Maybe Mason's plateau was also the summit

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howeda7

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I know he leveled off and seemed to stop caring. But he had us in legit contention for the Big 10 title in 2003 and not far off in 1999. I know it's been beaten to death, but if we win that Michigan game, it's virtually certain we're playing on New Year's Day and quite possibly the Rose Bowl. Maybe making a bowl game every year and contending for the conference title every 3-4 years is all that can be expected at Minnesota. I believe we can compete every year in basketball. Not so in football.

I had no problem with the hiring of Brewster specifically. I just felt Mason's firing was a mistake. And in stretches like this I'm reminded why. He can't coach. Our best chance for a run of success may be to get a good coach/weaker recruiter in here who can coach up the athletes Brewster the recruiter has provided.
 

This is the first time since, that I have wished he was still coaching here...
 

howeda7 said:
Maybe making a bowl game every year and contending for the conference title every 3-4 years is all that can be expected at Minnesota.
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Yeah that would be great is Mason actually did that.

He had 10 years and we were never better than 4th in the conference. How is that competing for a conference title every 3-4 years?
 

Gopherprof said:
Yeah that would be great is Mason actually did that.

He had 10 years and we were never better than 4th in the conference. How is that competing for a conference title every 3-4 years?
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You don't consider 5-3 with two of the losses being a late collapse against Michigan and a subsequent hang-over loss to Michigan State to have been competative? The point was that we were winning the Michigan game away from going 10-2 or possibly 11-1 that year.

Do I wish for more then what we had under Mason? Sure. But I'm also realisitic enough to know that in my lifetime, it's never been better then that, only worse. And the current team looks more like it did under Wacker then under Mason. I would rather have a stable team that rises up about once every recruting cycle to tack a wack at it, then blindly hoping to strike gold with the next great recruiter.

No matter how well Brewster recruits, we will never have better athletes the OSU and Michigan, etc. We will have to out-coach them. Mason got that done sometimes. Barry Alvaraz got that done a lot. So does Ferentz. Nothing I see from Brewster gives me any confidence he will ever be able to do so.
 

howeda7 said:
You don't consider 5-3 with two of the losses being a late collapse against Michigan and a subsequent hang-over loss to Michigan State to have been competative? The point was that we were winning the Michigan game away from going 10-2 or possibly 11-1 that year.

Do I wish for more then what we had under Mason? Sure. But I'm also realisitic enough to know that in my lifetime, it's never been better then that, only worse. And the current team looks more like it did under Wacker then under Mason. I would rather have a stable team that rises up about once every recruting cycle to tack a wack at it, then blindly hoping to strike gold with the next great recruiter.

No matter how well Brewster recruits, we will never have better athletes the OSU and Michigan, etc. We will have to out-coach them. Mason got that done sometimes. Barry Alvaraz got that done a lot. So does Ferentz. Nothing I see from Brewster gives me any confidence he will ever be able to do so.
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I'm not defending Brewster.

I'm also not defending the people on here that had stupidly unreal expectations.

I'm just saying that we were not a competitive team under Mason. You came up with one year where a hypothetical situation (that didn't happen) could have maybe made us competitive. But it didn't happen. It never happened.

He had 10 years. We never finished higher than 4th in the Big Ten. Those are the actual results.

Also, just as a side point, if Mason was a good coach why did we have a hangover loss?
 


It was time for Mason to go, no doubt about it. He was too comfortable here and wasn't willing to recruit.

Brewster may be a recruiter, but I think he is deficient in coaching and administration. By that, I mean that his oversight of the program is questionable. The biggest question mark is his choice of coordinators. It's obvious that he can't get the best out of his players. We are an upperclassman dominated team that played .500 last year, but the team has taken a step back in a league that is arguably worse than last year. The discipline on this team is disgusting, too.
 

The thing is we did collapse against Michigan and we did have a hangover loss against Michigan State. You can't go back and say if now with any level of intellectual honesty.

Mason had run out his string. Remember, he was one blocked FG against NDSU of not being bowl eligible his last season and then, he presides over another classic second half collapse. Mason was through. He had lost all semblance of support from the high school football coaches in the state and never was much on the PR front. We were getting very little traction with the top high school players in the state and that's pretty much directly attributable to the fact that Mason had ticked off most of the coaches at the top programs in the state. The word-of-mouth on the guy was poison.

Does that mean Brewster is the guy? No. Emphatically so. But this pro-Mason revisionism is starting to border on the ridiculous.
 

I don't get it. People act like we're like the lowest of lows and that this stuff never happened under Mason. Now, this is not at all to say Brewster should be immune to any criticism, but I'm just saying, let's not freak out completely here. A look back...

2000 - Lost @ home to Ohio. Lost @ Indiana after beating #6 Ohio State. Collapsed in the Micronpc.com bowl against NC State.
2001 - Lost 38-7 @ Toledo, yes, Toledo. Team finished 4-7 that year though, so it was bad all year.
2002 - Lost 34-3 @ Ohio State after being ranked 23rd. Followed that with three more losses (v. Michigan 41-24, v. Iowa 45-21, @ Wisconsin 49-31)
2003 - Competes with '99 as best seasons in recent Gopher football history. We all know what occurred, I won't mention it.
2004 - Lost a tough one @ Michigan, which isn't a problem...except they followed it up by losing @ Michigan State 51-17 when ranked #19. Also lost 38-14 @ Wisconsin.
2005 - Lost 44-14 @ Penn State when ranked #18. Also lost 52-28 @ Iowa.
2006 - Lost 42-17 @ Cal. Lost 48-12 @ Wisconsin. Beat NDSU 10-9. Lost 44-0 @ OSU. The Insight Bowl disaster.

Glen Mason is relieved of his duties.

My only point in bringing these games up is to simply add some kind of perspective here. It seems like people are acting like we've never been worse than we are right now and that Brewster has completely ruined the program. Nope, he's just doing what's been done here for years. His job at this point? To take us beyond this, to move this program beyond this point. He has yet to do this, but I think with the talent being brought in, we stand a better shot than we ever have, of truly bring competitive near the top of the Big Ten.
 

howeda7 said:
I know he leveled off and seemed to stop caring. But he had us in legit contention for the Big 10 title in 2003 and not far off in 1999. I know it's been beaten to death, but if we win that Michigan game, it's virtually certain we're playing on New Year's Day and quite possibly the Rose Bowl. Maybe making a bowl game every year and contending for the conference title every 3-4 years is all that can be expected at Minnesota. I believe we can compete every year in basketball. Not so in football.

I had no problem with the hiring of Brewster specifically. I just felt Mason's firing was a mistake. And in stretches like this I'm reminded why. He can't coach. Our best chance for a run of success may be to get a good coach/weaker recruiter in here who can coach up the athletes Brewster the recruiter has provided.
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"Legit contention"? That team was down 40-6 at Iowa.

What is with all the revisionist history with Mason??????? What Brew did last year was just what Mase did every year.

Down 40-6 at Iowa in 2003
Beat Ohio State and then give up 611 yards and lose to a bad Indiana team in 2000.
48-12 loss at Wisconsin
44-0 loss at the Shoe
42-17 loss at Cal
44-14 loss at Penn State
Down 52-14 at Iowa
51-17 loss at Michigan State

Rip Brew all ya want....but God strike me dead if we get 10 more years of "rebuilding" under Mase

**EDIT - What Monty said
 




There is a cerrtain tribe in GN...

that will only be satisfied when Joel M fires Brew and brings back Mase...or his clone...under a long-term contract.
 

I will never accept a bit over 6-6 as as good as it gets. Take out that first season and it pushes towards 7-5, but only a half game closer than w/ his first season.

I will not accept that is as good as it can get. I don't think anyone else that's a Gophers fan should either.
 

GopherInWI said:
I will never accept a bit over 6-6 as as good as it gets. Take out that first season and it pushes towards 7-5, but only a half game closer than w/ his first season.

I will not accept that is as good as it can get. I don't think anyone else that's a Gophers fan should either.
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Exactly, I would rather the admin take a risk with Brewster than have had 3 more years of the same with Mason. Nostalgic for the Grinster I am not. If we don't have at least the same results/expectations of IA/WI then why have the program???
 



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