GopherFish -- Your take is very defensible, but lay out why.
I think the case against Brewster has been laid out ad nauseum, but here's my take: Even his most aredent supporters would have to admit he's a medicore gameday coach (at best) who's trying to learn on the job. We have seen chaos on the sideline multiple times and many games with inexcusable #'s penalties. We have also seen coordinator turnover and an offense that looked clueless for much of the season. With 6 weeks to prepare (essentially a mini-offseason) we saw only minimal improvements in these areas. There were few penalties last night, I concede that. There was still at least some chas on the sidelines, as evidenced by burning 2 of our 3 second half timeouts. As for the offense it was was again very poor. It does not give me much optimism for next year.
In the end we are asked to be patient and endure all of the above because Brewster is an 'excellent' recruiter. Yes he only has two full classes, but I don't see enough from either of them to give me signifcantly more patience. And it's not as though he has a top 10, or top 20 or even top 30 coming in. It appears we will be top 40 at best, and probably 6th or 7th in the Big 10. I'm sorry but this doesn't fill me with optimism about the future.
It all boils down to the fact that he basicaly deserves one more year, especially since little good is likely to come from firing him at this point. Perhaps he should have been fired after the Iowa game or even after the Kansas debacle, but Maturi missed those windows. Unless the U is actually willing to take a chance on Leach at this point and he's willing to come (both unlikely) there's no one you're going to hire now that won't likely be available next November.
As for the case for Maturi to go, Brewster is a large reason why. But it more comes down to his overall handling of the two major revenue sports. His handling of Mason's dismisal AFTER the Bowl game was unacceptable. You don't fire/hire in January, you do it in November/early December. There's no excuse for it. His handling of Dan Monson in March 2006 was similarly unacceptable. He in general does not seem to have the necessary intestinal fortitude to make the big decisions required of a major conference AD. His biggest accomplishments to date are his ability to keep us in the black, Tubby Smith and TCF Bank stadium. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to give him big props for #1. Keeping the program in the black is the job of every AD. Tubby Smith was a major coup. But how much of the credit for it goes to Maturi? Did he hire Tubby or as some have said did Tubby hire him? I don't honestly know the answer to this question. Tubby's comments have certainly indicated that Clem Haskin's recommendation probably carried more weight then anything Maturi said. As for TCF Bank, again how much of the credit for this goes to Maturi? Certianly some, but probaboly not more then goes to Pres. Bruinicks or even Glen Mason, and perhaps even Hennipen County and Carl Pohlad (the Twins getting thier stadium played a major role in the Gophers getting thiers).
In the end, Maturi's weaknesses outwiegh his accomplishments IMO, and if we in a position of needing to hire another football coach next November, I'm not sure he's the one who should be making the decisions.
