I have not blogged here or at Gopher The Roses in a long time about Gopher football. I care and I have been attending, screaming my head off and supporting the team, just not had enough time to wrote about it.
This morning the following was sent out by the University of Minnesota:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 17, 2010
Contacts: Garry Bowman (612-875-0154) and Andy Seeley (612-269-2706)
Brewster Relieved of Head Coaching Duties
Athletics director Joel Maturi announced this morning that Tim Brewster has been relieved of his duties as head football coach and that his contract has been terminated. Brewster will be replaced on an interim basis by co-offensive coordinator Jeff Horton, according to Maturi.
“While I appreciate the passion and commitment that Coach Brewster has shown, it is clear that a change in the leadership of Gopher football is necessary,” Maturi said. “We have high aspirations for our football program and we are not satisfied with its current direction. The results so far this season have been unacceptable and the program has simply not shown enough improvement over the past three and a half years to continue with the status quo.”
Maturi said that he has had several discussions regarding the state of the program with university president Robert Bruininks in recent weeks and that the president was in complete agreement with the decision to remove Brewster as head coach. Maturi then told Brewster of his decision this morning.
Brewster, 50, was named Minnesota's 26th head football coach on Jan. 17, 2007. He signed a contract extension in January of 2010 and will be paid a buyout of $600,000 per that agreement.
Brewster coached a total of 45 games with the Gophers and compiled a 15-30 (.333) overall record, including a 6-21 (.222) mark in Big Ten games after yesterday’s 28-17 loss to Purdue.
During his three-plus years at the helm, Brewster guided the Gophers to a pair of Insight Bowl appearances, with his best season coming in 2008, when he guided Minnesota to a 7-6 record.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Director of athletics Joel Maturi, along with interim head coach Jeff Horton and a student-athlete will be available to the media at a news conference today at 1 pm. The news conference will be held in the home team interview room at TCF Bank Stadium. Media interested in attending the news conference should park in Sports Media Parking on either the northeast or northwest sides of Mariucci Arena. Additional sports media parking is available on the apron at Williams Arena. Please enter TCF Bank Stadium through the Dodge County entrance. Television outlets should park in the TV compound, where they can patch directly into the home team interview room.
-UM-