George Thole: Are Gophers moving forward under Brewster?

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Inevitable negative comment about Thole's "I'll take Weber and the experience" quote in three...two...one...
 

typical column. Feel like I have read something recycled like that 100 times.
 

You can tell that was from a small town newspaper. It was almost completely devoid of the sarcasm, snarkiness and the whole "why can't everybody be as smart as me" attitude that the writers at the "real" newspapers use with such expertise. ;)

Unfortunately, it was also devoid of anything new.
 

This carries a little extra credibility because of who wrote it...it isn't some small town newspaper geek. George Thole is a legendary high school coach who won four state titles and almost 300 games as a high school coach. He likely has his finger on what other high school coaches are thinking around the state, too. The fact that he seems a little less enthusiastic about Brewster now than when he was hired can't be good news, as I believe other coaches must feel that way, too.
 


tjgopher said:
This carries a little extra credibility because of who wrote it...it isn't some small town newspaper geek. George Thole is a legendary high school coach who won four state titles and almost 300 games as a high school coach. He likely has his finger on what other high school coaches are thinking around the state, too. The fact that he seems a little less enthusiastic about Brewster now than when he was hired can't be good news, as I believe other coaches must feel that way, too.
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Thank you for pointing that out. I was going to say the same thing. This man is very well respected among the MN high school coaching community and his opinion does carry some weight.
 

Sorry about that. I didn't recognize the author's name or accomplishments. It looks like when he was coaching I was relatively new to the state and didn't follow high school sports at all.

That puts the article in a very different light.
 

frozengopher said:
Inevitable negative comment about Thole's "I'll take Weber and the experience" quote in three...two...one...
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I'll bite:

He's 80 and going senile, but he used to have a great coaching mind. But all that aside, he really didn't say much in the article. He mainly just recapped what any continuous fan already knew. How many more people will write articles saying 'the jury is still out on Brewster'?
 

Where the hell has Thole been all these years? He must not be aware that the Gophers have not won a Big 10 Championship since 1967.
Otherwise, he would have publicly criticized Mason for his 32-48 Big 10 Record and his string of second rate bowl games.
 



Thole makes some good points, but I am still glad we got rid of Mason. One thing he didn't mention is, Mason got paid a heck of a lot more for his 3 big ten wins per year, MN HS coaches didn't like him, and his players had far more off-the-field problems.
 

I'm impressed that no one has jumped all over this and accused George Thole of being part of the mass-media conspiracy against Brewster. In whole, this article is fair. It's also not that different from things that Ressue and Souhan have written that many on here jump down thier throats for. Yes, it is slightly less snarky and sarcastic. But the main points are the same. Even Reusse has difintively said Brewster deserves one more year, which is more then Thole says in the this article.
 

There are some inaccuracies that make it sound like quite the dramatic fall from the Mason years to today. The Gophers were "on top of the world" after beating Alabama in the Music City Bowl to finish 7-5? I'd say not quite. Also didn't beat Michigan (11-2 that year) to sneak into the Insight Bowl in 2006 -- that was Michigan State (4-8).

It doesn't take away from the argument about Brewster's ability to move the program forward, but let's not make it sound like he is destroying the Roman empire.
 

Another way of saying what many of us believe: next year will be crucial for Brew.
 



I don't think there is a mass-media conspiracy I just think guys like Ruesse and Souhan are completely ignorant to college football and are appealing to the lowest common denomonator and playing to the uninformed college football masses in MN. I don't think they have any sort of conspiracy, they just don't know what they are talking about and are dying for ratings.

I would imagine, in almost every single other major college message board, the people on the message board are harsher upon their coach than the general media. Us diehards, are the ones who sit through every single game and watch every single aspect of the program. Look at us, we are yapping about A 5-6 Gopher football team to strangers, 8 months before the season starts. It is different here, not because us on the message boards are nicer in MN, it's because about the only knowledgeable college football fans in the Twin Cities share a similar belief. I am not saying that "if you know college football, you like Brewster". What i'm saying is that if you look at the poll on here (of people who are representative of the actual people who follow and spend money on Gopher football), the outlook on the guy probably 65% (lets see what we have here, but give him a fair shot), 25% (he should be done, we've seen enough), and 10% (not sure). If you took that same poll over the general populace on pioneerpress, I'd imagine Brew's rating would be significantly lower.

My point is that these media people could probably get the general public to believe anything about Brewster, as seen by their lack of devotion to accuracy, because the general public doesn't really follow the Gophers (intensely). So the media conspiracy is this, there is a perception among the non-fans/casual followers that the sky is falling because we aren't competing with the top in the conference, and the "journalists" in this town want nothing more than cash in on that uneasyness. It is what the american media has succombed to, report the negative.
 

As someone that spent a good portion of 2 years with Thole in the 90's, I can tell you he's a no B.S. kind of guy. His personality and that of Brewster's would never mesh well but I know Thole would give the guy a chance.

BTW, Thole was definitely no fan of Mason's. Let's just say a couple of Stillwater's star players got visits from Mason (home and at the 'U') right after he took the job and before National Signing day and Mason made some promises that he never delivered on. Both ended up playing major D1 football in another conference and had much success and Thole resented Mason for never formally offering two players that absolutely deserved an offer. My best guess is Thole was happy the day Mason got fired and gave Brewster a clean slate.

BTW, the McGarry brothers never played under Thole. My guess is he might have tried to sway them away from Mason.
 

tjgopher said:
This carries a little extra credibility because of who wrote it...it isn't some small town newspaper geek. George Thole is a legendary high school coach who won four state titles and almost 300 games as a high school coach. He likely has his finger on what other high school coaches are thinking around the state, too. The fact that he seems a little less enthusiastic about Brewster now than when he was hired can't be good news, as I believe other coaches must feel that way, too.
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You're drawing a lot of conclusions that were not in the column.
 

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