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University of Minnesota Athletics
SPRING REVIEW #9-Championship Presence At Ninth Spring Practice
3/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Greatness. The commitment to not only be good, but to be great. That is the message that Coach Brewster and his staff have preached to the Gopher football team since day one. That same message came from different messengers at the Gophers ninth spring practice.
New head basketball coach Tubby Smith visited football practice on Friday and addressed the team midway through practice by talking about his personal journey and showing his 1998 national championship ring, which symbolized the success that he brought to Kentucky and will soon bring to Minnesota.
With three days off before next Tuesday’s practice, the coaching staff made sure that the team had no letdown in the indoor facility as the team moved through it’s 21-period practice with quick tempo. Tubby Smith’s message gave the Gophers some extra momentum as they moved through the second half of practice and a special surprise awaited the team at day’s end. Coach Brewster called upon former Gopher legends Carl Eller, Bobby Bell and Judge Dickson to speak to the team following practice.
Bell and Eller are both College and Pro Football Hall of Fame players while Dickson played alongside both in the Gophers glory days of the early 1960’s and is now a successful businessman and motivational speaker.
Coach Brewster often references the amazing turnaround that the Gopher football team made from finishing last in 1959 to becoming national champions in 1960. On Friday with Bell, Eller and Dickson present, he was able to let players from that era talk about what made that journey possible.
“It was so heartwarming to come out and speak to the players,” said Dickson. “It was incredible. To get to talk to these guys about how much it means to play for the University of Minnesota was important because it meant so much to us. We talked about the tradition and how much you grow and develop as people, how you become leaders, build relationships and build champions.
“Once you build a championship mentality, you have it for the rest of your life. We got that opportunity to do that at Minnesota and we just wanted to pass some of that knowledge along to today’s team. I am so thankful of Coach Brewster for embracing us and making us feel a part of his and this University’s program.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Check out gophersports.com for more upcoming interviews, features and information on the spring season.
BREWSTER’S THOUGHTS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 23 PRACTICE
What will Tubby Smith mean to this football program?
TB: I think that both football and basketball feed off each other. In the winter I am going to bring my recruits to Williams Arena, the Barn, for basketball games. The success that the basketball program has, the excitement that the basketball program has, will rub off on us, and our recruits will enjoy the experience of watching them play. It is just so exciting to have a guy who has had so much success join the University of Minnesota and for myself to be a part of what Tubby brings and what so many other coaches bring to it. And I would like to do the same thing for him – when he brings his basketball recruits here in the fall he wants to see a rocking Metrodome and an exciting football team, a winning football team. The more success that I have, the more it is going to help him. So again, we will feed off each other and I am really, really excited about working with Tubby and getting out in the state of Minnesota with him. They have already started calling us “TNT” and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.
You said a big thing coming back from spring break was going to be retention by the players. How has that come along?
TB: The three practices this week have been excellent. [They have been] tremendously competitive and what we want to do is make it a competitive environment each and every day. I thought that the retention was good. We had to push them a little bit, particularly Tuesday, getting started back at it after a week off. There is a tremendous desire here with this group of kids to succeed and play well. They are very, very prideful kids and again, as you can see with all the guys that I have had come in and speak with them - very successful guys - I think they are truly beginning to understand how special it is to be a Minnesota Golden Gopher and how proud you should be to be a Golden Gopher. And I want these guys to be prideful and feel great about wearing this uniform and to understand those who wore it before them. I think that is absolutely critical for us as we move forward to get where we want to go that we understand our past.
You are halfway through spring practice. Where are you?
TB: I like a lot of things. I think as a staff we are understanding where we are deficient and where we feel that we are more solid. We are really getting an understanding of talent and the evaluation has been excellent. The big thing all throughout spring practice is evaluation. Evaluating our players, finding out what we can do scheme-wise because we may not be able to do all the spread things that we want to do offensively if we don’t have enough receivers or if we feel that the tight end is better than the third receiver. So we are starting to understand those things and where we are at and that is going to allow us to focus on what needs we have going into recruiting in May and with the 2008 class.
What do you think about today’s speakers – Bobby Bell, Carl Eller and Judge Dickson?
TB: We talk about brotherhood. We are a brotherhood on this football team. We are a band of brothers and that is what those guys talked about - the friendships that you make in college are so important. You probably meet your wife in college, you meet your best friends for the rest of your life and you want it to be an experience that you will cherish for the rest of your life and that is one of the goals that I have as the head football coach is that every guy leaves this program with memories that he will cherish for the rest of his life. I don’t want them to have negative feelings towards the University or the football team. I want them tom have an experience that they are going to enjoy and you can see obviously, Judge Dickson, Bobby Bell and Carl Eller definitely enjoyed their experience here and they are truly brothers today.
What else do you have up your sleeve?
TB: We are just going to continue to honor the tradition and the history. Each and every day in any way that I can I want these kids to feel proud of being a Minnesota Golden Gopher and I want them to know that we can do anything that we set our mind to. You know those three guys were part of the 1959 team and they were on the 1960 team. Last to first - and they shared that with our guys. And last year our guys weren’t last. Our guys were a good football team last year we just need to take a big step towards being a great football team. I think greatness is what it is all about. I am not interested in being good. I am interested in greatness and I think if we do the things that we are talking about doing - consistently practice winning in anything that they do in their life – going to class, working out, being a good person off the field, busting their tail on the field – and if they will just give championship effort every time that they are on the field, things are going to happen and they are going to happen for the good. I am very encouraged, and anybody who has watched us practice can see that we are doing some good things and the effort has been outstanding and we are coaching really, really well and the kids are believing we can get done what we say we are going to get done. When I took the job, people snickered that I said I wanted to take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena. They said that there was no Gopher Nation. There is a nation. It is evident that there is a Gopher Nation. Can we go to Pasasdena? Absolutely. Why couldn’t we?
New head basketball coach Tubby Smith visited football practice on Friday and addressed the team midway through practice by talking about his personal journey and showing his 1998 national championship ring, which symbolized the success that he brought to Kentucky and will soon bring to Minnesota.
With three days off before next Tuesday’s practice, the coaching staff made sure that the team had no letdown in the indoor facility as the team moved through it’s 21-period practice with quick tempo. Tubby Smith’s message gave the Gophers some extra momentum as they moved through the second half of practice and a special surprise awaited the team at day’s end. Coach Brewster called upon former Gopher legends Carl Eller, Bobby Bell and Judge Dickson to speak to the team following practice.
Bell and Eller are both College and Pro Football Hall of Fame players while Dickson played alongside both in the Gophers glory days of the early 1960’s and is now a successful businessman and motivational speaker.
Coach Brewster often references the amazing turnaround that the Gopher football team made from finishing last in 1959 to becoming national champions in 1960. On Friday with Bell, Eller and Dickson present, he was able to let players from that era talk about what made that journey possible.
“It was so heartwarming to come out and speak to the players,” said Dickson. “It was incredible. To get to talk to these guys about how much it means to play for the University of Minnesota was important because it meant so much to us. We talked about the tradition and how much you grow and develop as people, how you become leaders, build relationships and build champions.
“Once you build a championship mentality, you have it for the rest of your life. We got that opportunity to do that at Minnesota and we just wanted to pass some of that knowledge along to today’s team. I am so thankful of Coach Brewster for embracing us and making us feel a part of his and this University’s program.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Check out gophersports.com for more upcoming interviews, features and information on the spring season.
BREWSTER’S THOUGHTS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 23 PRACTICE
What will Tubby Smith mean to this football program?
TB: I think that both football and basketball feed off each other. In the winter I am going to bring my recruits to Williams Arena, the Barn, for basketball games. The success that the basketball program has, the excitement that the basketball program has, will rub off on us, and our recruits will enjoy the experience of watching them play. It is just so exciting to have a guy who has had so much success join the University of Minnesota and for myself to be a part of what Tubby brings and what so many other coaches bring to it. And I would like to do the same thing for him – when he brings his basketball recruits here in the fall he wants to see a rocking Metrodome and an exciting football team, a winning football team. The more success that I have, the more it is going to help him. So again, we will feed off each other and I am really, really excited about working with Tubby and getting out in the state of Minnesota with him. They have already started calling us “TNT” and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.
You said a big thing coming back from spring break was going to be retention by the players. How has that come along?
TB: The three practices this week have been excellent. [They have been] tremendously competitive and what we want to do is make it a competitive environment each and every day. I thought that the retention was good. We had to push them a little bit, particularly Tuesday, getting started back at it after a week off. There is a tremendous desire here with this group of kids to succeed and play well. They are very, very prideful kids and again, as you can see with all the guys that I have had come in and speak with them - very successful guys - I think they are truly beginning to understand how special it is to be a Minnesota Golden Gopher and how proud you should be to be a Golden Gopher. And I want these guys to be prideful and feel great about wearing this uniform and to understand those who wore it before them. I think that is absolutely critical for us as we move forward to get where we want to go that we understand our past.
You are halfway through spring practice. Where are you?
TB: I like a lot of things. I think as a staff we are understanding where we are deficient and where we feel that we are more solid. We are really getting an understanding of talent and the evaluation has been excellent. The big thing all throughout spring practice is evaluation. Evaluating our players, finding out what we can do scheme-wise because we may not be able to do all the spread things that we want to do offensively if we don’t have enough receivers or if we feel that the tight end is better than the third receiver. So we are starting to understand those things and where we are at and that is going to allow us to focus on what needs we have going into recruiting in May and with the 2008 class.
What do you think about today’s speakers – Bobby Bell, Carl Eller and Judge Dickson?
TB: We talk about brotherhood. We are a brotherhood on this football team. We are a band of brothers and that is what those guys talked about - the friendships that you make in college are so important. You probably meet your wife in college, you meet your best friends for the rest of your life and you want it to be an experience that you will cherish for the rest of your life and that is one of the goals that I have as the head football coach is that every guy leaves this program with memories that he will cherish for the rest of his life. I don’t want them to have negative feelings towards the University or the football team. I want them tom have an experience that they are going to enjoy and you can see obviously, Judge Dickson, Bobby Bell and Carl Eller definitely enjoyed their experience here and they are truly brothers today.
What else do you have up your sleeve?
TB: We are just going to continue to honor the tradition and the history. Each and every day in any way that I can I want these kids to feel proud of being a Minnesota Golden Gopher and I want them to know that we can do anything that we set our mind to. You know those three guys were part of the 1959 team and they were on the 1960 team. Last to first - and they shared that with our guys. And last year our guys weren’t last. Our guys were a good football team last year we just need to take a big step towards being a great football team. I think greatness is what it is all about. I am not interested in being good. I am interested in greatness and I think if we do the things that we are talking about doing - consistently practice winning in anything that they do in their life – going to class, working out, being a good person off the field, busting their tail on the field – and if they will just give championship effort every time that they are on the field, things are going to happen and they are going to happen for the good. I am very encouraged, and anybody who has watched us practice can see that we are doing some good things and the effort has been outstanding and we are coaching really, really well and the kids are believing we can get done what we say we are going to get done. When I took the job, people snickered that I said I wanted to take the Gopher Nation to Pasadena. They said that there was no Gopher Nation. There is a nation. It is evident that there is a Gopher Nation. Can we go to Pasasdena? Absolutely. Why couldn’t we?
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