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University of Minnesota Athletics
Signing Day Press Conference (2/7/07)
2/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Opening comments:
“Here we meet again. It’s been a great three weeks on the job. It’s obviously been very, very exciting for me and my staff to get out and recruit for the University of Minnesota. For it to culminate on signing day, it’s a very exciting day for all of us.
“First of all, I’d like to thank my staff. My staff has done an absolutely miraculous job basically being on the road for two weeks. We’ve had two weeks to work at this thing and my guys have done just a tremendous job. We didn’t get everybody we set out to get, but I think the in-roads we made will lead us to tremendous success in 2008.
“The other thing I’d like to do is thank Glen Mason and his staff. A large part of this class was signed or committed by Glen and his staff. There’s tremendous character and athletic ability in this group. They did a very good job of basically getting this class started and we finished it. Again, we’re extremely excited. We signed eight young men from the great state of Minnesota, and that’s very, very important to us.
“My stated goal when I took this job was that we were going to recruit the state of Minnesota extremely hard and we were very passionate what we did to reach out to the players in this state and wanted them to come play for us at the University of Minnesota and be Golden Gophers. We had eight guys from Minnesota decide to sign with us today. A number of guys decided to leave the state of Minnesota and that’s something that obviously we’re going to address tremendously.
“We’re well into the 2008 recruiting class already and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that the top players in this state come to the University of Minnesota. What we have to do is we have to identify these players earlier; we have to get on them and stay on them from the beginning. We’re going to offer scholarships to these young guys earlier than they have in the past, and we’re going to make sure that every guy in this state who wants to play here and who we feel like can help us win a Big Ten Championship and take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena, they’re going to come here and play for us.
“We signed 17 high school kids and we signed five junior college kids in this class. This class has a great balance.
“Overall, I think it’s an outstanding class. What we’re excited about is that eight young men from this state have decided to be Gophers, but we want more, and we’re going to continue to work to get more. We’re not going to be pleased with the fact that four, five or six guys decided to leave the state. All those guys are great young men. They’re outstanding young players. We’re hoping for and what we’re going to see to is that these young guys stay here in the future. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that the great players in the state stay home and play at the U.”
On the difficulties of trying to add new players and trying to keep the ones who were already committed:
“Anytime there is transition there is doubt in kids’ minds. They want to know what the new head coach is going to be all about, what the staff is going to be all about. Obviously we had to reach out to the players who were already committed and make sure that they knew we were going to honor their commitments. Like I said, Coach Mason and his staff did a great job of committing excellent young players. We’re excited about them all.”
On coaching his son Clint Brewster:
“It’s a very interesting process with your son. He had a tremendous amount of trepidation about coming here and playing for me at the U. To be quite honest, he didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to play against my son. He’s a very, very good player. I knew he could help us win games here. I reached out to him and recruited him as Coach Brewster. I never recruited Clint by saying I was Dad. I said I’m now Coach Brewster to you, and he’ll be calling me Coach Brew just like all the other kids. I think it’s much harder to be the coaches’ son than it is easier.
“I think it’s going to be a hard road for Clint to play football here at the University of Minnesota. He’s chosen to take that road. If he’s good enough to play, he’s going to play. If he’s not good enough, it’ll be very obvious to everybody, and he won’t play. He will earn his ability to get on the field just like every other player in this program. I’ve spent a great amount of time coaching other people’s children in my life. What I’m excited about is that I’m going to get a chance just to watch my son and see him grow as a player here at a great University. Just like the other 21 players in this class, I’m extremely excited about Clint Brewster being a part of this program.”
On only signing one quarterback:
“We have a couple of outstanding quarterbacks on campus already. I think the competition at quarterback is going to be excellent. We’ll add Clint to the group, and we have four quarterbacks on campus right now. Every position on this team is going to be wide open. We’re going to create competition. That’s what’s going to make this team great on offense, defense and in the kicking game. As we continue to recruit better, that competition will get better. I’m very comfortable with who we have and the numbers we have at the quarterback position.”
On junior college players:
“My basic philosophy on junior college is this: we want to recruit the state of Minnesota, first and foremost. We would like the bulk of our players to come from the state of Minnesota. Then we would like to go out and supplement those players with players from across the country. If we have a specific need, a glaring need, then I think that’s where the junior college players come in. You never recruit a junior college player to add depth to your program. If he can be an immediate starter, an impact player on your team, than I think that’s where they fit in.”
On how the junior college recruits will fit in:
“I don’t know how good they are. We haven’t seen them. We’ve seen them on film, but we haven’t seen any of these players on the grass. Until we get on the grass with these guys this spring, I don’t think anybody has any idea. This spring is going to be a great evaluation for us. We’re going to evaluate every player, every position and then we’re going to come out of spring and we’re going to have an idea about what direction we need to go. What I did when I evaluated film of the University of Minnesota football team, I evaluated the schemes. I tried not to look at individuals because I want to have an open mind as we went into spring. I want every guy to have a fair and equal opportunity to win a job. Every job on this team is wide open.”
On a combined former coaching staff and current coaching staff recruiting class:
“There doesn’t need to be an asterisk. Like I said, Coach Mason and his staff did a great job of getting the class started. We finished the class with what we feel like are outstanding players. The most important thing is that we have 22 kids who are extremely excited about being Gophers. That’s the thing that we’re excited about. There’s a kid or two who we didn’t get that we would have liked to come, but we’re awfully excited about the ones who are here.”
On not signing a kicker:
“Again, we’re still looking at all positions. We’re still looking at where we could sign a kid or two in this class. I’m not going to say we’re definitely looking for a kicker. I’m just going to say there are a number of kids, a number of situations that we’re going to continue to look at. There may be a kid or two signed in this class, there may not be. We’re going to meet tonight and continue the process of evaluation, and we’re going to see where we go with it.”
On scholarships still available:
“We still have some things available. We still have some scholarships available. We can still sign some guys if that’s what we want to do. We can also bank them and they can go to next year’s class. What we’re going to do is we’re going to make a decision right now if we’re going to add another kid, another two kids to this class. If not, we’ll make a decision to just move on and focus on 2008. That’s my general indication right now that that’s what we want to go.”
On the five players his staff brought in:
“The No. 1 thing we’re looking for is toughness. We’re looking for passion, No. 2, and No. 3, we’re looking for smart guys. No. 4, we’re looking for playmakers. Regardless of position, we need playmakers on this football team. That was one of the things that we really wanted to focus on the last two weeks of recruiting - getting guys who we felt like could do something with the ball and score points.”
On Harold Howell’s playmaking ability:
“Harold Howell is one of the most dynamic high school football players in the country today. He can do some unbelievable things with the football and has great speed. He is absolutely electrifying. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be adding him to this class.
“What football recruiting is about is trust. His head coach at Mandarin High School, J.D. Hall, has been a friend of mine since 1985. He told me the kid is 5-8 and 160 pounds. I looked at him on film and thought he looked 6-2, 200 pounds. This kid plays big and plays explosive. As coaches, we get caught up in numbers too many times in evaluations. To me, you have to turn on the tape and see how the kid plays. When you see this kid, you’re going to ask why USC and Florida aren’t recruiting him. I don’t know why, I’m just glad he’s going to be with us.”
On not convincing some recruits to change their mind and come to Minnesota:
“There’s nothing we’re discouraged about because we reached out to people with tremendous passion about this university. We sold this university to some young guys who were committed out of the state and they chose to honor their commitments. They’re great young guys, but we’re more excited about the guys we brought in than the guys who are leaving.”
On coaching his own son:
“I’m not going to go about it differently. My son is a player on this football team and is going to be treated like any other player. It will probably be even a little harder on him because he is my son. I love my son to death and he is a heck of a football player, but the way I look at it, when I walked into this room and introduced myself to this football team, I said now I have 120 sons.”
On Serge Elizee’s quickness:
“He has good quickness. I like what I see on tape of the guy. We’ll see what we get in the spring.”
On his philosophy regarding red shirting:
“If a young guy can help as a true freshman, he’s going to play. If he can help us win one game, he’s going to play. The days of wholesale red shirting guys are over. What we’ll do is, a week prior to the first game, we’ll ask whether a certain guy will be in the two-deep and if he will be able to help us. If he’s not, he’ll come to us and talk about red shirting. Then in the middle of the season you have to revisit the situation and see if he can help us win in the second half of the season.”
On where he sees recruiting expanding in the future:
“We have to continue to do a great job here, and from there we have to go where our staff has ties. We have great ties in the state of Illinois and we want to get into the neighboring states of Illinois. We want to work the east coast in states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And again, we want to work Florida, Texas and California. Those three big states will be really important to what we do in recruiting, but we’ll go anywhere.”
On what’s in store between now and spring practice:
“We are never going to ease up on the recruiting trail. It goes back to waking up thinking about recruiting, going to sleep thinking about recruiting and then at night dreaming about it a little too if the kid is really good. That’s our mindset.”
On easing up on recruiting now that signing day is complete:
We’re not going to ease up on recruiting any time. Right now I’m just so energized about the 2008 class and I know my whole staff is. It goes back to waking up and thinking recruiting, going to sleep thinking about recruiting and dream a little bit about it too if the kid is really good. That’s our mindset. What we’ve got to do from now and spring ball, we’ve got to meet offensively and defensively. We’ve got to get our plans installed. I think Mike Dunbar has down a great job on offense. They have had a couple of days to meet. Everett Withers is meeting on defense and we’re getting our kicking game together and so we’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s we’re still going to recruit every day.
On solidifying this class and getting ready for the class of 2008:
Absolutely. I think what we have done is create tremendous excitement about the U here in the state of Minnesota. I think everyone is holding on and catching the excitement. I think they know that it’s a dawn of a new day here. We’re going to do things a little different here. We’re going to work real hard and have a lot of fun and I think that these kids are understanding that that’s the way it’s going to be here at the U. We’ve met a tremendous amount of high school coaches in this state and I they are very excited about coming to the U this spring and watching how we work and watching how we work and interacting with our coaches. I think the state of Minnesota right now. is very excited about the direction in which we are going. We’ve got this thing started and what the exciting thing here is that we’re just scratching the surface right now. Each and every day I’m here, I’m more excited about being the head coach at the U because it’s such a tremendous sell and I don’t think it’s hard at all.
On the starting quarterback for next year:
Obviously I’m going to be involved in whoever starts at any position on this team and I think I’ll have the final say on who starts on every position, but obviously Mike is the offensive coordinator and he’s the quarterback’s coach. He’s going to have tremendous input also. I’ve got tremendous confidence in Mike Dunbar. I think he’s the best offensive coordinator in college football today.
On how vast Gopher Nation can be:
I know this. At the social tonight there’s going to be a lot of Gopher people who are awful excited. There is a Gopher Nation and we’re just trying to wake them up. I think Minnesota football has been one of the best-kept secrets in college football. What we’re going to do is that we’re going to go out and sell this great University and without question there’s a Gopher Nation. I tell you what, with all the people that have contacted me since I’ve become the football coach here, without question here there’s a Gopher Nation.
On if Gopher Nation is bigger then it was three weeks ago:
I certainly hope so.
On Brewster’s perception of Minnesota high school football:
My perception of Minnesota high school is this. I’ve met with the executive committee of the Minnesota State High School Football Coaches Association. I’ve reached out and have met with 20 odd high schools in my short period of time here. There are outstanding coaches here. Men that take a great deal of pride in being a football coach. Guys who have called me and reached out to me about wanting to talk football. I’ve been extremely pleased and excited about the high schools and to be honest with you there’s many more high school players then most people think. I think it’s a tremendous underrated state as far as high football is concerned. Our job is to make sure these young guys come help us.
On Minnesota being the 31st ranked recruiting state in the nation:
It’s hard to say. How do you say it’s 31st? All I know that’s it’s good. There’s a lot of good high school football players in this state and a lot of outstanding football coaches in this state. As I said, I’ve been extremely impressed with the high school coaches that I’ve met up to this point.
On having a freshman quarterback start in college right after high school:
It’s hard. There’s no question about it. It’s a difficult process that takes place. To say that it can’t be done, I’m sure it can. Would you prefer it not to be the case? Probably. You’d probably like to have a guy who’s been here and in the system. It just depends on your situation. We’ve got a situation where we’ve got a veteran experienced guy, a young guy, and a couple other young guys in the mix. We’re bringing in a guy that we’re bringing in to be in the mix. We’ll see how it plays out. We’re going to have a complex offense here. There’s no substitute for experience here particularly at the quarterback position.
On favoring bigger offensive linemen vs. a smaller athletic offensive linemen:
I really like big guys as long as they are athletic. As long as they can run. I don’t like fat guys. We will not have any fat guys on this team. Our football team is going to be lean and mean and we’re going to move. That’s what our guys are going to have to do. Mark Hill, our strength coach is under direct orders from me to check the fat percentage on every one of our guys and the chubby ones are on a diet.
On Curtis Thomas de-committing from Kansas State and coming to Minnesota:
Again it goes back to relationships with coaches. I’ve got a tremendous relationship with Bob Jones, the head coach at Aldine High in Houston. The kid decided to de-commit from Kansas State. I got a call from Bob Jones asking would I be interested in maybe the best safety in Texas. I said no, I’m not interested (laughter).
On meeting the in-state players that have committed to Minnesota:
I did get a chance to meet all of the in-state guys and we just reached out to them just as we did to every guy that we recruited. We let them know who we are, what we’re about and let them know that we care about them as people. Again it goes back to this: What are we wanting out of our guys? We want our guys to and graduate, first and foremost. We want them to graduate. We want them to represent themselves and their family in fine fashion every day. We want to win a Big Ten championship. Our staff has done just a phenomenal job of reaching out to these kids. All the instate kids came here and met us here, reached out to us here. We’re also in most of their homes. It’s been a great process. It’s been a whirlwind process three weeks.
“Here we meet again. It’s been a great three weeks on the job. It’s obviously been very, very exciting for me and my staff to get out and recruit for the University of Minnesota. For it to culminate on signing day, it’s a very exciting day for all of us.
“First of all, I’d like to thank my staff. My staff has done an absolutely miraculous job basically being on the road for two weeks. We’ve had two weeks to work at this thing and my guys have done just a tremendous job. We didn’t get everybody we set out to get, but I think the in-roads we made will lead us to tremendous success in 2008.
“The other thing I’d like to do is thank Glen Mason and his staff. A large part of this class was signed or committed by Glen and his staff. There’s tremendous character and athletic ability in this group. They did a very good job of basically getting this class started and we finished it. Again, we’re extremely excited. We signed eight young men from the great state of Minnesota, and that’s very, very important to us.
“My stated goal when I took this job was that we were going to recruit the state of Minnesota extremely hard and we were very passionate what we did to reach out to the players in this state and wanted them to come play for us at the University of Minnesota and be Golden Gophers. We had eight guys from Minnesota decide to sign with us today. A number of guys decided to leave the state of Minnesota and that’s something that obviously we’re going to address tremendously.
“We’re well into the 2008 recruiting class already and we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that the top players in this state come to the University of Minnesota. What we have to do is we have to identify these players earlier; we have to get on them and stay on them from the beginning. We’re going to offer scholarships to these young guys earlier than they have in the past, and we’re going to make sure that every guy in this state who wants to play here and who we feel like can help us win a Big Ten Championship and take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena, they’re going to come here and play for us.
“We signed 17 high school kids and we signed five junior college kids in this class. This class has a great balance.
“Overall, I think it’s an outstanding class. What we’re excited about is that eight young men from this state have decided to be Gophers, but we want more, and we’re going to continue to work to get more. We’re not going to be pleased with the fact that four, five or six guys decided to leave the state. All those guys are great young men. They’re outstanding young players. We’re hoping for and what we’re going to see to is that these young guys stay here in the future. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that the great players in the state stay home and play at the U.”
On the difficulties of trying to add new players and trying to keep the ones who were already committed:
“Anytime there is transition there is doubt in kids’ minds. They want to know what the new head coach is going to be all about, what the staff is going to be all about. Obviously we had to reach out to the players who were already committed and make sure that they knew we were going to honor their commitments. Like I said, Coach Mason and his staff did a great job of committing excellent young players. We’re excited about them all.”
On coaching his son Clint Brewster:
“It’s a very interesting process with your son. He had a tremendous amount of trepidation about coming here and playing for me at the U. To be quite honest, he didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to play against my son. He’s a very, very good player. I knew he could help us win games here. I reached out to him and recruited him as Coach Brewster. I never recruited Clint by saying I was Dad. I said I’m now Coach Brewster to you, and he’ll be calling me Coach Brew just like all the other kids. I think it’s much harder to be the coaches’ son than it is easier.
“I think it’s going to be a hard road for Clint to play football here at the University of Minnesota. He’s chosen to take that road. If he’s good enough to play, he’s going to play. If he’s not good enough, it’ll be very obvious to everybody, and he won’t play. He will earn his ability to get on the field just like every other player in this program. I’ve spent a great amount of time coaching other people’s children in my life. What I’m excited about is that I’m going to get a chance just to watch my son and see him grow as a player here at a great University. Just like the other 21 players in this class, I’m extremely excited about Clint Brewster being a part of this program.”
On only signing one quarterback:
“We have a couple of outstanding quarterbacks on campus already. I think the competition at quarterback is going to be excellent. We’ll add Clint to the group, and we have four quarterbacks on campus right now. Every position on this team is going to be wide open. We’re going to create competition. That’s what’s going to make this team great on offense, defense and in the kicking game. As we continue to recruit better, that competition will get better. I’m very comfortable with who we have and the numbers we have at the quarterback position.”
On junior college players:
“My basic philosophy on junior college is this: we want to recruit the state of Minnesota, first and foremost. We would like the bulk of our players to come from the state of Minnesota. Then we would like to go out and supplement those players with players from across the country. If we have a specific need, a glaring need, then I think that’s where the junior college players come in. You never recruit a junior college player to add depth to your program. If he can be an immediate starter, an impact player on your team, than I think that’s where they fit in.”
On how the junior college recruits will fit in:
“I don’t know how good they are. We haven’t seen them. We’ve seen them on film, but we haven’t seen any of these players on the grass. Until we get on the grass with these guys this spring, I don’t think anybody has any idea. This spring is going to be a great evaluation for us. We’re going to evaluate every player, every position and then we’re going to come out of spring and we’re going to have an idea about what direction we need to go. What I did when I evaluated film of the University of Minnesota football team, I evaluated the schemes. I tried not to look at individuals because I want to have an open mind as we went into spring. I want every guy to have a fair and equal opportunity to win a job. Every job on this team is wide open.”
On a combined former coaching staff and current coaching staff recruiting class:
“There doesn’t need to be an asterisk. Like I said, Coach Mason and his staff did a great job of getting the class started. We finished the class with what we feel like are outstanding players. The most important thing is that we have 22 kids who are extremely excited about being Gophers. That’s the thing that we’re excited about. There’s a kid or two who we didn’t get that we would have liked to come, but we’re awfully excited about the ones who are here.”
On not signing a kicker:
“Again, we’re still looking at all positions. We’re still looking at where we could sign a kid or two in this class. I’m not going to say we’re definitely looking for a kicker. I’m just going to say there are a number of kids, a number of situations that we’re going to continue to look at. There may be a kid or two signed in this class, there may not be. We’re going to meet tonight and continue the process of evaluation, and we’re going to see where we go with it.”
On scholarships still available:
“We still have some things available. We still have some scholarships available. We can still sign some guys if that’s what we want to do. We can also bank them and they can go to next year’s class. What we’re going to do is we’re going to make a decision right now if we’re going to add another kid, another two kids to this class. If not, we’ll make a decision to just move on and focus on 2008. That’s my general indication right now that that’s what we want to go.”
On the five players his staff brought in:
“The No. 1 thing we’re looking for is toughness. We’re looking for passion, No. 2, and No. 3, we’re looking for smart guys. No. 4, we’re looking for playmakers. Regardless of position, we need playmakers on this football team. That was one of the things that we really wanted to focus on the last two weeks of recruiting - getting guys who we felt like could do something with the ball and score points.”
On Harold Howell’s playmaking ability:
“Harold Howell is one of the most dynamic high school football players in the country today. He can do some unbelievable things with the football and has great speed. He is absolutely electrifying. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be adding him to this class.
“What football recruiting is about is trust. His head coach at Mandarin High School, J.D. Hall, has been a friend of mine since 1985. He told me the kid is 5-8 and 160 pounds. I looked at him on film and thought he looked 6-2, 200 pounds. This kid plays big and plays explosive. As coaches, we get caught up in numbers too many times in evaluations. To me, you have to turn on the tape and see how the kid plays. When you see this kid, you’re going to ask why USC and Florida aren’t recruiting him. I don’t know why, I’m just glad he’s going to be with us.”
On not convincing some recruits to change their mind and come to Minnesota:
“There’s nothing we’re discouraged about because we reached out to people with tremendous passion about this university. We sold this university to some young guys who were committed out of the state and they chose to honor their commitments. They’re great young guys, but we’re more excited about the guys we brought in than the guys who are leaving.”
On coaching his own son:
“I’m not going to go about it differently. My son is a player on this football team and is going to be treated like any other player. It will probably be even a little harder on him because he is my son. I love my son to death and he is a heck of a football player, but the way I look at it, when I walked into this room and introduced myself to this football team, I said now I have 120 sons.”
On Serge Elizee’s quickness:
“He has good quickness. I like what I see on tape of the guy. We’ll see what we get in the spring.”
On his philosophy regarding red shirting:
“If a young guy can help as a true freshman, he’s going to play. If he can help us win one game, he’s going to play. The days of wholesale red shirting guys are over. What we’ll do is, a week prior to the first game, we’ll ask whether a certain guy will be in the two-deep and if he will be able to help us. If he’s not, he’ll come to us and talk about red shirting. Then in the middle of the season you have to revisit the situation and see if he can help us win in the second half of the season.”
On where he sees recruiting expanding in the future:
“We have to continue to do a great job here, and from there we have to go where our staff has ties. We have great ties in the state of Illinois and we want to get into the neighboring states of Illinois. We want to work the east coast in states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And again, we want to work Florida, Texas and California. Those three big states will be really important to what we do in recruiting, but we’ll go anywhere.”
On what’s in store between now and spring practice:
“We are never going to ease up on the recruiting trail. It goes back to waking up thinking about recruiting, going to sleep thinking about recruiting and then at night dreaming about it a little too if the kid is really good. That’s our mindset.”
On easing up on recruiting now that signing day is complete:
We’re not going to ease up on recruiting any time. Right now I’m just so energized about the 2008 class and I know my whole staff is. It goes back to waking up and thinking recruiting, going to sleep thinking about recruiting and dream a little bit about it too if the kid is really good. That’s our mindset. What we’ve got to do from now and spring ball, we’ve got to meet offensively and defensively. We’ve got to get our plans installed. I think Mike Dunbar has down a great job on offense. They have had a couple of days to meet. Everett Withers is meeting on defense and we’re getting our kicking game together and so we’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s we’re still going to recruit every day.
On solidifying this class and getting ready for the class of 2008:
Absolutely. I think what we have done is create tremendous excitement about the U here in the state of Minnesota. I think everyone is holding on and catching the excitement. I think they know that it’s a dawn of a new day here. We’re going to do things a little different here. We’re going to work real hard and have a lot of fun and I think that these kids are understanding that that’s the way it’s going to be here at the U. We’ve met a tremendous amount of high school coaches in this state and I they are very excited about coming to the U this spring and watching how we work and watching how we work and interacting with our coaches. I think the state of Minnesota right now. is very excited about the direction in which we are going. We’ve got this thing started and what the exciting thing here is that we’re just scratching the surface right now. Each and every day I’m here, I’m more excited about being the head coach at the U because it’s such a tremendous sell and I don’t think it’s hard at all.
On the starting quarterback for next year:
Obviously I’m going to be involved in whoever starts at any position on this team and I think I’ll have the final say on who starts on every position, but obviously Mike is the offensive coordinator and he’s the quarterback’s coach. He’s going to have tremendous input also. I’ve got tremendous confidence in Mike Dunbar. I think he’s the best offensive coordinator in college football today.
On how vast Gopher Nation can be:
I know this. At the social tonight there’s going to be a lot of Gopher people who are awful excited. There is a Gopher Nation and we’re just trying to wake them up. I think Minnesota football has been one of the best-kept secrets in college football. What we’re going to do is that we’re going to go out and sell this great University and without question there’s a Gopher Nation. I tell you what, with all the people that have contacted me since I’ve become the football coach here, without question here there’s a Gopher Nation.
On if Gopher Nation is bigger then it was three weeks ago:
I certainly hope so.
On Brewster’s perception of Minnesota high school football:
My perception of Minnesota high school is this. I’ve met with the executive committee of the Minnesota State High School Football Coaches Association. I’ve reached out and have met with 20 odd high schools in my short period of time here. There are outstanding coaches here. Men that take a great deal of pride in being a football coach. Guys who have called me and reached out to me about wanting to talk football. I’ve been extremely pleased and excited about the high schools and to be honest with you there’s many more high school players then most people think. I think it’s a tremendous underrated state as far as high football is concerned. Our job is to make sure these young guys come help us.
On Minnesota being the 31st ranked recruiting state in the nation:
It’s hard to say. How do you say it’s 31st? All I know that’s it’s good. There’s a lot of good high school football players in this state and a lot of outstanding football coaches in this state. As I said, I’ve been extremely impressed with the high school coaches that I’ve met up to this point.
On having a freshman quarterback start in college right after high school:
It’s hard. There’s no question about it. It’s a difficult process that takes place. To say that it can’t be done, I’m sure it can. Would you prefer it not to be the case? Probably. You’d probably like to have a guy who’s been here and in the system. It just depends on your situation. We’ve got a situation where we’ve got a veteran experienced guy, a young guy, and a couple other young guys in the mix. We’re bringing in a guy that we’re bringing in to be in the mix. We’ll see how it plays out. We’re going to have a complex offense here. There’s no substitute for experience here particularly at the quarterback position.
On favoring bigger offensive linemen vs. a smaller athletic offensive linemen:
I really like big guys as long as they are athletic. As long as they can run. I don’t like fat guys. We will not have any fat guys on this team. Our football team is going to be lean and mean and we’re going to move. That’s what our guys are going to have to do. Mark Hill, our strength coach is under direct orders from me to check the fat percentage on every one of our guys and the chubby ones are on a diet.
On Curtis Thomas de-committing from Kansas State and coming to Minnesota:
Again it goes back to relationships with coaches. I’ve got a tremendous relationship with Bob Jones, the head coach at Aldine High in Houston. The kid decided to de-commit from Kansas State. I got a call from Bob Jones asking would I be interested in maybe the best safety in Texas. I said no, I’m not interested (laughter).
On meeting the in-state players that have committed to Minnesota:
I did get a chance to meet all of the in-state guys and we just reached out to them just as we did to every guy that we recruited. We let them know who we are, what we’re about and let them know that we care about them as people. Again it goes back to this: What are we wanting out of our guys? We want our guys to and graduate, first and foremost. We want them to graduate. We want them to represent themselves and their family in fine fashion every day. We want to win a Big Ten championship. Our staff has done just a phenomenal job of reaching out to these kids. All the instate kids came here and met us here, reached out to us here. We’re also in most of their homes. It’s been a great process. It’s been a whirlwind process three weeks.
Players Mentioned
QB
/ FootballWR
/ FootballSS
/ FootballGopher Football at the Pav
Wednesday, March 11
Film Room: Anthony Smith
Tuesday, March 10
Winter Agility Testing
Wednesday, March 04
Gopher Football at the Barn
Wednesday, February 18