Brewster Announces Hammock Promotion to co-Off Cord, Hightower Departure

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 5, 2010


Brewster Announces Hammock Promotion, Hightower Departure

University of Minnesota head football coach Tim Brewster announced Friday that running backs coach Thomas Hammock has being promoted to the position of co-offensive coordinator.


Hammock, regarded as one of the Gophers’ top recruiters and a rising star in the coaching profession, has played an increasing roll in all aspects of the Minnesota offense since his arrival, according to Brewster.

“This promotion is a reward for the tireless work that Thomas has done as both a coach and a recruiter,” Brewster said. “He has done an outstanding job with our running backs and has been a huge asset to our staff. Thomas is one of the outstanding your coaches in America and I could not be more please to reward him with the title of co-offensive coordinator. He and Jeff (Horton) will do a great job coordinating our offense.”

Brewster also announced Friday that wide receivers coach Richard Hightower has decided to resign his position on the Gophers’ staff to pursue another coaching opportunity. According to Brewster, a national search for Hightower’s replacement is already underway and is expected to be completed soon.


“Richard is an excellent young coach,” said Brewster. “I appreciate all the contributions he made to our program and I wish him continued success.”


-UM-
 

So .. we have two co-offensive coordinators, two co-defensive coordinators, and now our third WR coach in three years on the way? Ugh. I hope the new WR coach gets the most out of Green, McKnight and Stoudermire. They are gonna need to step up big for us next year.
 

I guess its not the worst concept in the world, from a recruiting standpoint. I mean, most teams can only send out one head coach and two coordinators into the world to talk to recruits. It will make potential gophers feel a bit more loved if someone with a higher job title is in their living room talking with them.

Also, this could help prevent us from having a completely new offensive or defensive coordinator next year, should someone leave.... which seems to happen a lot around here.

I would like to know how the gameday power dynamic is worked out with all the high-level coaches we apparently now have.
 

I don't know about everyone else's profession, but when someone in mine has decided to "pursue another opportunity," that usually means they were asked to leave.
 

Maybe it has something to do with only one WR signing he only being a 2*.
 





MaxyJR1 said:
Maybe is has something to do with only one WR signing he only being a 2*.
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+1

I complained about the Passing Game for most of the season. Forgive me if losing the OC/QB Coach and WR Coach doesn't cost me any tears.
 



Ron Johnson would be the obvious choice, hopefully he will be considered, though he will need to be willing to recruit.

The Hammock promotion is an interesting one, it may show a renewed and magnified emphasis on the run game, if so its a good move. It also is worth mentioning not only did Hammock bring in 3 talented backs this year, but with Calvin Phillips hopefully coming next year, his main contact was Hammock, a former teammate of Phillip's older brother.
Get the run game going at all levels backfield, line and downfield blocking, take the pressure off the QB and have Horton teach simple and efficient QB play to Gray all while using his legs as an X factor. That very well may be the plan going forward.
 

Does that mean we no longer have a running game coordinator? 2 o-coords and then 1 running game coordinator.. wow
 


My initial gut reaction to Hightower's deparature was that he was asked to leave. Our receivers couldn't run correct routes, etc. Two days after signing day and a coach leaves? The timing tells me that they were waiting until after Wednesday to do this.
 



Hard to like this "co-coordinator" stuff. Let one guy take over with some authority and get the damned offense moving. What is Brewster's thing of having "co-coordinators"?
 

Rickman55 said:
My initial gut reaction to Hightower's deparature was that he was asked to leave. Our receivers couldn't run correct routes, etc. Two days after signing day and a coach leaves? The timing tells me that they were waiting until after Wednesday to do this.
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That's what I was thinking. Maybe Hightower should send Chris Hawkins a thank you card for this. My guess is if Huff and/or Hawkins stay, Hightower's job may have been safer.

Or. . . (first time ever using dots) he did a poor job as an instructor of our young WRs.
 

Keep 'em happy

Great Plains Gopher said:
Hard to like this "co-coordinator" stuff. Let one guy take over with some authority and get the damned offense moving. What is Brewster's thing of having "co-coordinators"?
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I think co-coordinator translates to "I want to keep my best recruiters here."
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Hard to like this "co-coordinator" stuff. Let one guy take over with some authority and get the damned offense moving. What is Brewster's thing of having "co-coordinators"?
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Seems to be a growing trend in college ball. Didn't Oklahoma have 3 this year? Maybe it's a way to give him a little more money or prestige to try and keep him here a while. Don't know, just speculating.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
Hard to like this "co-coordinator" stuff. Let one guy take over with some authority and get the damned offense moving. What is Brewster's thing of having "co-coordinators"?
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My guess is that the promotion is more nominal than anything else. By all appearances, Cosgrove was the main coordinator last year, or was at least treated that way by the media.

It reflects the current state of college football, lots of smoke and mirrors.

Also, I agree on the Hightower move. We didn't do a good job in Houston this year, or nationally with the wide receivers, his two main recruiting responsibilities.
 

OMG. I hate to add this, but when Hightower's name came up on this FB Board, I thought it was referring to Ed Hightower of BB Reffing fame. :confused:
 


Congrats to Mr Hammock! Good luck to Mr Hightower. To be honest I don't have a problem with either move. Hammock has been a great recruiter, he's really not somebody Brew can afford to lose. From an outsiders perspective I didn't see much from Hightower, he didn't add much as a recruiter and the play of the WR's was very erratic to say the least. I'd love to see Ron Johnson added to the coaching staff.
 

I wonder if Hightower knew it was coming? If I was on the way out, I don't think I'd have shown up at the signing party. He didn't look like he was a guy on the way out. Also I don't think his departure was limited to exclusively to his recruiting. Our receivers did not perform well this past fall, minus Decker, so I'm guessing Brewster wants a more experienced hand teaching his you wideouts.
 

I agree, the timing and in regards to the poor route running by WR's - not to mention the poor WR recruiting, this certainly appears to be a premeditated thing. If so, there better be a new hire within the week -- as the process should've started long ago, and the players deserve it.

Gopher07 said:
Mike Hohensee.
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Gold04 is not someone you want to be correlated with, joking or not!
 

I think that Hightower's leaving, can be chalked up to, failure to produce as a recruiter. I looked at Rivals commitment list and don't find one recruit credited to him. With Brewster's emphasis on recruiting the consequences should be obvious.
 

btw, this has got to be some kind of record, at least within the U, for coaching turnover. Not good, whether we're getting better coaches or not.
 

magpie said:
btw, this has got to be some kind of record, at least within the U, for coaching turnover. Not good, whether we're getting better coaches or not.
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I dunno about that. Mason lost guys almost every year and lost his first offensive coordinator almost a week after he accepted the job (Pat Ruel?). Wacker would lose his best guys every year too it seemed. I think the distinction you can make is Brewster will fire people, which we see in the case of Dunbar, Hightower and Meyer.
 


This is almost getting as comical as the Cheers episode when Sammy was giving titles for promotions because he had no money for raises. Hightower is not a loss as a recruiter or position coach. Brew had two poor hires last year and they are both gone, good for us and the kids!
 

gophmeister said:
Our receivers did not perform well this past fall, minus Decker, so I'm guessing Brewster wants a more experienced hand teaching his you wideouts.
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The running backs didn't exactly set the world on fire the past two years and he gets a promotion??

This just gets more comical every day. Three d coordinators in three years. Three o coordinators in soon to be four seasons. Have an offensive coordinator then bring in a running game coordinator. Co-defensive coordinators. Co-offensive coordinators. Run the spread, switch to pro style. QB at his best when he can run so make sure he's anchored in the pocket. Recruit one of the best spread high school QBs in the country then switch the offense up entirely. Now our new co-offensive coordinator gets a promotion because he can supposedly recruit (even though he has yet to recruit a viable back), not because he has shown a darn thing coaching running backs.

It's a Chinese fire drill.
 

If Hightower was let go, was Brew blowing smoke when he told Sid that for the first time since he got here in 2007, he will have the same coordinators and other assistant coaches in back-to-back seasons? Or did something happen or not happen in the last few weeks to cause Hightower to be let go?
 

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