If you have a few moments go ahead and check out this review of the upcoming Gopher season on The Bleacher Report.
I don't have any past experience reading The Bleacher Report, so I have no frame of reference for who these guys are, their experience, etc. I felt like this was a mostly fair assessment of the upcoming season, even though it doesn't go into ANY depth and this article, really, could have been written by anybody had peripheral interest in college football as a whole.
I was a bit put off by the constant jabs at Coach Brewster ("Tight end Tim," "Timmy," etc), but I was mostly on board with the assessment, until I read this:
"I still think Minnesota made a horrible mistake letting Glen Mason go, and they are going to be paying for it for years to come."
This guy, or this site, or whoever wrote this, would have done themselves, and their credibility, a huge favor if they had left this little tidbit of information out of the review. Once I read that statement toward the end of the article, I understood why the cheap-shot tone had been taken toward Brewster.
This is such an old argument at this point, and it really brings nothing new or worthwhile to talk about to the table. We all know that there are a lot of people out there who felt that getting rid of Mason was a bad idea... really, we get it! There a plenty of people who are happy with the move, and if you don't know yet that I fall into that camp, well you just haven't been paying attention.
The fact of the matter is that Glen Mason doesn't coach here anymore... in fact, Glen Mason doesn't coach anywhere last time I checked. But Tim Brewster does. Did the guy have a horrible first season on the field? Without question. But can we please give "Tight end Tim," as they call him, (by the way, these guys ARE talking about Tim's past as a TE and a TE Coach, not his actual... ahem... rear end... right?) a chance to run the team with his players and his system in place?
I do not for one second believe that the Gophers are going to have as poor of a season as they did last year, nor do I think that Tim Brewster is in jeopardy of losing his job after his second season. It's clear that the team needs to make some strides after taking a HUGE step back last year. But none of this has anything to do with Mason any more. GET OVER IT!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Coach's son leaving Gophers
Just saw the news that Clint Brewster, quarterback and son of Coach Tim Brewster, will be leaving the Gopher Football program.
There is no word about where Clint will transfer to, Coach Brewster's statement only said "Clint Brewster has decided to transfer. I respect and admire Clint's decision to further his education and play football elsewhere."
I'm not sure exactly how much of a surprise that this should come as to Gopher fans. In all honesty, despite the fact that Clint had a great showing in the spring game this year, I just was not sure how he fit into this team. He's not a prototype Big10 QB. Outside of the fact that Clint is Coach Brewster's son, I always wondered how he fit into this team.
When Coach Brewster heavily recruited his son, the only quarterback options on this team were Weber and Mort, and clearly Brewster went after Clint because he wanted his son on the team, but also because he wasn't comfortable with the QB situation. But he spent a lot of effort recruiting quarterbacks in the past year, and Clint had to have seen the writing on the wall.
I wish Clint good luck! He's got all of the mechanics to be a very good college quarterback.
There is no word about where Clint will transfer to, Coach Brewster's statement only said "Clint Brewster has decided to transfer. I respect and admire Clint's decision to further his education and play football elsewhere."
I'm not sure exactly how much of a surprise that this should come as to Gopher fans. In all honesty, despite the fact that Clint had a great showing in the spring game this year, I just was not sure how he fit into this team. He's not a prototype Big10 QB. Outside of the fact that Clint is Coach Brewster's son, I always wondered how he fit into this team.
When Coach Brewster heavily recruited his son, the only quarterback options on this team were Weber and Mort, and clearly Brewster went after Clint because he wanted his son on the team, but also because he wasn't comfortable with the QB situation. But he spent a lot of effort recruiting quarterbacks in the past year, and Clint had to have seen the writing on the wall.
I wish Clint good luck! He's got all of the mechanics to be a very good college quarterback.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Sam Maresh, continued...
An interesting, and personal, twist to the news that Sam Maresh will be having open heart surgery arose for me on Tuesday night.
As it turns out, the same surgeon who is going to be performing Sam's surgery at the Mayo Clinic did the same surgery on my Mom, just a few years ago. My mom also had a bicuspid aortic valve, and her surgery was performed by Dr. Hartzell Schaff at the Mayo Clinic. My Mom had an artificial valve replacement, whereas Sam will be getting a flesh valve replacement (a pig valve, actually). As the stories have already mentioned, going with the flesh valve allows Sam a higher probability of being able to return to football than an artificial valve.
I mentioned in my previous post that I would explore what kind of football impact this might have on the Gophers.
The largest toll that this news might have on the Gopher football program might be emotional. We all know that Coach Brewster is very fond of, and has very high hopes, for Maresh. The hope was that Maresh would have an immediate impact the attitude of the defense, adding a toughness and having an impact on everyone around him. While Maresh will still be around the team and probably on the sideline, he won't be on the field, and that is certainly going to change his impact.
From the standpoint of the actual play on the field, this year it might not have a huge impact. While Maresh is a big time linebacker recruit with serious D1 talent, this year still would have been a very raw, learning year for him. I'm not saying that he wouldn't have the potential to play very very well, but even with Maresh this was destined to be a bumpy year on the defensive side of the ball with a very young and inexperienced roster, and a new defensive coordinator.
The good news for Sam is that he'll still be around football and around the Gopher program and the coaches. If he is able to come back from this surgury in 2010, like he is hoping to, he'll have two years of being with the players, the coaches where he'll have a great opportunity to learn the defensive schemes. While there is no replacement for on-field experience, at least he won't be coming back to the field with no frame of reference.
As I mentioned before, good luck Sam!!! SKI-U-MAH!
As it turns out, the same surgeon who is going to be performing Sam's surgery at the Mayo Clinic did the same surgery on my Mom, just a few years ago. My mom also had a bicuspid aortic valve, and her surgery was performed by Dr. Hartzell Schaff at the Mayo Clinic. My Mom had an artificial valve replacement, whereas Sam will be getting a flesh valve replacement (a pig valve, actually). As the stories have already mentioned, going with the flesh valve allows Sam a higher probability of being able to return to football than an artificial valve.
I mentioned in my previous post that I would explore what kind of football impact this might have on the Gophers.
The largest toll that this news might have on the Gopher football program might be emotional. We all know that Coach Brewster is very fond of, and has very high hopes, for Maresh. The hope was that Maresh would have an immediate impact the attitude of the defense, adding a toughness and having an impact on everyone around him. While Maresh will still be around the team and probably on the sideline, he won't be on the field, and that is certainly going to change his impact.
From the standpoint of the actual play on the field, this year it might not have a huge impact. While Maresh is a big time linebacker recruit with serious D1 talent, this year still would have been a very raw, learning year for him. I'm not saying that he wouldn't have the potential to play very very well, but even with Maresh this was destined to be a bumpy year on the defensive side of the ball with a very young and inexperienced roster, and a new defensive coordinator.
The good news for Sam is that he'll still be around football and around the Gopher program and the coaches. If he is able to come back from this surgury in 2010, like he is hoping to, he'll have two years of being with the players, the coaches where he'll have a great opportunity to learn the defensive schemes. While there is no replacement for on-field experience, at least he won't be coming back to the field with no frame of reference.
As I mentioned before, good luck Sam!!! SKI-U-MAH!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Prayers for Sam Maresh
I haven't written in awhile, and have been ridiculously busy lately. I've been trying to find time to begin writing again, and the news that came out today warrants me making time.
Sam Maresh needs open heart surgery.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Maresh family as this cannot be any easy time for them. I have been through heart surgeries with both of my parents and it was not easy. I simply cannot imagine what kind of pain Sam's parents are feeling having to watch their child go through this. Independent of football, I absolutely pray that the surgery goes smoothly, that Sam recovers quickly and without incident, and that he is able to live a long full life.
As this would not be an appropriate time to discuss how this impacts the football team, I will explore this in a future post.
SKI-U-MAH SAM, GET WELL SOON!!!
Sam Maresh needs open heart surgery.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Maresh family as this cannot be any easy time for them. I have been through heart surgeries with both of my parents and it was not easy. I simply cannot imagine what kind of pain Sam's parents are feeling having to watch their child go through this. Independent of football, I absolutely pray that the surgery goes smoothly, that Sam recovers quickly and without incident, and that he is able to live a long full life.
As this would not be an appropriate time to discuss how this impacts the football team, I will explore this in a future post.
SKI-U-MAH SAM, GET WELL SOON!!!
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