I'm listening to Dan Barreiro's interview of Glen Mason (9/20 podcast on KFAN). Really these quotes speak for themselves...
He continues to astound me with his defeatist attitude, especially when it comes to recruiting. The quotes just demonstrate to me why he was incapable of taking Minnesota beyond a middle of the pack Big Ten team. He did a great job of taking the Golden Gophers from a bottom 3 team to a low level bowl team (which he reminded us all in the interview as well), but he didn't seem to have any desire to take the program to another step."I used to say at Minnesota all the time, if you ever see us in the top 10 in USA Today recruiting we're cheating."
"There's no palm trees there, there are no mountians, there's not an ocean and it's cold during the winter."
Hard to win when your recruiting pitch is something like this..."it's cold here, we have nothing except the Mall of America, we play in a crappy stadium BUT you'll get the chance to play on a mediocre football team that used to be the worst in the conference." Just sign here.
Isn't it funny how the lack of ocean and mountains hasn't prevented Brewster from getting commitments from states like Florida (3), Texas (2) and Colorado (2) in just under 10 months on the job at MN? And there are many more that have the gophers among their top choices but they are yet to commit.
"The state of Minnesota produces some really good football players. But not the abundant number that states like Ohio, Texas, Florida and California did and those are the teams (along with Notre Dame) that have the ability to recruit those types of players."There is truth to that, but the problem was he was incapable of keeping any of those "really good football players" here. Nobody is denying that you have to supplement in state recruits with plenty of good players from around the country but this team would look a LOT better if you add a few local players like...
- James Laurinitus - LB - Ohio State
- John Carlson - TE, Notre Dame
- Trevor Laws - DT, Notre Dame
- Nate Swift - WR, Nebraska
- Brandon Robinson - WR, Boston College
- several OL around the country (Murtha-Neb, Coleman-Wis, Carufel-ND)
This post is meant to be less about Mason and more about Brewster. His attitude of 'we are going to have great recruiting classes' and 'we are going to contend for the Big Ten championship' are so much more refreshing than 'it is so hard to recruit here' and 'remember how bad it was before, you should be happy with 4-4 and an occasional 5-3'.
I don't know for sure if Brewster is the guy to get us there but I'm certain Mason was not. Give me a guy who will accentuate the positives rather than dwell on the negatives any day. Brewster will give us a shot at winning in the future, I have no doubt.
2 comments:
The things he overlooks are that EVERY single team in the Big Ten has these exact same attributes. None have mountains, an ocean, or warm weather. All are cold in winter. Are places like Alabama, Texas, West Virginia, etc. garden spots either? A couple are a little warmer but all fall well below Minnesota in quality of life ratings.
Plus, Minnesota is one of only a small handful of B10 schools that has the advantage of an urban setting, with real shit to do, an African-American community, and all of that. Why is Madison attracting much better players and teams than us? Does his beloved Columbus have an ocean I never heard about? Its pure laziness and defeatism, and Mason knows it.
excellent point Mr. Anonymous, I couldn't have said it better myself.
Madison, Champaign, Iowa City, West Lafayette, Bloomington, etc. is beautiful at this time of year. You hit the nail on the head!
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