At Big Ten media day this afternoon Gophers football coach Tim Brewster acknowledged his team’s difficult schedule for 2010, and also talked about replacing the Texas series for 2015 and 2016.
Brewster, along with the Big Ten Conference’s other 10 head coaches, addressed a media gathering in Chicago that was televised live on the Big Ten Network. In Chicago and around the country expectations for the Gophers are minimal, perhaps not even matching last year’s 6-7 overall record and 3-5 in the Big Ten.
Brewster didn’t predict Minnesota’s record for 2010 involving a schedule that includes national powers USC, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State. But he likes what he’s seen of his team this summer.
“We’re bigger, we’re stronger, faster, (and) we’re more athletic than we’ve been, and rightfully so,” Brewster said. “We need to be. We know we’re going to play one of the most challenging schedules in America this season, and our players are going to have to be prepared.”
The Gophers lost their second straight bowl game last year and overall had problems finishing games. “We need to be improved,” Brewster said. “We need to be better.”
A conflict between Texas and the Big Ten Network regarding game and post-game video led to the cancellation last week of the series with the Longhorns. Brewster expressed “disappointment…that the University of Texas chose not to play the game.” Brewster said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany had assured him that Texas’ needs regarding video could have been worked out.
“We want to be a championship caliber program at the University of Minnesota and we think that to do that we’ve got to bring the spotlight to us,” Brewster said. “We’re very close to replacing Texas with another marquee nonconference BCS opponent.”
Brewster was asked about realignment of conference schools into two football divisions for next year and whether it was important that the Gophers play Wisconsin and Iowa each year as they do now. “I don’t think there’s any question that as we look at realignment Mr. Delany is going to figure out a way in which we play each other each and every year,” Brewster said.