Author: David Shama

Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners on Sunday he hasn’t signed his contract as University of Minnesota football coach, but agreement is “imminent.”  He said there’s some “dotting of the i’s and crossing of the t’s” required but he expects the contract to be finalized within 30 days.  The agreement will not include an escape clause allowing Brewster to leave the University for another school such as Texas.  His ambitions for the Gophers include some day winning a national championship.

Brewster has been working as the Gophers new coach since January 17.  It’s not unusual for a coach to work initially without a contract.  Former coach Glen Mason hadn’t signed his contract in the fall of 1997, his first season as Gopher coach. 

Brewster is expected to sign a five year, $1 million contract.  The absence of an escape clause was discussed on Sunday with the 46-year-old Brewster who became a head coach after many years of being an assistant in the NFL and for college teams.  While he is months away from coaching his first Gopher game, Brewster has brought optimism and expectations to the program not seen here since Lou Holtz was resurrecting Minnesota football in the 1980s.  Those afflicted with paranoia, or just good memories, recall Holtz had a clause in his Minnesota contract allowing him to leave for Notre Dame.

So let’s assume that during the next few years Brewster has his Gophers challenging for a Big Ten Conference title and playing in New Year’s Day bowl games.  And let’s assume his former boss at Texas, 55-year-old Mack Brown, decided to retire.  Would Brewster gallop off for cowboy country or other places where talent is plentiful and college football is a religion?

“This (coaching the Gophers) is a dream come true for me,” Brewster said. “The University of Minnesota meets all the needs that I have, all the goals that I had to be a head coach at a tremendous state university in the Big Ten.   So I look to have a long, long stay at the University of Minnesota.

“I would love to put down roots here with my family.  It’s a wonderful place. … Most importantly are the people. The people I have met here at Minnesota have been just phenomenal to me and my family.”

But wouldn’t a place like Texas, where Brewster helped recruit players who led the Longhorns to the national championship, be tempting?  “My focus and attention is reclaiming the status (18 conference titles, six national championships) here at the University of Minnesota with the football program,” he said.  “I’ve got my hands full with this job and I am just totally excited about this opportunity.  To be honest with you, I have no thought or consideration whatsoever of thinking about another (place).  I’ve got a big, big job to do.  I want to win a national championship here at the U.  I believe we can and that’s going to take some time.  I am committed to that time. …”

Will Randy Moss end up in Green Bay or some place other than Oakland in 2007?  Can Daunte Culpepper recover from his devastating knee injury of 2005 to become a productive quarterback for Miami?  I asked Dean Dalton, the former Vikings assistant coach and now a knowledgeable NFL analyst in the media, for his views on Moss and Culpepper, the former Vikings stars who have struggled to find success since leaving Minneapolis.

Moss, 30, hasn’t been as effective in two seasons in Oakland as he was here.  His pass receiving numbers with the Raiders include 1,558 yards and 11 touchdowns in two years.  His last two seasons here: 2,399 yards, 30 touchdowns.

The big play wide receiver, though, has sustained his reputation as a malcontent. “There’s a chance they (the Raiders) will trade him,” Dalton said. “He’s a premier guy.  He won’t bring the premier value he would have even a year ago.   They’ll probably look to shop him. . . .”

There was a report last week the Packers were interested in Moss.  Will Moss’s reputation preclude other teams from being interested?  “Yes, absolutely,” Dalton answered.  “In today’s era, especially after seeing what Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith did with two teams that were built with a core of high character players and the success they had, teams are going to tend to get away from the headaches of the prima donna types and focus on players that put the team first.”

Dalton, who was an assistant with the Vikings for seven seasons through 2005, was enthusiastic about Culpepper who had difficulty rehabilitating his right knee last off-season and only played in four games in 2006.  His numbers included two touchdown passes, 929 yards.

Can Culpepper recover physically and mentally?  “Yes,” Dalton said. “One thing about Daunte Culpepper is he’s one of the most intense competitors I’ve been afforded the chance to work with.  I think strongly that if his knee is healthy enough to play and he’s not premature in his rehab like he was last year, he will come back and come back strong.  And I feel that he once again can get in that upper echelon of quarterbacks in the NFL.”

Joe Mauer quoted in Sports Illustrated:  “I worked hard this off-season to get my legs and core in shape.  This is probably the best I’ve ever felt coming into a spring.”

Harvey Mackay and Lou Holtz are good friends whose friendship began when Mackay sold Holtz on coming here to coach the Gophers in the 1980s.  The two golf together occasionally and recently played in Arizona.

Safety Nolan Brewster, Gopher coach Tim Brewster’s son, will be a high school senior next fall and a coveted college recruit.  Tim said on Sunday no decision has been made on whether Nolan will remain in Denver for his senior season or move here but is “leaning” toward finishing up at Mullen High School in Colorado. The Gopher coach said he and his wife haven’t sold their home in Colorado, nor have they chosen a community to live in here.

Bill Lester, executive director of the Metrodome, was surprised by a report earlier this year from the NFL Players Association ranking the dome’s field surface among the worst in the league.  The dome’s FieldTurf surface, installed in 2004, is the same as used in Tampa Bay’s stadium and Lester said that facility draws praise.  Several years ago the dome’s previous surface was much criticized. “Sometimes it’s just tough to overcome a reputation,” Lester said.

The Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association does outstanding work in promoting and serving the interests of football in the state.  Executive director Ron Stolski and other association leaders are excited to be working with Brewster.  Membership in the association is growing and now totals over 800.  Coaches can find more information at www.mshsca.org/football.  Stolski, 67, has coached high school football for 45 years, 32 at Brainerd.

The MIAC has chosen its men’s basketball award winners and for a second consecutive season University of St. Thomas senior center Isaac Rosefelt is the league MVP. Saint John’s University junior wing Brady Brink was chosen Sixth Man of the Year and Steve Fritz  of St. Thomas Coach of the Year.

Gustavus Adolphus College junior guard Jess Vadnais was chosen the MIAC women’s MVP. Bethel University sophomore center Annegret Nautsch was named the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year. Co-Coaches of the Year are College of St. Catherine coach Gary Rufsvold and Macalester College’s Ellen Thompson.