Sports

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter
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The memory of that 1-11 season is starting to fade. There’s an impressive new stadium that just opened on campus. For the first time in years, the program feels like it has a legitimate home-field advantage.

And yet, Tim Brewster’s Minnesota squad still is fighting something of an image problem.

In some ways, Brewster – who took over for Glen Mason before the 2007 season – contributes to it with his style of coaching.

At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Brewster began by reading off team honors – including but not limited to: “offensive player of the week,” “defensive player of the week,” “special forces player of the week,” “hard hat hit of the week,” “lunch pail award,” “extra effort award,” “great teammate award,” “scout offensive player of the week” and “scout defensive player of the week.”

All that was missing was a “Goldy the Gopher special spirit award.”

It’s a holdover from when Brewster really had to sell the program, especially following that horrendous 1-11 campaign in 2007 that featured losses to teams like Florida Atlantic and FCS North Dakota State.

So Brewster sharpened up his pitchman skills, brought in some junior-college recruits to help patch things up in the short term while building for the long.

Last season it paid off. In 2008, the Gophers were among the most-improved teams in the country, winning seven games and heading to the Insight Bowl. With a 4-2 start this year, Minnesota is back on its way toward the postseason. But up next are back-to-back road trips to Penn State and Ohio State.

“It’s a tremendous challenge. But it’s one we relish as a program,” Brewster said. “We’re awfully excited about playing in front of 100,000 fans. It builds something within your program to be able to go into a situation like that and confront it.”

When he first took over, Brewster overhauled the Gophers’ offense. Under Mason, it had been known for a formidable running game that featured at least one 1,000-yard rusher for eight straight seasons.

With the talent he had returning, Brewster and offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar went with a spread offense where quarterback Adam Weber was the team’s leading rusher in 2007.

Despite improving in the wins column in ’08, Brewster was dismayed with the team’s five straight losses to end the season, blaming much of it on a non-existent ground game.

So he brought in a new offensive coordinator – former Denver Broncos assistant Jedd Fisch – and went back to a more balanced pro-style offense.

While wideout Eric Decker still leads the Big Ten in most major receiving categories, the Gophers have shown a much greater commitment to the run. In last week’s win over Purdue, Minnesota threw the ball just 10 times.

“Obviously the emphasis was on running the ball last week. So I would think that we’ll throw the ball a little bit more than that against Penn State,” Brewster said. “And obviously looking for the same type of efficiency and being successful throwing the ball.

“Adam’s had so many big games throwing the ball. It’s really nice to see the running game get the point to where it’s at right now. He’s gonna have big throwing games as this season goes on. We want to make sure what we continue doing is a nice job running the ball.”