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.