I don't like Nebraska....

[EG#9]

"No athletic department has more ugly stuff associated with it in the last couple decades than Minnesota."

Not even the spawn of a Hawkeye/Badger relationship could truly believe something so ridiculous.

As for the BCS and a possible playoff? I am against it for selfish reasons. I think it's possible for the Gophers to get to the point where, for one game, they could beat the best of the SEC (or Texas, USC, name your super power), but to go through 2-3 in a row? A playoff in football basically assures the southern schools (who are always deeper in talent) will win every championship.

 

[50PoundHead]

I think he would have held up just fine to the media here, he would just ignore them as he has on occasion in Lincoln or state that he will not talk about that. The scrutiny at Nebraska is much greater than at Minnesota. It would have been nice to have a coach who has a philosophy and plan coming in and is at the top of his profession as a coordinator atleast. That defensive performance had to be hard for Cosgrove to watch. Does he look like a "goober", maybe but he can coach and recruit and last I checked he wasn't hired to be a model.

Good points all. I guess my main reaction is that the Nebraska and Minnesota situations are entirely different. They'd sell out in Lincoln with Gutekunst at the helm. Nebraska has a far more knowledgeable and intense fan base that can trump the media, so Pelini can go one way or the other to some extent.

No such luxury in Minnesota as whoever is coaching has to re-energize a fan base that has slumbered since the 1960s. Not saying Brewster will get that done, but I don't know if Pelini would have either. Could you imagine the conflagration in the media the first time Pelini said, right or wrong, "I'm not going to talk about that?" The Denny Green experience comes to mind.

Whoever coaches the Gophers has two big jobs: Repair the fan base and win games. Pelini could probably do the latter, but I'm not so sure about the former because as we saw with Mason, having a team hovering around .500 year after year doesn't put fannies in the seats.

 

[WilliamsArenaGuy]

I'm going to get ripped for this, but I would have rather seen the Gophers in Detroit and the BCS get shaken up with a Texas loss tonight, than to see Texas win and the planets stay aligned.

I'm just so tired of the same old, same old. I would have loved to have seen TCU in the championship game. Now, nothing changes, two powers play for the top, and I probably only casually watch the national championship game.

Oh well...

100% agree.

 

[WilliamsArenaGuy]

Did Iowa or Sconny go to a bowl game the year before Ferentz and Alvarez were hired?

It's not apples to apples.

Just stop it.

 

[Jike Spingleton]

I am going to derail every thread to a conversation about the smurfs. At least I will find it more entertaining.

 

[GophersInIowa]

No one wants to beat Iowa and Wisconsin more than me. However, if any of us grew up in Iowa or Wisconsin, you would feel differently. That is just human nature. After being around the Nebraska and Texas programs because of where I lived, I appreciated them. I hope Minnesota, my alma mater, can become as successful.

But have we done enough trashing of Tim Brewster for the year? Let's take December off from Brewster-bashing and enjoy the bowl game and the holidays.

Minnesota sports fans and writers might just qualify as America's most negative people. They are a black hole that sucks in all logic, understanding, energy, optimism and support from the team if things don't go as well as anticipated. As has been poster here before, through their first three seasons, here is how some notable B10 coaches have done:
Brewster at MN: 14 W's, 22 L's 2 bowl appearances
Ferentz at IA: 12 W's, 21 L's, 1 bowl appearance
Alvarez at WI: 11 W's, 22 L's, 0 bowl appearances

Should Alvarez and Ferentz have been fired after their first three seasons? Most readers here couldn't follow Brewster around for a day without passing out from exhaustion. And, oh my, that bombastic, optimistic, hyperbolic Brewster rubs you the wrong way, right? Minnesotans just don't act that way or appreciate people who do. But you sure can fall into line with the negativity and biting sarcasm of the majority of sports writers in MSP, guys like Jim Souhan and Pat Reusse. Nice company.

Brewster should be judged conclusively after the 2011 season when his first real recruiting class of Feb. 2008 has reached senior and R-junior status. We will know by then if he should be retained or not. The 2007 class was recruited by Glen Mason and the best of the class went elsewhere when he was fired. The upper classmen on this team are made up of arguably Mason's worst recruiting classes. Brewster will have a stable staff and legit B10 mature talent in 2011. Just remember, this is the town that hung Warmath in effigy in front of his own house....the year before he won the national championship. Go find other targets of your negativity.....this is really getting old. Very old.

I guess I've been a Brewster supporter and wasn't trashing him at all. I was responding to your statement about it being stupid to dislike programs like Nebraska and Texas. I was just trying to point out that just because they are successful, and they have great fan bases, doesn't mean anyone has to like them. Iowa and Wisconsin have been pretty successful lately, does that mean all Minnesota fans should like them? Liking and disliking certain teams is what being a fan is all about.