Year In Review: Maturi Hires Some Guy He's Never Heard Of

A little more than two weeks after Glen Mason was shown the door, Athletic Director Joel Maturi and University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks found the man they wanted to bring a new vision to Gophers football. The new coach was a new name to the vast majority of Gophers fans.

On a blustery Minnesota morning in mid-January, we learned Tim Brewster would be having a press conference to announce he had agreed to terms with the University. In unison, much of Gopher Nation scratched their heads. Who is Tim Brewster? Why did we hire someone with no head coaching, or coordinator experience? If Brewster has never been anything more than a tight ends coach, why is he the best coach to take a high-major, middle-of-the-pack football program and oversee its ascension to the top of the Big Ten?

In short, Gophers fans were stumped. Maturi finally stepped up and pulled the plug on the Glen Mason era. But with the AD's first big hire at the University, he goes for a no-name coach, one we later learn our AD had never even heard of himself. A startling decision to say the least.

There were some positives. Brewster was pegged as a top-notch recruiter. He had landed Vince Young while on staff for Mack Brown at Texas. And under Brown at North Carolina, Brewster took some credit for landing Julius Peppers. There were others too: Brewster was tight ends coach for the NFL's Chargers during Antonio Gates' rise to stardom. He had most recently worked under one of the NFL's most respected gurus in Mike Shanahan. While his resume lacked in some areas, it looked good in others.

So, the decision makers told us that Brewster would work to build a fence around the state of Minnesota. We would no longer lose homegrown products to Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan. Here is Maturi, via Chip Scoggins at the Star Tribune, introducing Brewster to his new fanbase:

"Coach Brewster has a great reputation as a man of integrity, vision and energy," Maturi wrote in an e-mail. "He is known as a tireless recruiter and he wanted to be a Gopher. From the dozens of people we talked to around the nation, Coach Brewster stood out as a person that could take us to the next level."

Later on January 16th, Brewster took to a podium in Minneapolis, Maturi cheerleading at his side, and professed that this was the beginning of a new era in Minnesota football. He talked of the storied history of the program only our grandfathers can recall. He talked about how this current team can win now, and he talked about taking "Gopher Nation To Pasadena."

Brewster immediately set the bar very high:

"My expectations from Day One is that we are going to win the Big Ten championship," he said. "We're going to take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena (the site of the Rose Bowl)." He was asked if he had concerns about his lack of head coaching experience. "I don't have fear. I don't have anxiety. I have total exhilaration," he said in a mild Texas accent despite having been born in New Jersey. "If you aren't prepared, then you have anxiety. ... For 19 years I've been an assistant coach [and] I've always made great decision on who I worked for. ... What I chased was knowledge [rather than] what my title was."

The man entered the Minnesota sporting world with bravado.

Later in the Year In Review, we'll look at how Brewster performed during his first season on the sidelines. But for now, I want to concentrate on the coaching search. As I suggested in the previous post about the dismissal of Glen Mason, the coaching search was made to be hurried by the poor timing of Mason's dismissal. Had Mason been fired at the end of the regular season--before the Insight Bowl debacle--the Gophers would have had a month or more to find a coach instead of two weeks. But a quick decision had to be made because the early signing period was imminent.

As in any coaching search there was rampant speculation about who would be the next coach. The names varied from the never-going-to-happen (think Tony Dungy) to the PLEASE! department (Think the degree-less Mike Tice and Eden Prairie High School coach Mike Grant). But other names were out there: former USC coordinator now Oakland Raiders Coach Lane Kiffin, UCLA Defensive Coordinator DeWayne Walker (former Gopher), Wisconsin Offensive Coordinator Paul Chryst and North Dakota State Head Coach Craig Bohl. Each of those five names appealed to me for different reasons.

Each of those names had something Brewster doesn't: big-time coaching experience. Bohl has built a program. Kiffin has been part of greatness at USC. Chryst has run a Big Ten offense (for our arch rival, another plus). Walker brings a BCS track record and a Minnesota tradition. Brewster, well, Brewster had coached tight ends and been a recruiting coordinator. Suffice to say, the name Tim Brewster came out of left field.

I might be overly skeptical, but I fail to see why Maturi and Bruininks couldn't have sought a coach with both a coaching and recruiting track record. But I already know the answer to that. They weren't so much looking for a coach. They were looking for a salesman. They were looking for someone who could boost ticket sales and interest as the University pushed to raise millions of dollars for its new outdoor, on-campus, football stadium.

The Star Tribune's excellent columnist Jim Souhan made this point the day after Brewster was hired:

As the search began, the U braintrust had a rare epiphany. What this program needed was not a play diagrammer or a retread. What this program needed was a credible and persuasive salesman. Someone who could sell tickets and raise stadium funds, who could promote the program 12 months a year and attract recruits from Hibbing to Houston. The anti-Mason.

Let me suggest that the "U braintrust" was at least partially wrong. What the U needed was a salesman who could light a fire under a disinterested fan base AND diagram plays. So, Maturi and Bruninks went with a coach who they knew could do the one thing they felt they needed most: influence public relations in the short term, nevermind the longterm consequences. So, they hired a man who they had never heard of.

Maturi admitted that during the press conference introducing Brewster. Maturi said:

"Quite frankly, I'd never heard of Tim Brewster," he said. But as he checked around "everybody had great things to say about Tim Brewster. Kids love to play for him."

Never heard of your new coach!?!!??!!

To me that is astonishing. The University of Minnesota is in a big-time athletic conference. Yet when the search began for a new football coach, our athletic director hadn't even heard of the man now leading our progarm! Time may vindicate Joel Maturi but with a year behind us to look at this, the decision to hire Brewster clearly appears to be one that was A) rushed and B) made with one overriding priority in mind: finding the anti-Mason. It appears that Brewster was sold to Maturi, by a search committee, by high profile coaches and by Brewster himself.

It's too early to know if Brewster will be a failure as head coach at Minnesota. But with 20-20 hindsight, I think we can agree that Joel Maturi--by all accoutns a good man--put himself in position to take some criticism for this hire whether it works out or not.

This was Joel Maturi's first big coaching search as AD. And I sumbit he failed the test.

Year In Review: The Mason Firing

Even the most staunch Glen Mason haters were caught a little bit by surprise when on the eve of the new year Joel Maturi axed the coach who became to be known as "Mediocre Mason" during his decade long stint as Minnesota's football coach.

Here's what FireMason.com wrote on Dec. 31, 2006: The loss to Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl in classic Mason fall-from-ahead fashion has apparently led to the coach's dismissal. The late-season three game rally that qualified the gophers for the bowl had admittedly and obviously left me lacking motivation, as I assumed that the coach's future was secure for another year. The firing is a welcome and surprising holiday gift. Kudos to everybody who took the time to write to Joel Maturi and the other big-shots. This could have and would have gone on longer if we had let it.

I was watching that game in the comfort of my living room last year, watching with joy as the Gophers piled up a tremendous lead. Eventually, the girlfriend said "Charlie, this game is over. Let's watch a movie." I agreed, and suffered through some painful romantic comedy. After it ended, I flipped on the 4-letter (ESPN) and saw coverage of the biggest collapse in college bowl history.

It was typical Glen Mason football: show some signs of life, before falling hard. And that epitomized the Gophers of 2006 (and the Mason era for that matter). The Insight Bowl debacle opened up old wounds: Think 4th quarter of Michigan 2003, for instance. But as we now look back almost one year later, we have to ask was it the right move?

I will say now that it looks in retrospect like a panic move. Had Maturi wanted to fire Mason all along, he should have done it prior to the bowl game. The dismissal after the Insight Bowl smacks of desperation--an AD who was getting hammered with e-mails suggesting he should have fired Mason earlier. An earlier dismissal would also have allowed a more thorough coaching search process. The late dismissal forced the Gophers athletic department into near panic mode to find a new coach, as national signing day was less than 40 days away at the time. We ended up with Tim Brewster, who has excelled in the recruiting department and sputtered on the sidelines. And Maturi had cause to fire Mason earlier. The Gophers started 3-6, and 0-5 in the Big Ten. What's more striking about Maturi's decision making is that he fired Mason almost exaclty one year from the day he signed the coach to a contract extension. That meant that Mason received a $3.6 million parting gift. There's something to be said about giving an embattled coach a vote of confidence, it's something far different to give him that type of security without earning it.

Overall, I think I can speak for the majority of Minnesota fans in saying that Glen Mason's firing was a welcome developement. Could it have been handled better? Yes. Earlier? Yes. Did Maturi make the right decision? Yes. Did it look like a decision made out of panic? Absolutely. Are we better off now? That jury is still out. But I'll say this. As a Gophers fan, I was tired of Mason's excuses and the fact that he was apparently OK with mediocrity. Maturi and University President Robert Bruininks said they felt the football program needed a "new voice."

As the year in review continues, I'll take a look at their replacement for Glen Mason and examine whether or not they hired the right "voice."