Traded emails with Maturi

those records you show are skewed.....the first 20 games you got to include 2 non conference schedules and the second starts in the hardest portion of the big ten schedule...
not fair
 

And if they finished 4-8 with this schedule?

8-12 (.400) in his first 20 games....6-11 (.353) in his last 17 games.

Pointless reply. Because they finnished 6-6. That is fact.

My post was responding to the all the people who now claim they "expected" 8 wins all along, not to play the "what if" game that some people (an now you) are so fond of.
 

those records you show are skewed.....the first 20 games you got to include 2 non conference schedules and the second starts in the hardest portion of the big ten schedule...
not fair

Don't ruin it for him, the Brewster haters can taste victory, unfortunately it will cause our program to be set back 5 years.
 

I just want to know how three coaches in five years is a victory for anybody.
 

Before the season I said:

8-4 or better: A-give him an extension

7-5: B Give him a 1 or 2 year extension

6-6: C Perhaps still give him 1-2 years, perhaps do nothing

5-7: D Probably do nothing, perhaps fire him

4-8 or worse: F-He should probably be shown the door.

So, normally I would have been fine giving him 1 or 2 years, or doing nothing. However, I saw enough chaos and other issues surrounding the program that I simply did not see him surviving past 2010 in any case, so my vote was to fire him now rather then wait. That said, I had reached a point of accepting that he was going to stay and perhaps even get 1-2 years on his contract. I could live with this until this latest disaster.

I now think that doing nothing would be a disaster and even a 1-2 year extension might not do much. And giving him a longer extension is not wise and will not happen. Brewster has made a huge mess of things, and Maturi has only stepped in it and thrown gas on it. This isn't going to end well for either of them, and I'd rather it happen now then next November following a 5-7 or 4-8 season and 50-something recruiting class with a 70-something class in the queue.
 


Post of the year?

That in a nutshell shows whats wrong with Gopher Nation....unrealistic expectations.
Clearly 8 wins? Wisconsin and Illinois? So you're saying since we have a new stadium we should now be able to almost run the table at home?

Let's say the Gophers did win those two games and finished 8-4 and 5-3 Big Ten (but still barely beat SDSU and still didn't score against Iowa) would all the Brew bashers still be calling for his head? Because it seems to me alot of people are jumping ship over 6 points spread across Wisconsin and Illinois losses, and to me that's pathetic.

I've had enough of the rubes on this site that double-talk. Brewster is a perfect fit at Minnesota and its going to be a huge mistake when he leaves because of all this nonsense.
 

. . . . . However, I saw enough chaos and other issues surrounding the program that I simply did not see him surviving past 2010. . . . . Brewster has made a huge mess of things. . . . .

Can you deife the chaos, issues, and huge mess?
 

I would even give the Gophers a 'W' in Iowa City under any other coach.

Unless it is Pat Fitzgerald, there hasn't been a coach outside of Kirk Ferentz to win a game in Iowa City since 2007. Fitz actually has done it twice. Everyone else? 0-for.
 

I feel the program is at about the same level as it was under Mason. However, with Mason, I felt we had reached the pinnacle of achievement under him as a coach. With Brewster, I feel there is still the chance for improvement. Mason had no upside left, Brewster has plenty. Let's see how those curves look in a couple years.

On a side-note, we completely revamped our offense and defense. One has worked well, the other has not. Basically we traded strengths, for better or worse. Of course, with Mason, I expected that we would always have a terrible defense, with Brewster, I still believe the offense can become potent.

That's pretty much how I feel. I have no idea if Brewster will take the program to the next level, but I do understand that it doesn't happen overnight. This is not the NFL where you can draft and sign free agents. There a team can go from 4-12 to 12-4 fairly easily. Much tougher in college football. Because the Twin Cities is considered a "pro sports town", too many fans have this "win now or get fired" attitude for coaches. Yes I want to win, but I also understand I need to be patient.

If we were to fire him now after 3 years, then we're starting all over again. Hopefully both coordinators will be back next year so we don't have to go through that again. That should help. If next year we don't go to a bowl game, then maybe we should consider looking elsewhere.

What I find funny about some of the posters is how if you don't think Brewster should be fired or if you defend him in anyway, you're some kind of "Brewster apologist" and have settled for mediocrity. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I haven't ever said that Brewster was a sure thing. Just because I don't think he should be fired doesn't mean I think he's a great coach. Right now he hasn't proven himself to be one, but he needs more time.

To the OP and others who are considering not renewing season tickets: I understand your frustration. Certainly you have every right to not renew next season. But I do think that a big part of making any program successful is the support of the fans. We now have a tremendous :))) new stadium with a huge locker room and all, but if the stadium is only half full, the atmosphere is no better than the metrodome was. Recruits and players notice that. If this program wants to get to the next level, it starts with us IMO.
 



Can you deife the chaos, issues, and huge mess?

Chaos is what occured on the sidelines and field way too often this year. I don't think I really have to explain.

Issues, are things like calling out your boss in front of the team, sending out juvenile Twitter posts while feuding with members of the local media, and having players arrested while doing nothing more then 'handling it internally.'

The huge mess is everything that occured in the last 24 hours.

Clear enough?
 

That's pretty much how I feel. I have no idea if Brewster will take the program to the next level, but I do understand that it doesn't happen overnight. This is not the NFL where you can draft and sign free agents. There a team can go from 4-12 to 12-4 fairly easily. Much tougher in college football. Because the Twin Cities is considered a "pro sports town", too many fans have this "win now or get fired" attitude for coaches. Yes I want to win, but I also understand I need to be patient.

If we were to fire him now after 3 years, then we're starting all over again. Hopefully both coordinators will be back next year so we don't have to go through that again. That should help. If next year we don't go to a bowl game, then maybe we should consider looking elsewhere.

What I find funny about some of the posers is how if you don't think Brewster should be fired or if you defend him in anyway, you're some kind of "Brewster apologist" and have settled for mediocrity. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I haven't ever said that Brewster was a sure thing. Just because I don't think he should be fired doesn't mean I think he's a great coach. Right now he hasn't proven himself to be one, but he needs more time.

To the OP and others who are considering not renewing season tickets: I understand your frustration. Certainly you have every right to not renew next season. But I do think that a big part of making any program successful is the support of the fans. We now have a tremendous :))) new stadium with a huge locker room and all, but if the stadium is only half full, the atmosphere is no better than the metrodome was. Recruits and players notice that. If this program wants to get to the next level, it starts with us IMO.

Very well said.:clap:
 

Chaos is what occured on the sidelines and field way too often this year. I don't think I really have to explain.

Issues, are things like calling out your boss in front of the team, sending out juvenile Twitter posts while feuding with members of the local media, and having players arrested while doing nothing more then 'handling it internally.'

The huge mess is everything that occured in the last 24 hours.

Clear enough?

Losing 6 games has to look like something. And it's not going to be pretty.

"Calling out Maturi" the first time was completely mischaracterized by the media according to everyone who was there. The second time appears to have been made up entirely, because no one was ever able to verify any sort of second occurance.

After the garbage the media pulls can you honetly expect our coach to have a good rapport with them? No coach we ever hire is going to get along with the media in this town. Who was the last football coach whose rapport with the Minnesota media did you approve of?
 

Losing 6 games has to look like something. And it's not going to be pretty.

"Calling out Maturi" the first time was completely mischaracterized by the media according to everyone who was there. The second time appears to have been made up entirely, because no one was ever able to verify any sort of second occurance.

After the garbage the media pulls can you honetly expect our coach to have a good rapport with them? No coach we ever hire is going to get along with the media in this town. Who was the last football coach whose rapport with the Minnesota media did you approve of?

Excellent point. Last few years Childress was the worst coach in the NFL according to the media and should have been fired. Now, he's an OK coach who lucked out by having great players. They never really mention that he might have had a hand in getting some of those players or that his coaching ability might be a part of the recent sucess. Even when the getting's good, the media is just waiting for the other shoe to drop. (P.s. I couldn't care less about pro football. Just used him as a recent example. please don't start a vikings rant)
 



After the garbage the media pulls can you honetly expect our coach to have a good rapport with them?
Certainly a coach who makes such a public display of his faith. Turn the other cheek is supposed to be a foundation of his morality and character. So yes I expect him to behave with the decorum his position and his self-professed faith demand.
 

Losing 6 games has to look like something. And it's not going to be pretty.

"Calling out Maturi" the first time was completely mischaracterized by the media according to everyone who was there. The second time appears to have been made up entirely, because no one was ever able to verify any sort of second occurance.

After the garbage the media pulls can you honetly expect our coach to have a good rapport with them? No coach we ever hire is going to get along with the media in this town. Who was the last football coach whose rapport with the Minnesota media did you approve of?

Of course losing 6 games has to 'look like something' but I've many times seen well-coached teams simply get beat by teams that were better then they were. The Twins of the mid/late 90's rarely won. They were frequently bludgeoned by teams far better then they were. But almost never did they appear they were not ready to play or that they had not been properly coached in where they were supposed to be.

Certainly, many of the Gophers losses, perhaps all of them except Illinois were to teams better then they were. But they never appeared particularly well-coached or well-prepared. Even several of the wins were ugly and marred by personal fouls, other penalties and general chaos.

The issues were numerous. It wasn't just the calling out Maturi, it was several other things. Any one of them would be understandable. All of them taken together certainly did not leave a good impression.

I don't really understand your last question. I don't buy into the whole 'the entire media is evil and out to get Gopher football' routine. Sure Reusse pretty much has it in for Brewster. And I guess Burriero's no fan of his either. But there's no conspiracy against him. I don't approve or disapprove of his rapport with the media. Mason didn't have any issues with the media for at least his first several years here. Towards the end you heard more about how he was a bit arrogant, etc. but not the level of criticism that Brew faces.
 

Let's say the Gophers did win those two games and finished 8-4 and 5-3 Big Ten (but still barely beat SDSU and still didn't score against Iowa)

Not to mention that if they won those games they'd be practicing to play Miami in Orlando. Without Decker that could be ugly. At least they have a winnable game against ISU.
 

Yes, who do you think you are having high expectations, Gopher fans! What a bunch of dolts we are! We need to all just be happy with 6-7 wins a year and don't expect more than that. It's simple! If we get it, great! But don't go off having higher expectations, for crying out loud! We're Minnesota, afterall!!! You leave that high expectations game to the Ohio St.'s, Michigan's, Penn St.'s and Iowa's!
 

Yes, who do you think you are having high expectations, Gopher fans! What a bunch of dolts we are! We need to all just be happy with 6-7 wins a year and don't expect more than that. It's simple! If we get it, great! But don't go off having higher expectations, for crying out loud! We're Minnesota, afterall!!! You leave that high expectations game to the Ohio St.'s, Michigan's, Penn St.'s and Iowa's!

It's called being reasonable and realistic. You desire Big Ten championships, and are disappointed when they come up short. You desire 8 wins, and are disappointed when they come up short, even angry about it. I'm not happy at all about 6-6, but I have the sense to realize that things are getting better here, and we're competing more and more each season. There is growth, some just don't want to acknowledge it. When we stop improving as a team, then I'll be more upset. But when I see OVERALL improvement, not just focusing on a bad offense, but noticing how the entire team improved itself and the teams they beat, I'm just not inclined to get all riled up like that.
 

Yes, who do you think you are having high expectations, Gopher fans! What a bunch of dolts we are! We need to all just be happy with 6-7 wins a year and don't expect more than that. It's simple! If we get it, great! But don't go off having higher expectations, for crying out loud! We're Minnesota, afterall!!! You leave that high expectations game to the Ohio St.'s, Michigan's, Penn St.'s and Iowa's!

And yet, when we finally get a coach who HAS high expectations and openly talks about winning the Big Ten, going to the Rose Bowl, beating USC/Texas, restoring the glory, etc, etc, etc, he's RIPPED MERCILESSLY FOR IT.

Your goals are the same as Coach Brewster's--and he's working his ass off to achieve them. He recruits harder than anyone in the Big Ten. He sleeps in his office. He works hard to get to know his players...and they love him. He holds them to high standards in the classroom. GIVE HIM TIME, PEOPLE.
 

And yet, when we finally get a coach who HAS high expectations and openly talks about winning the Big Ten, going to the Rose Bowl, beating USC/Texas, restoring the glory, etc, etc, etc, he's RIPPED MERCILESSLY FOR IT.

Your goals are the same as Coach Brewster's--and he's working his ass off to achieve them. He recruits harder than anyone in the Big Ten. He sleeps in his office. He works hard to get to know his players...and they love him. He holds them to high standards in the classroom. GIVE HIM TIME, PEOPLE.

+1, optimism often precedes success. Just ask Pete Carroll.

I was inspired by this poster to e-mail Maturi myself. I told him I was impressed with the recruiting, excitement that Brewster has brought to the program, as well as the new stadium. I told him I thought the defense looked more promising than it has in my lifetime, and I told him he should extend Brewster for 2 years with a minimal buyout in case of a worst case scenario.

He e-mailed me back within 20 minutes (!!). He said he had been getting e-mails from a lot of people with different opinions, but that he personally expected Brewster to be the Gopher football coach for a long time to come.

So fellow Gopher lovers like myself should also e-mail Maturi and vouch support for a Brewster contract extension to shore up recruiting. This program has the venue and has gotten some great talent. Barring Brewster's premature departure I hereby predict that Gophers will be playing on New Year's day after the 2011 season! :clap:
 

So fellow Gopher lovers like myself should also e-mail Maturi and vouch support for a Brewster contract extension to shore up recruiting.

This implies that a "Gopher Lover" cannot be disappointed in Brewster. I'm neither a Brewbacker or a fire Brew guy, but I have to say that's quite a box you're trying to put people in there. ;)

On to something unrelated to AhliBobwa's post - I don't think it makes any sense to look at pre-season predictions as evidence of what people expect. Once people see the team play, see the opponents and get a feel for the season, expectations can and should be reasonable adjusted. So in Brew's first year, for example, as the season started progressing anyone who had predicted a 5 or 6 win season should have quickly adjusted their expectations. To cling to pre-season prognostication as having any meaning at all makes no sense to me.

So it's fair to say that plenty of people predicted a 6-win season, but it's an entirely different matter to say after-the-fact that they could have or should have done better than that. In other words, fans have every right to adjust their expectations as the season plays out and more knowledge is gained. Pointing to the 6-win prediction and using that as proof that the Gophers did what people expected is a strawman IMO.
 

This implies that a "Gopher Lover" cannot be disappointed in Brewster. I'm neither a Brewbacker or a fire Brew guy, but I have to say that's quite a box you're trying to put people in there. ;)

On to something unrelated to AhliBobwa's post - I don't think it makes any sense to look at pre-season predictions as evidence of what people expect. Once people see the team play, see the opponents and get a feel for the season, expectations can and should be reasonable adjusted. So in Brew's first year, for example, as the season started progressing anyone who had predicted a 5 or 6 win season should have quickly adjusted their expectations. To cling to pre-season prognostication as having any meaning at all makes no sense to me.

So it's fair to say that plenty of people predicted a 6-win season, but it's an entirely different matter to say after-the-fact that they could have or should have done better than that. In other words, fans have every right to adjust their expectations as the season plays out and more knowledge is gained. Pointing to the 6-win prediction and using that as proof that the Gophers did what people expected is a strawman IMO.

I didn't mean to question whether you love the Gophers or not. My point was that even if Brewster were to be fired in a couple years it would make more sense to extend his contract now, but make arrangements for a very limited buyout in case he is fired. That way Brewster can continue to recruit at a high level and it won't cost the University a boatload if he ultimately needs to be relieved of his duties.
 

This implies that a "Gopher Lover" cannot be disappointed in Brewster. I'm neither a Brewbacker or a fire Brew guy, but I have to say that's quite a box you're trying to put people in there. ;)

On to something unrelated to AhliBobwa's post - I don't think it makes any sense to look at pre-season predictions as evidence of what people expect. Once people see the team play, see the opponents and get a feel for the season, expectations can and should be reasonable adjusted. So in Brew's first year, for example, as the season started progressing anyone who had predicted a 5 or 6 win season should have quickly adjusted their expectations. To cling to pre-season prognostication as having any meaning at all makes no sense to me.

So it's fair to say that plenty of people predicted a 6-win season, but it's an entirely different matter to say after-the-fact that they could have or should have done better than that. In other words, fans have every right to adjust their expectations as the season plays out and more knowledge is gained. Pointing to the 6-win prediction and using that as proof that the Gophers did what people expected is a strawman IMO.

You have a good point, but I would counter that people's changing expectations are often bi-polar based on what they saw in the most recent game, or couple of games. And by the time they come to the season's end, they compare the best of, "We played great against Top Team XYZ" and the worst of "We almost lost to a directional state school and lost to the worst conference opponent on our schedule". Then they compare the almost wins against great teams, and conclude we should've handily beaten the lesser teams. I would not call this version of assessing the team's success fair or accurate, either.
 

I feel the program is at about the same level as it was under Mason. However, with Mason, I felt we had reached the pinnacle of achievement under him as a coach. With Brewster, I feel there is still the chance for improvement. Mason had no upside left, Brewster has plenty. Let's see how those curves look in a couple years.

On a side-note, we completely revamped our offense and defense. One has worked well, the other has not. Basically we traded strengths, for better or worse. Of course, with Mason, I expected that we would always have a terrible defense, with Brewster, I still believe the offense can become potent.

I pretty much agree with Hyaluronic. For a while I believed that with Mason, there was a chance, if the stars were aligned just right, that we could win the Big 10. That belief eventually faded. With Brewster I'm still hoping and believe that we are getting better players at most every position and will soon be able to compete with the top tier in the conference. If we get a QB in the next couple of years who can consistently make good things happen, we might be off to the races. I am far from giving up on Brewster.
 

Interesting that we take credit from Illinois for their bad season after the fact but we don't give any to Northwestern after the fact.

On paper Illinois, Wisconsin and MSU and northwestern were toss ups. After the fact, wiscy and northwestern were better, MSU a toss up and Illinois we should have beat.

Either way there is not 8 should have wins there.
 

1. twitter messages never came from Brewster 2. handling it internally is the only way it should be handled 3. your name being rumored as a coaching candidate is a mess? I guess Tony Dungy is a real mess because people rumored him here.
 

K, let's see how much Brewster's really done (for those of you preaching improvement).

Overall record:
2007: 1-11 (-5)
2008: 7-6 (+6)
2009: 6-6 (-1)**

Result: Same as Mason

Big Ten record:
2007: 0-8 (-3)
2008: 3-5 (+3)
2009: 3-5 (E)

Result: Same as Mason

Record vs rivals:
2007: 0-3 (-1)
2008: 0-3 (E)
2009: 0-2 (E)

Result: Less than Mason

Record vs bowl teams:
2007: 1-8 (-3%)
2008: 2-4 (+22%)
2009: 3-5 (+5%)

Result: 24% better than Mason

Recruiting rank:
2008: 17th (+40)
2009: 39th (-22)
2010: 37th (+2)**

Result: +20 from Mason

In other words: Slightly better overall, but appears to have leveled off.

I'm just providing numbers...
 


Thanks for putting that together.

I'll cherry-pick from your numbers -- he is still improving against bowl-bound teams. I'm not sure if you are including our bowl game against KU in 2008, but if you did, and we beat ISU, there will be a marked improvement in that area. Also considering the increased strength of schedule, the B10 and overall records are not an apples to apples comparison.

Overall, the sample size is too small, and even with the small sample size the results are ambiguous. He deserves more time.
 

Yeah, well, there may have been alcohol involved on that post...
 




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