November19, Part II

Brews Crew

Tim Brewster wrapped up his first season as Minnesota football coach on Saturday, losing to the Wisconsin Badgers 41-34, as his Gophers finished 1-10 overall, and 0-8 in the Big Ten. This is the worst finish for Minnesota since their 1983 campaign, Smokey Joe Salem's last, when they also went winless in conference play (0-9) and finished with an identical 1-10 record. There were several in Gopher Nation, and many not part of Gopher Nation, that wanted Brewster gone early in the season after just a few games, and wanting Glen Mason back at the start of October. While most, including this Gopher fan, were hoping for more then just a single win, I think it's safe to say that this years team was going to struggle to make a Bowl game and probably not be playing come December. For those convinced that firing Mason was the wrong decision and he should be back roaming the sidelines, lets take a brief look at the Mason era.

In 1997 Mason took the reigns from Jim Wacker and his "Air" attack. While Wacker went 16-39 in five seasons, there were several intertaining games, like the Purdue 59-56 type shoot-outs. Many forget that Mason went 3-9, 1-7 in his first year, but that had almost been the norm under Wacker so he didn't suffer that much criticism. Record wise Mason went 64-54 .529, but 32-48 .400 in the Big Ten. His best season was 2003 (10-3, 5-3) but only had four winning years in conference play (two of which were 4-4), never finished higher then 4th in Big Ten, and overall had six winning seasons out of ten.

The one thing Mason did do for the program was take them to seven bowl games and bring back some of the winning tradition that had been lost since Minnesota won the last of their 6 National Titles in 1960 and Big Ten in 1967. In those seven bowl games, the Gophers won 3, and lost their last two including blowing a 31 point lead (38-7 with 7:53 left in the Third Quarter) to Texas Tech in the 2006 Insight Bowl, and the 2005 Music City Bowl to Virginia 34-31 (they also led in that game 21-10 at the Half). It doesn't madder if your coaching at Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, or Miami (Ohio) a sub .500 conference record and two straight Bowl losses, especially blowing a 31 point lead will cost you your job.

Just taking a look at last season, outside of the bowl loss to Texas Tech, North Dakota State almost beat them (10-9), the only rival beaten was Iowa, while the only two other Big Ten wins were against Indiana and at Michigan State. All three of their conference wins were the last three games of the season, which helped them finish at 6-7 after starting the year 2-1(44-0 win at Kent State, 42-17 loss at California, 62-0 win vs Temple), and they just barely made the Insight Bowl.

Mason did patrol the Gopher sidelines for 10 seasons, the longest since legendary coach Murray Warmath did so from 1954-71 (18 years, 87-78-7 .526, 1 National Championship in 1960), and just a year shorter then the last two coach's combined (Wacker '92-96, 5 years, and John Gutekunst '85-'96, 6+ years). The point being that Mason did turn the program around from where it had been, some winning seasons and low-teir bowls, but wasn't able to get them to that next step in major/ BCS bowls and have a consistent winning conference team. The other thing to take into consideration is the relationship, or non-relationship he had with the High School Coaches in the state. While Minnesota doesn't produce the same number of blue chip and top recruits as say Texas or Florida, with the non-friendly sort of standoffish relationship he had, how many on the fence Minnesotans decided to go out of state after asking for their coaches advise on where to go? The list is quite long, and a certain Wisconsin quarterback is one that comes to mind, along with several others.

While Brewster didn't have any head coaching experience, and his first season maybe went worse then expected, he has started to establish a relationship with the High School Coaches in the state that after one year is better then what Mason had, and it'll take a few season's before we know if this gamble paid off. While the situation and coaching styles are different, there was another coach that took over a Big Ten school and had a one win first season, who later turned around the University of Iowa to once again be a Big Ten contender and go to New Years Bowls.