We should have kept Brewster..

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imthewalrus said:
Hey Ole: Brewster's recruits haven't been at the U of M long enough to have graduated. Just wait and see how they fare. The rate will be going down, down, down, I fear. Just keep your eye on the ball during the next 12 months. Watch what happens with Brewster recruits. Just as when Mason was fired, there will be an exedous of players and that does NOT help graduation rates. This, unfortunately, will be an ongoing problem for a while.

Any way you cut it, macturi has failed big time in his handling of the Football Program.

And we get it, you hated Mason and you loved brewball. Well, at least my record is better than your record in terms of Big Ten wins and wins over border teams and in trophy games in in terms of wins in bowl games over such teams as Oregon, Arkansas, Alabama and wins in places such as Columbus and Ann Arbor.

The failed berwball experiment by macturi was a complete and total disaster.
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Your record? Glen is that you? How do you know Ole is Brew? Your a fan of the program, nothing more nothing less. Well Mase you did have an occasional win in those places but it certainly isn't anything to hang your hat on.

The fact that those are the highlights from the past 2 decades of gopher football shows how bad it has been, not how good You (Mase) were. Please go bleach your teeth, you'll be on cable tv in a couple of days.
 

I don't think there is any question that Brewster should have been canned, but I agree with you that it was too early. Here's why:

1) The message then becomes that the administration does not care about this season and is only looking to the future. Mid-October is too early to tell players that you don't care about this season any more.
2) Sending the message that his season doesn't matter any more in mid-October is going to make a bad situation worse. The worse the team looks and plays now will only hurt the coaching hire process. THe hole keeps getting deeper and deeper (I think MSU might will win by atleast 60 this week). Some potential candidates might look at and feel the hole is too deep. Even for more money, why leave a great situation that I already have?
3) Creates yet more instability. In a program that has had way too much turnover in key positions, this move even created more. Think about it, for the freshman on the team this year, the new coach will be their third head coach in less than a year.
4) Some say it is great that players will leave the program because of this horrible season. That would be fine if this was the NFL and you can just go out and get more players. In college, you can only bring in 25 and back date three. Brewster left this program way short of the 85 when you count the number who signed intial LOI. Giving up on the season too early and leaving a mess for the rest of the season will only add to the numbers problem and create yet another obstactle for hiring and a deeper hole to dig out of. There are around 67-68 elibible players who signed a LOI in the program with a good number who are seniors. This program was already facing a numbers problem. It is only going to get worse.
5) Why make Jeff Horton deal with this mess? I read another post criticizing him for suspending Kirksey. How could he not? If he let's his captain go too far and does nothing, how can expect to have any authority over the others? There is quite a bit of the season left and they are playing three hungry teams (and it is going to start getting COLD). Brewster should have been left to deal with the mess. Let him go the week of the Iowa game. Then Horton truly is an interim coach.
 

imthewalrus said:
Hey Ole: Brewster's recruits haven't been at the U of M long enough to have graduated. Just wait and see how they fare. The rate will be going down, down, down, I fear. Just keep your eye on the ball during the next 12 months. Watch what happens with Brewster recruits. Just as when Mason was fired, there will be a grand scale of departury by players and that does NOT help graduation rates. This, unfortunately, will be an ongoing problem for a while.

Any way you cut it, macturi has failed big time in his handling of the Football Program.

And we get it, you hated Mason and you loved brewball. Well, at least my record is better than your record in terms of Big Ten wins and wins over border teams and in trophy games in in terms of wins in bowl games over such teams as Oregon, Arkansas, Alabama and wins in places such as Columbus and Ann Arbor.

The failed berwball experiment by macturi was a complete and total disaster.
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my record? Your record? What are you talking about?
I supported Brewster, i liked Brewster, he also should have been fired in my opinion after the south dakota game. I supported mason, i didn't like mason, he should have been fired in my opinion in 2005 after the wisconsin game when his players quit before they got to the stadium.
Move on and quit pretending like the mason era was a bright shining moment in college football history.
 

I think you all are missing the big picture...when we fire Brewster meant nothing to the current players, staff, recruiting, coach search because once its a forgone conclusion...when, now or after the last game, means nothing. I think we can all agree it was a forgone conclusion that Brew was done.

That said, the big picture is what the U is doing right now behind the scenes with Mona seeking out the boosters, big corps in the cities and potential new donars from wealthy families to secure the funding we need through donations and committments to secure a big time college football coach.

We need the money and that is what firing Brew now allows us to do...chase money between now and Nov 25th so we have the extra $2-3mil per year we need to get the right guy, build the right staff and start winning football games.
 

Quit trying to "whack" the Mason record as though it was as bad as the Brewster experiment. Prexy B and Macturi have totally messed up the football program any way you cut it. And, Prexy B still doesn't have a clue.

The only good thing we have going is that TCF BANK STADIUM is a ball and chain around the neck of Prexy B, the next Prexy or Prexyette and any Prexy that will inhabit the Prexy's desk at the U of M for the next half century. There will be no more ignoring the football situation as there has been for the past half century.

I've been living as a Gopher Fan from just pre-Warmath through the failed brewball experiment. In terms of total impact, this failed brewball experiment by Prexy B and Maturi is the LOWEST point of Gopher Football ever. Why? Because prior to the failed brewball experiment, the program had regained enough support and backing to fight for and obtain TCF BANK STADIUM. Because of Prexy B and Maturi's failed brewball experiment, there is serious damage to the future of the program. Basically, the new stadium effect has been totally negated in only the second year of the stadium. That stadium is ALL we have to represent the future of Gopher Football. Right now, that stadium is a total contrast to the state of the Football Program. The beautiful brick facade of the stadium does NOT coincide with the state of disrepair of the football program and the leadership of that program. Not even Dave Mona can put lipstick on the Maturi as a leader image. I fear that the lame duck prexy b and Maturi will prove to be a tough sell for Mona. I think the promise of throwing Maturi under the bus will do more to attract money for the football program than anything Dave Mona can manufacture as incentive for people to shell out bucks for the moves that will need to be made.
 


No one is trying to "whack" Mason's record. We are just point out that in the all important BigTen wins minus BigTen loses it is not good, better than his replacement, but not good. The football program is NOT in a state of disrepair, it can and will be fixed with the right hire.

Although Maturi missed in the biggest hire of his career his other hires (or recommended candidates) have been very good hires.
 

Silvio said:
But it is foolish to think that the U has some sort of head start in the race to hire the next coach. Potential coaches have a decent idea which jobs will be open and which ones they want to consider.
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Really? How many coaching searches have you led?
 

Football is the ONE that counts. Check that out with virtually all D-1 athletic departments.
 




iamthewalrus, the academic progress of the players may be a lagging indicator, but the question remains--and it is a valid question--would the progress have been there had Mason remained coach?
 


imthewalrus said:
Quit trying to "whack" the Mason record as though it was as bad as the Brewster experiment. Prexy B and Macturi have totally messed up the football program any way you cut it. And, Prexy B still doesn't have a clue.

The only good thing we have going is that TCF BANK STADIUM is a ball and chain around the neck of Prexy B, the next Prexy or Prexyette and any Prexy that will inhabit the Prexy's desk at the U of M for the next half century. There will be no more ignoring the football situation as there has been for the past half century.

I've been living as a Gopher Fan from just pre-Warmath through the failed brewball experiment. In terms of total impact, this failed brewball experiment by Prexy B and Maturi is the LOWEST point of Gopher Football ever. Why? Because prior to the failed brewball experiment, the program had regained enough support and backing to fight for and obtain TCF BANK STADIUM. Because of Prexy B and Maturi's failed brewball experiment, there is serious damage to the future of the program. Basically, the new stadium effect has been totally negated in only the second year of the stadium. That stadium is ALL we have to represent the future of Gopher Football. Right now, that stadium is a total contrast to the state of the Football Program. The beautiful brick facade of the stadium does NOT coincide with the state of disrepair of the football program and the leadership of that program. Not even Dave Mona can put lipstick on the Maturi as a leader image. I fear that the lame duck prexy b and Maturi will prove to be a tough sell for Mona. I think the promise of throwing Maturi under the bus will do more to attract money for the football program than anything Dave Mona can manufacture as incentive for people to shell out bucks for the moves that will need to be made.
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Which has nothing to do with the program's academic progress, which was what I tried to call you out on, the one thing that Brewster made better.
BTW I also thought Maturi should have resigned when Brewster was fired, and I have no faith whatsoever in our administration right now.
I simply wanted to call a spade a spade and remind you that our academics were worse off late under mason, largely due to many members of his 05 and 06 classes either failing out or transferring away for various reasons.
Your rant is an aside from the point I was trying to make. We do have the stadium, we do have tradition and history. IMO we do have athletic talent and good potential in our players.
We just need a coach and a groundswell of support for the program, which will come if a new coach wins here.
 

De-commits so far= ZERO????

Say what you will about Brewster, but it looks like he was clearly recruiting guys who were more interested in the potential of Minnesota than the potential of Tim Brewster.

And which would you rather have:

Mike Leach and Phil Fulmer reminding everyone throughout the country that Minnesota is a good HC hire away from being able to compete with the best in college football,

or...

Tim Brewster trying to tell everyone that losing to South Dakota and Northern Illinois (at home) in Year #4 is just a layover on the way to the Rose Bowl??

It looks like absolutely everything is being done by the administration and remaining staff to keep things neat and clean for the next HC. I couldn't have been a bigger critic of the U in 2006 and 2007, but I have no complaints with the things they are doing to get out of this mess.
 



Goldmember said:
Say what you will about Brewster, but it looks like he was clearly recruiting guys who were more interested in the potential of Minnesota than the potential of Tim Brewster.
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Too bad they weren't that good...
 


imthewalrus said:
can you IMAGINE what the chants at the games would have been by now????? Can you IMAGINE the number of complaints that the University of Minnesota would have received through their fund-raising efforts and e-mails to the ticket office, macturi's office and prexy b's office? There would have been demonstrations, protests and images of brewster, macturi and prexy b hanging, burning and being put in mocking and compromising positions just outside the stadium.

This is the lowest I have EVER seen Gopher Football sink.

Good for the acting coaching staff for not tolerating lack of sufficient academic progress. Good for them for cracking down on players who do NOT represent the University of Minnesota the way it needs to be represented. Lack of discipline was growning throughout the brewster reign of terror and horror.

IF players don't value their scholarships to the University of Minnesota get them OUT of there right NOW. Be tough and be disciplined when dealing with these scholarship players. Win or lose, these players need to be held to standards set by the University of Minnesota. They need to be good citizens and they need to be positive leaders. They need to command respect and in turn GIVE respect. They have been given much...expect much from them in terms of representing the University of Minnesota as scholarship student athletes. There is not a single one of them who are bigger than life or are immune to following ALL of the rules. IF they don't want to be here, get them OUT of here. Enough is too much with the undisciplined, out of control student athletes at the U of M. The football program has become what the football program has allowed itself to become.

Tighten it up. Make it honorable. Give it discipline. There is NO room for what has been going on in the football program under brewster and macturi.
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Can you IMAGINE not CAPITALIZING so many WORDS in every post YOU write?
 

I'm a fan of the redundant punctuation. Not only are there questions in there, there are incredulous questions.
 


I love how wren (and make no mistake walrus is wren who was banned on this site) talks about Grinning Glen's record in rivalry games like it wasn't horrific. If you got an F on a test and the kid who follows you in class gets the same grade, but a lower percentage...you both still failed. Arguing your superiority over the kid who got 52% when you got 54% makes you look pretty silly, especially in this case when you (Glen Mason) had many more chances to succeed and continued to fail miserably.

As for the original post (surprise, surprise Wren hijacks a thread), I think you could argue that Brewster should have been allowed to finish the season, but the public needed to know he was gone after Purdue/before the next home game. It had gotten to the point where the crowd would have been too negative/hostile and the entire focus of the gameday would have been fire Brewster chants and TV announcers speculating on when it would happen.
 

Silvio said:
Their is an advantage, but you don't have to fire you current coach before you contact a possible replacement. This is even more true if you are using back channels or a search firm type service to make unofficial inquiries.
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Ethically, you CAN'T hire a search firm to conduct back channel communications while you still employ a full-time head coach who has not been informed he has been fired. You just can't. That would be bush league, low class stuff. If you want to hire a search firm and begin paying them money from the U's budget and begin back channel discussions, then you MUST fire the current coach or at a minimum tell him he won't be returning the following year. In this case, the wise choice was to simply end the relationship and begin looking for a new dance partner.

Silvio said:
An employed coach can't interview now anyways.
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Maybe, maybe not. But, at a minimum, you can gauge interest and lay the groundwork for an interview, get your ducks in row, and do so in good conscious. You start setting those things up with a full-time coach currently employed and you could be in for an embarrassment (see Auburn a few years ago with the Tuberville/Petrino fiasco).
 


thailleagle said:
Too bad they weren't that good...
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I still see talent on the roster. It just needs to be developed and coached.

Only a complete freak should be starting as a Freshman against Ohio State.
 

Dead wrong, people turn off leaders who can can only cheer lead when things start going consistently wrong. I don't mean a coach has to rip his team publicly, but when we play as badly as we did against SoDak and NIU, and we are still talking publicly about seeing positive developments, the coach loses credibility with his team. They know they sucked, telling them they are not that far away has no truth to it at all when you play that badly three weeks in a row.
I think the kids genuinely liked Brewster, but I also believe they had stopped believing he knew what to do to right the ship.
 



imthewalrus said:
can you IMAGINE what the chants at the games would have been by now????? Can you IMAGINE the number of complaints that the University of Minnesota would have received through their fund-raising efforts and e-mails to the ticket office, macturi's office and prexy b's office? There would have been demonstrations, protests and images of brewster, macturi and prexy b hanging, burning and being put in mocking and compromising positions just outside the stadium.
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Agreed. Brewster was not fired so that the Gophers could win more games <i>this season</i>. He was fired to stop the bleeding and the despair, by making it clear there would be a new coach next year. We could have brought in the best coach in the country as the interim coach, it wouldn't have affected the results too much, it is very hard to turn around a program that quickly.

Now, there is a still a lot of despair among fans, but it may have been greater if Brewster had still been here. Perhaps the Gophers may not have lost to Ohio State quite as badly if Brewster had been here, perhaps not. I don't think this says anything about Horton's abilities as a coach. Brewster is in charge of leading the whole team, and it's like turning a supertanker, it doesn't turn easily. I expect Horton to wind up with a new job, either as some team's OC or as a lower level HC.
 

gophmeister said:
Who cares if a few bad apples leave. Good for them.
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We know very little about our young "apples," because the coaching staff does not have an eye for talent/talent development. If the team can stay intact, I expect some huge surprises to emerge next spring/fall.
 

Flexible Grammarians, fight on!

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Firing Brewster

Firing Brewster when we did was the right thing to do.

Not buying they were playing "for Horton" against Penn State. Pretty confident that was a tribute to Brewster by the players.

Gopher football is in better shape now than what it was five years ago.

Maturi is a good guy and does a good job. He screwed up in hiring Brewster. He had limitations to work with. He doesn't this time. Let's be patient enough to see who he hires this time.

When the season started we all thought next year was going to be Brewster's best based on personnel. At 1 and 7 the Gophers were a couple plays from winning each of those games. Lost them all by 11 points or less or something without looking it up except for one. Our coaching is not a who's who. A good head coach and staff can make us respectable next year. The last three weeks are going to be ugly...again coaching far more than players.

Brewster would still be here if he hadn't lost the two non conference cupcake games or if he had gotten them over the hump to beat USC.

My opinion, it is way more we can't coach than it is we can't play.

Rip a way.
 

60's Guy said:
When the season started we all thought next year was going to be Brewster's best based on personnel. At 1 and 7 the Gophers were a couple plays from winning each of those games. Lost them all by 11 points or less or something without looking it up except for one.
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???????

Wrong Season????

...(just for Khaliq)...
 

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