BleedGopher
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Interview With Tim Brewster: One of College Football’s Most Accomplished Recruiters
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Lakeville Goldy
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Honestly a better article than I expected. A lot of what he said seemed so common sense, but yet you see other coaches not doing it. It's funny because I never heard him make the comment about mom, but Kill said it immediately when asked about his recruiting. Funny how people with what would appear to be drastically different styles could approach something like this in a very similar manner.
The truth is, if Brew had done the things he talks about in this article successfully, he'd probably still be head coach at Minnesota.
His best recruiting class came before he ever led a team on the field at The U.
I look at building "a fence" around the recruiting territory and I didn't see it with Brew. He had some successes, but many of the biggest in-state guys still left. I'm not saying Coach Kill will consistently be able to land those guys if he doesn't start winning - - - but it's easy for any coach to say "here is the formula", it's another to be able to actually do it.
His best recruiting class came before he ever led a team on the field at The U.
I look at building "a fence" around the recruiting territory and I didn't see it with Brew. He had some successes, but many of the biggest in-state guys still left. I'm not saying Coach Kill will consistently be able to land those guys if he doesn't start winning - - - but it's easy for any coach to say "here is the formula", it's another to be able to actually do it.
IMO
Michael Floyd was THE impact recruit he missed on. Floyd signing here would have changed the course of our program and Brewster's career.
No doubt in my mind if he plays here we win 8-10 games in 2008 including at Camp Randall, and possibly against Michigan.
Decker going down when he was our only receiving threat killed that season.
Who knows where it would have gone from there, heck Brewster may have skipped town on his way to greener pastures, but Floyd was the player who could have made it all happen for Brewster.
Sumtimegophs
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By what measure?
The 2007 and 2010 classes were not in the Rivals top 50.
Brew's 2008 class was #17 and his 2009 class was ranked 39th.
According to ESPN, the only class that Brew had that made the top 25 was his 2008 class at #23.
So, by what measure did Brew have his best recruiting class before he led the team on the field at UMN?
gophmeister
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Coach Brew wasn't a bad guy, he just didn't get it done. The expectation was he was going to take the team to another level. He did not do that obviously, but there were moments in 2008 and 2009 where it seemed like he had us on the cusp. Maybe Floyd would have really helped keep us on course.
Bob_Loblaw
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Brew did a lot of things awful, but he really did greatly improve our in-state recruiting. There were a lot of reasons that he failed, but he really did put in the effort to land the local kids.
Look at Mase's last few recruiting classes:
2006: We missed on all of the top 5 (they went to Notre Dame, Boston College, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Wisconsin)
2005: We missed on all of the top 4 recruits in the state
2004: We missed on all of the top 4 recruits in the state
In contrast - -
2009: Brew landed 4 of the top 5 (all of them had other major BCS offers)
2010: Brew landed 3 of the top 5 (again, all with major BCS offers)
My point is that Brew should get some credit for mending the relationship between the U and the local high school coaches.
I'm not saying Brew was anything but a failure here at the U, i'm just saying that he did recruit the state of MN better than a lot of people give him credit for.
Bob_Loblaw
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Obviously Floyd would have helped any team in the country. He was just the second WR taken in the NFL draft. However, Brews undoing was attrition. He would have been alright here had he been able to keep all of his recruits at the U. We would have had a pretty talented football team. Heck, most of those players should be Seniors this coming year.
Floyd would have been nice, but our program can't be dependent on landing that 1 bluechip recruit. Our recruiting class this year can't be measured by if we could land James Onwualu.
John Galt
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I agree that attrition hurt Brewster, no question about it. But I still think he didn't have the type of talent to win consistently. Forget Rivals ratings, I'm talking about on-field performance. He never reeled in a big-time running back or offensive lineman. I also don't know who on defense would have been a difference maker and a substantial upgrade over who has played the last 2 years. We probably win 4 games per year in 2010 and 2011 and avoid some of the embarrassing losses, but we still wouldn't be an average B1G team.
Bob_Loblaw
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I was just really talking about Brew's ability to recruit this area. I agree, he didn't bring in as much talent as most of us had thought at the time, but I do disagree with your assesment a bit.
Brew recruited some good OL (Ed Olson, Tommy Olson, Marek Lenkiawicz, Mottla, Epping, Gjere, Campion (were all Brew guys, Campion re-signed with Kill).
Now. . .lets assume that Brewster didn't have to play a lot of the young guys early (burning redshirts), we didn't have attrition, nothing tragic happened to GT and Brod Smith never broke his leg, and Gjere wasn't having concussion issues.
Here is our lineup THIS year....
QB: Gray
RB: Gillum - Kirkwood - Cobb
WR: McKnight
WR: B. Smith
S: Allen / M. Jones
OT: E. Olson
OG: Olson
C: Mottla
OG: Epping
OT: Gjere
DE: Amaufula
DT: Hageman
DT: J. Edwards
DE: Perry
OLB: Rallis
MLB: Tinsley
OLB: Cooper
CB: Stoud
CB: Carter
FS: Vereen
SS: Wells
I think that is 8-9 win Big 10 team (assuming that they all play).
You're including Kill recruits in this. I thought this was supposed to be Brewster recruits?
John Galt
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It's hard to speculate on what the line-up would be since some of those guys are Kill recruits and wouldn't be here otherwise. For all we know, Gray would be a WR and Alipate or Parish would be quarterbacking. For the most part, the line-up you've listed will be this year's roster with the exception of the WRs and J Edwards, who was a head case and would never be part of any team at this stage in his career. I still think it's a 5-6 win team, not 8-9. But it's also possible that difference might be in stability with the coaching staff and system.
But I do agree, Brewster put in the time and effort in Minnesota, and his recruiting results here were drastically better than what we saw under Mason. Kill took another leap forward this past year, getting Andre McDonald, Pirsig, and Phil Nelson was a huge statement and let's hope the momentum continues. If we get Brookins, Rucker, and the other in-state players that get offered (minus Onwualu), it will still be a successful year in-state.
Bob_Loblaw
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Well, the reality is that if we are looking at the kind of team that we would have in 2012 had their not been attrition, you'll have to look at some of Kill recruits. If you want to remove them and simply insert (a hypothetical Brew recruit), that's fine too. There are only 3 spots where the player is a Kill recruit (Gillum, Wells and Amafuela).
The point was that Brewster brought in talent that would have been succesful in the Big 10. He didn't cultivate or keep that talent around long enough to be effective.
Bob_Loblaw
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If Brew would have handled it right, this would be the lineup THIS year (2012). I think we can all agree that for football purposes, we'd love to have Gary Tinsley back at middle linebacker, we'd love to have those WRs (our weakest position by far), and we'd love to have a player as talented as Jewhan Edwards at NT. He was the best defensive player on our team in 2010.
Now to your point, you're 100% right. However, that isn't recruiting. The fact is that Brew recruited Gray. He might have continued to use him as a WR, who knows. However, he brought that talent to MN. Furthermore, Edwards was a complete head case and he had to go, but that isn't recruiting as much as it is being able to control your team. That is really my point, that Brew really failed at the coaching aspect of coaching, rather than the recruiting.
t-docious
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kill does this alot too... kinda irritates me. I think that is more of a southern thing...
Also Marcus Jones. And I thought Perry was a guy Kill brought in after he was hired too. I understand your point, was just a little confused at first.
dpodoll68
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Interesting, considering that Kill is from Kansas and Brewster is from New Jersey.
Gopherprof
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That's not such a bad thing to be. I think the "Peter principle" clearly applies to Brewster. He was in over his head.
BUT, if I was started a college coaching staff tomorrow, I'd gladly invite Brewster as my TE coach/recruiting coordinator.
positively4thstreet
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Which made Brewster's southern accent all the more endearing.
dpodoll68
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Nuh-uh. If he had a poor head coaching record here (something unique to him and a characteristic not shared by any other former head football coaches at the University of Minnesota), he clearly knows nothing at all about football or recruiting. He probably also kicks puppies, beats his wife, and supported ESPN's decision to broadcast a Premier League game in the middle of a weekday on the flagship.
MNfootballfan
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Great post Bob. At times, I feel bad for Brewster because people make him out to be the worst person and coach ever. He mended a lot of fences with the coaches around the state. I know one out-state school who never once had a Gopher prior to this past season said that a Gopher coach never talked to them until Brewster came. It meant a lot to the coach that a guy from the U stopped in the school just to introduce himself and let him know if they ever had a player to let them know about it.
Also, while many of us fans (myself included) got very sick of the tremendously positive attitude that Brewster had, he hooked a lot of us fans. I've been a Gopher fan my entire life, but it was a breath of fresh air when he was preaching Rose Bowl, etc. I've never been more optimistic than listening to his opening press conference and him walking around with the "Make History... Again" post cards. He truly embraced the history of the U and I felt like he loved the U.
He failed as a coach. He was under qualified. He was approached for a job and did his best in the interview. Whose fault is it? His or the person who hired him?
OddStack
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His first full year recruiting class has just graduated. How many were invited to the combine and drafted in the NFL? ZERO! He supposedly got some talent. However, it appears he was a "star chaser" (like some on this board) and wasn't able to clearly evaluate the talents and shortcomings of these players.
Contrastingly, Mason didn't get the heralded recruits a lot, but clearly was able to get some quality, unheralded players. (I can't believe I just stuck up for Mason.) Time will tell...but it looks like Kill may be able to do the same thing....see 2012 Mr. Irrelevant.
Contrastingly, Mason didn't get the heralded recruits a lot, but clearly was able to get some quality, unheralded players. (I can't believe I just stuck up for Mason.) Time will tell...but it looks like Kill may be able to do the same thing....see 2012 Mr. Irrelevant.
GoAUpher
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His first full year recruiting class has just graduated. How many were invited to the combine and drafted in the NFL? ZERO! He supposedly got some talent. However, it appears he was a "star chaser" (like some on this board) and wasn't able to clearly evaluate the talents and shortcomings of these players.
Contrastingly, Mason didn't get the heralded recruits a lot, but clearly was able to get some quality, unheralded players. (I can't believe I just stuck up for Mason.) Time will tell...but it looks like Kill may be able to do the same thing....see 2012 Mr. Irrelevant.
So all this means is that Brew didn't coach up/cultivate the talent he recruited. Something that Bob and others have already pointed out. The fact that the players never played in a consistent system is part of that. Mason's unheralded guys were almost always RB's or lineman. Coincidentally, he had a system and coaching philosophy that made it possible to maximize the development of those positions.
dpodoll68
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Not all of them. Several are still here. Gray, Cooper, Green, Grant, Reeves, Stoudermire, and Wilhite (?) are all still here. You conveniently also ignore many players who flamed out/transferred out for various reasons. How many of those players would've been future NFL players under a better, more stable coaching staff?
Again, several of those players are still here. Let's see if it's still "ZERO!" after next year. I would bet dollars to donuts that it won't be.
FIFY
Your premise is flawed. He wasn't just "chasing stars" - he was offering players primarily from areas where he liked to recruit and going after players he thought he could get. These were almost all players that were wanted by multiple BCS programs. His average recruit had many, many more offers (and BCS offers in particular) than the average Mason or Kill recruit. It wasn't as though he looked at guys who had 4-star ratings and no other offers. If Brewster was wrong on all of them, then so were a lot of other BCS head coaches. Why don't you castigate them for not even being able to sign all of these terrible players? One could argue that these players were flawed, but one could more convincingly argue that a coaching staff with the ability to actually, you know, coach, could have mitigated these supposed flaws through talent development. This was almost entirely lacking throughout Brewster's staffs.
Many (not all) of Mason's "unheralded players" were Wacker recruits. With the exception of 2003, Mason's results and recruiting got worse the longer he was here. His "recruiting" from 2005-2007 (the players who should've been the upperclassmen core of Brewster's squads) in particular was deplorable. His indifference toward recruiting in those years in particular was offensive. He should have to repay whatever salary he was drawing in those years due to dereliction of duty.
Time will tell...but it looks like Kill may be able to do the same thing....see 2012 Mr. Irrelevant.
Kill didn't recruit Harnish.