Still hoping for Brewster

Donate To GopherHole
Winnipegopher

Winnipegopher

Wag more, bark less
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
3,584
Reaction score
110
Points
63
Flame away but I still hope Brewster can turn this around.

His heart is clearly in the right place. After the game, he still does an interview on-field with Big Ten Network. Many coaches wouldn't.

He then finds out no one is sticking around to sing Hail Minnesota. Where were the other coaches? Where were the captains? Everyone bailed.

Easy thing is to go to locker room but he stays out and sings it by himself. He could easily have disappeared and tried to spin why they didn't stay but he took the hard and embarrassing road. n.

Brew has a lot of negatives but this was positive. Hopefully a turning point.

Ok, flame away, I can take it.
 

Of course we all hope that somehow he turns it around and has a magical season. It's just not going to happen. Nobodies rooting against the coach, it has just become apparent to all of us that he sucks when it comes to x's and o's.
 

I'm with you in a spirit. He wants to succeed, and I don't think anybody can question his work ethic or commitment to the program. He may just not have what it takes to pull this program up. I credit Brew for this move (coming out and singing solo) - it does take guts to do this, especially when the student section is chanting for his head. Just concerned that guts and work ethic are not enough.
 

Winnipegopher said:
Flame away but I still hope Brewster can turn this around.

His heart is clearly in the right place. After the game, he still does an interview on-field with Big Ten Network. Many coaches wouldn't.

He then finds out no one is sticking around to sing Hail Minnesota. Where were the other coaches? Where were the captains? Everyone bailed.

Easy thing is to go to locker room but he stays out and sings it by himself. He could easily have disappeared and tried to spin why they didn't stay but he took the hard and embarrassing road. n.

Brew has a lot of negatives but this was positive. Hopefully a turning point.

Ok, flame away, I can take it.
Click to expand...

You make some good points, especially as it relates to Brewster sticking around and taking it. The problem is the rest of what you mentioned. The players effectively "ran for the hills", as did the assistant coaches, all of which tells me this bunch doesn't have what it takes on any front.

In Division 1 athletics, you had better be prepared to play and perform every game out and if you don't, you had better be prepared and willing to take the inevitable beating from both fans and media for not performing. But apparently that's not what happened. Instead, the players and coaches ran to the locker room as fast as possible, leaving their head coach to take the brunt of the criticism.

Of course, Brewster should be commended to for at least accepting the justified battering he took from the fans and the media. The players and assistant coaches? Different story, which is a telling sign of where these guys are at mentally.
 

For me, this all boils down to the persona that the coach puts out there. Look at the Vikings. Dennis Green was an arrogant dick, but his teams did pretty well, even though they failed miserably in big games. Mike Tice comes in and he's a much more likeable guy, but he's just not NFL head coach material. He was in over his head. Same thing at the U. Glen Mason's smugness and refusal to be accountable for his team's failures was his downfall. In comes Brewster, who talks a good game and seems to generally care about the school, but the coaching just isn't there. I want him to stay at the U and build something special, but it just doesn't look like that's ever going to be in the cards.
 


All fair comments.

Anyways, I will be there Saturday with two buddies from Winnipeg (still no tickets but prices dropping so much I am not worried) and pulling for Brewster. I had to twist their arms into attending- they are more interested in Twins Friday and Vikings Sunday. Hopefully Saturday changes that.

Without hope, there is nothing. I still have hope Brewster is the one.
 

I'm with you Winnie. The best result would be for Brew to turn this thing around. I think we're going to get torched on saturday. It's going to be awfully tough to rebound from a loss to the coyotes and an ass whoopin' by USC. But this is the highest level of college football, it isn't suppose to be easy. He'll have to find a way to succeed or he probably shouldn't be here.
 

I think Brewster maybe gone after this season but for some reason I think we play well on Saturday. I think USC will be Brewster's first signature victory. I'm not saying that Brewster is the answer and he may be gone after this year or next, but I think we'll win on Saturday.
 

Winnipegopher said:
All fair comments.

Anyways, I will be there Saturday with two buddies from Winnipeg (still no tickets but prices dropping so much I am not worried) and pulling for Brewster. I had to twist their arms into attending- they are more interested in Twins Friday and Vikings Sunday. Hopefully Saturday changes that.

Without hope, there is nothing. I still have hope Brewster is the one.
Click to expand...

Be sure to let us know how the 3 game trip goes.
 



I said it before

When Mason allienated the students against him and they began the "Fire Mason" chants, I told my Gopher buddies that he would never survive this...I'll say it again now after the Saturday chants. Brewster cannot survivie this. Did any of you see Bob Stein's comments in Shooter's collumn. The M Club has turned away from this coach and that is the death sentence, believe me. I know a ton of M Men, and they are beginning a letter writing campaign to Maturi, Brunicks, and the Board of Regents. This was the last straw.
 

go4rob said:
When Mason allienated the students against him and they began the "Fire Mason" chants, I told my Gopher buddies that he would never survive this...I'll say it again now after the Saturday chants. Brewster cannot survivie this. Did any of you see Bob Stein's comments in Shooter's collumn. The M Club has turned away from this coach and that is the death sentence, believe me. I know a ton of M Men, and they are beginning a letter writing campaign to Maturi, Brunicks, and the Board of Regents. This was the last straw.
Click to expand...

When the booster club turns on the coach, the seat heats up even more. When fans just decide that they have better things to do on a Saturday, the seat heats up even further. It would take a miracle if Brewster could regain people's faith. The big question is whether or not he can keep control of the team.
 

A lot of good comments in this thread. I have pulled for Brewster all along. My glass has been half full and I found a way to always look on the bright side. Saturday was a turning point for a lot of fence sitting fans, like me. I have long said that I am looking forward to the Gophers finally getting their turn with a season where the ball bounces the right way and they wear a slipper. Not unlike the first Northwestern conference title of the 90's. There is a huge fan base just waiting to be moved to embrace Gopher football again. Last week was the moment where it became clear Brewster is going to need a miracle to save his own job. We all know how common sports miracles are. I'm no dummy. It isn't likely the coach or team will come back from this to have a memorable winning season DESPITE the tough schedule after losing to South Dakota. But, that doesn't mean I can't pull for them or hope against logic that it will happen. I'll cheer for the team and coach on Saturday. But, when the likely outcome of all of this comes to pass (new coach), I'll be there to reload and re-queue my dream of that magic Gopher season and awakening fan base all over again.

I feel bad for Brewster. As other's have said, he seems to get a lot of things right except the important coaching items that lead to victories. He has passion, means well, respects the history of U football, and cares about his players. Unfortunately, it appears he lacks in the important areas of building a winning staff, prepping his teams, and managing within the game. Perhaps even his recruiting abilities are lacking. I hope he proves us all wrong, however unlikely that may seem.
 

I BLEED Maroon & Gold!
I will ALWAYS root for our Gophers.
Tim Brewster is the current head coach and as long as that is the case I will be hoping for the best for him.

Go Gophers! Beat SC!
 



Winnipegopher said:
Flame away but I still hope Brewster can turn this around.

His heart is clearly in the right place. After the game, he still does an interview on-field with Big Ten Network. Many coaches wouldn't.

He then finds out no one is sticking around to sing Hail Minnesota. Where were the other coaches? Where were the captains? Everyone bailed.

Easy thing is to go to locker room but he stays out and sings it by himself. He could easily have disappeared and tried to spin why they didn't stay but he took the hard and embarrassing road. n.

Brew has a lot of negatives but this was positive. Hopefully a turning point.

Ok, flame away, I can take it.
Click to expand...

Great post. Will be there the rest of the year cheering for wins no matter what happens from here on out. If Brewster deserves to get fired at the end of the year, he will get fired. No reason not to show up and support the team and hope for the best in the interim.
 

If what Winnipegopher states about Brewster is true after the game, where is the leadership from the senior leaders on this team. Also, fault for the players not being ready to go falls on the players in my book. Responsibility for X's and O's is on the coaches.
 

Jeshurun said:
Nobodies rooting against the coach, it has just become apparent to all of us that he sucks when it comes to x's and o's.
Click to expand...

I would probably restate that. A LOT of people have been rooting against Brewster since the day he began, even before the losses came.
 

Nort73 said:
I would probably restate that. A LOT of people have been rooting against Brewster since the day he began, even before the losses came.
Click to expand...

When a few Gopher fans start saying they were hoping we'd lose the game, I don't think they were rooting for the coach.
 

I believe Brewster cares about the program and believes he can win here which is much more than the previous coach ever cared or thought. Still he appears to be in over his head.

4 years in and the team has no identity on offense or defense nor can I see where one is coming from. This to me is his biggest flaw. Under the previous coach at least you knew they could run the ball.

I will be cheering for and be behind the squad every game the rest of the way but it still won't change my mind no matter then final record that Brewster is not the right guy for the job. The AD went in a direction instead of a X's and O's guy and went with someone known as a recruiter someone that would promote the program with a completely different personality than the previous coach. The AD gave it a shot and missed. The experiment needs to end regardless of the final outcome this season.
 

The Gopher fan base can be B-R-U-T-A-L.

Winning programs have one thing in common-consistency. Is Coach Brewster the answer? Despite the band wagon jumpers I think the jury is still out. Unlike mason he has passion for the "U" and its past. I feel that it has been a learning process for the coach, but expectations to improve each year is warranted. Is the talent level better today than 3 years ago? I would say yes. It looks like to me we have a lot more athletes playing today than three years ago and the later stages of country club glen's tenure. The sdu loss should have never happened, but it did. It makes no sense and only hurts the program with this constant banter about getting rid of the coach now. It is not going to happen now and it will play itself out over the rest of the year. I look for a great effort from the football team this week and hope the student section shows up in full force with focus on the game not with all the negative energy toward Coach Brew and Adam Weber. This football team needs positive support from the fan base.

Coaching lists are like the backup QB's-everyone loves them and to speculate.
 

Silvio said:
If what Winnipegopher states about Brewster is true after the game, where is the leadership from the senior leaders on this team. Also, fault for the players not being ready to go falls on the players in my book. Responsibility for X's and O's is on the coaches.
Click to expand...

Silvio- you have put your finger on something. Our problem in that game was mostly the defense- the offense could have done more, but the defense was a disaster. So you ask -where was our senior leadership? On defense we have, by my amateur count, 3 seniors. Two of those sat out the game leaving only Collado, right? It's not Mason's fault, but he left Brewster zero defensive talent. The kids had a lousy game and there was no leadership on the field to pull it together when things started to fall apart. Football is a lot based on emotion and there was no one out there that was just able to step up and level somebody or get to the QB or make a big play to turn it around.

Brewster's job by year end should be to show that these kids are growing into a group that we can rely on to turn the corner. If so- he should keep his job. If not- he probably has to be fired.
 

bga1,

I agree with your position. Many people BELIEVE the talent is better on defense, but we know that it is inexperienced. It has been stated that this defense will "take its lumps" this season but should improve as they gain experience. I don't think anyone thought the lumps would include the performance we saw on Saturday.

Question for anyone with coaching experience: We had a true freshman making defensive calls for the first two games, is it much easier to make those calls/adjustments for a team that is focused on running the ball or on passing the ball. Also, once your "field general" is in the weeds what is needed to overcome incorrect calls/defensive alignment?

Thanks in advance.
 

The points about Brewster manning up and taking it are all accurate. It would be really tough to sit there and talk to BTN, sing the Alma Mater all alone, answer the phone calls the next morning. I think we can agree that Brewster isn't a wimp.

Unfortunately, the actions of the players (and in PARTICULAR assistant coaches - hadn't thought about that earlier) do reflect on Brewster. It's clear that absolutely no one on the team had the thought run through their head that they had better stay out on the field because Brewster would be pissed if they didn't. Conciously or not, they simply didn't care what he thought.
 

I think it's over for Brewster, and I really enjoy his coaching personality. I think he went about everything in the right way, I just think he misfired too often.
He went for rose bowl or bust and busted.

What's truly sad about this whole thing is that the bad guys win when Brew is fired after the season.
All the Mason mediocre lovers, the iowee and wisky trolls, the closet racists that want "hard working overachiever local boys, not the 4.2 florida speed thugs" to make up the entirety of the team, the media blowhards, the bandwagon fans, the uninformed and mislead, the negative and pessimistic, the stoic and hardliners, they all win in a way. That sucks.
 

Ole said:
What's truly sad about this whole thing is that the bad guys win when Brew is fired after the season.
All the Mason mediocre lovers, the iowee and wisky trolls, the closet racists that want "hard working overachiever local boys, not the 4.2 florida speed thugs" to make up the entirety of the team, the media blowhards, the bandwagon fans, the uninformed and mislead, the negative and pessimistic, the stoic and hardliners, they all win in a way. That sucks.
Click to expand...

That's a valid point and I think it probably puts into words very well what I've suspected about the 'homers' around here. They don't really want Brewster to win as much as see all the jerks fail. While it's admirable to want bad folks to fail, we need to keep in mind that this ain't the goal. The goal is for MN Football to succeed. Barring a miracle, that isn't likely to happen with Brewster.

As much as you want to flip the bird and tailgate the guy that just cut you off, it ain't right. Because the goal isn't to spite the jerk, it's to simply get home safely.
 

I don't think anyone can argue that Brewster works hard and wants to win. I have no doubt in that.

However, the fact is if I show up to work and botch my job as bad as he does I'd be jobless by the end of the week.

He might very well be a good guy, works hard and loves the program but that does not make up for incompetaece.

I would like to be pleasently surprised this season but I have no faith in that happening.
 

tato2001 said:
That's a valid point and I think it probably puts into words very well what I've suspected about the 'homers' around here. They don't really want Brewster to win as much as see all the jerks fail. While it's admirable to want bad folks to fail, we need to keep in mind that this ain't the goal. The goal is for MN Football to succeed. Barring a miracle, that isn't likely to happen with Brewster.

As much as you want to flip the bird and tailgate the guy that just cut you off, it ain't right. Because the goal isn't to spite the jerk, it's to simply get home safely.
Click to expand...

I get that, it just sucks you don't get home before the jerk and pass him pulled over by a cop, in a fender bender with a 300 lb cagefighter on roids or broken down on the road and wave politely as you go by.

If Brewster's strategy for energizing the fanbase and the school failed, what's the next guy going to try? Ho hum and a bottle of rum, awe shucks we just try to play as good as we can be? That's no fun to me. I'll say it, Bud Grant ruined this market for football coaches, because that's all people expect from a winning coach, there can be no chest thumping, no excitement, no bravado. Other places yes, not here. ho hum.
 

Ole said:
I get that, it just sucks you don't get home before the jerk and pass him pulled over by a cop, in a fender bender with a 300 lb cagefighter on roids or broken down on the road and wave politely as you go by.

If Brewster's strategy for energizing the fanbase and the school failed, what's the next guy going to try? Ho hum and a bottle of rum, awe shucks we just try to play as good as we can be? That's no fun to me. I'll say it, Bud Grant ruined this market for football coaches, because that's all people expect from a winning coach, there can be no chest thumping, no excitement, no bravado. Other places yes, not here. ho hum.
Click to expand...
Brewster's strategy:

1) Talk a big game
2) Embrace Minnesota tradition
3) Recruit recruit recruit
4) ????
5) Go to the Rose Bowl

*I* can do the first two. Why do we need to pay a coach to do those? Nick Saban doesn't really do a whole lot of them and I don't think Alabama fans care, for the most part. I respect the effort to connect with Minnesota's past traditions. But until our coach learns how to coach, past traditions are all we'll have. Vince Lombardi didn't become great by reconnecting with the tradition of a bunch of packing plant workers on their company's club team. He did it by WINNING. I'd personally trade all the hoo-hah chest thumping victory walking special-forces BS for a Rose Bowl any day. But thump your chest all you want to, Tarzan.
 

SickAndTiredOfLosingToWI said:
Brewster's strategy:

1) Talk a big game
2) Embrace Minnesota tradition
3) Recruit recruit recruit
4) ????
5) Go to the Rose Bowl

*I* can do the first two. Why do we need to pay a coach to do those? Nick Saban doesn't really do a whole lot of them and I don't think Alabama fans care, for the most part. I respect the effort to connect with Minnesota's past traditions. But until our coach learns how to coach, past traditions are all we'll have. Vince Lombardi didn't become great by reconnecting with the tradition of a bunch of packing plant workers on their company's club team. He did it by WINNING. I'd personally trade all the hoo-hah chest thumping victory walking special-forces BS for a Rose Bowl any day. But thump your chest all you want to, Tarzan.
Click to expand...

Obviously winning is the goal, regardless of anything. That's fine. I was trying to point out that the message Brewster came here with was one of pure positivity and energy, and he's been poo poo'd from the start because of it. People literally hated him from the start because he's challenged them to be loud and proud about this program. The fact that the positive message failed here is depressing to me.
 

Ole said:
I'll say it, Bud Grant ruined this market for football coaches, because that's all people expect from a winning coach, there can be no chest thumping, no excitement, no bravado. Other places yes, not here. ho hum.
Click to expand...

Bud Grant: arguably one of the better coaches in NFL history.

Tim Brewster: arguably one of the better used car salesmen on the lot.

You nailed it in your first sentence in that people will overlook a lot of things when you win. Most fans aren't going to give a crap if you're boring so long as the results are there. You want to engage in the chest thumping and bravado? Great, but try winning some games while you're at it.
 

Ole said:
Obviously winning is the goal, regardless of anything. That's fine. I was trying to point out that the message Brewster came here with was one of pure positivity and energy, and he's been poo poo'd from the start because of it. People literally hated him from the start because he's challenged them to be loud and proud about this program. The fact that the positive message failed here is depressing to me.
Click to expand...

That's called selling smoke, and it's pretty hard to argue that it's been anything but.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom