Souhan & Reusse: "Administration Desperate to Fire Brewster"

[hudson14]

I don't want it to seem like I'm continually ragging on Mason, but if he had coached the team in 2007, he probably wouldn't have gone 1-10, but I doubt he would have finished .500. Remember Pinnix was hurt his entire senior year and unless Mason is a faith healer or would have put Benny Hinn on the staff, we would have had no experience at RB. Whoever was at QB would have been inexperienced. My guess is Mortenson would have been the starter and either he or Weber would have been handing off all the time to, as I said earlier, an extremely inexperienced set of RBs.

As for the defense, it was Brewster who moved Campbell to LB. In Mason's scheme, he would have remained an undersized DE. Triplett would have been an inexperienced LB. Garrett Brown has improved greatly with Tim Cross as his position coach. Would the same have happened with Mason's DL coach? Further, as bad as Brewster's defense was under Withers, would it have been any better with David Lockwood running up and down the sidelines excitedly exhorting his players (whom he had lined up incorrectly?). Brewster has slowly turned this defense into a speed-based "forward" defense and it started to show some (and I mean "some") improvement and that aspect was totally absent during the Mason years.

I can't disagree with some of your Mason comments, but I will say that "faith healing" would not have been required regarding the running game. Back situation gets thin and Jackson II runs for 229 at Michigan State. Soon after he couldn't make 3-deep and transferred.
Maroney out and Russell gets hurt, Pinnix enters in the second quarter and goes for 206 against MSU.
The defense did suck, but they would have made the ground game work. What's really sad is the coach who really wanted to stay here was kicked to the curb. How does Shaw rate among the OL coaches they've had since?

Whether or not the Gophers under Mason would have improved more noticeably in 2008 and 2009 is a question worth asking, but 2007 was pretty much pre-ordained, at least in my view, to be a subpar season. Mason's shortcomings as a recruiter and his utter failure as an ambassador for Gopher football did him in more than anything else and his dismissal was rational. As I've written many times before, whether Brewster is the right replacement is a debate worth having, but Mason had played out his string.

I can't disagree with some of your Mason comments, but I will say that "faith healing" would not have been required regarding the running game. Back situation gets thin and Jackson II runs for 229 at Michigan State. Soon after he couldn't make 3-deep and transferred.
Maroney out and Russell gets hurt, Pinnix enters in the second quarter and goes for 206 against MSU.
The defense did suck, but they would have made the ground game work. What's really sad is the coach who really wanted to stay here was kicked to the curb. How does Shaw rate among the OL coaches they've had since?

 

[50PoundHead]

I'm just saying his #1 guy was hobbled all season and there was no clear #2. The line might have been alright, but there would have been no featured back and none that really resembled one.

 

[EG#9]

Pinnix, Weber weren't exactly chopped liver...not great but Weber was praised by most folks until the spread was dumped and his throwing motion was altered. Weber is pretty much damaged goods at this point but his play as a freshman and most of his sophomore year was competent to good...Pinnix was a 1000 yard rusher in '06...jus' sayin.

So inheriting a redshirt freshman QB who has never take a snap and Amir Pinnix compares in some way to Brian Hoyer and Javon Ringer? Wow. Ringer had a great career with the Spartans and is currently a rookie with the Titans while Brian Hoyer is a rookie with the Patriots. What team is Amir Pinnix on? Since Brewster inherited Mason's guys we've had one guy make the NFL in Dom Barber.

Eric Decker was here as well. Nate Tripplett was a Mason recruit as well...as was most of the current defense that folks here praise. Some of you act like the cupboard was completely empty. The vast majority of that front 7 on defense was Mason kids.

It was bare. Nate Triplett started 1 season and did not even achieve honorable mention all Big Ten. Nate was a solid special teamer and a solid 1 year starter at LB. Decker had played one year when Brewster took over and ended up missing about half of the Big Ten games played during hi JR and SR seasons. Eric Small was recruited by Mason, but only played for Brewster. Lee Campbell was a DE before Brewster got here.

Not to stoke the whole Mason/Brewster argument but there was talent here when Mason was canned...it wasn't heaping with blue chip talent but the way the defense played this year wasn't due to fairy dust and magic.

The defense certainly was stronger than the offense this year, but it wasn't great either. Mason recruited exactly 4 of the 11 defensive starters in Brown, Small, Campbell, and Triplett. Sherels and Moen were walk-ons during the Mason regime and the other 5 (Simmons, Royston, Theret, McKinley, Lawrence) were Brewster guys. Is 4 starters, none of whom were All Big Ten members, really something to hang your hat on?


Thomas was a John L Smith guy...however, I'm going to disagree that D'Antonio has badly outperformed Brewster through 3 years. I'm not saying D'Antonio is on a Tressel level but he has outcoached Brewster overall and I would argue has MSU in a slightly better position than Brewster does. MSU's team is quite young at skill positions...a few of those games go the other way that they lost and they're 9-3 and not 6-6.

So we agree that D'Antonio has outperformed Brewster? The Gophers return everyone but Tow-Arnett from the offense that beat MSU this year. I think there is an argument that can be made that the Gophers should improve just as much, if not more, next season.


MSU is a fairly young team (frosh RB, soph QB). I agree that Dantonio f'd up one or two games with coaching but I think MSU's program is in a better position right now than where Brewster has the U. MSU loses 5 on both sides of the ball while the U will pretty much have a new defense in there next year.

This isn't putting MSU on the PSU/OSU tier by the way but I think given where their program is set up for 2010 Michigan State will have a better season and will probably win more games than Minnesota.

I don't feel confident that Minnesota will win more games than MSU, but I certainly feel like they are capable of it. Most of the positives you list for MSU going in to 2010 could be said for Minnesota as well.