Brewster thoughts going into Year 3

It's hard to believe that Brewster has been in charge of our team for three years. My own observations are as follows. I'd be curious to hear what others think.

Here are some of the best things I like about Brewster:

* He is a a tireless worker. He does not have innate advantages at the U of M. It's going to take a lot of work. Brewster has shown that he is up to the task.

* He is willing to change. I was not a fan of Mike Dunbar's offense from the get-go. Evidently, Brewster realized that wasn't going to work, and he was able to get rid of Dunbar graciously and try again with a different perspective.

* Recruiting. Brewster hasn't landed the biggest fish from home, but, he's done better than Mason. I'm not an expert, but I can tell that most of the recruiting competition is coming from bigger schools. Again, Mason seemed like many of his recruits had a choice between Toledo and Western Michigan.

* Scheduling. Brewster wants to upgrade the schedule. I don't know if this is wise in building a winning team or not, but for me personally, I'd much rather watch a talented Cal Bear team than the Bobcats from Montana State.


* General Enthusiasm. C'mon. Not even close. Brewster never met a camera, microphone or an internet site that he didn't take advantage of. Sometimes too schmaltzy for me, but publicity is publicity. For this team, in this state, the head coach needs to be an ambassador to the program. Again, Mason lacked severely on this level. His smugness and general feeling of "why should I do that...they don't do that at PSU, Ohio State, Michigan, etc." Well, Minnesota isn't any of those schools, and yes, you DO need to do those things here.

Now, some of the things I don't care for:

* Sometimes, he is over the top. I would love to hear a candid statement about his team. Instead of talking about hunting the bear, or the bear being hunted.....I'd like for him to share some things about the team. Let's hear how the offensive line is developing. Who's developing, who is struggling? How are the players adapting to the new playbook?

* Gameday coaching. He's still a work in progress. There were a few home games last year that had some questionable game management. Northwestern, Michigan and Wisconsin come to mind. It was more than a single play. It was how the whole game was managed.

* Some of the areas where Mason's teams were strong, Brewster's are weak. The offensive line? No doubt, the previous staff knew what they were doing. Brewster needs to right that ship quickly. Receivers? Again, not as good. We had Decker, and that's about it. Running backs? Same thing...Brewster needs to turn it around with the talent he has. On the flipside. Brewster seems to have turned around chronically challenged units from Mason. The defensive backs are finally competetive after years of Gopher dbacks chasing opponents to the end zone. Linebackers are more athletic and make more plays.

Timing is everything. I don't think that this year is a crucial year for Brewster. The stadium hoopla will lighten the load for expectations. Next year will be a different story and results should be expected. Will Brewster make Maturi finally look smart? Or, will Maturi be searching for our next head coach? My prediction? Brewster will step up next year and get a January 1 game. Then, he'll leave for the "only job I would have considered" at you name the school willing to pay a lot of money to hire Brewster.

CWCWCW said:

Will Brewster make Maturi finally look smart?

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No kidding...if we had a smart AD, we'd have Tubby Smith, a new football stadium, a balanced budget, a top 15 athletic department out of 300+ D-I schools. Can we PLEASE get a smart AD so we can accomplish all of that.

Good post. Most of your thoughts I agree with. I like the general positivity of Brewster, and hearing how we "can" rather than we "can't". Clearly he finds the positives of the U and the Twin Cities area and uses it in recruiting.

The big flaw with Brewster so far, and the one that will eventually determine whether he makes it past his first 4 years here, are the coaching changes. If I'm not mistaken, Kirk Ferentz has had the same offensive and defensive coordinators for all 11 years he has been at Iowa. It's no wonder Iowa is usually strong. They have good coordinators and an established system, and it's the only system the players have known. By the time they're seniors they've been playing in it for 5 years.

On the other hand, Of the 6 off/def coordinator seasons for the Gophers, they'll have been represented by 5 different coaches. It's REALLY difficult/impossible to build a winning program when you are going through coordinators like that. So even after we had an improved season last year and return most of our team, here we are once again adapting to new systems.

What it boils down to is that we're going to have 2 years of Brewster/Cosgrove/Fisch to see if Brew's recruits can adapt to the new systems and gel into a good team. If that doesn't happen, he won't be here in 2011, and in hindsight, his hiring of Withers/Dunbar (along with Myers) right off the bat will end up be what cost him his job.

I really hope he succeeds though. I think if he can figure out a way to stabilize the coaching staff, he could do great things. yes, he's made some in-game errors, but it's not like we never saw that with the coaching staff. I think as he gets more experience under his belt we'll see improvement there.

The single most thing that impresses me is....

....his ability to change. For MANY coaches, instituting a change in philosophy is tantamount
to admitting defeat. They would rather go down with the ship their way than change.
Just look at Army's coaches since Bob Sutton!

Historically, since Murray Warmath, any coaching regime that has relied heavily on
the pass at Minnesota has suffered. That would include Salem, Wacker, and the
first two seasons under Brewster. The damage: 2 winning seasons (6-5 & 7-6) and
10 losing seasons, many of those brutal to watch.

Any time Gopher football has featured the run, the results have been much better- even with the
Dome: 15 winning seasons & 9 losing seasons. Remember, for much of that time the Gophers
played without a home field. And, some of those losing seasons came when a new coach
came in and instituted new systems.

I'm being very over simplistic here, and we can debate what types of passing and running
systems were implemented all day, as there have been differences.

However, just in the spirit of keeping things simple, Minnesota stands its best chance for
success by establishing a strong ground game FIRST. Pound the rock. Run til they stop you,
that's what Cal Stoll used to say.

When Brewster decided to scrap the spread and replace Dunbar, and brought in the people
that he did, that showed me something. He's more interested in winning than being right
all the time. You'd be surprised at just how uncommon that is these days.

metrolax said:

....his ability to change. For MANY coaches, instituting a change in philosophy is tantamount
to admitting defeat. They would rather go down with the ship their way than change.
Just look at Army's coaches since Bob Sutton!

Historically, since Murray Warmath, any coaching regime that has relied heavily on
the pass at Minnesota has suffered. That would include Salem, Wacker, and the
first two seasons under Brewster. The damage: 2 winning seasons (6-5 & 7-6) and
10 losing seasons, many of those brutal to watch.

Any time Gopher football has featured the run, the results have been much better- even with the
Dome: 15 winning seasons & 9 losing seasons. Remember, for much of that time the Gophers
played without a home field. And, some of those losing seasons came when a new coach
came in and instituted new systems.

I'm being very over simplistic here, and we can debate what types of passing and running
systems were implemented all day, as there have been differences.

However, just in the spirit of keeping things simple, Minnesota stands its best chance for
success by establishing a strong ground game FIRST. Pound the rock. Run til they stop you,
that's what Cal Stoll used to say.

When Brewster decided to scrap the spread and replace Dunbar, and brought in the people
that he did, that showed me something. He's more interested in winning than being right
all the time. You'd be surprised at just how uncommon that is these days.

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My concern however is that we shouldn't have had to change in the first place. I am still amazed that Brewster was an assistant for so long on the offensive side of the ball and apparently never once thought about what type of offense he would like to run once he became a head coach or coordinator. He says now he wants to run that ball, well if that was his philosophy why was Dunbar hired in the first place. It tells me then that he either never thought about what his personal offensive preferences/philosophy were or he didn't due his due diligence on the background of Dunbar. Either way I am glad that there is a change however it makes it very difficult on the players and the program to perform at a high level when you are constantly trying to learn a new offense. I will give him credit as a recruiter but his coaching abilities and ability to provide leadership, stability, and direction in selecting a coaching staff definitely has room for improvement.

Maximus said:

No kidding...if we had a smart AD, we'd have Tubby Smith, a new football stadium, a balanced budget, a top 15 athletic department out of 300+ D-I schools. Can we PLEASE get a smart AD so we can accomplish all of that.

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Would that balanced budget include borrowing from the general university fund as well as getting funding from the state for the stadium?

GopherGod said:

My concern however is that we shouldn't have had to change in the first place. I am still amazed that Brewster was an assistant for so long on the offensive side of the ball and apparently never once thought about what type of offense he would like to run once he became a head coach or coordinator. He says now he wants to run that ball, well if that was his philosophy why was Dunbar hired in the first place. It tells me then that he either never thought about what his personal offensive preferences/philosophy were or he didn't due his due diligence on the background of Dunbar. Either way I am glad that there is a change however it makes it very difficult on the players and the program to perform at a high level when you are constantly trying to learn a new offense. I will give him credit as a recruiter but his coaching abilities and ability to provide leadership, stability, and direction in selecting a coaching staff definitely has room for improvement.

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Or, his philosophy was the spread and he has the ability to admit he was wrong and adjust as metrolax said. It would seem the ability to admit one's error is a rarity in coaching as well as internet message board usage.

CWCWCW said:

It's hard to believe that Brewster has been in charge of our team for three years.

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He hasn't. It hasn't been much longer than two, actually.

metrolax said:

....his ability to change. For MANY coaches, instituting a change in philosophy is tantamount
to admitting defeat. They would rather go down with the ship their way than change.

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It's funny that you mentioned this, because I was going to add "lack of an identity" to his weaknesses. As GG said, it seems as though, during his time as an assistant, he focused for too long on his abilities as a recruiter, and never gave much thought to how he would do things X's and O's-wise if he ever got the opportunity to lead his own program. The sooner he can settle on that, the better he can sell consistency and build an identity for himself and the team as a whole.

You're right, though - I do give him credit for realizing that things weren't working the way they should and having the courage to change.

In 43 days, we get to move from the abstract to the concrete. Bring on Syracuse!

16FeetUnder said:

Or, his philosophy was the spread and he has the ability to admit he was wrong and adjust as metrolax said. It would seem the ability to admit one's error is a rarity in coaching as well as internet message board usage.

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If that was the case, wouldn't it be more likely than that he would go and get a different coordinator who ran the spread, after all it isn't as if the spread philosophy is fundamentally flawed, proven by the success that many teams around the country are having with it.

GopherGod said:

If that was the case, wouldn't it be more likely than that he would go and get a different coordinator who ran the spread, after all it isn't as if the spread philosophy is fundamentally flawed, proven by the success that many teams around the country are having with it.

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That could be, but it's not the choice he made, so I would assume he decided that the spread was indeed not the way to go in Minnesota and that he was initially wrong.

It seems to me that Brewster knew right away exactly what direction he wanted to go with the offense. He talked about the spread almost immediately after he was hired. Obviously it didn't work like he had hoped. I believe he knew what he wanted to do, it just didn't work very well so he changed.

Brewster is not abandoning the spread at all. He just isn't goig to run it exclusively like Dunbar wanted to. People forget that when Brewster was hired almost all asst. coaches already had jobs. Dunbar had a good reputation but Brewster should have looked at why Cal wasn't sad to see him go. He clashed with the Cal head coach over use of the spread offense 100% of the time. MN and Brewster will be in plenty of spread offense tihs year, more like the Oklahoma spread than the NW spread from Dunbar's days however.

GophersInIowa said:

It seems to me that Brewster knew right away exactly what direction he wanted to go with the offense. He talked about the spread almost immediately after he was hired. Obviously it didn't work like he had hoped. I believe he knew what he wanted to do, it just didn't work very well so he changed.

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He has come out of late however and said that the running game is the way to go, so which is his true philosophy or does he even know? Both types of offenses work and I could care less which one we run but if he truly switched philosophies that significantly in two years that is concerning and an indication of being indecisive, which is not a good trait of someone in a leadership position. However, I don't believe that to be the case. I believe it to be more of an issue that he never really truly thought or developed what offensive scheme he would like to do prior to getting the job which again is not a positive trait in a leader as it shows lack of planning. Either way, indecisive decision making or lack of planning cost the university some significant money in contract buyouts. I will say he is a solid recruiter however, just needs improvement in other areas of the job. If I had my way, I would like to see the significant money that is being spent on our recruiting coordinator used to attract and retain actual coaches that are coaching on the field. I guess I do not understand why we need to pay 6 figures for a glorified admin who doesn't coach when most other programs assign those duties to an actual coach.

It has been pointed out by a number of college football "experts" (and I use the term lightly) that in the next couple seasons we might start to see teams going back to more of a running attack. Just for the simple reason of teams are only practicing againt the spread and they won't be prepared for a pounding running attack. Also by going back to more of a running game, teams will eat up more of the clock which in turn will keep the high-powered spread offenses off of the field.

Running a spread offense doesn't mean you can't run the ball, ask Rich Rodriguez. There are many different ways to run a spread offense, you don't have to be Texas Tech and you don't have to exclusively go out of shotgun. I like the Oklahoma comparison someone else made. They can spread it out but they can also pound the ball on teams. I'm not saying we will still run a spread, but we can have elements of the spread while running the ball at the same time.
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Jeep gladiator history

One of Mason's greatest weaknesses was the inability to develop a passing game, or anything defensively. I hope we don't swing the pendulum to far and run the ball too much. Most championships are won through balance.

I also disagree with the statement that Brew is never straightforward. After a loss he's much more straightforward then Mason who was too content with a decent showing. I believe Brew has been overly positive to develop direly needed confidence into the program, he really wants to win.

Game day coaching? This is where Brewster has the most to develop, but he's a new coach, and he's shown tremendous flexibility and willingness to do whatever it takes to improve. That's rare for a head coach. Mason was a decent coach and got his teamed prepared, but second half collapses? Michigan. Screen pass, screen pass, screen pass. Mason also had Maroney and Barber and didn't do anything with them. A lack of a passing game and no defensive were Mason's failure.

The talent level is the best it's been in decades. We need to give Brewster enough time to graduate at least a couple of classes before we discuss his future. I don't think Brewster will be leaving involuntarily.

I think it's been posted on here before that as far as game-day coaching goes, Brewster is given a little more fault than he deserves. Some games he comes out with a great plan, executes, and still ends up losing. Remember, in the WI game last year he didn't fumble that kickoff return and didn't get sacked in the endzone twice. He had good plans and even after all that crap went down was able to come within 3 points of winning. 2 years ago vs WI he didn't not catch that punt that led to another WI TD. After that we STILL scored again to come within 7 but didn't have the time to pull it even. He came in to both of those games with a good gameplan and we ran out of time and horses to win, despite good coaching. Illinois last year - good gameplan and coaching during the game to keep the lead. Spry tried to give it away and the defense came up big, but he kept the players motivated. A Mason team (and I'm not arguing Mason v Brewster, just a comparison) would have lost hope after that.

Brewster's team last year arguable played very well against OSU at the Shoe. Considering the difference in talent and the fact that it was an away game we played fairly well. Purdue was a decent gameplan, and in crummy weather and with all the penalties from jacked-up players we still won (could he have called for a review on a 1st down spot? yeah, but we still won...). The Iowa loss of 07 in Kinnick was a good gameplan and we just couldn't pull it out (though I can't comment too much since I was in a jail cell in IC at the time...).

The bad: Michigan last year. Couldn't put the ball in the damn endzone. Iowa: Not a chance of winning from snap one - Ferentz had Brewster's number completely for this one.

I think Brewster is poised to make a big leap in coaching this year. He improved from year one to 2 (as did talent on the field) and I think we have even more talent this year, a better system, a more experienced HC, and a new stadium to get the fans and players excited. Maybe that's just me being hopeful.

GopherGod said:

He has come out of late however and said that the running game is the way to go, so which is his true philosophy or does he even know? Both types of offenses work and I could care less which one we run but if he truly switched philosophies that significantly in two years that is concerning and an indication of being indecisive, which is not a good trait of someone in a leadership position. However, I don't believe that to be the case. I believe it to be more of an issue that he never really truly thought or developed what offensive scheme he would like to do prior to getting the job which again is not a positive trait in a leader as it shows lack of planning. Either way, indecisive decision making or lack of planning cost the university some significant money in contract buyouts. I will say he is a solid recruiter however, just needs improvement in other areas of the job. If I had my way, I would like to see the significant money that is being spent on our recruiting coordinator used to attract and retain actual coaches that are coaching on the field. I guess I do not understand why we need to pay 6 figures for a glorified admin who doesn't coach when most other programs assign those duties to an actual coach.

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He came out and said he wanted to run the spread in the press conference right after he was hired. I highly doubt he just flipped a coin before the press conference and it landed heads so he decided to go with the spread.

Like I said, it obviously didn't work out like he had hoped it would. Therefore he changed his views on the offense and has decided to go with a more balanced attack. Would you rather he stick with the spread even if it isn't working? Coaches change strategies and philosophies all the time.

Does he need to get better as a coach? Absolutely, he still has a lot to learn. As already stated, he's not a great game-day coach. But I don't think he's really unorganized or lacks planning like you're making it seem. It seems to me he had a plan, that plan didn't work so he's adjusting and learning from his earlier mistakes. Every new head coach is going to go through that.

RailBaronYarr said:

I think it's been posted on here before that as far as game-day coaching goes, Brewster is given a little more fault than he deserves. Some games he comes out with a great plan, executes, and still ends up losing. Remember, in the WI game last year he didn't fumble that kickoff return and didn't get sacked in the endzone twice. He had good plans and even after all that crap went down was able to come within 3 points of winning. 2 years ago vs WI he didn't not catch that punt that led to another WI TD. After that we STILL scored again to come within 7 but didn't have the time to pull it even. He came in to both of those games with a good gameplan and we ran out of time and horses to win, despite good coaching. Illinois last year - good gameplan and coaching during the game to keep the lead. Spry tried to give it away and the defense came up big, but he kept the players motivated. A Mason team (and I'm not arguing Mason v Brewster, just a comparison) would have lost hope after that.

Brewster's team last year arguable played very well against OSU at the Shoe. Considering the difference in talent and the fact that it was an away game we played fairly well. Purdue was a decent gameplan, and in crummy weather and with all the penalties from jacked-up players we still won (could he have called for a review on a 1st down spot? yeah, but we still won...). The Iowa loss of 07 in Kinnick was a good gameplan and we just couldn't pull it out (though I can't comment too much since I was in a jail cell in IC at the time...).

The bad: Michigan last year. Couldn't put the ball in the damn endzone. Iowa: Not a chance of winning from snap one - Ferentz had Brewster's number completely for this one.

I think Brewster is poised to make a big leap in coaching this year. He improved from year one to 2 (as did talent on the field) and I think we have even more talent this year, a better system, a more experienced HC, and a new stadium to get the fans and players excited. Maybe that's just me being hopeful.

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Aside from the Iowa game, I was most concerned with the bowl game where Brewster had a month to develop a game plan for a good but not great Kansas team and it was more of a continuation of the Iowa game. If you have a month to gameplan for an opponent you have to put up a better showing than that.

GopherGod said:

Aside from the Iowa game, I was most concerned with the bowl game where Brewster had a month to develop a game plan for a good but not great Kansas team and it was more of a continuation of the Iowa game. If you have a month to gameplan for an opponent you have to put up a better showing than that.

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I thought the offensive game plan for the bowl game was great - especially given that Tim Davis was only on the job for a few weeks. The offense moved the ball okay (331 yards and 20 first downs) in that bowl game and used some new wrinkles we had not seen from the coaching staff, including I-formation/under center power running plays, and a trick play early.

The defense - on the other hand - had a terrible game plan and never adjusted out of it. Reesing continually throwing under that soft zone and just eating up the yardage was sickening. How Ted Roof could just watch that plan blow up in his face and not adjust was mind-boggling. Reesing threw 8 incompletions all night and at one point completed 14 consecutive passes.

tjgopher said:

I thought the offensive game plan for the bowl game was great - especially given that Tim Davis was only on the job for a few weeks. The offense moved the ball okay (331 yards and 20 first downs) in that bowl game and used some new wrinkles we had not seen from the coaching staff, including I-formation/under center power running plays, and a trick play early.

The defense - on the other hand - had a terrible game plan and never adjusted out of it. Reesing continually throwing under that soft zone and just eating up the yardage was sickening. How Ted Roof could just watch that plan blow up in his face and not adjust was mind-boggling. Reesing threw 8 incompletions all night and at one point completed 14 consecutive passes.

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Last December, there was a lot more going on within the Gopher team than many might realize.

The 15 practices leading up to the bowl game were so physical, that there was essentially no gas left in the proverbial tank when gametime finally rolled around. Everyone was bruised, beat up, and worn out--really exhausted.

The bowl game was over by halftime. Our Gophers were toast by then.

Ted's defensive game plan/in-game adjustments vs. Kansas were non-issues.