Grab a Brew - don't cost nothin'.

Or perhaps something stronger (as our friend Bluto here has), if you're not a fan of Coach Brewster.  Of course, you all know that Gopher Bandanna Guy IS a fan of Coach Tremendous Brew.  So it comes as no surprise that I am pleased to see that the Pioneer Press has announced that the 'U' and Brew have come to terms on a 2-year contract extension.

This is the right move, in my opinion, since continuity is in order to make any hay at all out of this experiment with Mr. Tim Brewster.  I want to see it through now, for better or worse.  And if Joel Maturi agrees (and he seems to), then extending Brew two more years is the exact right length to do it.  Long enough to keep the recruitment train rolling for another year or two, but not so long as to completely hamstring the athletic department (a la Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame - ok, so maybe it didn't quite hamstring the Golden Domers financially- they just had another alum crack open a money bin like Uncle Scrooge to pay that slob). 

In 2009, Coach Brewster cleared a cool million in compensation, ranking 66th in a list of college football coach salaries.  That puts him 9th in the Big Ten, ahead of Pat Fitzgerald and Bill Lynch, which seems about right (Brew's ranking in salary that is).  MSU's Dantonio at $1.8 million is clearly the highway robber of the Big Ten.  So we're getting Brew relatively cheap on the pay scale of BCS conference coaches (and we should be).  The terms of this extension have not yet been released, but I'd anticipate a modest raise over the duration of the new deal.

So there we have it, the stage is set for 2010. Brew, Horton, Cosgrove and Lee will lead our favorite gridiron Gophs with the promise of stability for a few more years.  Let's hope that is enough to get this team on the upward track.  Now Brew could just find a way to keep Seantrel at home...

Brewster gets extension?

This morning, the Strib's Gopher Football beat reporter, Kent Youngblood, reported that Gopher AD Joel Maturi deemed that Coach Brew has earned a contract extension, and that the negotiations have already begun.

Stability was the key word Maturi used to justify his belief that Brewster should be extended. If you've read any of Gopher Bandanna Guy's posts on this blog in the past, you know that I agree with Maturi wholeheartedly. Which is not to say that stability is the only reason Brew should be extended, but it is a significant one in my mind.

So let's analyze this move a bit (assuming Brew does get extended). What are the pros and cons? Let's start with the pros - First, recruiting promises can continue to be made (playing time, positional guarantees, etc.). Second, the new out-state recruiting pipelines that are being established can continue to develop (Texas, Florida, Louisiana). Third, the young and upcoming players aren't forced to learn a different system (provided Brew keeps his coordinators in town). Fourth, the University doesn't send the message that "2 bowl games in 3 years gets you canned" to every other potential coaching hire in the country. And finally, re-upping with Brewster gives us a much better chance to retain him long-term should he make big gains in his 4th and 5th contracted seasons.

Now the cons. 1) We run the risk of continuing to have a football program without any kind of identity. 2) We run the risk of continuing the revolving door situation with coordinators. 3) We risk mediocrity or worse - what if Brewster cannot bring the program above the 6-6 (3-5) level throughout his tenure. 4) Reusse and Souhan will continue their campaign of negativity 'cause they don't like the guy.

So where does the Star Tribune online reading public fall on this topic? Well, the informal poll on the Stribs website when I checked had nearly 80% stating that Minnesota needed a coaching change, and 20% believed stability was more important (I should point out that this poll allowed multiple voting opportunities from the same computer, including 3 votes for the minority position by yours truly).

Now I realize that most of this 80% is made up of the mouth-breathers that still think we can land Tony Dungy or should hire back Lou Holtz away ESPN, but let's get real here people - NCAA Div 1 head football coaches don't get fired after their first 3 years. Especially when they make 2 bowl games, and expectations were not all that great. The only place the truly high expectations were coming from were the Gophers themselves. And that's where high expectation should be coming from at all times. Brew-haters - ask yourself if your opinion of Coach Brew would change at all if we had beat South Dakota State by 30. Or if we had beaten Illinois and were going to the Alamo Bowl instead. My guess is you'd still be hating on the guy.

My final take? Brew should be extended 2 years, unless the Gopher's showing vs. Iowa State on Thursday is absolutely dreadful. If that turns out to be the case, then back down to a 1-year extension, with another year possible if certain incentives are reached in 2010. Yeah, there's the possibility that Brewster won't agree to a 1-year deal, and if that's the case, let him sweat.

I'd love to hear other's opinions, on this polarizing topic within Gopher Nation.

Fisch needs to be fired... Brewster needs to stay (for now)

In an effort to pull my good friend 'Just Jake' back from the ledge a bit, I've crafted this semi-counterpoint post to his POV.

We all saw the absolutely awful offensive performance the Gophers had on display Saturday. As putrid as the SDSU game was, this was even worse in some ways, because we knew we couldn't rely on the defense to completely win this game for us. The offense HAD to do something to get us to overcome the apparently overwhelming task of scoring more than 12 points. They didn't. They left our defense out to dry once again, with turnovers, 3 and outs, and poor execution.. How can our offense have become such a liability that I'd rather see us run the ball 3 times and punt, and give our defense a chance to score, than cringe at another turnover?

JJ holds Brewster responsible, as he was the one who hired Jedd Fisch, won't bench Weber, and can't get our WRs consistently involved in the offense. This is fair, but the reality is these are the growing pains we've had to face with hiring a man to run our football program who has had no head coaching experience. Coach Brewster has obviously made his biggest mistakes in his task of hiring effective coordinators. Its been a revolving door for his entire tenure.

But lets be honest about things, these mistakes have primarily been on the offensive side of the ball. His hiring of Ted Roof as defensive coordinator last season was outstanding. Roof improved our defense by leaps and bounds. Roof left for a better opportunity at Auburn after 2008, and that can hardly be blamed on Brewster. His hiring of Cosgrove, and the promotion of Ronnie Lee to co-defensive coordinator seems to have been a solid hire as well. But the offense is another story. The 'wunderkind' Jedd Fisch was brought in to replace Mike Dunbar, and has ties with Brewster from his Denver Broncos days. He also has no experience as a collegiate offensive coordinator. And if you review his credentials, they are pretty slim. Lots of work other under good coaches (NFL), but that's it. That's pretty much what Brewster's resume was coming in too, making it all the more of a blunder. When Brewster hired Mike Dunbar in 2007 to run the offense, I felt good that he was handing the reins of the offense to a sage veteran. This was the right call for a new head coach with no experience. He then 'pulled a Fisch' and hired Everett Withers, which obviously didn't work out. It would appear he has rectified his mistake of hiring an inexperienced coordinator on defense. But he somehow found a way to repeat his mistake on Withers with Fisch. If you believe that this is an unforgivable repeated mistake, then Brewster should be fired, here and now - so that he can't further repeat mistakes. I am not in this camp (and I'll get to why momentarily).

However, Fisch should be terminated no later than the close of whatever bowl game we end up in (and possibly sooner if the right candidate comes along, as we have a month and some change to implement a few components of a new offense). Fisch needs to be let go for 6 simple reasons:

1.) His inability to give the offense any kind of identity.

2.) His complete and utter lack of quality control (stupid penalties, poor execution, etc.).

3.) Adam Weber's regression and messing with his throwing motion.

4.) Ineffective and predictable use of MarQueis Gray (Gray threw what - maybe 10 passes all year?)

5.) Failure to effectively game plan for specific opponents, and find exploitable weaknesses.

6.) Failure to use our biggest weaknesses, and turn them to occasional success (poor pass blocking = runs screen passes)

Now, I realize that it can be tough to run an offense when the O-line doesn't allow for much at all to work, (and for that perhaps Tim Davis should be let go too), and I list these things, knowing full well that Brewster has major culpability in all this. However, he should NOT be fired until at least being allowed to finish the 2010 season for the following reasons:

1.) Recruiting - Brew has only 2 full classes of his players in house now, and only a few contributed this season. By all accounts his upcoming class is solid again. He needs to land this next class in full, and start getting his players on the field in 2010.

2.) His D-coordinator hires. Roof, Cosgrove, and the promotion of Lee were all solid moves. And despite all the seniors on the defense, I think our D can be even better next year with some continuity in coordinators. Tinsley, Cooper, Carter, Edwards, Kirksey, Wilhite, etc. will be excellent players with some more coaching up.

3.) It's too soon - he needs at least one more season to get things turned. Let's be honest - this season isn't a disaster. No it didn't follow the blueprint that we might have envisioned, but we still made a bowl game. Next year is the reason to react if Brewster doesn't get that signature win, or improve the play on the offensive side of the ball. Worst case scenario, he's got 3 talented recruit classes in for the next coaching staff to work with.

Now IF Brewster brings back Fisch, or IF he again hires a completely ineffectual new offensive coordinator for 2010, then all bets are off. There is absolutely no reason that the offense can't be resurrected for next year with a new offensive coordinator, given the players we have at the skill positions. However, I will follow up on this claim, with some hard research to see what other 1st year O-coordinators have had success, and what their situations were. If the offense can't be improved next season, then I'll be calling for Brewster's head as loudly as anyone else at that point.

Just my $0.02. So really, JJ and I are in agreement that 2010 is the year where it all comes to a head. We're just coming at it from different angles - he's placing more blame on Brew now, and I'm displacing it to Fisch for the moment.

Can we give this Brew some room to breathe?

Apparently the Mark Craig article in the Strib I discussed last week has created some reactionaries. Check out this Tom Dienhart article from Rivals.com.

Nice headline, huh?

Dienhart really put together some top-notch journalism there. Wrote two paragraphs of background, and then he essentially copied a small part of the Mark Craig article. Well done sir. And while I didn't particularly enjoy Craig's article, it did tell us some things about Maturi and Brewster. Maturi is actively gauging things, and success this season is important in his decision. Maturi said:

"If we go 2-10, the odds of me extending [his contract] probably aren't real good. If we go 10-2, the odds of me extending him might be better, provided everything else is OK, we don't have major violations, we don't have this, we don't have that." All in all, I suppose this is what a good AD does, right? Continuously evaluate. Still, I can't help but wonder if this pressure applied is being amplified by the media thanks to Maturi's comments.

Well, we know one thing for sure. We won't be going 2-10 this year, since we clocked Northwestern in the 4th quarter last Saturday, to seal our 3rd win of the season. But, we probably won't be going 10-2 either though... ...so where does this put Coach Brew? Who knows, but its clearly to early to tell.

I will say that while at the Northwestern game, a number of us in attendance saw one Mr. Joel Maturi making his way to the sideline mid-4th quarter, no doubt to congratulate the team (maybe a little prematurely? Has this guy watched our games with NU the last few years?). I'll now completely speculate as to the converstation he had with Brewster. It might have gone something like this:

Maturi: Great win Tim. Great win.

Coach Brew: Hey Joel, we gotta ways to go yet here, keep your chili hot, but let's talk later, okay?

Maturi: Alright, alright Tim - you do your thing. Just remember we're evaluating your progress this season, you want to be re-upped, right?

Coach Brew: Yeah, but not if its like this. Why are you publicly letting every sportswriter in town in on your eval process... HEY, CAMPBELL! CAMPBELL!!! ISO ON KAFKA! ISO ON KAFKA!... Look Joel, this really isn't the time.

Maturi: I know, I know. But I just want you to coach like there's pressure on you.

Coach Brew: There IS pressure on me... ATTABOY WILHITE!! OFFENSE GET OUT THERE! I WANT SIX!

Maturi: Well I see you've got this well in hand. I'll go sit back down. Don't forget to go easy on Wisconsin next week. I worked there for 9 years, remember?

Coach Brew: (under his breath) I can't think of a better reason than to beat them by 6 TDs...