ESPN: Brew's tumultuous tenure had many questioning why U ever got rid of Mason

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per ESPN's "A look back at B1G coaching force-outs"

GLEN MASON, Minnesota (1997-2006)

What happened: Mason never got Minnesota to the promised land -- its first Big Ten championship since 1967 -- but he made the Gophers a consistent bowl team. He won 6-8 games in six of his final eight seasons, breaking through with 10 victories in 2003 and slumping to a 4-7 finish in 2001. Minnesota reached bowls seven times under Mason, but his middling Big Ten record (32-48) and inability to challenge for league titles eventually stirred the administration into action. The school fired Mason two days after Minnesota squandered a 31-point third-quarter lead against Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl.

What happened next: The program backslid with the overmatched Tim Brewster at the helm, going 1-11 in 2007. Brewster made some splashes in recruiting but couldn't get enough talent to translate to the field. After a 7-1 start in 2008, the Gophers dropped their final five games, including a 55-0 decision to archrival Iowa at the Metrodome. A 6-7 season followed in 2009, and Minnesota fired Brewster after a 1-6 start in 2010. Brewster went 15-30 at the school and just 6-21 in the Big Ten, which included an 0-10 mark in trophy games. His tumultuous tenure had many questioning why Minnesota ever got rid of Mason.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/81537/a-look-back-at-b1g-coaching-force-outs

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per ESPN's "A look back at B1G coaching force-outs"

GLEN MASON, Minnesota (1997-2006)

What happened: Mason never got Minnesota to the promised land -- its first Big Ten championship since 1967 -- but he made the Gophers a consistent bowl team. He won 6-8 games in six of his final eight seasons, breaking through with 10 victories in 2003 and slumping to a 4-7 finish in 2001. Minnesota reached bowls seven times under Mason, but his middling Big Ten record (32-48) and inability to challenge for league titles eventually stirred the administration into action. The school fired Mason two days after Minnesota squandered a 31-point third-quarter lead against Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl.

What happened next: The program backslid with the overmatched Tim Brewster at the helm, going 1-11 in 2007. Brewster made some splashes in recruiting but couldn't get enough talent to translate to the field. After a 7-1 start in 2008, the Gophers dropped their final five games, including a 55-0 decision to archrival Iowa at the Metrodome. A 6-7 season followed in 2009, and Minnesota fired Brewster after a 1-6 start in 2010. Brewster went 15-30 at the school and just 6-21 in the Big Ten, which included an 0-10 mark in trophy games. His tumultuous tenure had many questioning why Minnesota ever got rid of Mason.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/81537/a-look-back-at-b1g-coaching-force-outs

Go Gophers!!
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The bold. That's why we got rid of Mason. Losses like that. Seemed like he never really cared to be here.
 

I think the best way to say it was that the problem was not firing Mason, it was hiring Brewster. One thing I do want us to keep in mind as we move forward, last year Kill went 6-6 in the regular season then lost the bowl game. We fired Mason after going 6-6 in the regular season then losing the bowl game (albeit in a much more depressing fashion). While I recognize that Kill doing that was a big step forward from the crap pile that Brewster left him with, and Mason doing it was a step backwards from some of his slightly better mediocre teams, this is not the end. I expect continued improvement going forward.
 

Not firing Mason would have been an open acknowledgement that Minnesota will never achieve greatness and shouldn't even bother trying. Perhaps there's a legitimate argument to be made for that, but if you're in charge of the athletic department dependent upon alumni and fan enthusiasm, I don't think that really flies.

10 years is an exceptionally long time. If Kill is still here in 8 more seasons I'll consider that a success.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I think the best way to say it was that the problem was not firing Mason, it was hiring Brewster.
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Yup, agree. Mason's time had come and gone, he had a full opportunity to achieve the goal of Big Ten title, and failed. 10 years and never better than 5-3 in conference, with an overall Big 10 W-L of 32-48, is all you needed to know.

And I'll openly admit that Brewster's 1-11 season didn't bum me out as much as some, and that he had me believing we might have found the right guy in the midst of the 7-1 start in 2008. From there, it all went downhill though.

Mason-revisionists bug the hell out of me though, as they act as if Grinnin' Glen's tenure was some sort of grand era of success filled with high-end bowl games and big conference wins. It wasn't. Yeah we rose up and got a small taste of beating the 'big boys' on occasion (really just barely enough to keep Mase around), but these were always marred by embarrassing meltdown games that should have even bigger wins for the program. With Mason, his teams frequently showed you that they had the capacity to be absolutely dominant, but something always held them back from stomping on the throat.

The Mason-era was what it was. We had some good times, but they were punctuated by gut-wrenching losses.
 


Gopherprof said:
Not firing Mason would have been an open acknowledgement that Minnesota will never achieve greatness and shouldn't even bother trying. Perhaps there's a legitimate argument to be made for that, but if you're in charge of the athletic department dependent upon alumni and fan enthusiasm, I don't think that really flies.

10 years is an exceptionally long time. If Kill is still here in 8 more seasons I'll consider that a success.
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That WAS the overwhelming opinion nationwide, and by quite a few of the Masonites locally. Pre-Mason and Post-Mason times makes it a compelling argument. Who knows? Looking all the way back to Cal Stoll, and that's 41 years ago, every coach except Wacker, Brewster and Kill had at least one season where they got 4 wins in the Big Ten. Yes, even Joe Salem did it. Heck, he did it TWICE, but the Big Ten played 9 games those years so he finished 4-5.

Stoll went 6-2 one year, Gutey finished 3rd in in '86 and Mason went 5-3 twice, though that only tied for a fourth Place finish. Mason, Gutey and Stoll had pretty comparable Big Ten records, Mason padded those with a "walk-over" Non-Conference Schedule and unlike Brewster and Kill, he mainly DID walk-over those guys.

Hope that Kill gets us back to the Mason years. Beat-up inferior teams in the Non-Conference Schedule, win 3-5 games in the Big Ten and get to a Bowl Game.

Then Kill can shoot for a Stoll-like Second Place finish!
 

Enjoy this thread while you can, boys...Wren is probably composing his latest epic as we speak.
 

Revisionist Mason worshipers will decry the firing. The fact is, it should have been done after the season.
I really wonder what would have happened if Charlie Strong was hired. We all have what ifs, but Strong appears to be a home run type hire now for Louisville.
 

I hate these kinds of garbage articles. They are like sucker punches. Mase didn't get it done. He was two staffs ago and he wasn't that memorable of a coach. 1 winning season is nothing to brag about in the B!G.
 



Ole said:
Revisionist Mason worshipers will decry the firing. The fact is, it should have been done after the season.
I really wonder what would have happened if Charlie Strong was hired. We all have what ifs, but Strong appears to be a home run type hire now for Louisville.
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That's a very good question. He most likely would have had the same problem Brewster did in recruiting. Brewster couldn't get many of the Texas, LA or Carolina kids that he usually recruited, to come on up to the "Arctic Circle", and it's doubtful that the Florida kids that are making Louisville a success, would have made the trip either.

But Strong was and is a good Defensive Coach, who had success as a Coordinator. Brewster had neither and within a few years, all his Assistants who had those qualities left.

All that probably means that Strong would have brought them back to the level of Mason, Gutey and Stoll. Which also means that Maturi would probably still be A.D.

Still wish they had hired Strong? :cool:
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
With Mason, his teams frequently showed you that they had the capacity to be absolutely dominant, but something always held them back from stomping on the throat.

The Mason-era was what it was. We had some good times, but they were punctuated by gut-wrenching losses.
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I always thought that from day one until the end. If he had put the throttle down in the Indiana melt-down, the Northwestern melt-down, the North Carolina State melt-down, the Purdue melt-down, the Ohio State meltdown, the Wisconsin melt-down I, the Michigan melt-down I, the Wisconsin melt-down II, the Michigan melt-down II, the Virginia melt-down, and the Texas Tech melt-down, he would still have a coaching job.
 

Iceland12 said:
That's a very good question. He most likely would have had the same problem Brewster did in recruiting. Brewster couldn't get many of the Texas, LA or Carolina kids that he usually recruited, to come on up to the "Arctic Circle", and it's doubtful that the Florida kids that are making Louisville a success, would have made the trip either.

But Strong was and is a good Defensive Coach, who had success as a Coordinator. Brewster had neither and within a few years, all his Assistants who had those qualities left.

All that probably means that Strong would have brought them back to the level of Mason, Gutey and Stoll. Which also means that Maturi would probably still be A.D.

Still wish they had hired Strong? :cool:
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ha!
Touche'
I think brewster did fairly well getting some kids up from the south, he just didn't know what to do after signing day.
But Strong being a success here likely would have eliminated several mortal sins of the maturi occupation era.
I'd have to spend more time complaining about lack of tailgating.
:cool:
 




Dean S said:
I hate these kinds of garbage articles. They are like sucker punches. Mase didn't get it done. He was two staffs ago and he wasn't that memorable of a coach. 1 winning season is nothing to brag about in the B!G.
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Mason had two 5-3 Big 10 seasons (not one) and two 4-4 seasons. How many of those have we had since he was let go?
 

Eagan said:
Mason had two 5-3 Big 10 seasons (not one) and two 4-4 seasons. How many of those have we had since he was let go?
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I think I am repeating other posts, but the bottom line is that after 10-seasons with Mason we saw what we were going to get. If your ultimate hope is a team that occasionally has a 5-3 or 4-4 season then Mason was your man. I agree with very little that Maturi did - but wanting more from our football team was the one right thing he did. Whether we have gotten back to the middle of the pack we were at is almost immaterial to this argument - the fact that the "U" wants to be better than that is all that matters and why Mason was (and should have been) fired. I have no doubt the new administration would have pulled the plug too - if not sooner.
 

highwayman said:
I always thought that from day one until the end. If he had put the throttle down in the Indiana melt-down, the Northwestern melt-down, the North Carolina State melt-down, the Purdue melt-down, the Ohio State meltdown, the Wisconsin melt-down I, the Michigan melt-down I, the Wisconsin melt-down II, the Michigan melt-down II, the Virginia melt-down, and the Texas Tech melt-down, he would still have a coaching job.
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It was that prevent defense which, in another sport, caused us to squander some basketball games which should have been won. That is a big pet peeve of mine in all sports. If you have built up a big lead, it usually means that the other team doesn't have an answer for what you are doing. It takes a really bizarre set of logic to say "what we have been doing, on offense and defense, has lead us to a 38-7 lead, so what I want to do is totally change what we are doing."

As I said in a post a few weeks ago on the bball board, I want the team to drive the nail in the coffin, not sit around and hope the clock runs out before the other team has time to come back.
 

The Brewster years don't say anything about whether firing Mason was a good or bad idea. Gutekunst went 5-3 in the Big Ten twice. Does the Wacker hire mean that firing Gutekunst was a bad idea? It's risky to hire head coaches who only have position coaching experience (Brewster). It's risky idea to hire coaches who had only had D-II head coaching experience experience (Joe Salem). It's risky to hire coaches who have losing records as a D-I head coach. The Brewster years tell us more about hiring decisions than firing decisions. If we had hired an experienced, well-regarded coach, and we still got the results we had during the Brewster era, that might have told us something.
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
Yup, agree. Mason's time had come and gone, he had a full opportunity to achieve the goal of Big Ten title, and failed. 10 years and never better than 5-3 in conference, with an overall Big 10 W-L of 32-48, is all you needed to know.

And I'll openly admit that Brewster's 1-11 season didn't bum me out as much as some, and that he had me believing we might have found the right guy in the midst of the 7-1 start in 2008. From there, it all went downhill though.

Mason-revisionists bug the hell out of me though, as they act as if Grinnin' Glen's tenure was some sort of grand era of success filled with high-end bowl games and big conference wins. It wasn't. Yeah we rose up and got a small taste of beating the 'big boys' on occasion (really just barely enough to keep Mase around), but these were always marred by embarrassing meltdown games that should have even bigger wins for the program. With Mason, his teams frequently showed you that they had the capacity to be absolutely dominant, but something always held them back from stomping on the throat.

The Mason-era was what it was. We had some good times, but they were punctuated by gut-wrenching losses.
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+1. GBG. You nailed it! Couldn't agree more with pretty much the whole statement you made!
 


Was there ever more to the Brewster/Strong selection or was it just a plain stupid choice by Maturi? I don't seem to recall.
 

TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
I wonder if this topic will ever, ever go away.
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I think it will once we are back to Mason-level success or better on a regular basis. I disagree with those who don't think we should have fired Mason, but so long as we are in a spot where we consider any bowl game a success, it is not illegitimate to ask why we fired a coach who was taking us to bowl games consistently.
 

I'm don't think Mason was fired because of all the big meltdowns but the last one against Texas Tech was the excuse to get rid of him. Although there was no excuse for the Indiana, Northwestern, North Carolina State, Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wisconsin and Virginia melt-downs as pointed out by Highway, I think the Texas Tech meltdown was the only one that maybe shouldn't have been a total surprise. Those who were familiar with Leach/Dykes Air Raid Offense knew they could score at will at anytime and MN was not their first or last victim. In retrospect, perhaps Mason should have been let go earlier due to all these meltdowns? I think the simple reason that Mason was fired was that he had a middle of the road record and it was time for a change. I would contend that Mason was not bad but also not good enough to meet expectations and it was simply time for a change after 10-years of opportunity. Hopefully, Kill & Co. will have a couple of big years so we can quit kicking this dead horse called the Mason and Brewster eras.

Go Gophers!
 


TCF=UnitedWeStand said:
I wonder if this topic will ever, ever go away.
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Eventually, everyone who supports/remembers the Mason era will have passed away, so the topic should go away then................unless Wren leaves instructions in his will for his children and/or grandchildren to keep posting his messages from the grave.
 

Fired for beating Iowa!

The timeline was impossible.

Dude deserved to open the stadium. Dude also would've needed to be canned immediately thereafter.

No good options.
 

Iceland12 said:
Hope that Kill gets us back to the Mason years. Beat-up inferior teams in the Non-Conference Schedule, win 3-5 games in the Big Ten and get to a Bowl Game.

Then Kill can shoot for a Stoll-like Second Place finish!
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LOL - For a moment I thought I was reading a post from wren.;) You may be right but what a depressing outlook. What gives me hope is that even though Glen thought the program could never rise above where it was and he was on auto pilot, Kill and his staff are working their tales off to make it to the next level. If you don't believe you can get there you probably won't. Optimists often exceed because they don't know any better.

Go Gophers!

P.S. Having another redundant string on this topic is really stupid and terribly boring. I apologize for participating in this god awful string.:cry::cry::cry:
 

It was the correct decision to fire Mason. The program was stale. That was glaringly obvious.

Obviously, it was not the correct decision to hire Brewster.

I think we've got a good football coach now, not a salesman. Looking forward to seeing if Kill can get this program to the point where going 3-5 or 4-4 in the Big Ten isn't a cause for celebration.
 

can't wait til we start the season so we can have something to talk about besides mason/brewster dead horses!

:horse::horse::horse:
 

In contrast to the posts above, I offer the following points:
1) mason got fired more because he was perceived as a pain in the butt than because of his record. Not signing a contract, holding out over the winter the previous season, etc.
2) to some extent that was true, he is a little prickly maybe more than a little, but someone needs to tell their boss the truth, especially at the time in the athletic department. But the other side of the story is that he was the first person by a lot to speak out for the need for a new stadium, and was told to shut up. I give him more credit than anyone else for at least getting the discussion started.
3) he had a good offensive staff. he needed a Claeys type DC badly but never got one. Ferentz and Mason are a lot alike as coaches. Both good O coaches, but need a good D coordinator. Ferentz had one in Norm Parker, Mason never got one to stay.
4) In fairness to Mason, he really did get crap support from the school for most of his tenure. Maturi was an organization guy who would not rock the boat to improve revenue sports.
5) Mason could have been much more successful if he had more than three assistants who could recruit. Most of them were terrible. Browning and Shaw were the only long time staff members who were good at all. They were offense guys, so it is not too surprising that the team was much better on offense than defense.

Summary - the firing was not unjust, but it would have been unnecessary if Mason had demanded more from his staff, had hired a good d-ccordinator and had gotten even half ass support from Maturi. That is all it would have taken for him to get to Ferentz' level of success, but he was too stubborn and his boss was too clueless to make it happen.
 

The answer to why Mason was fired is not simple, but in a nutshell, he didn't win enough to be the gigantic a$$ he could be at times.

Firing him the way we did, when we did may have limited our chance of hiring a good coach. At any rate, there's no way to change the past just work towards the future. Go get'em Jerry!
 

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