Former Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster can point to anyone he wants to, but at the end of the day, he was responsible for being fired.
When head coach Tim Brewster arrived at Minnesota back in 2007 to replace Glen Mason, Gopher fans had high expectations and even set their eyes on the Rose Bowl. However, Brewster’s brief tenure at Minnesota was far from rosy. In 4 seasons, Brewster went a disappointing 15-30 with a paltry 6-21 record in Big Ten play. Last Saturday, the Gophers lost 28-17 to Purdue marking the sixth straight defeat for Brewster and company. Minnesota had enough and cut bait by firing Brewster yesterday.
Back in 2007, Brewster had the gift of gab, convincing AD Joel Maturi that he was the best person for the position despite never holding a head coaching job outside of Central Catholic High School. He talked Rose Bowl and top recruiting, but on the field he had disappointment, disarray, and embarrassment. His coaching staff was a revolving door with grave instability having three offensive coordinators and three defensive coordinators in four seasons.
Gopher fans had reason to worry from the first season as Brewster went a horrific 1-11 as head coach. In total, he was 0-10 in trophy games and never beat rivals Wisconsin or Iowa. Even with a new TCF Bank Stadium, Brewster could not generate wins or much fan support. The student section, if they even showed up, would shower the team with boos not praise. It wasn’t a good situation for anybody and Brewster should have been gone long ago. The concern is, who will take the reins? Tony Dungy already bowed out of the running, and outside of internal staff, no one seems to be knocking on the doors.
Not all was lost for Brewster as he is set to receive $600,000 per his buy-out clause. In the meantime, offensive coordinator Jeff Horton will serve as the interim coach until Maturi finds a suitable replacement.
