Let me clarify, 1-7 sucks

Yesterday's loss was in no way a good thing. It was embarrassing and frustrating. The 1-7 record is a combination of having no talent on defense, players designed for Mason's systems being used in another system (square peg/round hole) and some maverick calls that simply didn't work in our favor.

To declare that coach Brewster is incapable of coaching at this point is just ridiculous. Maybe he will fall on his face. Maybe in 3 years everyone will tell me what an idiot I am/was. You can rip me then and I'll take it like a man (I'll probably beat you to it). But for now I think it is short-sighted and ignorant.

Brewster's biggest mistake has been coming in and building some excitement. He clearly over-promised and severely under-delivered. Here again, I wonder what the big deal is? So what that he came in and said he wants to win and he wants to win now? Who cares that he says being bowl eligible isn't enough he wants to win a championship? I want a coach who strives for more than mediocrity.

I guess people miss the Insight, Music City, Micron PC and the Wells Fargo Sun Bowls. Personally I don't. Being .500 and playing a weak schedule just so we can get bowl eligible is meaningless to me. I want a talented team, I want a team to truly get excited about. I want to see Floyd, the Ax and the Jug in Minnesota at the same time. With a couple games left I want to be talking about our chances to win the league, not can we get bowl eligible.

If taking this season as a step back (no matter how far back the step is) is necessary to take a step forward I'll take it cause I'm tired of the following recent records against the better teams in the Big Ten

• 2-10 against Wisconsin
• 1-5 against Iowa
• 1-9 against Purdue
• 1-17 against Michigan
• 1-21 against Ohio State

That's a combined record of 6-62 against the best in the conference. Is Brewster guaranteed success against the best of the Big Ten? Absolutely not. Has he shown anything on the field that shows he will? No. I'll grant you that he hasn't shown he is capable of winning. But he has shown that he is going to bring in more talent, his current list of verbal commitments is already a better class than anything Mason brought in.

To be fair we should see if he is capable of winning when he has kids who fit his system and when he has a defense that has more than 1 guy who is a legit Big Ten player on it.

Not sure if you noticed that a former fullback turned halfback actually outran our linebackers, corners and safeties on his way to 200 first half yards on the ground. Missed tackles were all over the place and I'll grant that can partially be attributed to coaching (although we didn't tackle las year either).

There are no excuses for losing yesterday. We were just beat by team that was more physical and executed their game plan. But really, who cares? If we win yesterday and are sitting at 2-6 does anybody feel any different about this team? If we would have won 56-3, would we all breath easy and say everything is OK? No chance. As I've said for weeks, the record is meaningless. This season was lost weeks ago.

Upgrade the talent, then lets scrutinize and evaluate Brewster and his staff. Let him have a Big Ten caliber defense and a QB who isn't a freshman then lets crucify him when he is sitting at 1-7.

My final point (I promise). Lets say that Brewster is the one and only (or at least biggest) reason that we are 1-7. The defense is very talented it's just that Brewster has been a terrible coach. The real test will be his 2nd season. It is reasonable that someone who has never been a head coach is going make mistakes. What will define his career will be how he learns from those mistakes and if he himself improves in season 2. Really if you have a problem with Brewster you should blame Maturi for hiring a green coach, but I just can't fault Brewster before he gets a legit chance to show if he is capable. I'm trying to not make excuses for him but I believe we have to be patient and give him (or any coach) a chance.