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Jike Spingleton

Jike Spingleton

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I know there's a thread linking to the 30 articles in 30 days posted above, but a separate thread for the interview with Glen Mason couldn't hurt (well, it could spiral into another Mason v. Brewster debate...I'll take my chances).

In all the hoopla leading up to the stadium's opening, the things Mase did - on and off the field - to make our return to campus a reality have gone unnoticed. Kudos to GopherHole for recognizing this, though I would've liked to know when he plans on attending his first game in the new digs. Whenever he does, I hope the U gives him some props.
 

I loved the Gopher offense in the Barber/Maroney years. As others have said, it seemed like opponents would start to figure it out and adjust by game's end. But, when it was rolling it was so fun to watch. The offense had an identity and it all started with good O' lines. Mobile, fast, and well developed from the ground up. That will always be a fond memory but the recruiting woes, detatchment from the fans/boosters, and suspect defenses are the other legacy.

It is hard to believe just how far the team had fallen by the late 80's and most of the 90's. He at least pulled it out of that spiral. I've ripped Mason from time to time but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the good things. On some levels, it is sad that he never got the benefit of the new stadium that he so badly wanted and lobbied for.
 

Props to Glen Mason and for the success that he enjoyed as Gopher coach and his
efforts to bring football back to the campus. If he is introduced on 12 September, I
hope he gets the ovation he deserves!
 

Agreed. People try to miscast Mason as some sort of horrible coach. He wasn't - he left the program in far better shape than the one he inherited.

He was a mediocre coach who, in turn, produced mediocre results. Nothing wrong with that for those who are content with mediocrity. The administration decided it was no longer satisfied with that (a decision they should have made a year sooner, unfortunately), and saw someone in Brewster whom they felt could take them to the next level.

I've always strongly suspected that those who long for a return to the days of Mason, and are abhorred by Brewster daring to be optimistic, are of the same ilk, those who prefer conservatism and are content with the chance to be mediocre, rather than risking failure by attempting to be great.

And yes, I agree...Mason should be celebrated, just as any past coach here should be. I think anytime in the near future may be too soon, though.
 

Mason was/ is a great coach.

He turned Minnesota's football team into an actual "program".

I do think after Michigan he was never the same.
 


Winnipegopher said:
I do think after Michigan he was never the same.
Click to expand...

Very good point. I don't know if it was him not being the same, or the way the majority of the fans felt about him, or both. But either way the Mason "feel good" years ended at that exact moment in time and the "what could go wrong next" years took over.
 

He did win 4

more games that very year, including the bowl game to get to 10 wins. That year could have been so much better if they had held on against Mich. I have no doubt they would have beat MSU the next week if they hadn't had such a hangover.
 

Mason was a good coach and was good for the program. If just once, he'd have held himself accountable for mistakes that were made with the team, he might still be coaching here. His arrogance and smugness turned a lot of people off. It's fine to hold yourself in high regard, but you'd better have the resume behind you to back it up.
 

I'll be disappointed if Mason isn't at the first game. He deserves to have his name called out for helping make this stadium a reality and he's deserves a standing ovation for it.
 



His dismissal had an unusually negative tone to it (probably due to the nature of the internet-era), but his legacy at Minnesota is definitely a positive one. 10 years, afterall, is a long time.
 

Mason was a good coach. You don't win conference coach of the year in three different
conferences unless you know what you're doing.

He probably wasn't the same after the 2003 Michigan game. Its easy to understand.
Joe Paterno wasn't the same after the 1999 Minnesota game, either, and one could
argue that it took a few years before he recovered and made Penn State a force again.

Coaches are human after all. The program Mason inherited was basically "off the map"
nationally. I remember one national radio talk show host running down the upcoming games
during the late Wacker years and he mentioned that some "name" team was playing
Minnesota. He then added, "Do they still play football at Minnesota?" Ouch......

By Mason's third year, everyone knew Minnesota played football, and well. They finished #12
in the nation.

He had a positive tenure overall. Now its Brewster's turn to go even further. Its always
wise to recognize those that came before and helped lay a foundation for success for
those that follow. Mason did that. Hopefully, Brewster will also.
 

Mason's biggest hurdle was to get the U of M administration to admit they had a football team and convince them that they should actually care about it. Heck, when he was hired, the President at the time cared more about eating pancakes than watching football. Fans will always gripe about Mason's wins and losses, Big 10 record, etc., but he had to create a football environment at the U of M as well as try to put a winning team on the field. Had he not created that environment, and got the Board of Regents and other big wigs to buy into it, we wouldn't be sitting in TCF Stadium in three weeks.
 

Mason made Minnesota a border-line top 25 program, year in and year out. They never made the jump to an oocassional top 10 program (the Ferentz model) but I am ok with that. If Brewster does the same I will be happy. Yes I know that is not demanding the world.

However, Mason's PR blunders in his last year make me believe that he wanted out.

1. Calling out student's drinking after "Fire Mason" chant. Why he did that I don't know. After all those years coaching he should have known to embrace students in good times and ignore them in bad times.
2. Calling "trophy" games "trinket" games.
3. Poor behaviour at bowl game pep rally. Wasn't there but apparently noticeably angered at length of rally.

I think he had enough (of Minnesota or more likely Maturi) and was ok with the buy-out.
 



The "trinket" comment was so overblown. Trophy games were very important to him and his teams. Having played and coached at Ohio State, he appreciated the history of college football.
 

Coach Mason made Minnesota respectable again

Before he coached here, this program was dead, stuck in the desert, at the end of the earth as far as football programs go. If anything he made we as fans believe what could be possible, and made us want more, maybe a little too much more, before we were ready. Setting expectations to low, stagnating and not being able to recruit the best local guy's ultimately led to the demise. I still remember being near the section over from the students when they chanted "Fire mason" and yelling at them to shut up "be careful for what you wish for" if they had been sitting there when coach Wacker was here, they would know what really bad football and not being able to tackle or stop anyone was really about. Minnesota was the door mat of the big ten, the absolute bottom, everyone wiped there feet on us and scored 40- 50 points. At least he brought us hope to lift our chins up, be proud that we were Gopher fans and at least on the road that the Gophers could beat anyone. I dogged the staff some then and was always a half empty kind of guy about the defense, but never once did I ever forget where we were and what we had come from. Having 200-300 or less students in the student section, a 100 member band, really was not that far of a memory or distant time ago. We never want to go back to that kind of neglect.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Coach Brewster here by praising coach Mason as he gives us great hope through his selling of the program, recruiting and energy that Minnesota can be great at football again. I would like to thank coach Mason for asking the question "Why not football on Campus" Why can't Minnesota be like the rest of the Big 10. For that I as a Gopher fan will always be greatful because he pushed hard for TCF and was the catalyst to make it happen. Here is hoping there can be some healing and that Coach Mason will be welcomed back to the Gopher family, by Ad maturi and the athletic department and the respect that was earned will follow in the near future as having a heck of positive impact on this program. Ski-U-Mah and go Gophers.
 

Glen Mason was a good coach, he had several questionable moments on and off the field but no coach is perfect. He beat everybody at least once in his tenure (which isn't brag worthy...but hell), he should've owned Michigan and he always seemed to have Joe Paterno's number but I know what a bulk of the problem was.......

Glen Mason just gave up.......

Think about it...he finished #12 in 1999 with an incredible defense, coach of the year award in the big ten, beat #2 Penn State & didn't lose a game by more then 5 points, finished 5-3 in conference play & taking ranked a ranked Badgers team & a ranked Ohio State team down to the wire.......

...and ***STILL*** WASN'T GIVEN A JANUARY BOWL GAME.......

Fast forward to 2003...you finish the season with 5-3 in conference play, 9 wins, the most Minnesota had since like WWII, had one of the most dangerous offenses that ever graced a college football field in history......

...and ***STILL*** WASN'T GIVEN A JANUARY BOWL GAME.......

Terrible, he might've gotten his spark back with the opening of TCF, we'll never know.......
 

thailleagle said:
Glen Mason was a good coach, he had several questionable moments on and off the field but no coach is perfect. He beat everybody at least once in his tenure (which isn't brag worthy...but hell), he should've owned Michigan and he always seemed to have Joe Paterno's number but I know what a bulk of the problem was.......

Glen Mason just gave up.......

Think about it...he finished #12 in 1999 with an incredible defense, coach of the year award in the big ten, beat #2 Penn State & didn't lose a game by more then 5 points, finished 5-3 in conference play & taking ranked a ranked Badgers team & a ranked Ohio State team down to the wire.......

...and ***STILL*** WASN'T GIVEN A JANUARY BOWL GAME.......

Fast forward to 2003...you finish the season with 5-3 in conference play, 9 wins, the most Minnesota had since like WWII, had one of the most dangerous offenses that ever graced a college football field in history......

...and ***STILL*** WASN'T GIVEN A JANUARY BOWL GAME.......

Terrible, he might've gotten his spark back with the opening of TCF, we'll never know.......
Click to expand...

This perfectly encapsulates the entire problem with the Mason regime (and its supporters).

Win 5 BT games, then sing "nobody likes me, everybody hates me...".

Rather than do what it takes to win 6, 7, 8 BT games, and force selection committees to choose the Gophers, better to do just enough and then complain when we're not treated fairly.

And why does somebody need to be handed something to get his "motivation"? Shouldn't the prospect of winning championships, pushing for more (and being compensated handsomely to do it) be enough?

No, instead, I'll do the bare minimum for success (i.e., be better than my predecessor), and then sit in the corner sucking my thumb, pouting because no one will give me a fair shake.
 

dpodoll68 said:
This perfectly encapsulates the entire problem with the Mason regime (and its supporters).

Win 5 BT games, then sing "nobody likes me, everybody hates me...".

Rather than do what it takes to win 6, 7, 8 BT games, and force selection committees to choose the Gophers, better to do just enough and then complain when we're not treated fairly.

And why does somebody need to be handed something to get his "motivation"? Shouldn't the prospect of winning championships, pushing for more (and being compensated handsomely to do it) be enough?

No, instead, I'll do the bare minimum for success (i.e., be better than my predecessor), and then sit in the corner sucking my thumb, pouting because no one will give me a fair shake.
Click to expand...

His teams were also passed over for teams with weaker records.......

We were always 1 or 2 plays away from being 6-2 in BT or 7-1, maybe he just was never meant to get it but you act like you know for a fact he didn't try.......

You have no idea what kind of support he did or didn't have by the administration at Minnesota.......

After years of frustration with the system you'd probably just do enough at your job too, dude is human before anything.......

That's the problem with you Mason haters, you were in the bleachers screaming "Fire Mason!" and were screaming "Rose Bowl!" before Brewster ever coached a play.......

I know a lot of former Mason supporters thought he was The 2nd Coming after the 1999 season, all schools go through similar things, just look at Michigan, so many people screamed for Lloyd Carr's retirement, now look at them.......They got what they wanted.......

Brewster is coach now and it sickens me to know that the same kind of people (you) that are supporting him now could be screaming "Fire Brewster!" 3 seasons from now from your high horses, this is football and the coaches are HUMAN before anything, treat them like that.......
 

Glen Mason made football relevant again at the University of Minnesota and without him TCF Bank Stadium would have been a dream. That 1999 game at Happy Valley still gives me chills!
 

thailleagle said:
Brewster is coach now and it sickens me to know that the same kind of people (you) that are supporting him now could be screaming "Fire Brewster!" 3 seasons from now
Click to expand...

If Brewster has a 7-5 record after his fifth season, no BT titles, and no top ten finishes, then yes, I will want him fired.

That being said, I do appreciate what Mason did for the program.
 

Eagle,

As per Jike's wishes when he started this thread, I don't want to turn this into a Mason/ Brewster thing, but you are right that we got passed over for New Year's Day games and that still infuriates me. Mason critics always bemoan that he never took us to a January bowl...well, he qualified us for New Year's Day bowls and him and the players did everything in their power to get them to Fla. but the moneyed men in college football proved once again that they preside over the sport.

To this day, I hope the Gophers never accept an Alamo Bowl invitation. How many years did those bowl representatives screw us over?
 

thailleagle said:
Fast forward to 2003...you finish the season with 5-3 in conference play, 9 wins, the most Minnesota had since like WWII, had one of the most dangerous offenses that ever graced a college football field in history......

...and ***STILL*** WASN'T GIVEN A JANUARY BOWL GAME.......
Click to expand...


"GIVEN" a January bowl game....really? The Gophers were fourth in the Big Ten tied with Iowa and Michigan State. The hawkeyes were up 40-6 at one point in Kinnick while MSU went on the road and beat Minnesota. Beating Tulsa, Troy, Ohio and Lafayette doesn't strengthen the argument either.

If you wanted a better game with Nebraska...then sure...Minnesota shoulda been the choice, but MSU deserved it more.
 

thailleagle said:
His teams were also passed over for teams with weaker records.......

We were always 1 or 2 plays away from being 6-2 in BT or 7-1, maybe he just was never meant to get it but you act like you know for a fact he didn't try.......

You have no idea what kind of support he did or didn't have by the administration at Minnesota.......

After years of frustration with the system you'd probably just do enough at your job too, dude is human before anything.......

That's the problem with you Mason haters, you were in the bleachers screaming "Fire Mason!" and were screaming "Rose Bowl!" before Brewster ever coached a play.......

I know a lot of former Mason supporters thought he was The 2nd Coming after the 1999 season, all schools go through similar things, just look at Michigan, so many people screamed for Lloyd Carr's retirement, now look at them.......They got what they wanted.......

Brewster is coach now and it sickens me to know that the same kind of people (you) that are supporting him now could be screaming "Fire Brewster!" 3 seasons from now from your high horses, this is football and the coaches are HUMAN before anything, treat them like that.......
Click to expand...

I have never once said I was a Mason hater, and I wasn't. He had this sense of entitlement that he "deserved" something because we managed to win a whopping 5 BT games. The bowl selection committees had every right to pick someone else, and they always did. Is that fair? No, but life isn't fair, and like I've already said, there is only one way to take the selection of the committees' hands...win more games. But instead of doing that, ol' Grinnin' Glen took his ball and went home and, like you said, gave up. I know that's not the kind of person I want coaching my University's football team.

The University of Minnesota deserved better...and I think we have it now.
 

thailleagle said:
just look at Michigan, so many people screamed for Lloyd Carr's retirement, now look at them.......They got what they wanted.......
Click to expand...
I don't think there is a soul at Michigan that wants to bring back Lloyd Carr.
 


Schnauzer said:
I loved the Gopher offense in the Barber/Maroney years. As others have said, it seemed like opponents would start to figure it out and adjust by game's end. But, when it was rolling it was so fun to watch. The offense had an identity and it all started with good O' lines. Mobile, fast, and well developed from the ground up. That will always be a fond memory but the recruiting woes, detatchment from the fans/boosters, and suspect defenses are the other legacy.

It is hard to believe just how far the team had fallen by the late 80's and most of the 90's. He at least pulled it out of that spiral. I've ripped Mason from time to time but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the good things. On some levels, it is sad that he never got the benefit of the new stadium that he so badly wanted and lobbied for.
Click to expand...

He was so conservative in his approach. That year he had both Maroney and Barber they had an impressive running game, 2004. They had little passing attach at the time though. Cupito was new and wasn't trusted. The thing that I find interesting and confusing is that they developed him to be quite a good passer in the next couple of years. Why didn't they focus on that earlier and try to get him ready for that year is a mystery to me. I think he was a red shirt Sophomore, so it was his third year in the system. They might have contended for a big ten title if they had a passing attach that year. Defense was always an issue but they were almost unstoppable the way it was.
 

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