Golden Nuggets for 10.13.08

Well, Tim Brewster's Gophers are 6-1 just past the midway point in the season. Meanwhile, Tubby Smith's and Don Lucia's Gophers are just abuot to start what could be two more exciting seasons.

With the Gophers football team on a bye this week we're going to start our series of previews on Tubby Smith's Gophers this week. We'll also put together a report card on Brewster's first half of the 2008 season. Suffice to say, the Gophers football team will get passing grades, but that's not to say they don't have quite a few areas that need attention if the lofty predictions of 10-2 are going to happen.

With that coverage on the horizon, here's your daily fix to get Columbus Day started right.

• For those of you on Saturday who were pushing the Gophers to run Adam Weber more often, this is probably why he didn't. He had arthroscopic knee surgery last week. I'll add this: Brewster seems to be doing a good job of keeping a lid on injuries. Keeping this quiet likely saved Weber a shot or two at his knee.
• It's too early for this, and it's probably not deserved yet, but this message board is thread pushes Tim Brewster for Coach of the Year.
• And this seems outlandish to me. One year after being questioned by most Minnesota fans, now Brewster is making fans across the coutnry. Here's a Clemson board tabbing Brewster as a potential hire down the line.
• In a Big Ten round-up, Adam Rittenberg says the "The Gophers are back."
• In Charley Walters' list of rumors, he suggests Glen Mason could wind up at ESPN next year. I'd be very happy with this, as there'd be less chance he'd do a Minnesota game.
• Speaking of Mason,he talked to Sid Hartman about recruiting Adam Weber, Willie VanDeSteeg and others.
• The Peoria Journal Star says Illinois' homecoming was mostly a bust. That had to be a nice feeling for the boys on the trip home, don't you think?
• I'm not sure I'd go this far, but here's Brewster after the win: "We kind of have a philosophy,'' Minnesota coach Tim Brewster said. "Why not us? Why not now? The Golden Gophers had a program-changing victory today on the road against a very good football team.''
• The Gophers' Web site' had a headline of "Golden Gophers Bowl Eligible Again!" after the win. Going bowling is nice, perhaps even surprising. But I want to remind the diehards here that Glen Mason went bowling annually and we grew tired of the GMAC bowl, or whatever. We wanted a change to advance the program. A bowl game is nice. A January bowl should be the goal.
• Illinois blog IlliniTalk takes aim at Tim Brewster and Willie VanDeSteeg in a post called "Laying an Egg and Classlesness."