Gophers Football Head Coach

[xedge2002]

ESPN is reporting that the Gopher's have hired the Denver Bronco's tight end coach Tim Brewster to be their next head coach. Star Trib has something posted on their site as well. Anybody ever heard anything about this guy??

[Mudcat21]

Tim who......Never heard of this guy. Going to be interesting. I would have preferred Kiffen, but what the heck do I know!

[echotrail]

Here we go again. This morning (1/16) the news reports it's official that Brewster is the coach. He addressed the players early today and will have a news conference tomorrow. The U hires another unknown to be a head coach. It will not keep top ranked prospects in state, nor bring many from out of state. I'm looking forward to more tough competative games aginst NDSU (No offense to them), Ball State, Little Sisters of the Poor, etc.

[xedge2002]

I seen today that he is supposed to be a top notch recruiter. Hope he can pull some magic and get some good players to stay in state and pull a few in from other states as well.

[fishin58]

I am from the land of the bison (god help me) bison this bison that i hate to say it but us gopher fans missed the boat when we passed on Bohl from NDSU. He is a heck of a recruiter and as from the game this year with the gophers one heck of a motivator. DANG POCKET GOPHERS I wish they would do something that makes sense..

[fishin58]

I guess Mr Brewster has been a round for a while but just ran a search on him, He was up for the Job with Illinois in 04 but was turned down, the following year was up for the Colorado job turned down, the following year up for the Minnesota job turned down... hired what... both teams said lack of experience was the reason. I guess the gophers are going to change all that, good luck Mr. Brewster.

[chucker34]

Good luck to him. Hopefully he can use his raw talent as a recruiter and assistant coach to be a wonderful head coach for the Gophers.

But I doubt that's what Maturi had in mind when he hired him. I'll be willing to bet it was (a.) because he was cheaper than more experienced head coaches and (b.) because he didn't pose as big of a threat to Maturi's ego. He'll sleep peacefully at night knowing he's more well-known around town than the head football coach. I mean, imagine if that weren't the case. Expact the same type of decision-making when they hire a new head basketball coach. Who? From where?

[Willy]

Hopefully this guy will pan out and none of us can really judge him right now.

However, what a boring hire. This will generate zero interest from anyone in town. A typical Maturi move. Why is it that we cannot get someone in here that is considered a good coach? This guy hasn't proven anything. He hasn't even been a head coach anywhere. Now we are going to give him the keys to a Big Ten football program? We are the only school in the Big Ten that would have given this guy a job. I am disappointed.

[fishyguy]

Quote:

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Hopefully this guy will pan out and none of us can really judge him right now.

However, what a boring hire. This will generate zero interest from anyone in town. A typical Maturi move. Why is it that we cannot get someone in here that is considered a good coach? This guy hasn't proven anything. He hasn't even been a head coach anywhere. Now we are going to give him the keys to a Big Ten football program? We are the only school in the Big Ten that would have given this guy a job. I am disappointed.

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I wouldn't have said it any better Willy. The only positive I have heard is that the Lemming guy who does all the scouting and recruit ratings for college football told the search firm that as far as recruiting goes, this is the guy to get. He has landed Vince Young, Julius Peppers and Alge Crumpler at the schools he has been recruiting coordinator. If he can get this kind of athlete here he is a great hire. If not, we can look forward to a new coach in 4 more years.

[09ultra]

Not all coaches are head coaches to start, they have to start from somewhere, I say give the guy a chance.Who knows he could be the next super star!Well you never know???

[jmschuetz]

the biggest problem isnt the coach it starts up top with Maturi. he has never made a good decision yet

maybe he can improve with a basketball coach (Flip)

Just my 2 cents

[chucker34]

"Not all coaches are head coaches to start, they have to start from somewhere, I say give the guy a chance.Who knows he could be the next super star!Well you never know???"

No, you don't and for all we know this guy could be wonderful and astound us all. It's not about him or whether or not he can do the job.

It's about Maturi taking a chance on, let's face it, a guy who's not well known and has absolutely no head coaching experience - or even any experience as an offensive or defensive coordinator. Maturi is rolling the dice on a guy that is cheaper and that he won't clash egoes with.

[bassNspear]

I agree with you 100%

[lawdog]

Here is my question on this guy after reading this. How does an assistant pro coach get labeled as a good recruiter? He's not been a head coach at a college before, who did he recruit???

[fishyguy]

Most of his experience was in college where he was recruiting coordinator for Mack Brown and U of N. Carolina and then at U of Texas. Some of his claims to fame are Vince Young, Julius Peppers, Alge Crumpler amongst others. Can he get that kind of athlete to come to the the U and can he keep the few elite players we develop here in Minnesota to stay.

I was talking to a friend who is an asst. coach at my old H.S. who said that getting rid of Mason was the best recruiting move the U could have done. That is good news as they turn out a couple of studs every year.

[Willy]

It is going to be a challenge for him to get that type of kid at Minnesota, no matter how good a recruiter he is.

The best thing this guy can do to improve recruiting is to win! He needs to come out and within the next couple years, have a respectable BIG TEN record. We need to finish on the top half, upset a Michigan or Ohio ST. Then you will see the top athletes in Minnesota stay here. You might get some outside studs in too. Supposedly, this guy has contacts all over Texas which is the best state to have them.

But how much of his recruiting "excellence" is the fact that he was selling Mack Brown and the University of Texas. What kid doesn't want to play for Texas? They are a power, year in, year out. Their high schools produce so many professional football players that its unreal. Those kids grow up dreaming of playing for the longhorns. It's not too hard to not be successful when you have advantages like that.

He can start by getting his own kids to come here. His son is a top 15 quarterback recruit this year, and his other son is a 6'2 200lb strong safety and is a junior this year. He has been offered from Florida, UCLA, Texas, and others.

Let's get these kids and go from there.

[iland99]

Great points Willy. I don't know too many kids from Texas that would be willing to leave a climate like Texas for a climate like ours either. I lived in Houston for two years, if it dropped below 40 people would call in sick to work! More power to him if he can convince them to come up here though. He certainly talks a good talk judging by his press conference yesterday. Let's see if he can deliver on all that big talk.

[chucker34]

I concur about the needing to win part. Maturi said in the paper he wasn't as concerned about the new coach's offensive or defensive mindset as he was about his ability to sell the program?! Um, you need to WIN to sell the program buddy.

I think they will win or at least do better than they have with Mason. I bet Brewster will be able to recruit a better caliber of player but he definitely has some things working against him if he ever hopes to rival the truly "big" programs.

First, the new stadium is great. But give a kid the choice between playing in front of 50,000 people (and on local TV) or 100,000 people (in front of a nationwide TV audience) and he'll take the latter the majority of the time. It doesn't matter how nice and pleasant looking the new stadium is.

Second, the Minnesota program (or rather the University) is notorious for being cheap. How about hiring a special teams coach for the love of God? Oh, no. That would be unnecessary. We'll just give you enough money to get by. How is Minnesota supposed to compete with the likes of Ohio State that actually does spend money on its program. More coaches liek special teams coaches (which by the way are needed to win consistently) and resources available to make a kid succeed on and off the field will make the kid choose that program every time. The University hasn't made a serious committment to the program, why should a star athlete commit to it?

Third, Minnesota plays lots of cupcakes each year in the pre-Big Ten season, which is funny, because many of the other Big Ten teams consider Minnesota one of their cupcakes. Sure, they might give us a run for our money and actually pull one off every few years. But mostly, they fall short. Brewster needs to overcome that image and he can do so by pulling off some recruiting miraceles and winning, going to some REAL bowl games, not ones drummed up by advertisers. Then, recruiting and winning may start getting a little easier.

But going back to the first two points, he'll have to find kids who don't have such a large ego and are willing to be treated sub-par to their peers on Big Ten powerhouses.

[TommyJ33]

I think he will do well as the new coach of the 13 lined Ground Squirrels