Marcus Fuller ponders: New Gophers' football staff: better or worse?

[BleedGopher]

New Gophers' football staff: better or worse?
Gophers football coach Tim Brewster has new offensive and defensive coordinators, a new offensive line coach and a new wide receivers coach, but does he have a better staff than his first two seasons at Minnesota?

Brewster completed his new staff today by replacing former wide receivers coach George McDonald with Houston Texans assistant Richard Hightower, but McDonald had a lot more coaching experience.

McDonald, who was a hired by the Cleveland Browns as a offensive quality control coach, was an offensive coordinator at Western Michigan, a tight ends coach at Stanford and a wide receivers coach at Northern Illinois and Bucknell.

Hightower, a former Texas Longhorns receiver and defensive back, spent the last two seasons as an assistant special teams coach for the Texans. Prior to that, he was an adminstrative coordinator working with defensive backs and special teams players. He started as a corporate sales event coordinator with the Texans in 2006.

This hire doesn't seem like an upgrade, but it will pay off if Hightower can use his NFL pedigree and Texas ties to recruit. It also helps having former Denver Broncos wide receivers coach Jedd Fisch as Minnesota's new offensive coordinator, because he can share his expertise.

Whether Fisch is a better fit than former offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar won't be known until the season begins. He will have more talent and experience to work with across the board, so it won't be surprsing if he succeeds.

Former Nebraska and Wisconsin defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove replaced Ted Roof, who left to take the same position at Auburn. Despite the defense's struggles in the end last year, Roof was a major success in his first season. It will be tough for Cosgrove to make the kind of impact Roof did, but he could benefit by sticking with a similar simple style and philosophy. He also has defensive backs coach and co-defensive coordinator Ronnie Lee to help with the transition.

The biggest staff improvement could end up being with the hiring of Tim Davis to replace Phil Meyer as the offensive line coach to end last year. Davis has NFL experience with the Miami Dolphins and was involved with a big-time program at Alabama. He will be a better recruiter than Meyer, but his influence on Notre Dame transfer Matt Carufel and several 2009 recruits might be the difference on offense the next two seasons. It also doesn't hurt that he will have input as a running game coordinator to make sure his linemen are in sink with the offensive changes.

I'd like to know what anybody thinks about Brewster's new staff for 2009. Do you think it's better or worse?

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Go Gophers!!

 

[littlebigboy]

We can speculate all we want, but I guess we will have to wait and see. The results will tell no matter what we think.

 

[What Up Guy]

Guess: Offensively we will be better and more balance because of a combo of returning players and a better philosophy. Defensively...I have no idea what to expect.

 

[runner616]

Most of the new coaches don't have a defined enough track record to make any kind of accurate prediction on how they'll perform next year. I am optimistic about our coaching staff's prospects for next year. Cosgrove has had some success in the past, so we know that he is capable of getting it done in the b10. Fisch sounds like an up-and-comer type of guy. Every quote I've read attributed to him has high praise on his ability and potential as a coach/coordinator. I think Davis is a clear up grade over Meyer, in both recruiting and coaching. Seeing as the o-line was one of, if not our biggest, weaknesses last year, his impact on the squad should be significant. Hightower has less experience than McDonald, but Brewster has known him long enough to tell if he's got the chops to be the WR coach.
Again, it's hard to make any predictions on how the new coaches will do, but I'm not really concerned about anyone being a bust at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how things play out over the course of the next season.

 

[Gold Rush]

I have been a big supporter of Tim Brewster the past couple years, but I think he did a poor job of selecting his coordinators. One of the reasons why it's nice to hire a coach who has previous head coaching experience is because they have a built in network of coaches they trust who run the systems and game plans they want. Brewster selected two guys, Dunbar and Withers who both did a failing job and now we are on our second Offensive coordinator and our third Defensive coordinator and we have only played two seasons. It is kind of like musical coordinators and let's find out who works. Dunbar came in with some serious red flags and many people at California were glad to be rid of him. So are we.

Withers took a bad defense and made it just a little worse with a confusing system but a lot of that can be blamed on leftover talent which wasn't very good. Dunbar however took over a very good offense, changed it completely around with systems that didn't work and refused to tailor the offense to what it did best. We fans were patient and gave him time, but even this last year the offense wasn't working, especially after Decker went down. Our blocking schemes were horrible and although some of the problems can be blamed on a young offensive line, the truth is our offense went backward as the season progressed. Stupid penalties have become a trademark with this team. Both Dunbar and Withers were horrible choices for this team.

To Brewster's credit, he replaced Withers with Roof and that was a very good hire. This hopefully shows that Brewster is learning what kind of guy is the right fit here and Roof's departure was not due to a bad choice by Brewster. I think Cosgrove has a lot to prove to all the naysayers and I have a hunch he will come in and do a good job. He had better or this will be something we are talking about in a few years after Brewster is fired. This is a very important choice for him and Brewster made this decision even as many of the so-called experts said it was a stupid idea.

On offense, I am just so glad that we got rid of Dunbar that I think it might be like Roof last year when ANYONE would look better next year. I think our offense will take a nice step forward and this coaching change is an improvement. I think the most important thing Brewster HAS done is upgrade the talent level on both sides of the ball and this will make the next year coaches look better. The talent level has improved substantially in the last two years, particularly on defense. I would keep Cosgrove on a short leash though and if next year's defense doesn't improve even with better defensive players and more depth he gets canned right away and you go with defensive coordinator #4 for 2010. I will give him a chance but he comes in with even more baggage than Dunbar did so I am very leery over this choice.

My prediction: We are better on both sides of the ball next year, but a brutal schedule leaves the Gophers fighting for a return trip to the Insight.Com or Motor City Bowl. Many football "experts" in the Twin Cities that are expecting to go to a New Year's Bowl after year 3 will be disappointed and some will call for Brewster's job, but I think true fans will see that we are a better football team next year than we were this year.

 

[The Big L]

I am very optimistic about the offense. We have better talent. I think Davis was the big hire. Who knows what the offense could have done with an O-line last season. I think both of these things will help Fisch a lot. He doesn't have to be a Ted Roof, he doesn't have to be a miracle worker. I think we will be much better on the offense.

As for the defense, I suspect we will land somewhere between the 2008 and 2007 teams. Meaning, I have no idea what to expect. Let's just hope its not near the 2007 defensive numbers.

 

[dpodoll68]

"in sink"???? wtf?

No wonder newspapers are going down the toilet...

 

[tundra]

"in sink"???? wtf?

No wonder newspapers are going down the toilet...

Was thinking the same thing. got to love spell check.

 

[re3886]

spell check would not have caught that one.

Sink is a proper spelling of a word. What was needed here would be word usage check, other wise know as a high school education. J/K, I'm sure in was a honest mistake.

 

[Dr.Gopher]

Brewster can recruit. We are yet to see if he can coach. I hope he can.

 

[Sportsfan24]

I have been a big supporter of Tim Brewster the past couple years, but I think he did a poor job of selecting his coordinators. One of the reasons why it's nice to hire a coach who has previous head coaching experience is because they have a built in network of coaches they trust who run the systems and game plans they want. Brewster selected two guys, Dunbar and Withers who both did a failing job and now we are on our second Offensive coordinator and our third Defensive coordinator and we have only played two seasons. It is kind of like musical coordinators and let's find out who works. Dunbar came in with some serious red flags and many people at California were glad to be rid of him. So are we.

Withers took a bad defense and made it just a little worse with a confusing system but a lot of that can be blamed on leftover talent which wasn't very good. Dunbar however took over a very good offense, changed it completely around with systems that didn't work and refused to tailor the offense to what it did best. We fans were patient and gave him time, but even this last year the offense wasn't working, especially after Decker went down. Our blocking schemes were horrible and although some of the problems can be blamed on a young offensive line, the truth is our offense went backward as the season progressed. Stupid penalties have become a trademark with this team. Both Dunbar and Withers were horrible choices for this team.

To Brewster's credit, he replaced Withers with Roof and that was a very good hire. This hopefully shows that Brewster is learning what kind of guy is the right fit here and Roof's departure was not due to a bad choice by Brewster. I think Cosgrove has a lot to prove to all the naysayers and I have a hunch he will come in and do a good job. He had better or this will be something we are talking about in a few years after Brewster is fired. This is a very important choice for him and Brewster made this decision even as many of the so-called experts said it was a stupid idea.

On offense, I am just so glad that we got rid of Dunbar that I think it might be like Roof last year when ANYONE would look better next year. I think our offense will take a nice step forward and this coaching change is an improvement. I think the most important thing Brewster HAS done is upgrade the talent level on both sides of the ball and this will make the next year coaches look better. The talent level has improved substantially in the last two years, particularly on defense. I would keep Cosgrove on a short leash though and if next year's defense doesn't improve even with better defensive players and more depth he gets canned right away and you go with defensive coordinator #4 for 2010. I will give him a chance but he comes in with even more baggage than Dunbar did so I am very leery over this choice.

My prediction: We are better on both sides of the ball next year, but a brutal schedule leaves the Gophers fighting for a return trip to the Insight.Com or Motor City Bowl. Many football "experts" in the Twin Cities that are expecting to go to a New Year's Bowl after year 3 will be disappointed and some will call for Brewster's job, but I think true fans will see that we are a better football team next year than we were this year.

Interesting analysis but you forgot about Ron Lee.

 

[Gold Rush]

I have no problems with Ron Lee. He is progressing up the coaching food chain and I would have to say our secondary that he coached was improved this year. He deserves a shot to see what he can do and you can't fault Brewster for giving him the opportunity. Cosgrove is the one that is open for severe criticism due to a horrific defense with higher rated talent than what we will put out there next year. I hate hearing things like, "He never makes any adjustments during the game, even when things aren't working." That is an offensive coordinator's dream to face that type of defense because all he needs to do is find a play that works and run it over and over again because they aren't going to change anything to fix the problem....LOL.

Due to this extreme (and I am talking Nebraska black shirt defense giving up 70 points to Texas Tech extreme) baggage that Cosgrove brings in, Brewster will look extremely stupid if Cosgrove bombs again because everyone will say, "We TOLD you this but you knew better, didn't you?" Brewster will get a lot of flack for this hire if it doesn't pan out because I think people will question if he knows what he is doing. Maybe Lee as co-coordinator is meant to help out a bit, and I am a little more encouraged having Lee around than I would if Cosgrove was running the show himself. Who knows, Cosgrove might really thrive here and be a huge help -- as a Gopher fan I really hope so!