I've been a Gophers fan since I was a kid. I was too young to remember the Lou Holtz short lived era, otherwise known as the last big name coach to wear the maroon & gold.I have really faint memories of the John Gutenkunst stint and I can clearly remember the Jim Wacker days and continuing on with Glen Mason, Tim Brewster, and now the interim fill-in Jeff Horton. So if you're counting at home, after Lou Holtz left, to present day, the Golden Gophers are 124-162-2, a .434 winning percentage, not great, not good, not even average, they've been mediocre at best, routinely finishing in the bottom half of the Big 10, providing the occasional hope and the premise that better years are just around the corner. It's hard to imagine that the Gophers were great at anytime, let alone my lifetime, but in 125 years, the Gophers actually hold a career .575 winning percentage (641–468–44). That means, if you take out my era of watching Gophers football, the team would be left with a 517-306-42, or a .628 winning percentage, which would make them the 18th most successful Division 1A football team behind Miami(FL). Instead, the Gophers are 42nd, just ahead of Troy College.
Some would argue that the program has gotten better and would point to the fact that since 1999, the Gophers have gone to 9 bowl games. Sure, the Gophers have gone to 9 bowl games since then, 3 Insight Bowls, 3 Music City Bowls, 2 Sun Bowls and the Micron.pc bowl game. Not exactly high caliber bowls, even so, the Gophers are 3-6 in those Bowl games playing teams that actually went on to success (Oregon, Texas Tech, Alabama) instead of heading backwards. Those bowls are supposed to be stepping points in a program, not ultimate destinations. Seven of those Bowl games came in the Glen Mason era, who now deserves a lot more credit and is probably secretly grinning from ear to ear after yesterday's announcement, in a sense vindicating his coaching career at Minnesota. Mason was booted out and fired with almost the same support of Brewster's firing if not more. The guy turned the program from unwatchable to watchable and even competitive, churning out stars like Marion Barber, Laurence Maroney, and Matt Spaeth. But Mason could not get over the proverbial hump and catapult the team into the top 5 in the Big Ten among powerhouses Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State.
Brewster was ushered in as the savior of the program, but the savior of what? To bring the team consistency? Mason already provided the consistency, they were consistently average to slightly above average. No, Brewster was brought in to bring the team to the top of the Big Ten and establish the Gophers as a competitive force against the top half, as they had proven legitimate superiority versus the bottom half in teams like Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan State and Illinois. Brewster, an unknown and unproven coach somehow wowed over Joel Maturi and the brass at Minnesota that he was the guy destined to take the team where it hadn't been since the 60's. He promised that the "Gopher Nation" was headed to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl during his tenure. That's a pretty big promise, how bout starting somewhere more realistic, like "I promise I'll keep the team afloat during my first ever stint as a head coach (other than high school)."
Brewster sold us all in the ability to recruit, that coaching was secondary to a talented team, if he could just keep the best talent in the state from leaving, the program would right its own ship and the rest would fall like dominoes, or at least that was the plan. If he didn't know it then, he knows it now, recruiting the top players in Minnesota is difficult, it can be done, but the odds are stacked against you. First off, the best players want exposure. They all have dreams that football will lead them to the promise land, aka the NFL, and that life will be grand and taken care of after then. To get there, they need exposure, national TV spotlight. The Gophers don't have it, they might accidentally end up in the national spotlight, but only by way of their opponents in the Big Ten, the Ohio States and Michigans of the world. Yes, the Big Ten has its own network, but who's clamoring to see Minnesota play Northwestern outside of Evanston and Minneapolis? So Brewster instead had to sell the other things, like playing in the brand new TCF stadium, back on campus for the first time in nearly 30 years. That's not an easy sell though, if you're a Minnesota kid, you're thinking I've got offers from Florida and USC, not only can I get the national exposure there, I can play in warm 70 degree weather, instead of the the 50's, 40's, 30's, and unpredictable Minnesota weather. Or try telling that to a kid from Florida who's never lived in a cold climate, ask him to come play here and sell the outdoor stadium, you have to be a pretty good salesman then. But weather isn't a factor at Wisconsin, only 5 hours to the southeast, that's because reputation trumps weather and all else. The Badgers can sell the fact that there will be 70,000 fans at every home game and almost a guaranteed mention on Saturdays on ESPN. The Gophers have a new stadium, but only half the student body section shows up and often the team is booed. Try telling a recruit that there's no guarantee the fans are going to even like you.
Knowing that recruiting doesn't necessarily churn results right away, let's turn to the football field and product on hand. Brewster was actually given a decent squad to work with, having Eric Decker, Adam Weber, Gary Russell, Dominique Barber, and Nate Triplett as holdovers from the Mason era. Brewster made the claim that the Gophers would make history that year, unfortunately it wasn't the history he had in mind. The 2007 Gophers went an unprecedented 1-11 with their only win in a 3OT game vs Miami(OH). Their first 11 loss season and their first win less Big Ten season since 1983. But everyone gave Brewster a pass, saying this was the first year and that change can take time. Yes it can take time, but going in the complete opposite direction instead of at least staying the course was not the change the program needed. Regardless, the team stayed the course with Brewster chalking up the season as motivation for the next one. 2008 went better than '07, but that's hardly an accomplishment. A 7-5 record earned them another Insight Bowl game loss. 4 of their 7 victories came against Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Montana State, and Florida Atlantic. They finished out the Metrodome history with a 55-0 beating by the hands of Iowa. Still Brewster was praised for bringing the Gophers back, including a brief ranking in the top 25, but really he was just bringing the team back to its Mason state of mediocrity.
In 2009 we saw more of the same Gophers we've seen for the past 3 decades, a team that can beat the lower half of the Big Ten but can't hold a candle to the top. A 6-6 season earned yet another trip to the Insight Bowl and a loss to 6-6 Iowa State in what could be described as the worst Bowl matchup ever and a reason why there are far too many bowl games. It was the first year at TCF though and fans were more excited about the new stadium and more apt to give the team a pass, and celebrate the victory of coming back to campus. 2010 changed all of that momentum however. The new stadium stigma wore off quickly after 4 consecutive home losses to South Dakota, USC, Northern Illinois, and Northwestern, another history maker in the Tim Brewster era. The nail was already in the coffin, Brewster was just waiting for the pink slip and if finally came after another lackluster defeat to Purdue on Saturday. Thus ended another dissappointing coaching career at Minnesota. Brewster went 15-30 in 3 plus years. His biggest signature win arguably was a 2009 victory on the road over Northwestern 35-24, a Wildcats team that finished 8-5. Yep, that's the best I could find. In fact the only other Big Ten teams Brewster beat were Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, and Michigan State, otherwise known as the bottom half of the Big Ten (kudos to the Spartans for a great 2010 so far).
Now the Gophers search for that new coach that will lead the team back to glory, but what kind of glory? Are we just desperate to get back to the mediocrity? Or are the fans going to jump on the new guy's back and ride all of their hopes and dreams to, dare I say, a bowl worth mentioning, a top 20 ranking, the top half of the Big Ten? What can the fans expect? The Gophers might be best to mirror the strategy by which the Men's Basketball team took in 2007. In the same year Brewster was hired, a guy by the name of Tubby Smith was introduced as the new Head Basketball coach, he had a little thing on his resume called a National Championship, a lot bigger bargaining chip then say a Tight Ends coach for the Broncos. Tubby didn't need to sell himself as a recruiter, he was the selling point. The Gophers immediately brought in talent and posted three straight 20 win seasons including 2 trips to the NCAA tournament. While it's argued that the basketball team still has a ways to go, Tubby has not gone backwards one bit and has only strengthened the program. If the football team wants an edge on recruiting in a tough state and conference to keep top talent from going elsewhere, they would be best served to bring in a guy with nationally recognized talent, who would in turn bring national exposure, who just might keep 1 or 2 star recruits from leaving the state, which could turn 5 or 6 wins into 8 or 9.
That's the theory of course, as a Gophers fan speculation and hope is all you can rely on, proven strategies have fallen by the wayside before in Minneapolis. Will the next coach bring us to the Promise Land, or just grant us more promises for next year? This fan hopes and dreams for the former, but won't be surprised to see the latter.
Until next time, remember to test your smoke detectors.
bsv
the courtesy wave
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