Reusse blog: Warnath captains and meeting with Coach Kill

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I, for one, do not give a damn what the "M Men" think about our coach.
 

Sure. It doesn't matter what they think. It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what you think. What matters is the product he puts on the field.

I just thought it was interesting that the writer of the email had a similar reaction to a face-to-face meeting that I had watching the introductory press conference.
 

This is great, I am real happy that the 2 groups met. This is the same group that wanted a seat at the table and was denied by Maturi!! I don't know or care who instigated the meeting, but I'm glad it happened, and the jesture was made that no matter what the hiring process, we are all for a winning Gopher program.. Now lets forget the BS and get to work.
 

Any type of positive media coverage is a good thing so I will give this article by Pat Reusse a big thumbs up. You know, it's kind of funny but everyone villified Reusse for all the negative comments he made about Tim Brewster, and then a lot of those same people ended up making the same comments about Brewster a few years later.

Reusse was spot on about Brewster pretty much from day one, and if you notice he is taking a far different approach toward Coach Kill.
 


Tx_Gopher, thanks for posting the link. I too found it interesting.

During Kill's introduction press conference he said he needs support from many areas as he and his staff endeavor to create a winning culture in Minnesota football. So, it's not surprising that he had a sit down breakfast with former football captains/M Club members. In fact, IMHO, I believe it's quite smart on his part. Looking at the individuals listed in the piece you'll notice they were leaders when they wore the maroon and gold and, more importantly, were quite successful in their professional careers, have been community leaders, and in some cases benefactors of the U. So, if you want support from key supporters of the U and its football program and become familiar with some of Minnesota's football culture, it makes perfect sense to sit down and visit with those leaders. I believe blog's the last sentence says it succinctly.

Go Gophers!!
 


Nothing but good in this meeting. If I were an M Man, I would also be pissed about how the heritage of the program has been wasted by a bunch of book keepers posing as athletic directors. The M Men want the same thing we do, results.
 

Can someone cut and paste?? I really dislike giving Pat and Souhan hits on their articles.
 



I think the M men need to rebuild their credibility in light of savegopherfootball.com and dumb*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# punter, aka millions2spare.

Edit: What the he!! is the matter with dumb sh!t.
 

What I like is that players from some pretty good past teams like what they see in Coach Kill. Guys that have been there and done it like his approch, and are willing to give him a chance, thats good enough for me.
 

pharmacygopher said:
Can someone cut and paste?? I really dislike giving Pat and Souhan hits on their articles.
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Murray Warmath coached the football Gophers from 1954 through 1971. A number of players will get together with Murray next Tuesday to celebrate his 98th birthday.

In the Warmath era, a senior was named as a sole captain. It was considered quite an honor for a player that had devoted himself to the team in prior years.

Earlier this week, Jerry Kill had breakfast with a group of "Warmath captains,'' most of whom previously had not met the new coach.

The captains included Bob McNamara (1954), Mike Svendsen (1958), Mike Wright (1959), Paul Faust (1965), Chuck Killian (1966), Jim Carter (1969), Billy Light (1971) and Bobby Morgan (1972). John Williams (1967) and Steve Lundeen (1968) were also in attendance, filling in for captains Tom Sakal and Noel Jenke.

This view of the Kill meeting from one of the Warmath captains was e-mailed to some former players and forwarded to me:

"We had a very good visit and spent about an hour and a half with him. He knows there is a good deal of frustration in 'M' Men over the fortunes of Gopher football. He's already heard that Brewster's B.S. and false bravado didn't serve the coach or the program well.

"I liked him. No B.S., self-effacing, yet confident in his abilities. No promises, other than to say the Gophers will work hard and they will hit.

"He respects the Warmath (and Bierman) traditions, but he wasn't trying to kiss up to us over that. He welcomed questions and input. He admitted he's not 'polished,' or handsome, or a great orator.

"I had the feeling he has a little burn in his gut on those points _ kind of an attitude that says, ‘I'll show you I can outcoach you even if you think I'm not good-looking enough or polished enough.'

"He knows he is in the big leagues now _ Big Ten vs. Mid-American Conference -- but he believes coaching basics will still provide the way to win.

"Blocking and tackling ... what a concept!

"I didn't get to talk to everybody before we left, but I think the feeling of the group was very positive. I can safely say these Warmath-era guys are optimistic about Jerry Kill's chances for success.

"Kill also brought along Billy Miller, his assistant head coach and linebackers coach. Miller was an assistant here with John Gutekunst in '86-'88. He is a down-to-earth guy, too, and he sounds like a coach that's going to get his players to hit and tackle. Miller seems like another guy for whom I would like to play.''

"What I hoped Jerry might take away from this get-together was that we aren't looking for anything ‘from' him, other than tough, representative football, but we want to be available ‘for' him, if he should need us.''
 

Gold Rush said:
Any type of positive media coverage is a good thing so I will give this article by Pat Reusse a big thumbs up. You know, it's kind of funny but everyone villified Reusse for all the negative comments he made about Tim Brewster, and then a lot of those same people ended up making the same comments about Brewster a few years later.

Reusse was spot on about Brewster pretty much from day one, and if you notice he is taking a far different approach toward Coach Kill.
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Biting my lip & agreeing.
 



Part of me wants to say "who cares?" and the other part of me really wants this program to start making steps to not be the most dysfunctional football program in the country. Our first step was hiring a guy who actually is a coach and has had success before and maybe this is part of thatsecond step where the alumni and former players actually fully support the program. So, i'm glad that Jerry Kill has their support and I am excited at the possibility of this program being a healthy and normal football program.
 

MSGopher said:
I, for one, do not give a damn what the "M Men" think about our coach.
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You should. Not in the sense that they get a 'vote', rather in a sense that they are an important stakeholder in Gopher football and It is better to have them aligned than not aligned.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Part of me wants to say "who cares?" and the other part of me really wants this program to start making steps to not be the most dysfunctional football program in the country. Our first step was hiring a guy who actually is a coach and has had success before and maybe this is part of thatsecond step where the alumni and former players actually fully support the program. So, i'm glad that Jerry Kill has their support and I am excited at the possibility of this program being a healthy and normal football program.
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Same feelings here. This was a necessary meeting. We have to have the most dysfunctional program in the country.
 

I'll admit Reusse ended up looking like the winner because of his early opinions of Brewster, but he just got lucky. His biggest beefs were with Brew's personality, and he lucked out that Brew couldn't coach his team to very many victories. If Brew was successful, Reusse would have ended up either recanting or looking very petty. Point is, turns out he was right, but he made up his mind too quickly to make an objective distinction. I'm glad he seems to be giving Kill more rope.
 

GopherHomer said:
I'll admit Reusse ended up looking like the winner because of his early opinions of Brewster, but he just got lucky. His biggest beefs were with Brew's personality, and he lucked out that Brew couldn't coach his team to very many victories. If Brew was successful, Reusse would have ended up either recanting or looking very petty. Point is, turns out he was right, but he made up his mind too quickly to make an objective distinction. I'm glad he seems to be giving Kill more rope.
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Whatever. Patrick will never win with you. When he's right, he got lucky; when he's wrong you call him an idiot. Face it, dude, Patrick had Brewster pegged from day one.
 

GopherJake said:
Whatever. Patrick will never win with you. When he's right, he got lucky; when he's wrong you call him an idiot. Face it, dude, Patrick had Brewster pegged from day one.
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Oh, hai Ruesse's mom! How are you?

There's a reason why 'Patrick' doesn't win with the mass majority of Gopher football fans.
 

The M Club had been big backers of Joe Salem's hiring. Their hands aren't totally clean either.
 

Formo said:
Oh, hai Ruesse's mom! How are you?

There's a reason why 'Patrick' doesn't win with the mass majority of Gopher football fans.
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Is his first name not 'Patrick?' Sorry I used his *name*.

Could that reason be that he hasn't had much positive to write about for 40 effing years? Brewster sucked from day one. 'Reusse' knew it, he said it. You don't agree? I do.
 

RodentRampage said:
The M Club had been big backers of Joe Salem's hiring. Their hands aren't totally clean either.
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Yes, but that was over 30 years ago so it might be time to forgive and forget. I'm glad Kill did this and I'm even more glad that they seem to have a good opinion of him. Can't believe how many people here are so down on the "M" Club even before the dumb-ass punter surfaced. Why wouldn't you expect a group of ex-Gopher players to care about a team they once played on? We had 100's of posts about what coach would be acceptable or unacceptable to somebody as if this person actually had any real idea about qualifications, so why wouldn't someone who actually played at this level have an opinion or want some representation?

You don't let them steer the ship, but you at least want them on board which is what Kill is doing.
 

GopherJake said:
Is his first name not 'Patrick?' Sorry I used his *name*.

Could that reason be that he hasn't had much positive to write about for 40 effing years? Brewster sucked from day one. 'Reusse' knew it, he said it. You don't agree? I do.
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He was right, but he was still lucky. And I believe Brewster left a better team here than the one he received in 2007; not everything he did was bad for this program.

In a more extreme case, I also could have predicted that the national title runner-up Texas Longhorns wouldn't make a bowl game this year. Just because I would have been right wouldn't really make it a good prediction, it still would have seemed stupid at the beginning of the season.
 

GopherJake said:
Is his first name not 'Patrick?' Sorry I used his *name*.

Could that reason be that he hasn't had much positive to write about for 40 effing years? Brewster sucked from day one. 'Reusse' knew it, he said it. You don't agree? I do.
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The only thing Reusse knew from day one is that he didn't like Brewster's over-the-top personality. It had nothing to do with whether or not he was going to succeed with the Gopher's. Reusse was NEVER going to like Brewster no matter how many games he won.

The same goes for you. You had no idea what kind of coach Brewster was going to be. All you knew at the time was that you didn't know him. And for that reason alone I have no doubt that you have been hoping the Gopher's would fail miserably under Brewster so you would be able to brag about having predicted it. For that reason you have zero credibility as a Gopher fan.
 

The backing from the M men is extremely important to a Football program. Theses are the people the Football program turns to for Summer Jobs and Internships for athletes. These internships turn into career decisions which then evolves into a Letterman who contributes to the Program for 30 to 40 years. This lifelong dedicated support creates an positive atmosphere for the player and confirms that his decision was not just for 4 years but 40!
 

Cayman said:
In a more extreme case, I also could have predicted that the national title runner-up Texas Longhorns wouldn't make a bowl game this year. Just because I would have been right wouldn't really make it a good prediction, it still would have seemed stupid at the beginning of the season.
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Not if you based it on reason, and you were right. If you are willing to rip someone when they are wrong, you need to give credit when he is right. That's all.

Predicting Brewster would be a failure wasn't stupid. There were several red flags. Do you honestly think that there weren't red flags all over the place on the Brewster hire??

I think there is lots to like about Kill and there was a TON to question about Brewster. Brewster was an abysmal failure. Better than Mason left it? That ain't saying much. BFD. Can you win ONE trophy game? One? Nope. Abysmal failure. And the signs were there from the very beginning.
 

Mulligan said:
Yes, but that was over 30 years ago so it might be time to forgive and forget. I'm glad Kill did this and I'm even more glad that they seem to have a good opinion of him. Can't believe how many people here are so down on the "M" Club even before the dumb-ass punter surfaced. Why wouldn't you expect a group of ex-Gopher players to care about a team they once played on? We had 100's of posts about what coach would be acceptable or unacceptable to somebody as if this person actually had any real idea about qualifications, so why wouldn't someone who actually played at this level have an opinion or want some representation?

You don't let them steer the ship, but you at least want them on board which is what Kill is doing.
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It's not a question of forgiving. The M Club owns part of the responsibility for the decades-long problems with the Gophers. Part of being a good AD is to know when to tell the boosters "no". SaveGopherFootball <> the M Club. Fomer players did have representation.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
The only thing Reusse knew from day one is that he didn't like Brewster's over-the-top personality. It had nothing to do with whether or not he was going to succeed with the Gopher's. Reusse was NEVER going to like Brewster no matter how many games he won.
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There's an assertion you can't prove and that is probably wrong.

UpnorthGo4 said:
The same goes for you. You had no idea what kind of coach Brewster was going to be. All you knew at the time was that you didn't know him.
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You don't have the slightest clue what I did or did not know.

UpnorthGo4 said:
And for that reason alone I have no doubt that you have been hoping the Gopher's would fail miserably under Brewster so you would be able to brag about having predicted it. For that reason you have zero credibility as a Gopher fan.
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There's another assertion that you can't prove and that is wrong. Actually, I was hoping he would succeed. I've been following this program my entire life and want them to be relevant at some point in my lifetime. That's not too much to ask. Hiring a cheerleader didn't work with Wacker and I didn't like that approach. Shut your mouth and win some games.

Furthermore, dude was an effing tight ends coach in the NFL. What is that, like 3 guys? Forgive me if I thought it was quite a leap to take over a Big Ten football program of 100+ players, 50 coaches, recruiting, TV, radio, hiring, firing, and the list goes on-and-on. I never predicted his failure, but I sure thought is was a risky hire. When he changed offensive coordinators the SECOND TIME, I knew it would never work. That is brutal.

So you don't like Reusse. I get it. That's fine. But why would you apologize for an overmatched coach who had no business getting the job in the first place? Folks sure didn't show Dan Monson the same courtesy. Nor should they have.
 

UpnorthGo4 said:
The only thing Reusse knew from day one is that he didn't like Brewster's over-the-top personality. It had nothing to do with whether or not he was going to succeed with the Gopher's. Reusse was NEVER going to like Brewster no matter how many games he won.

The same goes for you. You had no idea what kind of coach Brewster was going to be. All you knew at the time was that you didn't know him. And for that reason alone I have no doubt that you have been hoping the Gopher's would fail miserably under Brewster so you would be able to brag about having predicted it. For that reason you have zero credibility as a Gopher fan.
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It was pretty obvious to anyone with a fully functioning brain that Brewster was going to fail, and the over the top personality only made it worse. He had an over the top personality with NOTHING to back it up, anywhere. He was clown in his own little circus.

When people pointed it out at the time, we had to listen to all the crap about "giving him time" getting his recruits in, blah blah blah. And now we have to listen to people saying we wanted the team to fail? No, we wanted what was best for the team, and that wasn't Brewster. REAL fans want what's best for the team. And for eating up that GARBAGE and supporting that GARBAGE you have zero credibility as a Gopher fan. Thanks for helping set the team back by blindly supporting ANY decision made. Coaches and programs will be supported when they EARN that support. Giving it to them only cheapens it.
 

No, it wasn't obvious that Brewster was going to fail. It was a big risk hiring a coach with so little experience in the hopes that recruiting would save the day. Colorado just hired a tight ends coach to be their head coach, time will tell how that hire goes. Giving a coach a chance isn't garbage.
 

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