Posted November 30, 2009    

•Joel Maturi

•Tony Dungy

•Tubby Smith

•Glen Mason

•TCF Bank Stadium

Maturi: Dungy Not Coming to Coach U 

Joel Maturi hasn’t decided whether to extend the contract of Gophers football coach Tim Brewster and likely won’t make that determination until January.  The Gophers athletic director told Sports Headliners during an interview last week that despite criticism of Brewster he “fully expects” his coach to return for a fourth season in 2010. 

All staff receives extensive annual evaluations and Brewster’s review will be made after January 1.  By then the Gophers will have played in their yet to be determined bowl game.  The result of that game will determine whether Minnesota, now with a 6-6 record, finishes above or below .500 under Brewster who has also had records of 7-6 and 1-11. 

The Gophers are headed to a bowl game for a second consecutive season after playing a challenging nonconference and Big Ten schedule.  Minnesota finished 3-5 in the conference, a better record than Michigan’s 1-7, a program that is the winningest in college football history.  The Gophers lost five games to teams headed for bowls and two of Minnesota’s defeats were by a total of six points. 

Yet the Gophers lost four of their last six games (two of the final three).  The offense didn’t produce a touchdown in the 16-13 win over South Dakota State and the 12-0 loss to Iowa.  That sort of stuff had the sky falling after the Iowa game, according to many Gophers fans. 

A week ago Sunday Maturi found himself wading through well over 100 emails. “There seems to be a belief...that we’re in shambles here, and quite frankly I don’t share that belief,” Maturi said. 

A notion some fans won’t let up on is that retired NFL coach Tony Dungy will ride back to campus on a white horse to announce he’s the new football boss.  “Tony Dungy is not coming to Minnesota, and it’s not the money,” Maturi said.  “I talked to Tony.  He was the first call I made (in January 2007 while looking for a coach).  We’ve talked many times since that time.  

“I don’t know if Tony will ever coach again, No. 1, and if he does, he will probably go back to the pros.  I appreciate and respect (that) people say, ‘Well, we’ve got to get Tony Dungy.’  Well, that would be wonderful.  And, again, this is not at the price of Tim Brewster.  I am just trying to say that people have that image because he (Dungy) played here, and he coached with the Vikings and with the Gophers, therefore he will come back here as a coach.  Not going to happen.” 

Dungy hasn’t coached in college since 1980 when he was an assistant at Minnesota.  His decades of coaching experience and success (Super Bowl champion coach for Indianapolis in 2007) have been in the pros.  Maturi said beyond that there’s another reason Dungy isn’t likely to come back here and that is the cold weather.  Maturi said Dungy’s wife Lauren “wasn’t crazy” about the climate in Indianapolis and that Tony is a “family man” who values those sorts of considerations. 

In January of 2007, before Brewster was hired, Maturi sought not only Dungy’s interest in the job but also the names of candidates to be considered.   “If and whenever a change is made again while I am the athletic director, he will still be the first call because I have such great respect and admiration for him and his knowledge of the game and of Minnesota,” Maturi said. 

 

"I talked to Tony. He was the first call I made (in January of 2007).  We've talked many times since then."
Joel Maturi on Tony Dungy
 

 Tony Dungy

Brewster’s Positives Include Relationships 

Maturi hired Brewster who had never been a pro or college head coach, or coordinator.  In Brewster Maturi saw a high energy 46-year-old who had a national reputation as a recruiter, a badly needed job skill at a place like Minnesota where much of the roster must be assembled with players from other states.  In Brewster he also hired a coach who had been a valued assistant to elite head coaches like Mack Brown of Texas and Mike Shanahan from Denver.  “I thought he (Brewster) was the best coach that we had available to coach at the University of Minnesota,” Maturi said.  

For many years college athletic departments have needed to show fiscal restraint.  It’s been rumored that Maturi, who had to pay expensive buyouts to terminated football and basketball coaches, hired Brewster because he could pay him less (about $1 million per year) than other Big Ten head football coaches earn.  “No, I hired (basketball coach) Tubby Smith shortly thereafter and we paid him a buck or two,” Maturi said in reference to Smith’s salary and incentives that have the potential to push him well beyond $2 million. 

There’s a huge challenge to having a successful college football program and the initial anticipation that comes with a new coach doesn’t ensure success.  Dan Hawkins, for instance, has flopped at Colorado after making Boise State a program that emerged from the college football wilderness under his leadership.   

“There’s a good example,” Maturi said.  “Hawkins at Colorado.  He’s the one who got Boise State going, right?  Would you agree with that?  Because I get a lot of people now telling me I should go hire coach (Chris) Petersen (Hawkins’ successor) and I am respectful of that.  There are no guarantees (of success).” 

After three seasons Brewster still has Maturi’s confidence. “I still like what I think he brings to the table and I am still optimistic about our future,” Maturi said. 

Maturi believes there are lots of positives about the Brewster era.  Among the most significant are Brewster’s efforts to establish relationships with the state’s prep coaches, Gophers football alumni and with boosters.  There also have been “no major violations” of NCAA rules, Maturi said, and Brewster has been fiscally responsible with his program.  Maturi said, too, that Brewster has been “outstanding” in the athletic department supporting “other causes and coaches, and there’s a belief that we have more better players (now) in the program.” 

In fairness to Brewster, Maturi and others recognize that his head coach has only had time to deliver two recruiting classes, 2008 and 2009.  Football is a sport requiring large numbers of able players and success is often determined by both talent and experience.  

Maturi said people can manipulate statistics any way they want to make a point but during the interview even he came back more than once to the Gophers 6-6 record.  If the Gophers win their bowl game they finish with a better record than in 2006 when coach Glen Mason’s team was 6-7.  Otherwise, the record (including 3-5 conference records) will be the same and that concerns Maturi.   

“If we lose our bowl game, and we certainly hope we’re going to win it, we’re identical to the program we took over three years ago,” he said.  “Identical and I believe after a much tougher schedule.  And I know we all want more than that, but it hasn’t shown on the field, but it hasn’t regressed (either).”

 

"I still like what he brings to the table and I am still optimistic about our future."
Joel Maturi on Tim Brewster

Maturi Defines What Expectations Should Be 

Maturi admits the opening this year of TCF Bank Stadium, a model college football facility, has raised expectations for success.  Brewster has a conference record of 6-18 in three seasons.  The Gophers haven’t won a Big Ten title since 1967.  Every school in the conference has been to the Rose Bowl since 1962 when Minnesota last made the trip to Pasadena.  

His program can do better, Maturi said.  He believes it’s reasonable to expect the Gophers to be in late season pursuit of a conference title every six years or so.  Acceptance of the program by the public will also be contingent on playing in more prestigious bowl games than the ones regularly visited by Mason's and Brewster's teams.  “I think that’s the hope and expectation (top January bowl games) of getting to the next level,” Maturi said.  

Predictions of a drop off in season tickets for next year is something Maturi hopes he doesn’t see.  His department, already having lost considerable revenue by the alcohol ban at the stadium, doesn’t need another hit.  He believes the Gophers will sellout the stadium again next year, in part because of a marquee schedule that includes Southern California, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa. 

Some supporters of the program would argue that the job of building up Gophers football, including filling the stadium, is made more difficult by a perceived negativity in the local press.  The negativity can impact not only fans but local recruits, according to the theory.  Other Big Ten schools may face friendlier home town media.

But there’s certainly nothing negative about Brewster’s approach to his job.  If ever there was an optimist and people person it’s Brewster who treats others with respect, regardless of who they are.   

“He is just the eternal blind optimist,” Maturi said.  “That’s really his being.  Everybody is the best.  Every recruit is the best.  Every assistant coach is the best.  Every this is the best.  And that wears on some people and some people don’t like to hear that but that’s really who he is.  And when you learn that about him, and you accept that about him, you kind of measure the statement and you kind of measure this and you measure that and you move on.  At least that’s just the way I am.” 

Maturi, who believes Brewster has grown and improved as head coach, doesn’t want Brewster to change the way he is or the way he relates to his players who come together at the end of practices and yell, “Big Ten champs, Rose Bowl!”  Then Maturi said:  “I don’t know if he’s ever going to win a championship here.  None of us do.  But he is for real.  That is who he is.  That ain’t going to change.  And I keep telling him, don’t change.  Because he is who he is.” 

The optimist will say Brewster wins his bowl game and receives an extension from Maturi in January.  With two years remaining on his present five year contract, Brewster will welcome the extension and the message it sends to potential recruits who must commit to the Gophers or some other school by early February.   

Maturi was asked if the Gophers can get beyond the mediocrity of the Mason era that included a Big Ten record that was 16 games under .500.  “I am hopeful,” he said.  “Our won-loss record doesn’t indicate that yet and that’s how we’re all measured. … I believe we have more better players in our program than we have had so I believe it can happen.”    

Maturi looks at the faltering offense and talks about how hard the staff is working to improve production.  He reflects on a season in which the Gophers were sometimes impressive and mostly competitive.  He looks back and talks about being a few plays, “not miles,” away from even better results.   

Some day Maturi and everybody with an interest in Gophers football will make a final judgment about the hire he made in January 2007 after letting Mason go. “If it doesn’t work people will say it’s an unbelievable mistake,” Maturi said.  “I am proud of the people I’ve hired.  I still believe strongly in Tim Brewster and I still believe strongly that some people some day are going to look back and say, ‘Good hire.’  That’s the way I feel.”

 

 Joel Maturi
 

 Tim Brewster

Glen Mason