Stale Brew

Five years ago, the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team was searching for a head coach to replace Glen Mason, who was solid, but could only lead the team to mediocrity.

It was believed that the Gophers needed a coach that could take them past the Insight Bowl, the Music City Bowl, and other mid-tier bowls. If the Gophers got a big name, the fan base would be revitalized and that would be important as they were opening the brand new TCF Bank Stadium a couple years after this hiring.

Then, "WHO THE @#$% IS TIM BREWSTER" flew out of my mouth.

Brewster was hired to replace Mason, and he said all the right things at the introductory news conference. Gopher Nation was coined. He bragged about his ability to recruit by getting Julius Peppers to go to North Carolina and Vince Young to Texas.

Then came his first season. The Gophers went from a grind it out attack to the spread offense, and the Gophers went 1-11. However, Brewster landed a solid recruiting class and lead the Gophers to a 7-1 record in his second season.

Since then Brewster has compiled a 7-14 record and has failed to beat Wisconsin, Iowa, or Michigan. Overall, Brewster's record stands at 15-25 in his fourth season and a majority of those losses have come against the Big Ten.

Apparently, Brewster didn't remember that to get to the Rose Bowl, you must first win the Big Ten. Go figure.

By the fourth year of a college coach's tenure, it's assumed that the coach has their guys in place and whatever system they choose to employ will work.

Enter Saturday's game. The Gophers lost 41-38 against a Football Championship Subdivision team who is currently in the third year of shedding it's division two status. That team is South Dakota.

So you have to ask yourself why has Brewster failed miserably with his guys?

- Brewster started out by employing a spread offense after the Gophers had spent years as a punch you in the mouth offense. Despite that, the Gophers finished with an elite passing attack after year 1 despite going 1-11. After the second season lagged a little bit, the Gophers fired offensive coordinator Karl Dunbar and decided to go into a pound you in the mouth offense. Huh? The Gophers hired Jedd Fisch, who filled Weber's head with all sorts of terminology and Weber's head just about exploded as did the Gophers offense. The change is viewed as a turning point in Brewster's tenure.

- Brewster isn't getting the most out of his first great recruiting class. Perhaps the only player living up to some potential is MarQueis Gray...who currently is playing wide receiver despite being an elite quarterback prospect and being second on the depth chart behind a struggling quarterback. Brewster has also made other head scratchers, such is Ra'Shied Hageman being recruited as a top tight end...and being moved to defensive end.

- Brewster has been outmatched in recruiting outside of his first class. I'm sure Brewster is a decent recruiter, but it's a lot easier when you're recruiting for a super power instead of Minnesota. We'd all love to say Minnesota is a legit school, but it's not the case for football. Brewster has also failed to grab top state prospects such as Michael Floyd and Seantrel Henderson. Even the one top prospect who Brewster did grab (Sam Maresh) is not with the team at the moment. Three strikes and you're out!

- Brewster's lack of coaching experience has caught up with him. Brewster has been a head coach on one occasion outside of Minnesota. That was in the early 90's at an Indiana high school. The jump from high school to division 1 is a big one. It's something Joel Maturi did not take into consideration in this matter.

- In addition to shuffling his offense around, the defense has seen turnover as well. In four years, Brewster has used four different defensive coordinators, the worst being Kevin Cosgrove, who drove a Nebraska defense into the ground in his tenure. Giving up 41 points to a FCS team should be terms for termination as well.

So, after all of this, Minnesota has a decision to make. Do you stay the course with Brewster or go in a different direction?

If they fire Brewster, the advantage is that the Gophers can go and get someone else to come in. The negatives are that it would be another rebuilding project for the Gophers, who have seen too much turnover in the past five years.

Also, who would want to take this job. The Gophers were believed to want Louisville head coach Charlie Strong as their first choice, but Strong wanted the Gophers to fork out money for a new football practice facility. As Tubby Smith has found out, the Gophers aren't willing to do that. Other coaches would probably want the same thing.

Candidates could be solid, however. Would Tony Dungy, a Super Bowl winning coach and a former Minnesota alum, be willing to save the Gophers from mediocrity? I doubt it, but if they could make it happen, it would be huge.

Think about recruiting. How many kids would crap themselves thinking that Tony Dungy is in their house. All that talk about Minnesota being a mediocre team could be muted by Dungy's Super Bowl ring in his ear.

More realistically, Paul Crist might be a candidate. But would he want to leave his cushy job at Wisconsin?

I believe something needs to be done. The Gophers have shown patience with Brewster, and Saturday's loss should be the last straw. I don't expect anything to be done until the end of the season, but I do expect something to be done.

By the way, if you want to read more into this, I was able to find a post about the ten worst losses under Brewster. Enjoy if you can.