If we fire Brewster we will handicap our program for another 10 years!

[lakesgopher]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!

[Maroon]

5) by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!



And as soon as we rip off 10 or 12 straight wins, including some over ranked opponents, I'll forget about the struggles against SDSU. When do you foresee that happening?

[RedPoo]

And as soon as we rip off 10 or 12 straight wins, including some over ranked opponents, I'll forget about the struggles against SDSU. When do you foresee that happening?


This guy doesn't get it! At all!!!

[RedPoo]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!


Well said! :clap:

[Assashian]

This guy doesn't get it! At all!!!

I don't have an actual retort, so I'm just going to post some generic cliche with lots of exclamation points!!!!!!

Wait, Tim, is that you?

[gophersfan]

no no no. he not gonna get fired.

[NewEngland_Gold]

Here, the extreme, instant gratification solution for all Minny's, 40-year lower-tier ills is: "FIRE BREWSTER NOW!"

From my distant reading of the threads, this isn't the current view of most Holers.

[i'm batman]

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.



i have noticed this as well.

if people would give the guy the chance he deserves, then we might actually see 10 to 12 wins in a row on a regular basis.

i forgot that ferenz came into iowa and started ripping off 10 wins in a row right away, didn't he?

[Khaliq]

TITAN! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.

Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refus'd thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine--and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.

Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself--and equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.

[jll62]

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!


Very nice post! I agree with nearly everything, except for the "play gray" comments in #8. Please dispose with any argument that states he "hasn't looked good yet". The TD drive against OSU's 2nd team defense cannot be ruled out simply because their starters were out of the game. We should also remember that OSU was trying to protect a shutout (so there was incentive for them to play hard) plus many of those 2nd tier guys would be starters at 6 or 7 Big Ten schools. How many TD drives did Weber lead against PSU, OSU, or SDSU? Gray looked poised, confident, and clearly caused some concern for the OSU defense in a situation where they realized he was a threat to throw or run.

With that being said, great post. I especially agree with #4. I haven't seen this much excitement and fan support around the program since the brief Holtz era. This is due in large part to Brewster's enthusiasm and positivity about the program. That cannot be a negative, so people need to get off his back about his championship comments. You need to lay out the goals and strive towards them. Being "realistic" has no place when dealing with confidence in sports.

[NewEngland_Gold]

TITAN! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.

Titan! to thee the strife was given
Between the suffering and the will,
Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refus'd thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine--and thou hast borne it well.
All that the Thunderer wrung from thee
Was but the menace which flung back
On him the torments of thy rack;
The fate thou didst so well foresee,
But would not to appease him tell;
And in thy Silence was his Sentence,
And in his Soul a vain repentance,
And evil dread so ill dissembled,
That in his hand the lightnings trembled.

Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,
Still in thy patient energy,
In the endurance, and repulse
Of thine impenetrable Spirit,
Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit:
Thou art a symbol and a sign
To Mortals of their fate and force;
Like thee, Man is in part divine,
A troubled stream from a pure source;
And Man in portions can foresee
His own funereal destiny;
His wretchedness, and his resistance,
And his sad unallied existence:
To which his Spirit may oppose
Itself--and equal to all woes,
And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy,
And making Death a Victory.

A memorial tribute to?

Please don't leave mere mortal Holers guessing...that's too cruel.:cry:

[Khaliq]

tryin' to class this joint up with some byron, yo

[NewEngland_Gold]

Very nice post! I agree with nearly everything, except for the "play gray" comments in #8. Please dispose with any argument that states he "hasn't looked good yet". The TD drive against OSU's 2nd team defense cannot be ruled out simply because their starters were out of the game. We should also remember that OSU was trying to protect a shutout (so there was incentive for them to play hard) plus many of those 2nd tier guys would be starters at 6 or 7 Big Ten schools. How many TD drives did Weber lead against PSU, OSU, or SDSU? Gray looked poised, confident, and clearly caused some concern for the OSU defense in a situation where they realized he was a threat to throw or run.

With that being said, great post. I especially agree with #4. I haven't seen this much excitement and fan support around the program since the brief Holtz era. This is due in large part to Brewster's enthusiasm and positivity about the program. That cannot be a negative, so people need to get off his back about his championship comments. You need to lay out the goals and strive towards them. Being "realistic" has no place when dealing with confidence in sports.

Interesting take...I've always thought that being successful on the field...or expecting to be successful...led to a higher confidence level and even more success in the future. Maybe that approach is not being in touch with reality or being "realistic".

[50PoundHead]

I think setting the program back ten years is an overstatement, but it would mean starting over from square one yet again and would likely mean at least three-to-five years of frustration.

[JackiO]

I think setting the program back ten years is an overstatement, but it would mean starting over from square one yet again and would likely mean at least three-to-five years of frustration.

You see, if we actually hired a good coach who knew what was going on, people would actually realize it does not take that long to rebuild or even use the "rebuild" term. That is an excuse poor football programs use to sleep at night. Oh...yea we are going to be bad for three or four or five years but than things will start picking up. Um......yea. First case in point: Wisconsin didn't miss a beat hiring Bielema. Look at Harbaugh in Stanford. Didn't have the best record his first two years but he has now beat USC 2 of the 3 years he has been there and thoroughly destroyed Oregon and USC in back to back games. Man I'm jealous of Stanford.

Edit - Didn't mean to call you out meant "rebuilding" as a whole.:p

[sonnygarcia]

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

1) You means 3 years and 36 games??? I may be missing something here, is that case, my bad.

3) I've witnessed this year, in person, the G's having a first and goal from the 6" inch line and run passing plays that have results in 10 losses and FGs (Wisco and Illinois). Probably the two worst play calling sequences I have ever witnessed. Obviously your comment is all relative, but I just had to bring these situations up because I nearly jumped 10 ft in the air each time.

4) Is this because of Brew or because of a $300m state of the art stadium???? I'm guessing since Brew has been here the prior two years and the support wasn't there that its because of the stadium.

6) While I agree the revolving coordinators is terrible, what makes you think it won't continue under Brew?? Why not get a coach in here who has loyal people under him who we know would stick around? And we kept Mason for 10 years, just b/c we'd get rid of a coach after 3 years of crap, I'm sure the guy could look past that, given he has any confidence at all.

9) You'd rather get blown out 55-0 than play a game where we proved for half of the time we were the better team, then proved the other half we weren't the better team??? I guess I'd take the close loss and hope at some point we'd learn to execute the one extra play that be in a situation where we cannot even take any positives from it???


I'm not saying Brew needs to be fired right now, but I do believe he has one more year to show improvement or he's gone. Some of your logic for keeping him on and giving him more and more chances I just don't agree with.

[Maroon]

This guy doesn't get it! At all!!!

Fail.

[Doogie]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!

About to dig into Vikes work ... just reacting to the headline for now, and I will preface this take with this: I believe Brewster deserves a 4th year ... but if you think this program in a weak Big Ten would be handicapped for 10 years, you are nuts ... they could get a 1-A head coach from another school who is winning at a high level relatively easily ... so would that guy put the program back 10-years?

[Halsey Hall]

Agreed! Let's let Brew be the one to handicap our program for another 10 years

[RedPoo]

About to dig into Vikes work ... just reacting to the headline for now, and I will preface this take with this: I believe Brewster deserves a 4th year ... but if you think this program in a weak Big Ten would be handicapped for 10 years, you are nuts ... they could get a 1-A head coach from another school who is winning at a high level relatively easily ... so would that guy put the program back 10-years?

Yeah, on second thought, I agree with the thought...the ten year time frame is a bit extreme. But I think most people would agree that canning Brew now would set back the program at least a couple years. And you have to take into account who we could afford to hire at this point...even if we had a program that could lure a top coach here (and don't believe that firing a 3rd year coach who's been performing at program-average and dramatically out-recruiting his predecessors would make that easier), we don't have the money to pay them next year.

[jovs]

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?


I disagree with this quote, Mason was a terrible recruiter but his teams were well coached, well prepared, and they improved throughout the season. He tended to get the most out of the players he had. That is not the case with Brewster. I don't know how Brewster will turn out but as of now he does not compare to Mason as a coach.

Example: Cupito was marginal the first year he was a starter, not nearly as good as Weber was. After three years Cupito was a very proficient starter, Weber's output has regressed.

[50PoundHead]

I guess we were watching different teams during the Mason years. I thought Gordy Shaw did a nice job with the O-line, but other than that, only Mitch Browning would be what I would call anywhere near successful with the Gopher program. I never thought Mason's teams were well prepared at all. If the running game didn't work, we were totally sunk. And the defense was consistently terrible.

And as for that running game, to me, it was the ground version of the spread (not in how it lined up obviously), but that it was based on line techniques that the opposition rarely faced. When playing against comparable teams it worked very well, but as good as Mason's O-lines were against smaller defenses, stronger athletic defenses usually tore it up. And there was never any sophisticated passing game to take pressure off the run. If Mason's teams were truly prepared, they would have been more than a one-trick pony on offense and given the upper echelon teams in the Big 10 more to think about on an annual basis.

Further, Mason had fallen into the "every three/four years" cycle in that he would install guys and play them every snap for three straight years (at least on offense) and by their senior years, a team would be in place that might have a chance to finish in the top half of the Big 10.

Lastly, and I think this is truly what got Mason fired, is that he had lost the support of nearly every high school coach and athletic director in the state.

In brief, Mason was a decent football guy who I think was lazy and arrogant and the jury had enough time to deliver a sensible verdict on him. The verdict may be the same on Brewster, but I believe he'll get one more year to make what might be his closing argument.

[oak_street1981]

[QUOTE=50PoundHead;130713]I guess we were watching different teams during the Mason years. I thought Gordy Shaw did a nice job with the O-line, but other than that, only Mitch Browning would be what I would call anywhere near successful with the Gopher program. I never thought Mason's teams were well prepared at all. If the running game didn't work, we were totally sunk. And the defense was consistently terrible.

And as for that running game, to me, it was the ground version of the spread (not in how it lined up obviously), but that it was based on line techniques that the opposition rarely faced. When playing against comparable teams it worked very well, but as good as Mason's O-lines were against smaller defenses, stronger athletic defenses usually tore it up. And there was never any sophisticated passing game to take pressure off the run. If Mason's teams were truly prepared, they would have been more than a one-trick pony on offense and given the upper echelon teams in the Big 10 more to think about on an annual basis.

or at similar passing yardage relative to these Brewster teams, if the passing game was so bad????

The Mason teams usually often approached 6000 or more yards in offense. Our glorious Brewster offense has 3300 yards through 11 games. Add another 140 next week.

Before you comment again on those awful defenses of the past, check out where the 2009 falls team in the Big Ten season D rankings. It isn't pretty, although the offense is more objectionable.

These Brewster football teams are almost unwatchable.

[50PoundHead]

I guess I'm just tired of the revisionism being applied to the Mason years by some. He had his run and he had hit his peak. He wasn't a very good coach. If he were, he'd be doing something except sitting next to Gary DiNardo at the Big 10 Network.

Where does it say I'm happy with what's happened this season?

[Bronko Nagurski Gopher]

About to dig into Vikes work ... just reacting to the headline for now, and I will preface this take with this: I believe Brewster deserves a 4th year ... but if you think this program in a weak Big Ten would be handicapped for 10 years, you are nuts ... they could get a 1-A head coach from another school who is winning at a high level relatively easily ... so would that guy put the program back 10-years?

and why does this piece of information matter to anyone here?! ;)

[Takingstock]

I think lakesgopher was right on for the most part. I still support Brewster. I do think the play calling at goal line lost us the Wisconsin and Illinois games. Also the off. coord. even admitted he got greedy for the big paly against Ill. How much better would we all feel if we had won those two games. So I think the inability to call plays that match the ability of the all the offense and not just Weber has been a big handicap for 2009. But I am not calling for a new O.C. as I feel he and the players can learn his system and he can learn the best qualities of his own players if they stay the course. One of the reasons Iowa is so good year after year is the consistent program. The players know THEIR system frontwards and backwards and can make adjustments throughout the game, so they win by a few points instead of lose by a few.

[lakesgopher]

You see, if we actually hired a good coach who knew what was going on, people would actually realize it does not take that long to rebuild or even use the "rebuild" term. That is an excuse poor football programs use to sleep at night. Oh...yea we are going to be bad for three or four or five years but than things will start picking up. Um......yea. First case in point: Wisconsin didn't miss a beat hiring Bielema. Look at Harbaugh in Stanford. Didn't have the best record his first two years but he has now beat USC 2 of the 3 years he has been there and thoroughly destroyed Oregon and USC in back to back games. Man I'm jealous of Stanford.

Edit - Didn't mean to call you out meant "rebuilding" as a whole.:p

the difference in bielema was the fact he didnt have bare cupboards when he walked in the door! that is a stupid comparison! i will give it to harbaugh he is getting it done, but before you compare wisky to minny, you need to look at the overall team being inherited! mason had barely any big ten athletes when he left bielema was ranked coming into his coaching term!

[lakesgopher]

About to dig into Vikes work ... just reacting to the headline for now, and I will preface this take with this: I believe Brewster deserves a 4th year ... but if you think this program in a weak Big Ten would be handicapped for 10 years, you are nuts ... they could get a 1-A head coach from another school who is winning at a high level relatively easily ... so would that guy put the program back 10-years?

im guessing guys like gray and alipate, keanon cooper, edwards, etc etc etc would love to start from scratch and get beaten on for another 2-3 years and keep having average seasons instead of doing something like, sitting out a year and tranfer to another major conference school where playing time and established recruiting would be already in place! im guessing every player brew recruited would stay in minny, because in coaching transitions players never leave!!! this would keep happening every 3-4 years, it would be very difficult to bounce back from firing a coach every 3 years due to lack of championships or at least averaging 8+ win seasons. so yes it could handicap a program for many years because few coaches would want to be put through that torture...prime example, oakland raiders...what coach in his right mind would want that job...if we get into a habit of cutting coaches every so many years we would become the oakland raiders

[GopherGod]

the difference in bielema was the fact he didnt have bare cupboards when he walked in the door! that is a stupid comparison! i will give it to harbaugh he is getting it done, but before you compare wisky to minny, you need to look at the overall team being inherited! mason had barely any big ten athletes when he left bielema was ranked coming into his coaching term!


That is not what Brewster said, he said he had good talent when he took over here and was fortunate it was not a rebuilding job. However, lets assume he lied then, if the talent is so poor than why is it that more of his star recruits cannot unseat this poor talent for more playing time. After all, he isn't in a position where he has the luxury to sit his best players to wait for next year.

[Doogie]

im guessing guys like gray and alipate, keanon cooper, edwards, etc etc etc would love to start from scratch and get beaten on for another 2-3 years and keep having average seasons instead of doing something like, sitting out a year and tranfer to another major conference school where playing time and established recruiting would be already in place! im guessing every player brew recruited would stay in minny, because in coaching transitions players never leave!!! this would keep happening every 3-4 years, it would be very difficult to bounce back from firing a coach every 3 years due to lack of championships or at least averaging 8+ win seasons. so yes it could handicap a program for many years because few coaches would want to be put through that torture...prime example, oakland raiders...what coach in his right mind would want that job...if we get into a habit of cutting coaches every so many years we would become the oakland raiders

The Raiders are the most dysfunctional team in all of professional sports ... tough to make the comparison with the "U" ... many examples of coaches in the last few years who have not hit rock-bottom in year No. 1 (Pelini, Snyder again at KSU this year, Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, Paul Rhoads, Brian Kelly, Mark Dantonio, Dan Mullen this year to a degree in the toughest conference, Dennis Erickson (bad since, but awesome in year No. 1) ... )

[MaxyJR1]

I don't endorse firing Brew unless you bring in someone like Dungy or a "kill shot". I don't think it would be starting over if a great coach was brought in to coach up Brewster's recruits.

[lakesgopher]

The Raiders are the most dysfunctional team in all of professional sports ... tough to make the comparison with the "U" ... many examples of coaches in the last few years who have not hit rock-bottom in year No. 1 (Pelini, Snyder again at KSU this year, Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, Paul Rhoads, Brian Kelly, Mark Dantonio, Dan Mullen this year to a degree in the toughest conference, Dennis Erickson (bad since, but awesome in year No. 1) ... )


your right it was an extreme comparison, one that was not to be taken to heart as you just did! my point was if you fire a coach every 3 years we are doomed in the future and if you deny that then i have to assume your football knowledge is lacking. i would bet money that if we compared all of those first year rosters to minny's you would laugh at the difference in athletes and talent! you have got to be kidding me!

[lakesgopher]

That is not what Brewster said, he said he had good talent when he took over here and was fortunate it was not a rebuilding job. However, lets assume he lied then, if the talent is so poor than why is it that more of his star recruits cannot unseat this poor talent for more playing time. After all, he isn't in a position where he has the luxury to sit his best players to wait for next year.

what is he going to say when he walks into the door when he is being as positive as he can be? we wont win with this group but i want to develop my recruits behind the scenes and put them in together when they are ready? then you would have had chaos in the locker rooms and players not giving it their all as well as undersized, under developed freshmen taking over to get their ass kicked before they are ready. its always better to have a group of recruits who redshirt and grow with a program then take true frosh and throw them to the wolves...some individuals have success but i dont think any team of all true frosh and redshirt frosh would succeed

[Section2]

I disagree with this quote, Mason's teams were well coached, well prepared, and they improved throughout the season.
WHAT???? How many teams started off hot and were average to terrible by the end of the year? Stewart Mendel finally refused to rank them before the 6th game of the year. Some of you really are good at revising history in your mind.

[Doogie]

your right it was an extreme comparison, one that was not to be taken to heart as you just did! my point was if you fire a coach every 3 years we are doomed in the future and if you deny that then i have to assume your football knowledge is lacking. i would bet money that if we compared all of those first year rosters to minny's you would laugh at the difference in athletes and talent! you have got to be kidding me!

Mason left 4 to 5 win talent, but not bowl talent like some suggest.

[Doogie]

your right it was an extreme comparison, one that was not to be taken to heart as you just did! my point was if you fire a coach every 3 years we are doomed in the future and if you deny that then i have to assume your football knowledge is lacking. i would bet money that if we compared all of those first year rosters to minny's you would laugh at the difference in athletes and talent! you have got to be kidding me!

Doomed in the future if they hired, say, Kevin Sumlin, Al Golden, Butch Jones, David Cutcliffe, or Darrell Bevell (all very, very realistic ... and certainly the coaches at Utah, Cincy, and other places are worth shooting for)? I would bet not.

[Izatys98]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!


Let's debate...
1) He's had 3 years on the field. We are no better or worse off than we were under the previous regime. So-so records with trips to bowls that are the result of beating the lower tier B10 teams and weak non-con opponents (AFA perhaps excluded). If we were subpar by your standards before, we still are. I would prefer that the new coach would have raised the bar in terms of performance. After all, isn't that why the decision was made back then?

2) I'm sorry but this may be the dumbest thing I've ever read. Coaches don't have the luxury of keeping their best players on the bench to read up and prepare for next season. They know that. I'm not on the coaching staff and I do trust them to be the best gauge of player talent. That means I believe they know who is the best player to fill the starting and backup slots. If the recruits were that good, they'd be playing now and the seniors from the previous regime (largely) would be sitting.

3) I'll give you that "maybe" he's not a bad on-the-field coach. But part of being a good coach is attracting and retaining the right staff. Roof's departure is an indication that it's not always possible or easy to do so. But... He's on his 3rd D coordinator, 2nd O coordinator and radically redefined the offensive philosophy in his first three years. This to me is very telling and troubling and I am worried that he'll sacrifice Fisch at the end of the season and we'll have our 3rd O coordinator and we'll have to live through another year of built-in excuses. Stability is about more than just the head coach...

4) I've gone to games at Memorial, the Dome and now TCF. It's the stadium...

5) Just win one or two and I would agree with you...

6) If the talent is as good as we are told and with the new facilities, we should have no problem finding an interested and qualified candidate or two. The only drawback is that the incoming coach's agent would likely demand and extract an expensive contract laddened with early withdrawal penalties and fees.

7) You are absolutely right.

8) You make it sound like Brewster is a victim here. He showed Dunbar the door and I don't think he cried to much when Withers (?) left. Only Roof's departure was an undesirable loss. Brewster controls the coordinators' comings and goings. This is on him and him alone. Booing college players is not something I condone. I agree with you there.

9) Instead of saying I'd rather lose this way instead of that way, I long for the day that we debate the ways in which we achieve meaningful victories. Other than the Holtz blip and a few years during the Mason regime, we haven't really had that luxury. Unfortunately Brewster has the distinction having the worst season record in school history, the worst home shutout loss in school history, and a loss to NDSU on his record. It's going to be tough for you to find sympathy from me in terms of which coach you'd rather see lose a game (or games) and how as the Gopher head coach....

Respectfully.

[StartGrayPlz]

You can't fire a guy until his first class of recruits graduate imo. We haven't even had a chance to see what Gray can do as the full time starter.

[50PoundHead]

Mason left 4 to 5 win talent, but not bowl talent like some suggest.

My impression as well Doogie. It's been disputed by some and their arguments are not without merit, but a 2007 Gopher team under Mason would have had a very inexperienced QB, the loss of Matt Spaeth, lack of depth at RB (and we have to remember Pinnix was injured in 2007, so unless Mason put Benny Hinn on the staff, he wouldn't have been at full speed), and that same lousy defense.

Going over the schedule for 2007, a case could be made that the team could have finished 6-6 at its top end, but I'm with you in thinking more 4-8/5-7.

[lakesgopher]

Mason left 4 to 5 win talent, but not bowl talent like some suggest.

eden prairie had a better defense in 07 then the gophs...we were sooooooo slow and bad! willie was hurt all year, lost a jones and who else on the rape deal, 1-2 wins was what i expected. your a joke if you think we had more left over talent then lets say...michigan. how many wins did rich rod have his first year? no way did we have 4-5 win talent.

[Doogie]

eden prairie had a better defense in 07 then the gophs...we were sooooooo slow and bad! willie was hurt all year, lost a jones and who else on the rape deal, 1-2 wins was what i expected. your a joke if you think we had more left over talent then lets say...michigan. how many wins did rich rod have his first year? no way did we have 4-5 win talent.

Let me clarify slightly ... with Mason still as the coach they would've won 4 or 5 games ... I get that a new coach, 1st time ever above the high school level running everything, there would be adjustments ... odd thing, didn't they lose 7-games by 7-points or less? A better decision here or there, and they would've won 4-games.

[lakesgopher]

Let me clarify slightly ... with Mason still as the coach they would've won 4 or 5 games ... I get that a new coach, 1st time ever above the high school level running everything, there would be adjustments ... odd thing, didn't they lose 7-games by 7-points or less? A better decision here or there, and they would've won 4-games.

or the better teams found ways to win

[lakesgopher]

by the way i think brew still has to prove a lot, but im all in with whoever is our head coach...i think any coach in our situation deserves 5 years...if its the same old story then yes we start all over again...but i really dont think changing our coaches every 3 years because of mediocre seasons is for the birds

[Doogie]

lakesgopher -- you and I butt heads, but we agree on this: Give him next year when 95% of the starters will be his guys, and maybe 100% (if Gray starts, open competition come spring, and if some of his guys beat out Mason recruits Bennett, Jacobs, and Collado) ... make next year the big-time evaluation year.

[gophermartin]

Lakes...I'm on board...and wanted to make sure you got my support on your post.

I'm not sure about 10 years...but 5+ I agree with.

No good coach would come here ... knowing they could get canned after just 3 years.

I'm excited to see what another 2 years of developing recuits can bring. We have been catching a glimpse...Carter, Cooper, Stoudermire, etc.

I've also been on record saying that to ensure recruiting doesn't suffer that brewster be extended....even if we can him in 2 or 3 more year...we can't afford ANY down years in recruiting (caused by perceived lame duck status...from no contract extension).

I believe he really has had only 2 recruting classes. The 1st one doesn't count as he was hired so late...(an indictment of Maturi for not making a change until AFTER the bowl game).

GM

[BigDaddyWeave]

Everybody on this site always seems to talk about talent. Talent is great only if you can coach and teach it, anything else is just hype. The funny thing is this, no one ever talks about the fact that in 3 years he hasn't become any smarter at clock management. Glaring example, Wisconsin at home in the first half. We get the ball with 1:43 (aprox) and 2 time outs. Wisky gets the ball in the 2nd half, what does Brew do? Yup, he tries to run out the clock (basically) and goes in to the half with both of his time outs in his pocket (the security guard had to remind him that he can't take then into the locker room and bring them back in the 2nd half, and subsequently confiscated them just as they did my friends flask (but I digresss)). Fast-forward to Saturdays debacle of a win at home vs a 1-AA opponent. Coming out of a time out on basically the goal line, his team has to call another time out just to avoid having a flag thrown for delay of game. Again, this guys an idiot when it comes to managing a game. The odd thing here is that he has zero experience at either coordinator position, zero major conference head coaching experience, zero mid-major / lower championship sub-division experience, and only has had 1 stint as a head coach in HS. I mean, this guy was never even a top assistant under any major program...but he did recruit well in TX so that makes him head coaching material. I would like to point out that Brew had nothing to do with the stadium approval process, nothing to do with the initial design, nothing to do with initial campaigning, nothing to do with much of anything other than designing a giant "M" in the players locker room. "Gopher Nation", formerly known as "Gold Country", was built thanks to the stadium, not coach Brew. Here's my point to ponder, would you feel comfortable taking orders from a guy that has proven nothing? I would hate working for a boss who has less experience than me...and yet he's the guy making the calls. He fires Dunbar when Dunbar probably was the better candidate to coach the team than Tim himself... this is worst than the blind leading the blind people, this is a situation where the blind (Brew) is trying to lead a bunch of fully competent coaches actually have their eyes open!

Having said all of that, I'm for a 4th year. I need to see Keanon Cooper, Gray, and the collection of highly touted wide-outs make an impact (or fall on their faces) before I decide this guys gone. So far, all I've seen is an inability to make Mason's slow and inferior (talent-wise) any better...and definitely a collection of completely boneheaded on-field moves. I honestly haven't seen this level of ineptitude around a major conference football team (or pro level for that matter), since Mike Tice.

Is anyone else actually hoping they make it to the pizza bowl? I'm wondering if my season ticket status will afford me any discounts via email on throwing a Gopher pizza party during the game...that would be sweet (and maybe they'll send me some free chex mix to boot!).

[RedPoo]

Everybody on this site always seems to talk about talent. Talent is great only if you can coach and teach it, anything else is just hype.

Welcome to the hole, Weave.
I agree with pretty much all of this in principle. The issue we're in is that, while the coaching on the field has looked suspect at best, the level of recruiting is the best I've ever seen here. Even the best game-day coach can't take us to the top of the Big Ten without talent (and we couldn't afford the best game-day coach anyway).
So, yeah. Gotta give him at least another year. If it's obvious he can't win with his talent, we go find a coach who could win with the talent he's been left, and hope we can make up the recruiting that way.

[gophermartin]

The clock mgmt...hard to argue that he doesn't trust his OL and QB to drive down the field or even get a 1st down. Fearing a dumb turnover. I too prefer the agressive approach....

Hopefully in coming years.

GM

[BigDaddyWeave]

One thing to point out - look at Kstate the last few years, and what Schneider was able to do coming back in his first year so far. If you do decide a new coach is the way to go, you almost have to have him nearly hired before you fire Brew. If you decide to go into another long, drawn out, candidate search, you most certainly will lose players, lose recruit interest, and put everything in flux. Like Tubby...it's almost as if you'd have to have a guy on your radar ready to sign before you decided to pull the trigger on the change - which is almost unheard of in college football. One thing to add to the Alvarez / Bielema change. That wasn't a firing / hiring situation either. If I recall, they didn't have any players leave due to the change in coaching, and the recruits were still coming in. When you fire a guy, you lose current players, recruits (not always), and tremendous (copyright coach Brew) amounts of knowledge in the playbook. Bielema didn't change much, and most of the coaches stayed on...you can not compare the 2 situations.

And thanks, I'm not much of a poster typically, more of a reader...but being an SDSU alum, and a Gopher born/raised fan my entire life, I'm extra fired up considering what I saw this past weekend (and the lack of progression I've seen in this program so far this season - and no, I'm not talking about Weber...I have cut him some slack considering the ineptitude that's surrounded him on the field, and on the sidelines - I'm just glad he decided to take that glove off in the 2nd half).

[monk10]

I don't get the business argument. There are a lot of companies that intentionally rotate employees around, especially in management positions. Managers go from managing sales reps to managing manufacturing to quality assurance. The employee generally doesn't have any experience in those categories. The test of skills is leadership, empowerment and of course production.

I guess it is possible that you personally would be insulted in this situation. In addition that of course assumes that someone put a leader in above you without your choice. Every coach on this staff wasn't here and Brewster wasn't placed in front of them. All of these coaches knew exactly who the Head Coach was going to be and then signed the dotted line to work underneath him.

So can we officially drop this argument now? It is silly at best.

[ag35]

Brester is a flop...give him another year, give him 10. I am calling it here, he will fail. I said it when he was hired and was smacked dwon by kool aid drinkers and I still stand by it. He was a tight ends coach his entire career for a reason.
This is the same guy that felt the spread was a better way to win than the Mason way. Funny, this year he goes back to the Mason way.
At least have a plan! He does not have one. Evidenced by his coordinator changes, his offensive philosophy changes. Fire him.

[BigDaddyWeave]

Fortunately monk - we're all entitled to our opinion...so dropping a point isn't going to happen just as long as 1 person disagrees with your position. We can all log on and isolate on 1 single, minor, point to another posters position. However, the grander picture was ultimately missed if that's all you got out of my post. The future is as out of focus today as it was the day we hired the TE coach. In some regards, certain aspects are even more blurry. Outside of our record, what has become more clear to you? Again, you can talk about talent all you want, but until that talent translates to W's, it's just smoke / mirrors. And to your point, many of the coaches hired on to coach under Brew have left the program on their own. The only coach fired, technically, was Dunbar. Withers had another position lined up, so did Roof. Their departures in and of themselves should signify just what it's like working for this clutter-minded campaigner. Honestly, I give him credit where it's due. Had Mason had half of this guys personality he'd probably still be here (and I can't stand Mason - so it pains me to say that).

Here's another question I have for you. How does the coach justify the treatment of the RB position (and many other positions), but somehow doesn't hold the QB accountable? The RB fumbles, and sits. The QB throws a pick 6, and is right back out there the next set of downs. The RB position is a rythm position. The way they shuffle these guys in/out is painful to watch. Plus, I'm sure each has their own package and abilities...it has to be confusing for the line to adapt to the RB and vice versa. This isn't rocket science people...there's no excuse for this. You have a featured back, and a guy that comes in to spell him. Tandem yes, but trio??? And again, given the fact that they know no matter how well they're performing they'll be benched after 1 fumble, I can't imagine why we can't get a running game going. And with that, why the QB position isn't held to that very same standard is baffling. In hockey, a goalie can be pulled. Baseball, your starting pitcher can get yanked in the 1st inning. QB's are replaced all the time ... I wonder if he's routinely eating lunch with Nicky Punto or something?

[monk10]

First I decided to choose one of your points to disagree with. Most importantly because it isn't the first time it has been attempted to be used as a case against Brewster. It is, imo, a silly argument based on all the points I had listed out. If you disagree with my assertion that high profile, successful, and top employee type companies rotate management around, and specifically rotate to them into positions that they hadn't been in charge of, and that the coaching staff did choose to work with Brewster then by all means, go ahead and lay a case that your argument is valid. However I think if you think about it. You either didn't think through that point or have bought into some talk around you.

I happen to also disagree with Brewsters improvement of Game/Clock management. He has tempered his cowboy go for it all at all times, to a more understand the time of the game and make decisions around that. For example, in the Wiscy game, I believe in the first half we had the advantage. We had missed on some opportunities to put up more points, and we were in general holding Wiscy in check. In general up to that point in the previous games we were doing a better job then the opposing team's coaching staff when it came to adjustments in the second half. One could argue that our second half adjustments were pretty good, up to that point, since Wiscy really embarrassed us as far as adjustments go. But basically we were sitting on a lead, and there was no reason to create momentum for Wiscy going into the half. I'm not sure why disagreeing / or agreeing with that point validates or invalidates my other post. However, I hope that helps that I read through your whole post and took the time to talk about one other of many things you addressed in your first post.

To answer your question. I believe that Brewster believes in the following two things. You should have one clear QB starter, and he should be the leader of your offense. You should also rotate your RB's and then go with whoever is most effective in that game. I come to that conclusion based on post game talks, specifically when talking with the RB's. I agree with you that the current set up for the RB's is not good. I like a starter who gets plenty of carriers to establish himself. It is a philosophy difference. It isn't the first time that I have disagreed with the approach a coach takes on an offensive philosophy. It is more reflective of what I think works. One thing we do know is that there isn't one philosophy on RB's that is the go to, this is how you do it. If I had a choice this season given the need for the offense to gell, I wish one of the RB's was given more opportunities to succeed. However, I can't tell you of the three which should be the feature back. Whaley has been getting the leg up a bit as of late. However most teams know that if he is in the game he struggles to run inside, so if you contain the outside he will gain minimal yards. However Eskridge seems to have the most patience finding a whole. However he doesn't have the burst to get outside, so if you show your outside shoulder, you should be able to duck back inside and find him for a tackle. In addition I think Duane is your best pass catching back. I don't think he has the burst, but he does seem to have some power, however, Hoese has taken that role from him.

Shouldn't you also be asking me why isn't the o-line being treated the same way? Or why isn't McKnight being benched after drops? What you have is an o-line that is basically given the same treatement as the QB. Yes Stommes got benched for Alfrod, and of course the injury at Center. However, week in and week out the line is given a looong leash on gelling, getting better, and improving over the season. The bottom line is in general the positions I would rotate as a coach were RB and WR. I hardly ever switched my QB and my O-Line, so I also gave different treatment to my line and my qb then I gave to my WR and RB's. Therefore it isn't shocking to me that our current Coach does the same.

In this offense it appears the QB has a lot of responsibilities. It is my opinion that Weber does a lot of those things correctly most of the time. I believe I'm in the minority on this site, but I like the current QB's chances of putting us in the best offensive play over our back up at this point in our back-ups development. I am also waiting for a RB to establish himself as the feature back. I was looking forward to Eskridge this game. I thought based on what he was doing against Illinois he would be the feature back, while they used whaley has the change of pace back. More and more I think Bennet is losing his carriers. However with Eskridge banged up, in came Bennet. So I'm at a loss of what is going to happen with our RB position.

[dpodoll68]

Doomed in the future if they hired, say, Kevin Sumlin, Al Golden, Butch Jones, David Cutcliffe, or Darrell Bevell (all very, very realistic ... and certainly the coaches at Utah, Cincy, and other places are worth shooting for)? I would bet not.

Outside of Sumlin, none of those guys do anything at all for me. Bevell? He's lucky he's not bagging groceries somewhere.

Sumlin would be a good hire (if it ever comes to that) because he is a good coach, has experience running a top-25 program, and knows the area due to his previous experience on the Minnesota staff.

You know you're my boy Doogie, but you're crazy if you think Brian Kelly/Kyle Whittingham/Chris Petersen/etc. would come to Minnesota.

Nearly always, you must give a head coach at least 5 years, especially in a power conference. The only exception is if we had the option to hire either a proven coach fired from a previous successful stint (Fulmer, Tuberville, etc.) or a mid-major/lower-BCS coach like the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph.

But the fact is that there is no chance in hell of anyone of that caliber coming to a Minnesota program in its current state. If we fired Brewster, he would be replaced with someone of similar caliber, and the process would start all over again. The basketball team was able to hire Tubby because they have consistently been good-to-very good (Monson notwithstanding) over the past few decades. The football team has done nothing for 42 years. We would have to be extremely lucky in finding a diamond-in-the-rough coach. The guy hired to replace a fired Brewster this offseason would be no better, and most likely worse, than Brewster himself.

[Maximus]

If we fired Brewster, he would be replaced with someone of similar caliber, and the process would start all over again.

Not if his replacement has been a head coach or a coordinator during his career.

[Doogie]

Outside of Sumlin, none of those guys do anything at all for me. Bevell? He's lucky he's not bagging groceries somewhere.

Sumlin would be a good hire (if it ever comes to that) because he is a good coach, has experience running a top-25 program, and knows the area due to his previous experience on the Minnesota staff.

You know you're my boy Doogie, but you're crazy if you think Brian Kelly/Kyle Whittingham/Chris Petersen/etc. would come to Minnesota.

Nearly always, you must give a head coach at least 5 years, especially in a power conference. The only exception is if we had the option to hire either a proven coach fired from a previous successful stint (Fulmer, Tuberville, etc.) or a mid-major/lower-BCS coach like the ones mentioned in the previous paragraph.

But the fact is that there is no chance in hell of anyone of that caliber coming to a Minnesota program in its current state. If we fired Brewster, he would be replaced with someone of similar caliber, and the process would start all over again. The basketball team was able to hire Tubby because they have consistently been good-to-very good (Monson notwithstanding) over the past few decades. The football team has done nothing for 42 years. We would have to be extremely lucky in finding a diamond-in-the-rough coach. The guy hired to replace a fired Brewster this offseason would be no better, and most likely worse, than Brewster himself.

Oh, I agree ... but the call would have to be made ... hey, they came up with $$ for Tubby ... could they call Kelly and offer him a 6-year/$15 mil. deal? ... highly, highly, unlikely, but they would have to try ... where I disagree: If they did fire Brewster, they would bring in someone of a higher caliber, someone with at least 2-years of 1-A (chance I suppose of 1-AA) head coaching exp. and years as a def. or off. coordinator.
Hear you on the 5-year take ... I have said he deserves next year ... would then fully evaluate ... looks like Louisville about to be the exception, but they have been worse than the Gophers the last 3-years.

[GopherGod]

Not if his replacement has been a head coach or a coordinator during his career.

Such as a Brent Venables, Bud Foster, Charlie Strong, Mark Stoops, Gus Malzahn.

[50PoundHead]

Outside of Sumlin, none of those guys do anything at all for me. Bevell? He's lucky he's not bagging groceries somewhere.

Bevell? Reading that provided me with my morning Danny Thomas spit-take. I think Bevell has lifetime employment as Brett Favre's valet. The guy is a total chucklehead.

[TubbytownUSA]

Doomed in the future if they hired, say, Kevin Sumlin, Al Golden, Butch Jones, David Cutcliffe, or Darrell Bevell (all very, very realistic ... and certainly the coaches at Utah, Cincy, and other places are worth shooting for)? I would bet not.

Allow me to be the first to jump off the Washington Ave Bridge if that happens...

[Doogie]

Bevell and Maturi have a decent relationship ... I know, the name is sort-of way out there, but because of him and Joel knowing each other, listed him ... all of course hypothetical because Brewster should get a 4th year.

[50PoundHead]

Not doubting you Doogie. I'd just be stunned if it ever happened.

But this shows where the "coordinator" tag can be misleading. Bevell's the offensive coordinator in name only for the Vikings as it's Childress doing all the X-and-O stuff. It's like Sherm Lewis when he was offensive coordinator under Mike Holmgren.

Brewster was never a coordinator, but I would argue that, in reality, neither has Bevell been one.

[Doogie]

Disagree slightly ... Bevell has been calling the plays for some time now ... no doubt that Childress has way more influence on the off. vs. the def. but Bevell has really come a long way since when he 1st got here in '06.

[VNVET4GOPHERS]

This is my first comment to the forum and as I have been driven to comment previously I am satisfied that I waited till now as I might have written something I later would have regretted. For awhile I wanted to bash the Brew, however, after digesting what has transpired with the offense and the play calling and lack of offense I think our problem is with Mr. Fisch. Watching the game Saturday I thought Mr. Fisch looked totally overwhelmed with his position and I believe Mr. Fisch is in over his head. And you know what, I think the players pick up on this and therefore we have very poor discipline that developes into the players and offense. I heard the comment "A WIN IS A WIN''. I do not agree with this comment as I think this attitude does not promote excellence, but it does promote a mediocre attitude amongst the coaches and players.

Now, we need to start presenting a possitive picture of what the Gopher program can offer to new recruits and stop bashing the Brew. I hope all the negative comments do not cause S.H. and others from joining the Gopher nation. We have some great recruits coming in and just a couple more top players will help turn this program around.

[the24fan]

hey batman,,,brewster is no Ferentz. not even close

[Schnoodler]

I agree Fisch is in over his head. My hope is that he's as smart as they say and can grow into his job. He certainly has the right resume to suggest he was headed to this position, although probably a few years too early.

It's typical of coaches from the pro's who have little college experience, they think they can out complicate the competition. They soon learn, they have to out execute the competition. His job should he accept it is to figure out what his team can handle and scale back to that. The same thing we saw in year one on the defensive side. The kids aren't pro's, they don't execute like them, and thinking slows them way down.

[i'm batman]

hey batman,,,brewster is no Ferentz. not even close

you're right, brewster has a better W-L record over his first three years than ferentz.

[RedPoo]

This is my first comment to the forum and as I have been driven to comment previously I am satisfied that I waited till now as I might have written something I later would have regretted. For awhile I wanted to bash the Brew, however, after digesting what has transpired with the offense and the play calling and lack of offense I think our problem is with Mr. Fisch. Watching the game Saturday I thought Mr. Fisch looked totally overwhelmed with his position and I believe Mr. Fisch is in over his head. And you know what, I think the players pick up on this and therefore we have very poor discipline that developes into the players and offense. I heard the comment "A WIN IS A WIN''. I do not agree with this comment as I think this attitude does not promote excellence, but it does promote a mediocre attitude amongst the coaches and players.

Now, we need to start presenting a possitive picture of what the Gopher program can offer to new recruits and stop bashing the Brew. I hope all the negative comments do not cause S.H. and others from joining the Gopher nation. We have some great recruits coming in and just a couple more top players will help turn this program around.


I agree with most of what you're saying...and welcome to the forum.

The eternally sarcastic SOB in me feels the need to point out that whether or not you agree with it, a win is indeed a win.

[Halsey Hall]

Changing coaches destroys us for 10 years??? What the hell is Brew doing? People say changing coaches does no good. Yeah, because we hire bad coaches like Wacker, Mason and Brewster and horrible coaches like Salem and John (12 men on the field) Gutekunst. Hire a great coach and who cares about the changing deal? You guys are loyal and passionate but don't you see Brew is not a smart coach? His teams don't get better during the season, they get worse. He has had a few wins handed him by teams that played poorly. But name one game he's won with his great coaching? He makes Chilly look like Vince.

[hyaluronic]

There are several posters with whom I disagree, and they make good points. You are not one of them, Halsey.

[howeda7]

If the money is there from a booster ($2.5-$3 million) to go after Tommy Tubberville, I would be all for that. I think he is the football equivalent of Tubby Smith or as close as we'll ever come. He is a strong candidate for the UVA job already and probably others that come open.

But if we're only going to choose from the usual suspects, I can probably stomach one more year to see what Brew can do.

[MUG IN MN]

You get 4 years in college football. It's pretty simple.

[bankonit]

hey batman,,,brewster is no Ferentz. not even close

I am glad of that, Ferentz is a piece of crap and sleazy as the day is long. Covering up rape? how low can you get?

[lakesgopher]

Changing coaches destroys us for 10 years??? What the hell is Brew doing? People say changing coaches does no good. Yeah, because we hire bad coaches like Wacker, Mason and Brewster and horrible coaches like Salem and John (12 men on the field) Gutekunst. Hire a great coach and who cares about the changing deal? You guys are loyal and passionate but don't you see Brew is not a smart coach? His teams don't get better during the season, they get worse. He has had a few wins handed him by teams that played poorly. But name one game he's won with his great coaching? He makes Chilly look like Vince.

so the u has that kind of money to first buy out a contract and then later write up a new contract for much more money for a big time coach? we are taking a bus to iowa this week rather then flying due to saving money! and lets say this "big time" coach flops? i mean its never happened before where a name has come into a program and done nothing! then what, we use that fat pocket and do it again? get real! any reasonable person knows its a 4-5 year job and then you evaluate! no matter who the coach is, and a "big name" coach may not work out and you start over again. i dont know yet if brew is a good coach, but i would be willing to give him 5 seasons, if its the same after that, then i would release him and start looking. but i have patience...and i will have patience for the next guy if it comes to that.

[ulfr]

About to dig into Vikes work ... just reacting to the headline for now, and I will preface this take with this: I believe Brewster deserves a 4th year ... but if you think this program in a weak Big Ten would be handicapped for 10 years, you are nuts ... they could get a 1-A head coach from another school who is winning at a high level relatively easily ... so would that guy put the program back 10-years?

Has this ever worked for the U?

Who the fvck do you think we are going to hire, Doogie?!

Who is winning right now who would want to come here? What head coach? This sorry excuse for a fanbase, putrid media market and tattered traditions that predate poly-fvcking-chromatic film!!!!

What 1-A guy is coming?

With what we pay/what we expect NOBODY is coming from a winning FBS program to god fvcking forsaken Minnesota! So stop with the goddam bull*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#. Go back to poor postgame coverage of the Twins. :banghead:

[idagopher]

that Monson was losing for years but didn't get fired (in preseason) until it was obvious he couldn't fill seats. Empty seats at TCF will dictate Brewsters firing regardless of fan apathy. Just don't show up and Brew will get fired.

[Sparlimb]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!

Did you say fire or keep him would screw us? I'm confused.

[Doogie]

Has this ever worked for the U?

Who the fvck do you think we are going to hire, Doogie?!

Who is winning right now who would want to come here? What head coach? This sorry excuse for a fanbase, putrid media market and tattered traditions that predate poly-fvcking-chromatic film!!!!

What 1-A guy is coming?

With what we pay/what we expect NOBODY is coming from a winning FBS program to god fvcking forsaken Minnesota! So stop with the goddam bull*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#. Go back to poor postgame coverage of the Twins. :banghead:

Start w/ Kevin Sumlin or Troy Calhoun. Form a committee of former players to have a say. Don't use that damn service they did last time. Talk to Dungy as well. The right coach can win here. Have to find that individual.

[denguegopher]

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?



I don't have a big problem with most of this post. However I do not think that this will scare away potential coaches. Their egos don't scare that easily. Plus, its not the 8+ wins that people are upset about - its playing horribly and losing to South Dakota. I will give Brewster credit for being enthusiastic, etc., but when he came in saying, "I have a PhD in football," he was pushing it. He did not however say that he had a PhD in "coaching" football. I will be traveling 1500 miles to see the Gophers play this weekend and will be cheering the Gophers, I really want to see progress next week though.

[EverTheSkeptic]

The Gophers just lost to South Dakota! At home! Nothing would set the program back 10 minutes, let alone 10 years. Fire Brewster now. He had his chance and he has failed.

[Sparlimb]

You can't fire a guy until his first class of recruits graduate imo. We haven't even had a chance to see what Gray can do as the full time starter.

And who's fault is that? Weber is freaking .500 against FCS teams in his career. If Gray can't beat that out, he isn't going to be worth seeing.

[Ewert86PC]

Worst. Team. Ever.

[Maximus]

i forgot that ferenz came into iowa and started ripping off 10 wins in a row right away, didn't he?

Then you must have also forgotten that he had a bowl victory in year three and a Big Ten title in year four.

[lakesgopher]

i wrote this last nov, i believed if we fired him at that point we would be doing more harm then good. at this point i can admit that i am wrong and we need to cut the cord and by all means run maturi out of town! maybe get rid of maturi first and then brew!

[Gopher in Dixie]

I think the 40 years of ineptitude shown by the Gophers is a far more serious problem than Brewster. Fire him now. I used to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I've seen nothing in the last year and two games that leads me to believe he is a capable Head Coach.

[Oneoldgopher]

I thought that through this year the team was being built, as Mr. Brewster has often remarked. But, upon review, he never elaborates on this point. He claims we are football smarter, faster, and stronger now more than at any time in the last 3 years. Well, that did not show up on Saturday. Because I did not DVR the game, I can not tell you frame by frame, so I will have to play the role of the unreliable first hand witness. I viewed the game from section 203, right in the heart of 'Yote country. Nice folk, everyone of them. Very polite and respectful.

1.) No strategic mission or vision has been made available to either the public or the team. As a point of being pendantic, "winning the Rose bowl" or "going undefeated" is not a mission statement. These types of statements answer what and how are going to do something. Simple.
He has not articulated it. "Pound the rock" does not describe directly what he intends to do.

2) After changing offensive philosophies 2x, refer back to 1.

3) He has not established a vision of the team. "Fast and Strong" is a weak vision statement.
See 1.

4) He has high staff turnover at key leadership positions. Refer back to 1.

5) He has had difficulty in recruiting top talent. Refer back to 1. Lack of a team identity will keep talent away.

6) He has had 4 years to write a mission and vision statement that the team can refer to in planning their activities around football. See mission statement, vision statement, planning documentation, tasking, etc. The playbook is not a planning document. It is the tasking document, which should be a result of the mission, vision, and planning phases.

7) Name one fan who can identify the Identity of the team! Anyone?

8) Name the defensive style preferred by the Gopher coaching staff for this year and the next 10 years.

9) Anything that we are still trying to identify in regards to this team reflects a first step in the planning cycle of any organization. We have yet to identify the most rudimentary and fundamental planning steps of creating a mission and vision for this club.

As a result, we can conclude that a termination will not lose the organization any momentum moving forward. Bringing in a competent staff will offer the team the following.

1.) an identity
2.) a plan
3.) milestones
4.) objectives
5.) tasking
6.) game tactics
7.) game day adjustments
8.) recruiting for need and not simply what is left over on the table.

[Honyocker]

I know may on this sight assumed we would be winning the national championship this season and with a 6-6 record that no one expected, the "Fire Brewster" comments are really coming out of the woodwork. These are the reasons why we should not fire Brew:

1) 2 years and 12 games for a new head coach taking over a sub par program is not even remotely close to enough time!

2) I believe Brew hasn't been playing his recruits yet(for the most part) because these guys are being developed(learning the playbooks, strength and conditioning, personal growth)

3) He hasn't shown to me that he is a bad coach yet(Losing to NDSU sucked, but I'm pretty sure any coach walking into that crappy team would have been beaten as well)

4) The U hasn't had this much support since I was born. I have never seen so many kids walking around in Gopher gear in my life, I believe that has everything to do with Brew and his over the top positivity.

5) He has played Wisconsin tough since his arrival, Iowa has kicked our ass, but for all of you saying "be competitive with our rivals, I have to say losing to Wisky the last 2 years has been quite competitive...55-0 blows, but let's see how it plays out this week. by the way, iowa nearly lost to niu who is a d1aa school, i dont think the majority of their fan base was thinking the sky is falling. they barely remember that game at this point!

6) If we fire him right now, or at the end of the season, what coach will want to walk into this program knowing that if he doesn't win 8+ wins on average he will be fired within 3 years? How many more coordinators will we put these kids through?

7) I know many of you are trying to compare tubby and brew, which is ridiculous! you can change a program with one-two players in hoops, football it takes a lot of depth...you cant breing in henderson and expect a championship that first year. By the way, I would like to thank this board for officially turning henderson off to our program! i know he checks into the fan bases of the schools, he hears the boos just like the other recruits and thinks what a joke of a fanbase!

8) We need stability, we need all of our coordinators to stick around, we need to fill the stadium every week, and we need to act right so when recruits show up they dont get disgusted with our negative fans. by the way all you "play gray" people need to calm it down, he hasn't looked very good yet. yes you wioll say he hasn't been given a fair shot, but neither has moses alipate, maybe he is the best player for the position. maybe we should line up all our qb's give them a series and see how it goes? im not actually for that last comment but you people need to have patience!

9) I could go on with a hundred of these but this is my last one...for people talking about glen mason...i would much rather get slaughtered 55-0 by iowa then have a 28 point second half lead and blow it against Michigan, or blow the biggest lead in bowl history to texas tech in the second half, or bitch and moan about brewster not beating his rivals, when did mason dominate our rivals? when did mason bring in hope we were going to become a top team in the big ten? when did mason do anything more than just do enough to get by?

If someone can be rational and give quality reasons why we should fire our coach so early in this process i would like to hear it! Dont just tell me its because of his record, we all expected this!

It all depends on who you hire. I know some here hate Lou Holtz, but when he came to MN, he was a game changer. The talent he inherited was terrible. Still, by the end of his second and last year, the Gophers were very competitive (nearly beat top-ranked Oklahoma) and the talent was greatly upgraded. You bring in a game changer, and things CHANGE for the better. Holtz would get a lot more out of our current talent....he demands it. It would cost big bucks, but we did it once and we can do it again. This time we need to keep the guy for more than two years. Brewster was not a game changer, he was a calculated risk.