Coach Brew - how long should his leash be?

While doing my semi-daily check on the local "Fishwrap West's" site, I found a lengthy Mark Craig article about Coach Brewster's future wearing the Maroon and Gold.

While it was nowhere near a gem of Reusse-level negativity, it did seem a bit critical in areas that bother me.

Namely, Brewster's positivity.

Why is it when a new coach comes in to a middling program that can't seem to get over the hump of being a mid-tier Big Ten team (aka 'the Mason Era'), and spouts off how he wants to change the culture of the team, and confidently states he's going to take us to the Rose Bowl, he's hung out to dry by the local media? Did we want another guy to come in and just quietly take the team to the Sun Bowl or the Insight.com Bowl every year? Obviously not - we had that already in Mason. We need an overachiever - and to me Brewster still fits that bill. Without getting too in-depth on the article (you can read it for yourself here), the key things that stood out for me were:

1) Maturi's sobering realism - he obviously knows that positivity and recruiting aren't the end all be all.

2) Brewster's unwavering committment to getting in-state recruits. Helicopter anyone?

3) Marquis Gray's reason for coming to the U, and not another Big Ten team - Brew's swagger and confidence.

This 3rd year should be the hinge point for the Gophs under Brewster's tenure. I think we are already seeing the sea level change for this program, with a good win over Air Force, and playing tough against Cal. The team's attitude as a whole seems to be more confident and sure of who they are, especially on defense. Let's cross our fingers this continues into the Big Ten opener vs. Northwestern tomorrow.

How long should Coach Brew's leash be? I say anything over 7 wins this season gets him an extension, given our schedule for 2009. Under 6 wins or less, let's take a 'wait and see' approach and consider extending him early 2010 if we play well (i.e. take down USC).