Maturi said he never stopped believing in Brewster, even with the 1-11 season last year. He wanted to make sure after the season that Brewster didn’t change who he was and what he believed in. The Gophers went through a major transition with the new coaching staff including adoption of the spread formation. Some observers think that change cost the Gophers some wins and Maturi said he thought Minnesota might have won four games with the old coaching staff and system.
It will be two years next month that Maturi dismissed Dan Monson as basketball coach, an unusual move early in the season. Maturi said he made the decision not just for the University but for Monson, too, because the situation with the basketball program was becoming “ugly” with all the public negativity.
The Gophers are at Purdue tomorrow for a difficult to predict game. Brewster is pleased with the two weeks off he’s had to rest his team and let players recover from injuries (among them is cornerback Marcus Sherels who injured his shoulder on October 4 but will play tomorrow). But former college coach Gerry DiNardo, now a Big Ten Network analyst, said earlier this week that teams can lose timing and momentum during a bye week. The Gophers, 6-1 and coming off a major win at Illinois on October 11, play a Purdue team that has lost four straight games (0-3 in the Big Ten) and has an overall 2-4 record. The Boilermakers seem like a team with dissension. Earlier this week coach Joe Tiller talked about star running back Kory Sheets, criticizing his lack of “intellectual” growth at Purdue, after the Boilermaker running back complained about the offense and quarterback Curtis Painter.
Brewster said he didn’t “know if there is a better punter in the country” than Gopher senior Justin Kucek. He’s tied for fourth among Big Ten Conference punters with a 41.8 average and he’s also helped the Gophers with accurate placement. Kucek, a Canfield, Ohio native, said the Gophers were the only major college football school to offer him a scholarship coming out of high school but that a former pro punter told him this off-season he could have a future in the NFL. Mark Royals worked with Kucek and assisted with directional punting.
Fox reported during last Sunday’s Vikings-Bears telecast that Brad Childress thought Adrian Peterson might run more effectively without a lead blocker in the backfield in front of him. But on Monday the Vikings’ coach wouldn’t say that and said Peterson, the NFL’s second leading rusher, ran for a 54-yard touchdown in the Bear game with a lead blocker. “I’ve got a sense what I think about that but like I said I am not going to put it too far out there,” he said.
Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe has been a disappointment to many observers since coming here in 2007 as a free agent from the Giants, but last Sunday he caught four passes for 68 yards and a touchdown in the 48-41 loss to Chicago. Childress said Shiancoe is becoming more comfortable here including as a blocker.