Coffee Is For Closers
A lot of people have mocked Tim Brewster for his 1-11 inaugural season at Minnesota including many Golden Gopher fans who still pine away for Glenn Mason. By the way for all those Minnesota fans, Mason still hasn’t found work. Well, don’t look now, but Tim Brewster had the 17th rated class by Rivals last week. Minnesota’s highest rated class by Rivals the four prior years was 55th. Plus, I think he also had the top JUCO class (which I believe don’t count in the Rivals rankings).
Minnesota, if you are not aware, is surrounded by North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada. It didn’t quite make Scipio’s list of top jobs.
“First prize is a Cadillac..second prize steak knives…third prize is you’re fired!”
How good is this class?
Rivals thought it was better than perennial recruiting day winners like Ron Zook at Illinois, Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, Tommy Tuberville at Auburn among many others. Tim and his staff signed 30 guys in this class — 7 of which were four-star players. That is more four-star players than Minnesota signed in the SIX previous seasons combined under Mason…by 4 players. Alex Daniels, Laurence Maroney, and Paris Hamilton sure were lonely VHTs as Phil Steele would say.
The Minnesota class had players from 15 states other than Minnesota. Wisconsin is the only one that borders Minnesota. He drew kids from the three biggest producers of Division 1 talent (California, Florida, Texas) plus other hotbeds like Georgia, Virginia, and Mississippi. He even poached guys from Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Kentucky among others.
I am most intrigued by his 6-4, 220 QB MarQueis Gray who is Rivals’ #3 dual threat QB. They also pulled a safety out of Dallas Skyline Keenan Cooper that had offers from OU, Miami, and Michigan so that is real solid.
Oh, and he has another four-star QB already committed for next year. Two of his top 4 recruits last year were pulled into the boat in the three weeks after he got the job.
Brewster can drink coffee. He is a closer. I’d hate to be the guy on the staff who failed to land a four-star player…paging former Longhorn DB coach Everett Withers and former Longhorn player Derek Lewis.
February 13, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The projected high temp over the next 10 days for my lovely new home city of minneapolis is 33. Just let that sink in for a bit, I’m not sure I have yet.
Brewster convinced a bunch of guys that had other offers to come to a place that is cold, has no football tradition, very little diversity and is not exactly Ole Miss or Texas in the babe department. Amazing.
February 13, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I wish I had seen this puppy before I finalized this post: http://www.mapgameday.com/recruit/school/Minnesota/
Total Incoming Players: 30
Average Distance: 787mi.
Farthest: 1,582mi.
Nearest: 8 mi.
States Represented: 16
February 13, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Look at it this way Stuck, it may be cold but the girls are pudgy and the food sucks.
Hockey’s fun as hell though.
February 13, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Minnesota has “no football tradition?” Uh, do the years 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, and 1960 ring a bell? Minnesota and Texas A&M dominated college football during the Great Depression.
February 13, 2008 at 2:39 pm
If the fact that we have two readers from Minnesota isn’t enough to win us the Best New Blog Award, then the terrorists have already won.
February 13, 2008 at 4:51 pm
“Minnesota and Texas A&M dominated college football during the Great Depression.”
I’m glad somebody remembers my little radio chats.
BrickHorn, howabout you I and take Eleanor for a little walk around the park together?
February 13, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Hell, the guy couldn’t even recruit his own got-damn son.
February 14, 2008 at 6:37 am
Cowboy9634 thinks Brewster is way overrated as a recruiter and that he is falsely given credit for the successes of Mack Brown.
Of course, Cowboy is an idiot.
February 14, 2008 at 7:48 am
Brewster is successfully selling kids on the new stadium being built on Minneapolis campus, and how it is going to restore the tradition after years in the MetroDump. High school football isn’t too bad in the state (Bud Grant’s son coaches a state powerhouse), and maybe they can stop the Ohio State, Notre Dame, etc. from poaching. Minnesotans are probably already in the drawing for the seats in the “Dairy Queen” Club Level. Then again we have Taco Bell signs all over DKR.
February 14, 2008 at 9:30 am
Bragg, while I am ‘from Minnesota’ I wised up long ago and headed south. The name followed me.
February 14, 2008 at 9:49 am
After you destroy Sauron’s ring, will you be going back?
February 14, 2008 at 10:00 am
And, as my name may suggest, I’m from Texas and somehow ended up here freezing my ass off.
Buddy G, I don’t watch much MN high school football (just the state championships on the day after Thanksgiving while I am mourning the fact that we were again outcoached by Fran), but what little I have seen suggests that it is not good. Eden Prairie looked decent but I think they would have trouble winning an average Texas 5A district, and certainly would not get very far in the playoffs.
The state will crank out a few good prospects every now and then (Joe Mauer, that 60 year old FSU QB, the current OSU linebacker, etc) but there is no way they are going to build even a decent foundation, especially at the skill positions, using local players.
February 14, 2008 at 10:25 am
“After you destroy Sauron’s ring, will you be going back?”
It really bothers me that that made me laugh out loud. Mainly because HenryJames thought of it.
February 14, 2008 at 10:58 am
Fuckers.
February 14, 2008 at 11:06 am
I totally agree that the high school football is not great in the state, just that the Gophers can retain some of their blue chippers. U of M just doesn’t have the facilities like the other Big Ten schools. Surrounding states like Wisconsin and Iowa have similar situations as far as lack of a deep high school talent, but they are at least able to compete. Gophers will have to continue to get talent from other Midwestern states (ex. Maroney was from MO), but they at least have the chance to stop being a Big Ten bottom dweller if this continues.
February 14, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Brewster just got a commit from the number one player in Minnesota, QB Moses Alipate. He’s ranked #59 in the Rivals 100.