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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Brewster Pleased After Week One
9/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
After reviewing the tape of last week's 24-17 victory at Middle Tennessee State University, Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster was happy with his team's performance. Brewster met with the local media Tuesday afternoon to discuss last week's game and look ahead to this week's contest with South Dakota.
Were there areas the Gophers can focus on and improve upon this week in practice? Without question. But for the most part, Brewster was very pleased with what he saw on tape.
"I thought it was a great opener for our football team," Brewster said." To take our team on the road and go play a very good Middle Tennessee state team in their backyard in that environment down there and play as well as we played, very pleased. Extremely pleased. And going back and looking at the tape, obviously we did a lot of good things."
Brewster mentioned some a few tackling miscues and some alignment issues on defense when lining up against the hurry-up, quick-tempo offense Middle Tennessee State threw at the Gopher defense.
"The biggest challenge for us defensively was understanding the speed and the tempo at which Middle Tennessee was going to play," Brewster said. "That's tough. They were playing extremely fast. We gave up a couple of plays. I thought we got a little bit unsettled some in the second quarter as far as the speed and pace of the game. We missed tackles in the game, certainly. There were a lot of coachable moments. There are some things that we'll work on this week that we need to improve at, get better at."
One outcome of last Thursday's game Brewster was most pleased with was the clean play his team displayed.
"Playing the game with minimal penalties, no turnovers," Brewster said. "Those were very positive things. We've really emphasized being a smart football team. We've had officials at practice, we've talked situationally about being a smart football team. It was nice to see us go out and execute and not have a turnover, have very few penalties. I thought that we played a smart football game, and that was very pleasing for us."
Brewster and the Gophers will look to keep playing that type of football this week when South Dakota visits TCF Bank Stadium. The Coyotes opened with a 38-7 loss to Central Florida in Orlando last week. Despite that loss, Brewster expects an excited USD team at The Bank on Saturday.
"It's a big football game for South Dakota," Brewster said. "It's very special for them to be able to play a Big Ten opponent in our house, and we understand that. We understand how excited they're going to be."
Brewster said the Coyotes are a "very hard‑nosed, physical bunch" with a "very big offensive line." He expects them to try to run the football and throw off the play-action pass. South Dakota will bring a 3-4 defensive scheme into the game, which is not prevalent in the college game.
Notes:
- Brewster opened Tuesday's press conference by mentioning the passing of Terry Hoese, the father of senior captain and starting fullback Jon Hoese.
"I'd like to begin by sending our very heartfelt condolences to the Hoese family," Brewster said. "Last night we lost a member of the Golden Gopher football family in Terry Hoese. It was a very sad night and very sad morning for all of us. Terry was an amazing husband, father, was at every Gopher victory walk, was at every Gopher game since I've been head football coach at the University of Minnesota. He was extremely supportive of our program. The relationship that Jon Hoese and Terry Hoese had was very special. "
- After each Gopher victory, Brewster and his coaching staff hand out a number of team awards. Those awards for this week are as follows:
Offensive Player of the Week - Duane Bennett
Defensive Player of the Week - Mike Rallis
Special Forces Player of the Week - Jon Hoese and Kenny Watkins
Hard Hat Hit of the Week - Duane Bennett
Lunch Pail Award - Offensive line, tight ends, fullback
Extra Effort Award - D.L. Wilhite
Great Teammate Award - Jon Hoese
Scout Offensive Player of the Week - Lamonte Edwards
Scout Defensive Player of the Week - Chase Haviland and Dwayne Mitchell
- There were no changes to the depth chart from week one to week two. The Gophers didn't lose anyone to injury in the Middle Tennessee State game.
"We're very excited," Brewster said. "We came out of the Middle Tennessee game in great shape. No injuries."
-By Andy Seeley, Associate Athletic Communications Director
