Thursday, October 14, 2010

Why Brewstergeddon Happened at the Worst Possible Time

The Gophers football team was coming off of a decade's worth of mediocrity. True, they were better than they were in the Jim Wacker days. Still, under Glen Mason they consistently blew huge leads and lost huge games, and just never got over the hump.

That brings us to the immortal Tim Brewster.

He had never been a head coach at any level before he was hired, but he was touted as a master recruiter (not sure if he's a master debator). Whatever, most Gopher fans were just excited for a fresh start. Brewster made it readily apparent he wasn't going to be satisfied with more mediocrity. He boasted of taking "Gopher Nation" to the Rose Bowl. Sure, he seemed like a blowhard, but as long as he was a successful blowhard, everyone would've been happy. Plus, he was going to get the brand new TCF Bank Staduim to operate out of starting in his third year. An enormous, beautiful campus in a great city with a sparkling new stadium should be more than enough to succeed.

So what the hell happened?

They only won one game his first season (It's ok; he's rebuilding.), went to a bowl game his second (Progress!) had a losing record last year (uh-oh) and has been an abortion this year (Shit.).

We've seen bad football in these parts before, but this time, it's worse. The U was primed to become a viable program. The fans were excited about the new stadium. We were finally going to get over that hump!

Now? The excitement will wear off in a hurry. People will still go to games for the stadium, but not for long. It's like this: Imagine if you built an amazing new house, and invited all of your friends and family over for a house warming party. Then, you took a gigantic dump in the middle of the living room right before your guests arrived. To make it worse, you refused to serve your guests drinks to make the experience somewhat more bearable. The lesson: It's not much fun to spend time in a new place, no matter how great it is, if it's filled with shit.

I hope this is Brewster's last year, and they bring in a coach who knows how to win and can truly turn the Gophs around. I just can't help but feeling they blew their best chance.