And the attitude of the players is important to Maturi when he evaluates Gophers football. After last December’s Insight Bowl loss to Iowa State he was emotionally moved by a locker room filled with despondent Gophers.
“…It’s important to me how they (the players) talk next November, whatever our record might be,” Maturi said. “I’ve told you the story about being in the locker room after the Iowa State game. That said a lot to me. Those kids hurt. They hurt because they put their heart and soul into it and they felt they lost the game they could of, should have won. And that is an important factor to me that the coach has kept the team together. …That’s huge to me. So all those factors (commitment and others mentioned above) obviously will enter in (to evaluation).”
Maturi is a realist and acknowledges that what the public believes, even if wrong or misguided, counts, too, in his evaluations of high profile coaches. There’s no arguing public perception of Gophers football, for many years characterized both by criticism and apathy, is mostly negative.
“..It wasn’t real positive eight years ago when I came, in all honesty,” Maturi said. “Probably (negative too) eight years ago before that. Yeah, it’s important to me because it becomes a business decision. Some people talk with their season tickets. They don’t purchase the tickets. They don’t come (to games). They don’t sponsor. …In the end you have to win. …”
Maturi was asked if there’s a public lack of confidence in Brewster. “You would know that as well as anybody,” he answered. “I hear more negatives in all of our coaches than I hear positives. People who email me, call me, write me. I don’t care if it’s Tubby Smith, if it’s Tim Brewster, if it’s J Robinson, if it’s John Anderson. I hear more negatives than I hear positives. That’s just the nature of my job, so I don’t put that barometer up. I don’t think I can. I listen. I try to respond appropriately and positively, and honestly, but I don’t think in my job you can do that.”
Brewster has four recruiting classes and will add a fifth next February. Opinion is the roster has more speed and athleticism than in the past. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that our athleticism is better,” Maturi said. “What that translates into I don’t know because much depends on how good the other teams are too.”
The Gophers will get some answers starting Thursday night. Eleven weeks later they will end the regular season against Iowa. The public will look at two numbers, wins and losses. Maturi will evaluate a lot more.