct tape over my computer screen to cover up the ads on the Strib site. That will show them! Who's the idiot now?

VICTORY!
drama%20viking%20quest.jpg
 

I thought the article was fairly balanced. The Headline of course is to get people to read their story, but I would add there are two coaches in the bigten whose future's aren't positivley in question: Joe Pa and Kirk Ferentz. All of the other coaches have major questions to answer...so is this really news?

I thought the best part of this article was the insight into how Joel Maturi is going to handle the contract. I like his approach, to often AD's get a little knee jerk with contracts. It's going to take a few more years to see if Brew is the long term solution. He hasn't done anything yet to indicate that he's definitely the man, but he also hasn't done anything to indicate the he is in totally over his head.
 

What I find interesting

Brewster says he doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about other people's opinions. But people close to the program say he has been known to lose his temper and lash out. That has happened with reporters behind the scenes. Of course, that's not uncommon for most head coaches.
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This article was written by Mark Craig, the current Vikings beat writer and former Gopher football beat writer at the Strib. I doubt Kent or Myron (who also does day-to-day Gopher football writeups) would have the onions to write the above, nor would they be wise to given they would have to face Brewster on a regular basis. Is Mark protecting one of his own and writing would what they think ? I find it odd that Mark Craig took the time away from his Vikings / Favre coverage to pen an article on the Gophers / Brewster in midseason.
 

Quote:
Brewster says he doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about other people's opinions. But people close to the program say he has been known to lose his temper and lash out. That has happened with reporters behind the scenes. Of course, that's not uncommon for most head coaches.
This article was written by Mark Craig, the current Vikings beat writer and former Gopher football beat writer at the Strib. I doubt Kent or Myron (who also does day-to-day Gopher football writeups) would have the onions to write the above, nor would they be wise to given they would have to face Brewster on a regular basis. Is Mark protecting one of his own and writing would what they think ? I find it odd that Mark Craig took the time away from his Vikings / Favre coverage to pen an article on the Gophers / Brewster in midseason.
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Breaking news: Head football coach loses temper. If Craig is trying to point out that Brew is a hypocrite for saying he doesn't care about people's opinions, but at the same time having the occasional melt down about the local media coverage, then I'm not totally buying it. There's a difference between not caring what people think about you personally but caring about the image of his team. Case in point, the academic story that came out right before last season started. What an awful piece for local people to read, as if this team was going to be different than others around the country. I would have melted down too if I were Brew. I believe he is working his ass off to change the image of this team, it doesn't help to have the media working against that. There can be a win win situation here. See Adam Rittenburg's piece on the Gophers gameday experience.
 

Losing his temper is a complete non-issue to me, so many coaches do it, I couldn't care less.

My whole issue with this "2009 is THE defining year" for Brewster talk is he has a grand total of two of his classes in. How in the world can we possibly judge him completely when half the team isn't even his? More than half really, cause how much contribution are you gonna get from the '09 class this year? Not a ton. This whole thing is kinda ridiculous when you think about it? There are people literally saying if we go 3-5 he should be fired. You gotta be kidding me with that. Will that be disappointing? Yes, but fired?? Are you serious with that? This season has potential, but we still have a tough schedule. Just cause MSU and Illinois (who we really have no idea about since they've really only played one game) aren't quite as good as we thought doesn't make them automatic wins. They're still very talented teams. Wisconsin's always hard. The road games are all tough gets. That's 7 potential losses right there. Purdue for homecoming is the only game I feel comfortable declaring a win and you saw how they played Oregon. I know it sounds like I'm making excuses, but let's be real people, this season could very well not go how we all hope it does. Outside of Minnesota, expectations are not even close to as high as they are locally. Nationally, it's EXPECTED we go 3-5, I even saw some 2-6s. Locally, it's 5-3 or bust. I know we're impatient cause we've been losing for quite a while, but you can't hold that against Brewster, that's just not fair to him at all. It's like some people pretty much hold the last 40 years against him, and it's unreasonable to expect him to instantly turn everything all around and put us in the Rose Bowl. Give him REAL time to work, and by REAL time, I mean more than 2 1/2 years. And quit expecting/wanting/hoping/assuming he will fail and support the man while he is here. The program will be much better off for it.
 

norman dale said:
This article was written by Mark Craig, the current Vikings beat writer and former Gopher football beat writer at the Strib. I doubt Kent or Myron (who also does day-to-day Gopher football writeups) would have the onions to write the above, nor would they be wise to given they would have to face Brewster on a regular basis. Is Mark protecting one of his own and writing would what they think ? I find it odd that Mark Craig took the time away from his Vikings / Favre coverage to pen an article on the Gophers / Brewster in midseason.
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great point. i doubt though, if kent or myron would have the onions to write this - or if brew would simply make their daily jobs a living hell if they did. i think that's more the case. i don't think issue here is his temper (which he certainly he has), it's the fact that he is way to concerned with the media, and should really focus on the team, rather than every moderate to negative word written about him. imho - a big ten football coach needs a thicker skin, and needs to stop obsessing over a media. it's been said before and i'll say it again...if he wins, the media will be on his side.
 

Brewster's future

I'm going to focus on Brewster's future and not if the article was negative or positive. If we struggle this year it sounds like Maturi may wait another year in extending Brewster's contract. I like Brewster and I think he might turn around this program but Universities are getting sick and tired of paying high buyouts just for the sake of recruiting. We always hear that coaches have to have 4 or 5 years left on their contract in order to help their recruiting. I think Maturi has a good head on his shoulders. He's not going to let recruiting be the only reason why he needs to extend Brewster's contract. It's more important that Maturi has confidence that he found the right coach in signing an extension rather then signing a coach for the sake of recruiting. It's not the end of the world if we struggle this year and Maturi waits another year in making his decision. That being said, I hope we go 11-2 this year.
 

Way to early to even talk about this.

I am a firm believer that any college coach should be given 5 full years to prove what they can do unless something out of the ordinary occurs. In football even the best recruits take 2 to 3 years to make a major impact and though Brewster has done a great job recruiting we are only seeing the very beginning of the talent. To say after this season his future should be decided is crazy. Brewster has done a great job improving the teams talent as he settles into an offense and a defense and that talent matures so will the wins. Brewster has also had just two recruiting classes to look at and both at least at first glance the first has been very good and the second will make more of an impact next season. I really think we will start to see more of an impact in the win and loss column in the next two seasons 2010 and 2011. If Brewster would have the non conference schedules coming up that Mason had many of his years with the Gophers he would win even more games. Brewster is trying to improve a program that hasnt been a contender in over 30 years that doesnt happen overnight. Football is very different than Basketball where three or four recruits change the entire program.
 

Obiously if he goes 2-10 this year he's in trouble. Personally, IMHO, with the schedules we have, he should be safe as long as the 'bottom' remains 6-6 with a bowl game, or until the elite recruiting ability dries up. If either of those two things happen, then we should look for a new coach. Losing records are not acceptable, but we should also not hold him to an Ohio State standard.
 

Monty519 said:
My whole issue with this "2009 is THE defining year" for Brewster talk is he has a grand total of two of his classes in. How in the world can we possibly judge him completely when half the team isn't even his? More than half really, cause how much contribution are you gonna get from the '09 class this year?
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Mason in his third year: win at No. 2 Penn State, 5-3 in the Big Ten.

Sarkasian taking over the first 0-12 team in Pac 10 history: win over No. 3 USC and ranked for the first time in six years

By the end of the year, Brewster's signature win in three seasons can't be over a five win Illinois team in '08. The Big Ten schedule doesn't look as difficult as it did in July.
 

I do not think the Strib has been unfair or "negative" to the Gophers (with the caveat that I do not read Reusse columns for issues that go beyond the Gophers).

That said I did not think this article was fair or balanced. For example, Brewster's recruiting was really undersold. First, Craig acted like 7 JUCO's was an outrageous number, which I do not believe it is for a first year head coach. The year prior, I believe Mason was going to bring in 5 JUCO's, at least one of whom did not qualify and two followed a defensive coach who bolted to Arizona State. More importantly, Craig took a shot at the academic resumes of Brewster's recruits. It would have been very easy for him to compare the academic resumes of Brewster's recruits to those of the other top classes in the nation and see that they are up to par. I just posted last night that Auburn had 6 guys fail to qualify in their 2009 class.

I am all for high standards, I hate the timing of the article, but that doesn't make it unfair. I do wonder how Mason got through ten years without getting this type of treatment on a yearly basis.

I do wish Maturi would take a little more ownership for the situation as he did not handle the football program well before hiring Brewster. Time will tell if he made a good choice in hiring Brewster, but the time to make that decision is not the day before the Big Ten opener.

Maybe it's a good sign that the guy won 6 more games than he won in year 1 and he's still on the hotseat in year 3 despite just one loss (to a top 10 team)? Atleast the days of "celebrating" bowl games "earned" with sub .500 conference records are over.
 


Maximus said:
Mason in his third year: win at No. 2 Penn State, 5-3 in the Big Ten.

Sarkasian taking over the first 0-12 team in Pac 10 history: win over No. 3 USC and ranked for the first time in six years

By the end of the year, Brewster's signature win in three seasons can't be over a five win Illinois team in '08. The Big Ten schedule doesn't look as difficult as it did in July.
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Obviously he needs a big win this year. But he'll have plenty of opportunities for that, and based on how they played against Cal, they'll likely get one. Beat Wisconsin and Iowa would be a nice start. Wouldn't be surprised by an OSU or PSU win. But my only real point there was that to sit there and tell me he should be fired is a bit much.
 

I agree that Brewster needs some big wins this year. This team is too talented, experienced, and deep not to get some upsets this year. This year will be the best year to judge how far or not Brewster has taken this program.
 

gold04 said:
I agree that Brewster needs some big wins this year. This team is too talented, experienced, and deep not to get some upsets this year. This year will be the best year to judge how far or not Brewster has taken this program.
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I disagree with most on this board. Brewsterh as had two recruiting classes. This season he is redshirting all but 5 or 6 from last years class. His OL is makeshift with a JC and transfer anchoring the line. This year and last year we have added very solid OL recruits. Almost all are being redshirted or will be redshirted. Basically, Brewster is playing with Mason recruits. This is a good thing with Decker, but other than that, I truly believe we have recruits that will ultimately outperform every other position on this team.

Brewster deserves 5 years so his team. Those that want to point to one game or one season as a baseline for Brewster are cracked. Yes, Mase was 5-3 his third season. So what? yes the Washington coach beat USC. So what? Isn't the goal to field a deep, talented roster so that we can be competitive year after year? By the looks of it, Brewster is doing just that. If we were to fire Brewster after this season, who would stay and who would go? many of the recruits are here becasue of Brewster. IMO we should only change coaches when it is clear that that coach cannot take us to another level.
 

No one is saying fire Brewster after this year. I think people are saying this year Brewster needs to start winning some big games. This is by far his best team, so should we not expect some big wins. Even Brewster is expecting some big wins. No one is saying fire Brewster. I'm just saying in Brewster's three years here this is the best year to judge how far or not he's taken the program. I do not blame Maturi for taking the cautious approach in signing Brewster's extension. The U does not want to be stuck with another big buyout.
 

gold04 said:
No one is saying fire Brewster after this year. I think people are saying this year Brewster needs to start winning some big games. This is by far his best team, so should we not expect some big wins. Even Brewster is expecting some big wins. No one is saying fire Brewster. I'm just saying in Brewster's three years here this is the best year to judge how far or not he's taken the program. I do not blame Maturi for taking the cautious approach in signing Brewster's extension. The U does not want to be stuck with another big buyout.
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Some fair points. I think Brewster will do fine this year, but it just bugs me with the short term outlook people have. After Mase's 3rd year, he went backwards for a few years. He never finished higher than 4th because in his third year he was 5-3 in the Big Ten and we thought "here we come".

Also, why do we have to structure a large buyout type contract? Mase insisted on the large buyout. Brewster would settle for less of a buyout probably which would make an extension more tolerable. Bottom line, if Brewster is extremely successful this season, the question will not be should we offer him an extension, it will be will he even sign an extension if offered one? If we have a great season, many will chastise Maturi for not extending him after last year. Just watch.
 

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