Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi was beaming and so were other athletic department officials at the McNamara Alumni Center on Wednesday night. A wall-to-wall crowd in the building’s plaza area turned out to see new football coach Tim Brewster announce the Gophers’ recruiting class for 2007.
Multiple sources estimated the crowd at over 2,000. A prominent alum who has attended past recruiting day parties said the attendance was easily a record turnout, exceeding the previous high of 450 last year.
After Maturi told the gathering the Gophers will make it to “Pasadena” for the Rose Bowl some day, he introduced Brewster who further energized the crowd, a group of various ages, many of whom were wearing Gopher colors. “Who said there is no Gopher nation?” Brewster said to the crowd.
Brewster introduced his assistant coaches, including tight ends coach Duane Lewis and defensive line coach Tim Cross. They had the crowd rocking with a “whose house?” cheer. The crowd replied, “our house!”
Brewster detailed his new recruits with comments and video. A total of 17 high school seniors and five junior college players make up the 2007 group that accepted Gopher scholarships. Five of the players were added to the recruiting class by Brewster since he became coach about three weeks ago. The remaining players were commitments gained by former coach Glen Mason and his staff.
Brewster thought earlier in the week he had a sixth player, quarterback Travaris Cadet from Florida. However, a source told Sports Headliners the Gophers couldn’t promise the athletic Cadet would play quarterback here so he signed with Toledo.
Mason and his staff will ultimately be accountable for the quality of this recruiting class. The group, typical of past Mason classes, isn’t highly regarded in comparison with other Big Ten Conference schools but predicting who will become standout college players is challenging work. No one, for example, thought former Gophers Greg Eslinger, Mark Setterstrom and Laurence Maroney would become all-Americans.
Among the more intriguing recruits are safety Curtis Thomas of Adline, Texas, quarterback Clint Brewster of Denver and “athlete” Harold Howell of Jacksonville, Florida. All three are recruits Brewster rounded up in the brief time he’s been at Minnesota.
A source said Texas coach Mack Brown regards Thomas to be among the best three prep safeties in the state of Texas. Rivals.com ranked Brewster as the 17th best pro style quarterback in the country but as the coach’s son playing a high profile position he will be a marked man by a fickle public and sometimes vicious local news media. Tim Brewster told the crowd Howell, 5-8, 160-pounds, has 4.25 40-yard dash speed that he used to excel in high school as a defensive back, receiver and kick off/punt returner.
Brewster and his staff have reputations as extraordinary recruiters and that label will be judged much more accurately next year and the year after. What’s evident so far by Brewster’s whirlwind appearances in the metro area is that the new coach is determined to stop the exodus of high school players going to other schools (at least four quality recruits went out state).
On a telecast of the Minnesota-Wisconsin basketball game last month Badger football coach Bret Bielema was talking about recruiting. He made a statement that was enough to make the fur stand up straight on Goldy Gopher’s neck, referring to Minneapolis as part of Wisconsin’s “in-state” recruiting area.
Brewster intends to stop that kind of talk.