It's no secret that Tim Brewster's first season at Minnesota was an unmitigated disaster.Not only did his Gophers not win a Big Ten game, but they posted the worst record (1-11) in school history. They lost to I-AA (er, FCS) North Dakota State. They lost to Florida Atlantic. They almost lost back-to-back home games to MAC teams.
Not much to be proud of here.
To make matters worse, Brewster's highly-rated 2008 recruiting class may lose some players because of eligibility problems, and his prized find in 2007 has already been sent away.
While there is little chance that this year's Gophers will be worse than last year's, it's hard to imagine that Brewster is going to lead this team very far after the debut season he had.
Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press did a pretty nice interview with Brewster, and while there are some interesting points made about the future of Gopher football, the coach also managed to show his completely irrational side.
"That one-win season very easily could have been a six-, seven-win season, easily," Brewster is quick to say. "We lost six games by a total of 23 points. We were in three overtime games. But to me, in the building of the program and understanding this process, it was what it was.Hilarious.
"Obviously, the 1-11 record last year was the toughest thing we had to handle; it was extremely tough on all Gopher fans, particularly me. But I really believe this with all my heart: the two steps we took back last year in wins and losses, we're going to make up for and step forward in the very near future.
We almost won a bunch more games. Followed by a derivative of the classic "It is what it is".
Walters also intelligently asked Brewster to address the way he stormed into the Twin Cities (non-stop talk about how good the team was going to be) versus the quiet confidence Tubby Smith brought to the men's basketball program.
"I don't know that was an overhype at all," he said. "This is who I am, so I've got to be who I am. What I wanted to do was raise the level of expectations of the fans and people of this state. I wanted the people of this state to think, 'hey, yes, we can; yes, we will.' I think they've lost that some. I think people in this state, people who backed the Gophers, had really lost a little bit of their optimism toward winning a championship and taking the Gophers to Pasadena. So I wanted to re-establish that as, hey, this is the mind-set.I really want to support Brewster. He brought a lot of enthusiasm into a program that was lacking it under Glen Mason. I do think he makes a legitimate point in this interview when he talks about being a different person with different credentials than Smith.
"Now, never one time did I ever say last season we're going to the Rose Bowl, this season we're going to the Rose Bowl. This is what we want to do, this is the expectation level of our team, and I want it to be the expectation level of our fans."
However, you can't ignore results. Smith kept his mouth shut and led his team to a 20-win season (albeit against a soft non-conference schedule that would help keep the Gophers out of the NCAA Tournament). Brewster never stopped talking, and he got to watch the Gopher football team suffer two of the most embarrassing losses in its history.
Yes, the Gophers should have won more games. They also shouldn't have had to win nail-biters against the likes of Florida Atlantic and North Dakota State. And need I remind you about the horrific collapse that cost them the Northwestern game? Or how they let a Wisconsin freshman romp for 250 yards on Senior Day at the Metrodome?
Minnesota was the only Big Ten team to permit opponents to top five yards per carry rushing (5.88, to be exact), and they let quarterbacks hit 64% of their passes (worst in the Big Ten). They sacked opposing quarterbacks 11 times in 12 games. In other words, the Gophers team had three fewer sacks than Vernon Gholston did.
But, yeah, they're right on the cusp of something special.
(Thanks, SMQ!)
