FIRE DUNBAR!!

[gophermanic]

Pathetic offense all season!. No adjustments made last four games when offense is not producing. There is a reason Cal was not sad to see him go. Brewster has two years now to make this program respectable or he will be gone. At least we had some offense under Mason and Wacker this is just plain hilarious.

 

[Zeppelin Gopher]

Dunbar has to go

 

[The Big L]

At least give him a year with an offense line. Your playbook is extremely limited when you don't have an O-line.

 

[Handsome Pete]

Pathetic offense all season!. No adjustments made last four games when offense is not producing. There is a reason Cal was not sad to see him go. Brewster has two years now to make this program respectable or he will be gone. At least we had some offense under Mason and Wacker this is just plain hilarious.

Dunbar is as good as gone. Every coach on this team should be polishing up the resume and Brewster must be taking serious stock himself. I've been the biggest Brewster booster since he was hired but what happened today is a coaching issue. Everyone on this board would lose their job if they performed the way these coaches and players performed today.

 

[GoldenDog]

If Brewster has any class...which I think he does...he will put this loss on himself and his coaching staff. He should think long and hard about whether or not he wants to coach anymore. The last four games have proven he has more to learn about being a head coach.

 

[The 12th Man]

If Brewster has any class...which I think he does...he will put this loss on himself and his coaching staff. He should think long and hard about whether or not he wants to coach anymore. The last four games have proven he has more to learn about being a head coach.

So he should quit? You said it yourself- he has things to learn. If you think a cohesive staff means nothing, you are dead wrong. Year two, and they are 7-5 after a 1-11 first season. That is the bottom line. Learning takes time- if you want him to learn and get better, you have to let it happen. Let's see how it goes next year. If it is not a step forward, then let us worry about whether or not he can coach.

1-11 to 7-5. Is that bad?

 

[gophermanic]

Id say 5 straight losses(assuming we play Ball State) is bad, but thats just me.

 

[howeda7]

So he should quit? You said it yourself- he has things to learn. If you think a cohesive staff means nothing, you are dead wrong. Year two, and they are 7-5 after a 1-11 first season. That is the bottom line. Learning takes time- if you want him to learn and get better, you have to let it happen. Let's see how it goes next year. If it is not a step forward, then let us worry about whether or not he can coach.

1-11 to 7-5. Is that bad?

YES. IT IS. The record may appear respectable, but we beat absolutely no one. And we just suffered the worst Big Ten loss IN PROGRAM HISTORY.

What I witnessed tonight was a complete joke, and 90% of it goes on the coaches. This team flat out quit on this coaching staff. Brewster may be an OK recruiter, but he's never going to be a good game day coach. And no matter how hard he tries, he's not going to recruit the kind of talent to Minnesota that can over-come bad coaching. We are far better off doing it the other way. Recruiting OK talent and coaching it well. In other words, how Mason did it.

 

[1983]

nuckle heads all of you

Pretty tough to match beef with veal. It takes more than two years and you know it. Brew has some things to learn too.

 

[The 12th Man]

Id say 5 straight losses(assuming we play Ball State) is bad, but thats just me.

It is very bad. Very, very bad. I just don't want to look at one loss in a vacuum. 1-11. 7-5. I will be the first one to jump on Brewster's back if he does not take another step forward next year after having good recruiting classes, but I really think we all need to look at the total package.

 

[GortonsFisherman011]

YES. IT IS. The record may appear respectable, but we beat absolutely no one. And we just suffered the worst Big Ten loss IN PROGRAM HISTORY.

What I witnessed tonight was a complete joke, and 90% of it goes on the coaches. This team flat out quit on this coaching staff. Brewster may be an OK recruiter, but he's never going to be a good game day coach. And no matter how hard he tries, he's not going to recruit the kind of talent to Minnesota that can over-come bad coaching. We are far better off doing it the other way. Recruiting OK talent and coaching it well. In other words, how Mason did it.

Agreed. If Brewster keeps Dunbar and this offensive strategy it will be hard for me to stay past halftime. This was an embarrassment to our state.

 

[pjgopher19]

Everyone relax!

Yeah, the last four games of the season sucked, no doubt. I thought the defense showed promise...however when you are on the field the whole game....the whole game, your going to break a bit. The problems with this team are quite simple. Young talent. Watching the last few games it was like watching boys play among men. The gopher squad is smaller and weaker. This is mainly due to them playing younger players. Three freshman starting on the O-Line. They have struggled all year long, especially once the Big Ten season started. At running back, I feared for Eskridge's life. It didn't take much to bring Deleon down. That will change over the course of a year. 55-0 sucks, there is no good that comes out of it other than telling a top recruit that he will have a great opportunity to step in and make a difference right away. 1-11 last year, 7-5 this year got us back to Mason standards. Now next year we will start making the climb up the ladder in the Big Ten. May not be much next year but we won't go back any. So basically all you fire Dunbar chanters, get bent. You have no clue! You're terrible gopher football minds!

 

[salaunese]

Dunbar is not the problem. Lack of talent and fan support is the problem. Who did Dunbar have to work with other than Decker and Weber?

 

[oak_street1981]

The coaches do not seem very adept at improving the

At least give him a year with an offense line. Your playbook is extremely limited when you don't have an O-line.

offenseive line play over time.

If I recall, Gordie Shaw's services were not needed. That looks like a big mistake, since I am sure he could have done something more with this group.

The old regime had no problem taking low ranked offensive line recruits, and creating good O lines. But now we are hearing that talent is the issue? I do not understand this reasoning.

The coaching again is suspect under Brewster.

 

[nemosgold]

I think Mitch Browning is overlooked when you talk line play. How good was our OL when Gordie flipped from the defensive side under Wacker? Not good.

 

[grunkiejr]

offenseive line play over time.

If I recall, Gordie Shaw's services were not needed. That looks like a big mistake, since I am sure he could have done something more with this group.

The old regime had no problem taking low ranked offensive line recruits, and creating good O lines. But now we are hearing that talent is the issue? I do not understand this reasoning.

The coaching again is suspect under Brewster.

Mason did a good job with low ranked offensive line recruits because he ran a different line scheme than virtually every team in the country. He wanted small quick lineman that could pull and chop block. Ideal size for a Mason line would be 6'2" 260 which means he is probably 230 or 240 coming out of HS and that will get you a 2 star rating. Ideal size for most other programs is 6'5" and 300 and if you have good feet, good hands, and are strong you can be a 3 star or 4 star recruit. On running plays most lines try to push the defensive line down the field and to the side to open holes but Mason wanted to set up walls and chop. This matters now because our entire offensive line was recruited for Mason's scheme but Brewster is trying to use them the way most other teams block and they are clearly not ideal for that scheme. In this scheme they are 2 star recruits. In Mason's scheme the 2 star guys were like getting 3 or 4 star guys because they were perfect for the system.

 

[Khaliq]

Mason did a good job with low ranked offensive line recruits because he ran a different line scheme than virtually every team in the country. He wanted small quick lineman that could pull and chop block.

Many, many teams utilize some variant of the zone scheme the Gophers were successful with. For all his faults Mason and his staff were very good at spotting offensive line talent and developing it. I think you're underselling that a bit.

 

[EG#9]

First of all let me say I hate several things about Dunbar's offense. I hate running the ball out of the freaking shotgun on 3rd and 1 and I really, really hate his 3rd down play calling. If we need 7 yards, you can bet we have a minimum of 3 receivers running 7-8 yard routes and 2 of them will end up right next to each other. Want to defend the Gophers on 3rd down? Just look at the sticks because that's where virtually all the routes are going.

That said, Dunbar is getting a raw deal. This is the worst offensive line I have ever seen. If they are not allowing huge pressure, they are committing a false start or the center is snapping the ball horribly. Our first 2 drives yesterday were stopped by our own offensive line with bad snaps. We also didn't have the WR talent necessary to run the WR screens that Dunbar likes so much. We had nobody at WR who had any "make you miss" ability after the catch which pretty much makes those screens a non threat. We also had nobody (except a true freshman) who could stretch the field vertically. We also missed having a big receiver (ala Wheels) to throw the fade to in the red zone. The last 3 games of the season we were essentially without our best offensive player in Decker.

Dunbar should have been able to adjust for some of these shortcomings, but to expect him to cover them all up is asking too much.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think you're underselling the role of experience.

 

[Khaliq]

I think you're underselling the role of experience.

I'm not sure what you're addressing. I'm not commenting on the current state of the offensive line, just that Mason's success with that unit wasn't due to him running an exotic offensive scheme. Zone schemes are very common.

 

[Schnoodler]

I think his success was on minimizing and covering up his weaknesses. it's what trapped him into mediocrity. he had good lines because he developed them, not because he recruited them. They generally were not freshmen that started. Give Dunbar the same chance.

 

[salaunese]

I agree..Give Dunbar a chance..He's got a good QB to work with.

 

[GophersInIowa]

From what happened in California, it seems that Dunbar is very stubborn and doesn't want to change anything. For 10-15 plays a game, why can't we line up in a 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB set with Weber under center? Mix it up once in awhile. If Brewster can get him to buy into that, then he should stick around. If not, then its time to move on.

 

[MinnesotaMadman]

Whoa... Easy there big fella' (long winded)

Dunbar has done more than his fair share to tick me off, but I'm not ready to kick him to the curb yet. Some people seem to forget that Brew and Dubar have brought in ONE (that's right, ONE) recruiting class that was "all their own". The biggest problem in the sports world today is that people are so quick to kick coaches/players to curb if they don't produce right away.

Whether want to admit it or not, this year was a success. At the beginning of this year almost everyone on this board was in agreement that getting to ANY bowl game would be a major step in the right direction for this team. While it is disappointing to see the team stumble down the stretch, try to keep everything in context. We won a few games at the beginning of the year and everyone started getting allusions of grandeur. This was a 1-11 team last year. An improvement of 6 wins in a year is HUGE.

So, my suggestion is that everyone should just relax and wait for next year. If next year the team takes a step back (basically missing a bowl game) then maybe you start looking to make some changes. Next year we bring back almost everyone on offense so it SHOULD be better. If they are still ineffective I will start listening to all your groaning about Dunbar and the team, but until that happens I think everyone is forgetting that winning 7 games is about what the previous regime offered in most years.

To address the offensive situation more I would like to point out, as others have already done, that we were working with a young offensive line and a quarterback who tore his meniscus halfway through the season. With the offensive line ineffective at run blocking, freshmen running backs, and our QB's mobility slightly hampered, the running game fell apart, leaving Weber to have to do everything with his arm. Teams could pin back their ears and just take runs at Weber, further increasing the difficulty we had pass blocking. Because of our inability to block the pass rush, our receivers couldn't run long or complicated routes. The defense could crowd our receivers and opposing line backers could play further outside, effectively destroying the WR screen game and reeking havoc in the passing lanes. The key to the offense next year is the offensive line and our ability to run the ball once again.

 

[Schnoodler]

I really think with the lack of time given weber he rarely could check down much, and frequently was throwing to the safe side on spot. Meaning the passes weren't going to be the most catchable. Against good teams if you have one weakness, then you have no strength. it's apart of what makes FB great. We're just on the wrong side of that equation this year.

 

[grunkiejr]

Mason's lines

Many, many teams utilize some variant of the zone scheme the Gophers were successful with. For all his faults Mason and his staff were very good at spotting offensive line talent and developing it. I think you're underselling that a bit.

I realize a lot of teams use zone blocking. The Gophers still use a zone blocking scheme. What Mason did was unique because he would pull the center and they did much more chop blocking than any other college team. It is a scheme similar to the Denver Broncos and nobody else in college football or the pros does it the same way.

I'm not underselling Mason at all. The best part of his teams was the offensive lines. He had good running backs and always gets credit for that but it was the line that made the offense work. Heck, in 2005 when Maroney and Russell went down hurt against Michigan State the #3 back, Amir Pinnix, was able to run for 200 yards in just a little over one half of work. That says a lot about the line play. All that I was saying is that to run Brewster's offense you would recruit a different player than Mason and just fitting Mason's guys in to the new scheme doesn't utilize their best attributes.

 

[RahRahSkiUMah]

From what happened in California, it seems that Dunbar is very stubborn and doesn't want to change anything. For 10-15 plays a game, why can't we line up in a 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB set with Weber under center? Mix it up once in awhile. If Brewster can get him to buy into that, then he should stick around. If not, then its time to move on.

Brewster has been getting calls about this on 'CCO for weeks, about why they never line up under center... And every week he gives the same canned response about them being a spread team now, and that they're always looking at any and all changes that will help improve the team, but never really answers the question one way or the other. This morning though, was the first time I've heard him explicitly say that he would like to line up under center more often.