Give me Break
He's done it everywhere else he has been. I see no reason he can't do it here.
When Maturi unceremoniously fired the, by that time, mailing-it-in-mega-ego-prick Mason, I cheered louder than anyone, until I realized that Maturi would be making the replacement hire. The hiring of Tim Brewster will go down as the biggest f-up in this storied institutions athletic history (followed closely by Gangellhoff-Gate). But for such a terrible hire, we'd have a team today that could compete at home against and average-at-best Iowa team.
Anyone with a brain was highly concerned about the Brewster hire. He was not the "take us to the next level" coach we all were clamoring for and expected to get after Mason was fired. Sure we loved the bravado and new-found Gopher Pride, but in hindsight that was almost all about the new stadium and not the new coach. It was a rough first year, and the second year was actually pretty decent. This elevated our expectations for Brew's third season.
2009 started out great, we beat Syracuse, we beat Air Force (either opponent would have been the marquee team of a Kill non-con schedule) and we were tied with a top 10 Cal team in the 4th Quarter. Think about that, a top 10 team in Non-con game and we are TIED in the 4th quarter. Sure we lost, but those expectations we had were justified, even more so when we bounced back and beat Northwestern. We then lose by 3 to Becky Badger and we all started saying "here we go again, this guy isn't going to get us to the next level".
Think about that Brewster's third season. Through 4 games we were 2-2. Had lost to a top ten Cal team in a competitive game and lost to a top 20 Wisconsin team by 3 and already had a B1G win. Brewster through 4 games in yr 3 > than Kill yr 3 4 games, both in results and quality of product. How can ANYONE look at this team and think they are better than what Brewster had in year 3?
Brewster then beat Purdue, a shockingly nice follow up to the Wisc loss. We were sitting 3-2 and 2-1 in the B1G. Where are we sitting today? After getting embarrassed by PSU and OSU we beat a solid MSU team. Through 6 B1G games we were .500. Any chance in hell Kill can pull that off this year?
Brewster got on the hot seat based on the way he finished his 3rd year. We blow a game to Illinois get blanked by Iowa and lose to lowly SDSU. We then lose the bowl game.
3 years post Mason we were in the EXACT same spot we were when we fired him. I, along with many others said it was clear Brewster is not the guy to take us to the next level, get rid of him NOW. Maturi of course can't pull the trigger, and waits until the middle of the next year, ensuring if not just another lost season, but a complete backtrack to the verge of not competing at a mid-B1G-level anymore.
Now Kill is saying everything we want to hear from a coach who is rebuilding a program from the bottom up. He's going to make us good again, you just wait and see. This is unbelievably self-serving and convenient for a guy that, let's face it, is never going to get a BCS job the rest of his career. This is his last stop in the big leagues. If he gets canned this year or next, he's going down a level (or two) or he's out of coaching.
Isn't it funny, we went from wanting a coach to get us to the next level, to the just happy we found a guy to be our coach in about 3 years. I am still living in the past, I want a coach to take us to the next level from where Mason was at. Brewster gave us hope and couldn't produce. Kill doesn't even want to think about the next level (that I would be remiss to point out that for he and his over-achiever small school assistants, this IS the next level)
It's inexcusable to me that Kill can't even give us what a horrid coach like Brewster could give us. I know its hindsight and I can't produce the emails today, but I wanted Charlie Strong after 2009. It was clear to me then, as it is now, the only way you get the Gophs to the next level from where Mason had us was to get a guy with more energy than mason had, and who came from a program that won- because he'd know what Winning looked like at the big time level (e.g. Strong at Florida).
I still have the expectation that we can be better than Mason was, and so far, Kill has shown through his coaching but also by admission, that his goal (in the future 3-4 years) is to be as good as we were with Mason. That right there is not good enough and if we don't win more than 2 games in the B1G this year or at least 3 next he needs to be fired.
ramble rant done, time to resume breaking bad catch-up marathon!
