Question for the Board...

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Izatys98 said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm still not sold. Couple of reasons why. Go ahead and pick away...

1) We are a B10 school. We shouldn't have to provide our coaches with training wheels to do their job. I don't want two more years of learning curve...

*It works that way sometimes! Even the pros get 1st time head coaches who have to learn on the job!

2) What is this team's personality. Like him or not, you always knew what Mason's team would do - run the ball, control the clock, and bend but (hopefully) not break on D. I have no idea what Brewster is trying to instill. First it was the spread. Now he says he's about power running. This shift has to affect recruiting and perhaps player retention. Certainly if I was competing with the U for a player, the first thing I'd do is try to plant a seed of doubt by pointing this out.

*All coaches need to adjust or change the game strategy and maybe even a little philosophy of schemes! Would you rather he did not. I believe that is what Childress had difficulty with with the Vikings. Also the opposing defenses new what was coming as well. He is trying to balance out the spread and power running. He has not been unclear about that. A team needs a good running game and a good passing game to balance each other out!

3) The cupboard was not bare when Brewster came here like it was when Alvarez joined Scony or Zook took over in Illinois. Certainly changing systems and philosophies is difficult, but not to the point where we should have had to suffer through the worst season in the history of a storied program like ours.

*Maybe not bare, but the mice were certainly having to take their time looking for the crumbs. Along with that, he ended up having to boot a few of the top players on the team off, along with having to install a new Offensive and defensive system? Takes some time and the necessary talent was just not there. Even some of the players recognized that.

4) Some of the in-game decisions have been absolutely horrifying. Two examples from last year include the end-of game coaching against NW and then the polar opposite decisions at the end of the first half versus Scony. A head coach needs to know when his team can make hay and when he needs to pull in the reigns. People who seemingly have the guts to gamble are usually the best at understanding all the variables and knowing when it's actually in their favor to act...

* True, but name a coach who has not made some horrible in game decisions. They have to make decisions at the moment with the pressure of the game on them at all times. Occasionally they make mistakes. Learn from them and go on!

I don't know recruiting. Who knows if last year's, this year's, or next year's classes will pan out. All I look at is game day results. Thus far Brewster-led teams have delivered the worst season in Gopher football history and the worst home shutout loss in Gopher football history. That there were 6 more wins this year versus last year SHOULD be meaningless to all of us. We never should have been 1-11 in the first place. Now the spread experiment has failed and Brewster has surrounded himself with more novices and unproven commodities (Davis not included). If he's still learning his job as a head coach as many of you have said (and suggested is a reason to cut him some slack), how can we rationally expect that he is teaching the other novices...

You don't know recruiting! Agreed! The truth is anything can happen with players when they take the step up to college. The game is faster and the competition is tougher. The playbook is harder and the pressure is far more intense. Some 4-5 star players cannot make the transition and a few 1-2 star players and walk-ons turn out to be close to all American. Along with that, this is some of the players first time away from home and, lets just say, the family surroundings are no longer there to give them guidance.

As for the "spread experiment," it has not been a failure, it just needed some adjusting, which Brew is doing. Concerning Dunbar's spread, Defenses know how to defend it. It is nothing new. Brew needed to make some adjustments, like balancing out the running with the spread and he is doing that. He also needed to upgrade the talent at WR, which he has been doing!

Along with that, he had a young and inexperienced OL that needed the OL coach to really bring them along. The OL coach did not do an adequate job there, so Brew got someone else.

Some things in life are the way they are and that is the way it is. But a good portion is about trying things, seeing what works and throwing out what does not. Brewster has the courage to try some things, throw out some things and move on!

I've tried to limit my points and to use specific arguments but I'm sure I'll be dubbed a troll again. Again, I apologize for have expectations for the U and of the head coach.
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* Not trying to be condescending, but I don't dub you a troll, just a little young and impatient.

 

Izatys98 said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm still not sold. Couple of reasons why. Go ahead and pick away...

1) We are a B10 school. We shouldn't have to provide our coaches with training wheels to do their job. I don't want two more years of learning curve...

2) What is this team's personality. Like him or not, you always knew what Mason's team would do - run the ball, control the clock, and bend but (hopefully) not break on D. I have no idea what Brewster is trying to instill. First it was the spread. Now he says he's about power running. This shift has to affect recruiting and perhaps player retention. Certainly if I was competing with the U for a player, the first thing I'd do is try to plant a seed of doubt by pointing this out.

3) The cupboard was not bare when Brewster came here like it was when Alvarez joined Scony or Zook took over in Illinois. Certainly changing systems and philosophies is difficult, but not to the point where we should have had to suffer through the worst season in the history of a storied program like ours.

4) Some of the in-game decisions have been absolutely horrifying. Two examples from last year include the end-of game coaching against NW and then the polar opposite decisions at the end of the first half versus Scony. A head coach needs to know when his team can make hay and when he needs to pull in the reigns. People who seemingly have the guts to gamble are usually the best at understanding all the variables and knowing when it's actually in their favor to act...

I don't know recruiting. Who knows if last year's, this year's, or next year's classes will pan out. All I look at is game day results. Thus far Brewster-led teams have delivered the worst season in Gopher football history and the worst home shutout loss in Gopher football history. That there were 6 more wins this year versus last year SHOULD be meaningless to all of us. We never should have been 1-11 in the first place. Now the spread experiment has failed and Brewster has surrounded himself with more novices and unproven commodities (Davis not included). If he's still learning his job as a head coach as many of you have said (and suggested is a reason to cut him some slack), how can we rationally expect that he is teaching the other novices...

I've tried to limit my points and to use specific arguments but I'm sure I'll be dubbed a troll again. Again, I apologize for have expectations for the U and of the head coach.
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Honestly, I couldn't care less if you approve so I won't dub you a troll.

1) Who said anything about training wheels? It takes more than one year to bring talent in to the program and get results out of it because freshman don't win you games in the Big Ten.

2) It seems like you're reading headlines rather than trying to understand what is going on with the team. We have not changed from a spread offense to a power running offense. Brewster was disappointed with the inability to run the ball on 3rd and short so he has tried to install a power running package (same offense with a new formation & modified personnel that is designed for short yardage). Trying to pin an offense down to an identity rather than allowing it to evolve with personnel is just ignorant. We're still trying to recruit fast receivers that threaten a defense after the catch (we had 0 that could run faster than a 4.5 a year ago and with the 2009 class we have recruited 4 that run a 4.5 or faster and 2 that run a 4.4 or faster in two seasons). The only players we have lost were from 2007 class (Mason/Brewster combined class) that had a combined 0 D1 offers outside of Minnesota and all had been passed on the depth chart by 2008 signees.

3) You said the cupboard was not bare. However, to avoid being biased I pulled an excerpt from Athlon Sports 2007 preview: "recruiting took a major slide under Mason in recent years leaving the Gophers thin in talent at certain positions...the Gophers showed signs this spring that their maligned defense could be better but the team will have a new QB and a new offense." There is no point in comparing Minnesota 2007 to Zook's first year or Alvarez' first year; the team is different and the competition is different than other situations. This is college football and the roster turns over every year so the fact that went to a bowl in 2006 is irrelevant. We were dominated by seniors in 2006 and only returned 11 starters in 2007. We lost key players such as Bryan Cupito and key contributors such as Amir Pinnix were injured in 2007. Behind the arm of a 3 year starter at QB, the 2006 team managed to lead DI in turnover margin and parlayed that in to a 6-7 record. When is the last time you heard of an under .500 team leading the country in turnover margin? Furthermore, the 2006 team ranked 117 out of 119 teams in pass defense. In 2007 the Gophers lost both of their starting cornerbacks (Dominic Jones & Keith Massey) well after signing day so they ended up starting 2 2-star true freshman in the secondary due to a lack of options. They finished 119 out of 119 teams in pass defense. Despite going to a bowl in 2006, the cupboard was pretty bare. I'm not saying we should have been 1-11 but we didn't have much talent and I know for a fact from speaking with NDSU coaches that they felt like they had better talent than Minnesota.

4) Your examples of gambling are very selective because both examples worked against us. Please add in the decision to go for it on 4th and 1 against NIU (converted for game winning TD) and going for it on 4th down against BGSU (converted on 4th down for an eventual game clinching TD). I don't disagree with second guessing the decisions but your analysis of picking certain instances does not seem objective but rather seems very self serving because you ignore situations that it worked.

Like I said, I couldn't care less if you approve or not. If you understand football you will look at the special teams improvement and understand that it is the best indication of improved talent and future success. It is rare for freshman to have a major impact on a Big Ten offense or defense, despite having a good class, Minnesota was no exception in 2008. Give Brewster a few years to get his players through strength and conditioning and to have college coaching and then judge what he has done. If he still hasn't impressed you by 2010 then feel free to cast stones.
 

Izatys98 said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm still not sold. Couple of reasons why. Go ahead and pick away...

1) We are a B10 school. We shouldn't have to provide our coaches with training wheels to do their job. I don't want two more years of learning curve...

2) What is this team's personality. Like him or not, you always knew what Mason's team would do - run the ball, control the clock, and bend but (hopefully) not break on D. I have no idea what Brewster is trying to instill. First it was the spread. Now he says he's about power running. This shift has to affect recruiting and perhaps player retention. Certainly if I was competing with the U for a player, the first thing I'd do is try to plant a seed of doubt by pointing this out.

3) The cupboard was not bare when Brewster came here like it was when Alvarez joined Scony or Zook took over in Illinois. Certainly changing systems and philosophies is difficult, but not to the point where we should have had to suffer through the worst season in the history of a storied program like ours.

4) Some of the in-game decisions have been absolutely horrifying. Two examples from last year include the end-of game coaching against NW and then the polar opposite decisions at the end of the first half versus Scony. A head coach needs to know when his team can make hay and when he needs to pull in the reigns. People who seemingly have the guts to gamble are usually the best at understanding all the variables and knowing when it's actually in their favor to act...

I don't know recruiting. Who knows if last year's, this year's, or next year's classes will pan out. All I look at is game day results. Thus far Brewster-led teams have delivered the worst season in Gopher football history and the worst home shutout loss in Gopher football history. That there were 6 more wins this year versus last year SHOULD be meaningless to all of us. We never should have been 1-11 in the first place. Now the spread experiment has failed and Brewster has surrounded himself with more novices and unproven commodities (Davis not included). If he's still learning his job as a head coach as many of you have said (and suggested is a reason to cut him some slack), how can we rationally expect that he is teaching the other novices...

I've tried to limit my points and to use specific arguments but I'm sure I'll be dubbed a troll again. Again, I apologize for have expectations for the U and of the head coach.
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I was against the Mason firing. People need to give him credit for bringing this program up to a higher level than it had been for decades. Having said that, I fully support Brewster and don't live in the past. First and really only reason that I am excited about Gopher football is the recruiting improvements I have seen. I believe this is like an investment - give it time and we will see the results (may be a bad analogy with with current stock market).

Response to your points:
1. Give Brewster time and the coaching decisions will improve. Should we have to expect this at the Big 10 level? No, but it is what it is. Can't cut the cord and start over again, so let the guy show us whether he is capable of improving or not.

2. I agree about the personality. At least Brewster admitted he made a mistake and took the steps to correct it. I don't like the idea of installing a new system again, but better now than in a year or two if he truly felt it was not going to work.

3. The cupboard was not bare, but the best talent was young and not ready to be difference makers. And the offensive line was terribly unprepared to play in the Big 10. That is the primary reason for this season's dissapointment - couldn't establish a running game/ball control, couldn't keep the defense off the field, it wears down, 55-0. The line should be improve greatly next year because the players will all be a year older, bigger and more experienced. This is the primary reason for optimism for me for next year. Have no idea if the new O-line coach will help or not. Have a feeling we would have seen great improvement even if the previous coach was still here, but Davis will get a lot of credit.

4. Agree - can only hope and expect to see improvement.
 

Another thing I did not see in anyone else's replies is look at what happened in Ann Arbor this year. RichRod certainly inheirited more talent there than Brewster (by a long shot IMO) and only managed to win 3 games.

I am a huge Brewster supporter and while I would have liked better results the past two years (certainly in 2007) my excitement is the potential for the future. With Mason I felt that after 10 years I knew what I had. He did field some good teams here and the reliable running attack was comforting. However, he also proved that he could not get over the hump. Now you may be like Sid who feels it is absolutely impossible to get over the hump at Minnesota, but I refuse to believe that as it would be like admitting my time spent supporting the team was a waste of time.

Now if Brewster only wins 5-7 games/season the next two years will I change my mind? Of course I will. I just don't feel that the first two seasons, given the many variables I take into account, are a large enough sample size to pass judgement.

I also agree with many of the other points raised in this thread and am glad to see there are others who share my viewpoint.
 

Izatys98 said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm still not sold. Couple of reasons why. Go ahead and pick away...

1) We are a B10 school. We shouldn't have to provide our coaches with training wheels to do their job. I don't want two more years of learning curve...

I agree with this, but as a Big Ten school we also shouldn't have accepted TEN years of the same coach without ever finishing in the top 3 of the Big Ten.

2) What is this team's personality. Like him or not, you always knew what Mason's team would do - run the ball, control the clock, and bend but (hopefully) not break on D. I have no idea what Brewster is trying to instill. First it was the spread. Now he says he's about power running. This shift has to affect recruiting and perhaps player retention. Certainly if I was competing with the U for a player, the first thing I'd do is try to plant a seed of doubt by pointing this out.

I don't think the Gophers are becoming a power running team, in fact Brewster has said that they are still a spread team. What he did say was that he wanted to add a power running element to the offense. I share your concerns with the lack of direction if he does change to a power run game as I believe you need to have a more wide open offense to compete on a National level. Brewster has been consistent in emphasizing speed on defense, but obviously we have a long way to go. We always broke on defense, so the bend, but not break strategy (if that's what Mason was doing) certainly didn't work.

3) The cupboard was not bare when Brewster came here like it was when Alvarez joined Scony or Zook took over in Illinois. Certainly changing systems and philosophies is difficult, but not to the point where we should have had to suffer through the worst season in the history of a storied program like ours.

This is where show your bias as (to your credit an admitted) Mason fan. Brewster was left with a redshirt freshman QB, and no dynamic RB. Defensively, we were even worse off with Dom Barber being the only functional member of the secondary. The Gophers BARELY made a bowl game in Mason's final year with a very experienced senior QB and guys like Spaeth and Payne as targets in the passing game. It's sad, but Trumaine Banks was probably our best CB and he graduated as well. Go back and look at those last few recruiting classes of Mason's and see how few of them are here, much less making an impact. How many guys have transferred to little schools like South Dakota? I don't see any of them transferring to BCS schools.

4) Some of the in-game decisions have been absolutely horrifying. Two examples from last year include the end-of game coaching against NW and then the polar opposite decisions at the end of the first half versus Scony. A head coach needs to know when his team can make hay and when he needs to pull in the reigns. People who seemingly have the guts to gamble are usually the best at understanding all the variables and knowing when it's actually in their favor to act...

Valid points, I still see no excuse for the way Tim Brewster handled the end of the NW game. I would say Mason's in game decision making also left a lot to be desired as well which resulted in numerous last minute losses and even more halftime leads blown.

I don't know recruiting. Who knows if last year's, this year's, or next year's classes will pan out. All I look at is game day results. Thus far Brewster-led teams have delivered the worst season in Gopher football history and the worst home shutout loss in Gopher football history. That there were 6 more wins this year versus last year SHOULD be meaningless to all of us. We never should have been 1-11 in the first place. Now the spread experiment has failed and Brewster has surrounded himself with more novices and unproven commodities (Davis not included). If he's still learning his job as a head coach as many of you have said (and suggested is a reason to cut him some slack), how can we rationally expect that he is teaching the other novices...

I was disgusted with the way this season ended, but I disagree with everything else here. The "spread experiment" didn't fail, we simply don't have all the pieces to run it effectively yet. Trying to win in the Big Ten with underclassmen is very tough...even for an Ohio State. We have some good WR's, but they were true freshman and not quite ready, the OL was young, and we ended up with a true freshman RB taking most of the carries. I agree that they never should have been 1-11, but they didn't have a realistic chance to be any better than 3-9 with that group of players...so WHO CARES? A crappy season is a crappy season.

I've tried to limit my points and to use specific arguments but I'm sure I'll be dubbed a troll again. Again, I apologize for have expectations for the U and of the head coach.
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I don't think you are a troll and I like your honesty. As a general comment it really disappoints me that we have Gopher fans who are upset that Glen Mason was fired. The guy was here for 10 years and over that decade long span averaged a 3-5 Big Ten record, he also tied the record for most consecutive losses to Iowa and never fared well against Wisconsin either. I guess I see this type of fan as limiting what the Gopher program can accomplish. If you are truly satisfied with a coach who gave you those types of results over a ten year span, why would you ever expect to actually WIN the Big Ten or even just go to a New Years Day bowl (which I believe every Big Ten team accomplished during Mason's tenure except for Minnesota and Indiana)?


I like that Brewster wants to be here and believes he can win here. I thought Mason, especially after losing out on the tOSU job, really started looking for excuses. Everything was someone elses fault and he really started talking like he was coaching a Northwestern or a Vanderbilt and that the fans should be happy with winning a couple games a year. When the epic meltdown losses came he was always quick to blame the players and never took the blame himself. The guy showed no embarassment for his poor conference record or his long history of blowing big leads.

I despised Glen Mason by the end of his tenure, but I gave him plenty of time before I ever said he should be fired. I will give any coach, regardless if I loved the hire or not, a chance to succeeed. I will be expecting improvement this year and I hope it happens. Not for Tim Brewster's sake, but for the sake of all the Gopher fans who have waited WAY too long for a Big Ten Championship.
 


I sometimes thought I was the last Mason supporter in Minnesota. But after that last loss, the kind of which we were way too familiar I came to the conclusion it was time to move on. I've never had a moment where I thought we made the wrong choice since.
 

To me, it's attitude.

I think the jury is still out on Brewster. I only know this: I have been a Gopher sports fan all my life and have had Gopher basketball season tickets for 16 years. One or two football games a year were enough for me to see in person for most of my adult life. I finally bought season tickets before this season (the year after 1-11) for the first time for two reasons -- TCF Bank Stadium and Tim Brewster.

I never got the feeling from any Gopher coach that he thought he could win at Minnesota, except for Lou Holtz and Brewster. He thinks he can win here. He believes that three Big Ten wins and the Insight Bowl are not satisfactory. He wants to play USC. He wants to recruit against USC.

He wants to make this program better and he thinks he can. That's more than I'm accustomed to with Gopher football.
 

Tweber... you said " but the best talent was young and not ready to be difference makers", if you would please tell me all the young talent Brewster was left with?
 

Gopherjer said:
Tweber... you said " but the best talent was young and not ready to be difference makers", if you would please tell me all the young talent Brewster was left with?
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It would seem to me that the most important position on a team is quarterback. Mason recruited the player who will leave Minnesota as the all-time statistical leader in nearly every passing category if he plays two more years. He was good enough that Brewster has seen fit to start him from day one. He might be considered by some as a fairly good young talent, again, at the most important position on the football team.

Some might call Eric Decker a fairly good young talent as well. Was on some midseason All-American lists prior to having an injury filled second half to the year. Most people who follow Gopher football likely think pretty highly of him.

Prior to his legal woes, Dominic Jones as a difference maker on defense. Mason recruit as well I believe. I would go as far as to say that if Alex Daniels did not also have issues off the field and the coaches were consistent with where they were playing him, would have turned into a difference maker as well on defense.

Never said the talent was overflowing, but Mason left Brewster two players that very likely will go down as all-time Gopher greats. Some on here refuse to give Mason one ounce of credit for anything. Simply not fair or true.
 



TNGophfan said:
Goldy, don't you see, you're making the arguement for Brewster even though you were trying to slam him!!!!!!!!

Mason was here 10 years and we were always rebuilding. His Big 10 record was about .38% wins and you are complaining about Brewsters win total.

Again, as I said in an earliar post, I don't know if Brewster is ultimately the right guy or not but at least his expectations and dreams are for Big 10 titles and Rose Bowls, not just to have a winning record, like Mason.



How is that going? I don't mean the dreaming part, I mean the Rose Bowl part? Is 3 out 16 better than 38%? In three more years when this contract runs out, won't Coach Brewster need to win 12 out of his remaining 24 BT games to equal that percent? What with the new stadium should he not do better than Mason did? I don't know, but I'm not real big on dreaming as an important quality for a head football coach.
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Goldy74s said:
TNGophfan said:
Goldy, don't you see, you're making the arguement for Brewster even though you were trying to slam him!!!!!!!!

Mason was here 10 years and we were always rebuilding. His Big 10 record was about .38% wins and you are complaining about Brewsters win total.

Again, as I said in an earliar post, I don't know if Brewster is ultimately the right guy or not but at least his expectations and dreams are for Big 10 titles and Rose Bowls, not just to have a winning record, like Mason.



How is that going? I don't mean the dreaming part, I mean the Rose Bowl part? Is 3 out 16 better than 38%? In three more years when this contract runs out, won't Coach Brewster need to win 12 out of his remaining 24 BT games to equal that percent? What with the new stadium should he not do better than Mason did? I don't know, but I'm not real big on dreaming as an important quality for a head football coach.
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Man I hope you're really not this dumb.
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I will give you Weber and Decker, but the other two never stepped on the field for Brewster. Two players hardly enough to field winning teams, the rest were below average big ten players.

He will now have his second real recruiting class, let's give him a few years and then he can be fairly judged.
 

Good Post

UpnorthGo4 said:
The question for GopherHole was why are so many of us enthusiastic about Brewster. This is not a debate, and there are no right or wrong answers. Many of us couldn't care less that Mason might have won several more games last year and this year. We learned in 2003 that Mason would NEVER take us where we wanted to go - to compete for a Big 10 Championship with a chance to go to the Rose Bowl. That apparently didn't bother Mason very much, and it was one of the main reasons why President Bruininks told Maturi to fire him after the Texas Tech game. Some of you might not have heard that story, but by most accounts it is true. Bruininks walked into the locker room after the game expecting to see Mason all bummed out about blowing the big lead and losing. Apparently, that was not what he saw. Mason was acting like it was no big deal - just another game. As the story goes, after they left the locker room Bruininks told Maturi to get rid of Mason as soon as possible. Probably for the first time ever we had a U of M president who was more competitive and felt worse about losing than the head football coach.

The jury is still out on Brewster, and in the end he may not succeed at the U. We all know that. But there are two things I am certain of right now: (1) NOBODY will ever feel worse than Brewster when the Gophers lose a football game; and (2) I personally have gotten more fun out of Brewster's first two seasons than I did in all of the previous 10 seasons with Mason. Brewster is the Gopher coach for three more years. Nothing is going to change that fact. And I am not going to spend that time whining about what could have been. I am just going to enjoy the ride and hope for the best.
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Good post upnorth. I agree with your last paragraph entirely. It's an absolute thrill (as a fan) to have a coach who is the most competitive person in the stadium.... (close circuit to Brad Childress). Brew is someone I can get behind and stay behind for the long haul.
 



UpnorthGo4 said:
The question for GopherHole was why are so many of us enthusiastic about Brewster. This is not a debate, and there are no right or wrong answers. Many of us couldn't care less that Mason might have won several more games last year and this year. We learned in 2003 that Mason would NEVER take us where we wanted to go - to compete for a Big 10 Championship with a chance to go to the Rose Bowl. That apparently didn't bother Mason very much, and it was one of the main reasons why President Bruininks told Maturi to fire him after the Texas Tech game. Some of you might not have heard that story, but by most accounts it is true. Bruininks walked into the locker room after the game expecting to see Mason all bummed out about blowing the big lead and losing. Apparently, that was not what he saw. Mason was acting like it was no big deal - just another game. As the story goes, after they left the locker room Bruininks told Maturi to get rid of Mason as soon as possible. Probably for the first time ever we had a U of M president who was more competitive and felt worse about losing than the head football coach.

The jury is still out on Brewster, and in the end he may not succeed at the U. We all know that. But there are two things I am certain of right now: (1) NOBODY will ever feel worse than Brewster when the Gophers lose a football game; and (2) I personally have gotten more fun out of Brewster's first two seasons than I did in all of the previous 10 seasons with Mason. Brewster is the Gopher coach for three more years. Nothing is going to change that fact. And I am not going to spend that time whining about what could have been. I am just going to enjoy the ride and hope for the best.
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What was fun about the first two years?:confused:
 


I still don't think that it was a bad decision to try to go for the win against NW. If we take a knee there and lose in overtime, there would have been people criticizing him for not going for it. That was just a fluke play. Decker makes that catch 9 out of 10 times. And how often do you see a ball go off two people before it is intercepted?

Was it risky? Absolutely. But Brewster has shown he is going to be aggressive. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't.
 

spread offense

where are people coming up with this idea that we are abandoning the spread offense for a power running game? It is simply not true, we are a spread team and are recruiting for a spread offense. If we abandon the spread we have no future and Brew knows this. Davis will also not have as much say as some people think he will, Running game coordinator is more of a title than anything else, Davis is basically offensive line coach.


Izatys98 and TNgophfan, you have no idea what you are talking about and are wrong about your facts.

I would not trade Brewster for any other coach in the Big Ten.
 

lawrence21 said:
where are people coming up with this idea that we are abandoning the spread offense for a power running game? It is simply not true, we are a spread team and are recruiting for a spread offense. If we abandon the spread we have no future and Brew knows this. Davis will also not have as much say as some people think he will, Running game coordinator is more of a title than anything else, Davis is basically offensive line coach.


Izatys98 and TNgophfan, you have no idea what you are talking about and are wrong about your facts.

I would not trade Brewster for any other coach in the Big Ten.
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I completely agree with the bolded part. As far as not trading Brewster for any coach in the conference...tough to say. It is really hard to say how good or bad a coach would be at a different school with different advantages or disadvantages.
 

Gopherjer said:
I will give you Weber and Decker, but the other two never stepped on the field for Brewster. Two players hardly enough to field winning teams, the rest were below average big ten players.

He will now have his second real recruiting class, let's give him a few years and then he can be fairly judged.
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That wasn't the original point - the cupboard was not bare, period. That would imply no talent. You can discount Jones and Daniels if you want to, I don't care. But Mason recruited them and they were on the roster as talented players - again, the focus of the original post.
 

the cupboard was bare

Mason left us Players who should have been playing at Bethel and Concordia.
 

1. There is passion for Gopher football again.
2. Gopher football is in the news daily now.
 

The bottom line

Here we go with the 1,765th Mason - Brewster argument on this board. That isn't the issue at all. Maturi screwed up by not firing Mason after 2005 like he wanted to and likely should have. He then cost the U 4 million dollars by gassing him one year after giving him the extension. That was beyond ridiculous. But the main issue is that Maturi rolled the dice and was sold on an unproven commodity who was living on being a "super recruiter" despite the fact he had been merely a position coach in the NFL for several years and thought anyone could win 6-8 games per year like Mason did only to watch the team win 1 game the first year. That is unfortunate when coaches like Kiffin, Charlie Strong and Patterson were all options for change and more potential success than Brewster.

The blind supporters of Brewster are living in the Matrix. The only reason Brewster is considered a super recruiter is that he tells you so. The best players on his team have been Decker, Weber, VanDeSteeg, Bennett, etc. - Mason recruits. For a guy who is a super recruiter you would have thought by the end of his second year there would be some serious star power coming from his recruits. I guess people forget MB III, Maroney, Spaeth, Russell, Tyrone Carter, Eslinger, Setterstrom and the like.

Recruiting rankings are great when you need something to hang your hat on and every team says they are having a "great recruting class" just as Brew says Jedd Fisch was his target all along even though he was the 17th guy he talked to for the job. However people remember AP rankings, not recruting rankings. No one ever won a Sears trophy or conference title for these laughable recruitng rankings (which should be composed after four years like academic reports are to see how it all panned out).

It isn't about being a Mason guy, a Brew guy, a Maturi guy or what have you. Following someone blindly is no better than holding onto the past. It is about taking the facts and basing your thoughts off that and being honest in assessment.

-thethruth
 

TT, welcome aboard. This thread was supposed to be about why Gopher fans like Brewster - not why you hate him. Anyway, as long as you are here maybe you can answer several question for me. Since you have already determined that Brewster will never succeed as the Gophers coach:

1) When did you first know that Brewster was a terrible coach and would never be successful at the U?

2) When should Brewster be fired by Bruininks/Maturi?
a) They should have already fired him
b) They should fire him now
c) They should fire him after next season
d) They should let his contract expire and find another coach
 

I don't hate Brew - he was simply the wrong man for the job. There isn't a specific point for when you know someone isn't going to be successful at a place - it is a culmination of things as is the case in my assessment of Brew. Should he be fired by Maturi/Bruinkinks? Actually no - when you make your bed you have to lie in it and the U can ill afford another lamed duck salary on the payroll. They have been fiscally irresponsible enough already. The proof will be in the pudding in 2009 and then a decision will have to be made moving forward and I can live with that. I just wish they would have gotten it right the first time. For Maturi to fire him now would implicate Maturi in the mess since he hired him so he has to hope that things work out in 09 as Maturi and Brew are tied togehter.

You do notice that the contracts for the coords are 1-year deals or in Fisch's case a 2-year that can be voided out after 1 so that if Maturi makes a break needs from Brew he won't be left paying more assistants.
 

Maturi should never fire Brewster. If we are going to hire a new football coach at any point, the person doing the hiring should not be Maturi. Indeed, the specific abilities of Maturi to fire either Monson or Mason have been well shown to all.
 

thetruth said:
Here we go with the 1,765th Mason - Brewster argument on this board. That isn't the issue at all. Maturi screwed up by not firing Mason after 2005 like he wanted to and likely should have. He then cost the U 4 million dollars by gassing him one year after giving him the extension. That was beyond ridiculous. But the main issue is that Maturi rolled the dice and was sold on an unproven commodity who was living on being a "super recruiter" despite the fact he had been merely a position coach in the NFL for several years and thought anyone could win 6-8 games per year like Mason did only to watch the team win 1 game the first year. That is unfortunate when coaches like Kiffin, Charlie Strong and Patterson were all options for change and more potential success than Brewster.

The blind supporters of Brewster are living in the Matrix. The only reason Brewster is considered a super recruiter is that he tells you so. The best players on his team have been Decker, Weber, VanDeSteeg, Bennett, etc. - Mason recruits. For a guy who is a super recruiter you would have thought by the end of his second year there would be some serious star power coming from his recruits. I guess people forget MB III, Maroney, Spaeth, Russell, Tyrone Carter, Eslinger, Setterstrom and the like.

Recruiting rankings are great when you need something to hang your hat on and every team says they are having a "great recruting class" just as Brew says Jedd Fisch was his target all along even though he was the 17th guy he talked to for the job. However people remember AP rankings, not recruting rankings. No one ever won a Sears trophy or conference title for these laughable recruitng rankings (which should be composed after four years like academic reports are to see how it all panned out).

It isn't about being a Mason guy, a Brew guy, a Maturi guy or what have you. Following someone blindly is no better than holding onto the past. It is about taking the facts and basing your thoughts off that and being honest in assessment.

-thethruth
Click to expand...


The Lie

Brewster's first real recruits just finished their freshman year. I don't think anyone's dumb enough to suggest that Brewster had a reasonable chance to recruit before his first season. So maybe we can wait a year or two before judging his recruiting. By the way any way you slice it Rivals, Scout, etc. all agree Brew's first class is higher rated than any of Mason's.
 

I judge Mason on what his guys did while they were here, not on signing day and I will do the same with Brew which is my point exactly - if we wait to find out if the recruits are good, which we should, what does it matter what they are ranked coming in before they hit the field?

A used car saleman can say a car is a great ride but you won't know until you take it for a test drive. I am not really into speculation rankings.
 

thetruth said:
I judge Mason on what his guys did while they were here, not on signing day and I will do the same with Brew which is my point exactly - if we wait to find out if the recruits are good, which we should, what does it matter what they are ranked coming in before they hit the field?

A used car saleman can say a car is a great ride but you won't know until you take it for a test drive. I am not really into speculation rankings.
Click to expand...

So what you're saying is Brewster supporters should wait and see if these recruits end up being anything before they get too excited, but it's okay for you to say "he was simply the wrong man for the job?" Gotcha.
 

Cupboard not bare

Izatys98 said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm still not sold. Couple of reasons why. Go ahead and pick away...

3) The cupboard was not bare when Brewster came here like it was when Alvarez joined Scony or Zook took over in Illinois. Certainly changing systems and philosophies is difficult, but not to the point where we should have had to suffer through the worst season in the history of a storied program like ours.
Click to expand...

The cupboard may not have been as bare as Ole Mother Hubbard's, but a couple of running backs does not fill a cupboard. The Gophers had no team speed and minimal talent on defense. The offensive line had to scheme to block. There were none of the road-graders you see at other BCS schools. This showed up as soon as they faced a quality school like OSU.

I believe the signs are good Maturi has found a keeper - and since he couldn't afford to go out and hire a winning BCS coach that has already proven himself, that's good enough for me. A couple more years will prove me right or wrong... That's still better than spending those 4 years with Mason - a man who said you couldn't win at Minnesota and didn't seem to care about being any better than mediocre.
 


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