http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_19299050
"It's not unfortunate for Joe," Tim Brewster says of Paterno
By Marcus R. Fuller
[email protected]
Updated: 11/09/2011 08:07:08 PM CST
Ex-Gophers coach Tim Brewster, left, and Penn State coach Joe Paterno in State College, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009. (Associated Press: Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Tim Brewster said Wednesday that he "absolutely" felt Joe Paterno's decision to retire as Penn State's football coach at the end of the season was "the right thing to do" amid the child sex-abuse scandal involving Paterno's former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky.
"It's not unfortunate for Joe," said Brewster, the former University of Minnesota coach and now a Fox TV college and pro football analyst. "Who it is tragically unfortunate for, if the allegations are true, are the young children who have been hurt in this situation."
Brewster, who was fired as the Gophers' coach after a 1-6 start last season, said he was conflicted on whether he thought it was right for Paterno to coach Saturday's game against Nebraska.
Brewster coached against Paterno only once, in a 20-0 loss to the Nittany Lions in State College, Pa., in 2009. But Brewster knew Sandusky because Sandusky's son E.J. lived with Brewster and his wife, Kathy, while serving as a graduate assistant on Mack Brown's staff at North Carolina from 1993-95. Brewster was an assistant under Brown at North Carolina from 1989-97.
"Jerry Sandusky has been a friend of mine," Brewster said. "I know the family. I know Jerry. I'm just shocked and can't even put into words what you feel when you hear something like that, particularly about somebody that you felt like you knew."
In 2007, Brewster had to deal with a sexual assault case involving four players he inherited from former coach Glen Mason. He hadn't even
made it through his first spring practice as coach, but Brewster quickly dismissed the players from the team.
Brewster said he made the decision, not Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi.
"We had some young men who were absolutely wrong, and I was not going to run a program that the kind of incident would be a part of," he said. "There was absolutely no second thought whatsoever. It can't be about protecting the program. It's got to be about doing what's right. There's a huge difference there."
Briefly: Mason, a Big Ten Network college football analyst, told Dan Barreiro on KFXN-FM radio Wednesday afternoon he would be surprised if Paterno coached Saturday against Nebraska.
"If people stand up and cheer, it sends the wrong message," he said. "If they stand up and all 'boo,' that just adds another tragic end to this chapter of Joe Paterno and Penn State football. There's no right way to do it."
