Sunday, October 17, 2010

Brewster fired at Minnesota

It's official, the Tim Brewster era has come to an end at the University of Minnesota.  Brewster finishes with a career record of 15-30 at Minnesota.  Co-Offensive Coordinator Jeff Horton takes over on an interim basis, he is the only assistant on the staff with head coaching experience (at UN-LV).   Brewster really was a poor choice to start with at Minnesota.   I remember being shocked when they fired Glen Mason back in 2006, he had turned the program from horrid to respectable, I certainly didn't think that his firing was warranted.  Upon taking a closer look at the Mason firing at that time, I did see the reasoning behind it though, they seemed to have plateaued under Mason, his recruiting was suffering and he still had no clue on defense.  So I ended up being okay with his firing.  I was then shocked that they selected Tim Brewster as his replacement, he had never risen above the level of a position coach in any of his coaching stops (in the NFL or the NCAA).  The more I found out about him though the more he grew on me, he had done a very good job of recruiting for Mac Brown at Texas and North Carolina and that was one area that Glen Mason was really lacking so I was willing to give him a chance.  Recruiting has picked up under Brewster but it just hasn't translated to the field.  Year 1 under Brewster was horrendous, a 1-11 record, he followed that up with respectable (not great, but respectable) records of 7-6 & 6-7.  His 1-6 start this year showed that he was not moving the team in the right direction.  He really did make lots of mistakes in his short tenure at Minnesota, the chief mistake IMO being that he never really found an identity (they started out running the spread, then moved to a more NFL type scheme, then to a 'pound the rock' scheme), teams and players need consistency, they need time to learn and perfect a system, you need to bring in new players who fit yours system (how do you do that when you don't know what they system will be?).   Another problem he had was maintaining a stable staff, they changed coordinators constantly (if I recall correctly they had 3 offensive coordinators and 3 defensive coordinators in his 4 years), again, that goes back to stability and consistency.  The one other major issue I have had with Brewster is his fondness for Adam Weber at QB, Weber has been mediocre at best throughout his career at Minnesota, it is quite obvious to everybody (except Brewster) that we've seen the best that Weber has to offer and that it was not quite good enough to get this program to the next level.  MarQueis Gray on the other hand has all the talent in the world, he is easily the best athlete on the team (and one of the best athletes in the Big Ten), he deserves at least a chance to show what he can do, and Brewster never gave it to him.  At this point, the guy I want them to make a run at as a replacement is Al Golden, give him whatever he wants, he'd be a great pick.

I've compiled a list of other potential candidates on the next page.


  1. Al Golden - Head Coach at Temple
  2. Jim Harbaugh - Head Coach at Stanford
  3. Mike Leach - former Head Coach at Texas Tech
  4. Tony Dungy - UM alum, former NFL Head Coach 
  5. Mark Richt - Head Coach at Georgia
  6. Chris Peterson - Head Coach at Boise St
  7. Gary Shiano - Head Coach at Rutgers
  8. Gary Patterson - Head Coach at TCU
  9. Gary Pinkel - Head Coach at Missouri
  10. Kevin Sumlin - Head Coach at Houston
  11. Troy Calhoun - Head Coach at Air Force
  12. Randy Edsall - Head Coach at UConn
  13. Mike Bellotti - former head coach at Oregon
  14. Jerry Kill - Head Coach at Northern Illinois
  15. Brady Hoke - Head Coach at San Diego St
  16. Paul Chryst - Assistant Coach at Wisconsin
  17. Leslie Frazier - Assistant Coach with Minnesota Vikings
  18. Phil Fulmer - former Head Coach at Tennessee
  19. Marc Trestman - CFL Head Coach
  20. Jeff Jagodzinski - Head Coach in UFL, formerly Head Coach at Boston College
  21. Scott Linehan - former NFL Head Coach
  22. Jim Leavitt - former Head Coach at South Florida
  23. Mike Shula - former Head Coach at Alabama
  24. Brent Venables - Assistant Coach at Oklahoma
  25. Luke Fickell - Assistant Coach at Ohio St
  26. Craig Bohl - Head Coach at North Dakota St
  27. Jim Zorn - Assistant Coach with  Baltimore Ravens
  28. Darrell Bevell - Assistant Coach with Minnesota Vikings
  29. Brian Billick - former NFL Head Coach
  30. Denny Green - former NFL Head Coach
  31. Carl Pelini - Assistant Coach at Nebraska 
  32. Don Treadwell - Assistant Coach at Michigan St
  33. Chuck Martin - Assistant Coach at Notre Dame
  34. Mike Markuson - Assistant Coach at Mississippi
  35. Kirby Smart - Assistant Coach at Alabama
  36. Jim McElwain - Assistant Coach at Alabama
  37. Kevin Wilson - Assistant Coach at Oklahoma
  38. Kevin Steele - Assistant Coach at Clemson
  39. Shawn Watson - Assistant Coach at Nebraska
  40. Lance Leipold - Head Coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater
  41. Norries Wilson - Head Coach at Columbia, UM Alum
  42. Mark Mangino - former Head Coach at Kansas
  43. Dan McCarney - Assistant Coach at Florida 

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