I like your idea of not reading Ruesse instead of commenting on him and providing him with even more coverage.

About 10 years ago I finally gave up on the Strib and subscribed to the PP. Ruesse, Barriero and the editorial page were the primary reason. That’s the best way to show your displeasure.

Now days I never read Fat Pat unless I hear his comments or quotes on blogs like this – believe me it’s better that way.

It was the large contract extension the year before. I think he should have been fired, but the huge extension less than one year prior was what made this all look so bad.

So he survived terrible special teams performances, terrible defenses, terrible clock management, not putting much effort into recruiting, alienating his fans, and marginalizing important rivalry games (as well as a few other things I’m sure I’m forgetting). But in the end all it took was blowing a 31 point lead to a great offense (with another of his typically porous defenses on probably his worst bowl team)? That doesn’t make much sense to me. That game was the hole in the dike that finally overwhelmed the little dutch boy.

This has been debated a hundred times. To me it comes down to what your version of a successful football prgram looks like. Mason finishes in the Big 10 were – 9th, 7th, 4th, 5th, 10th, 7th, 4th, 8th 7th, 6th and an overall record of 32-48.

Many people looked viewed that as acceptable since it was an improvement over recent history and we were going to minor bowl games.

Personally, I viewed these results as medicre and I didn’t see anything that led me to believe Mason would ever improve beyond what he had already shown. Add in his smug personality and I was ready for him to go long before Texas Tech.

My theory 2 years ago was that the only way the program could improve and be in a position to challenge for Big Ten titles was to find a coach that could overcome all of the obstacles (lack of funding, prior history, not great natural recruiting) and build a successful program anyway. The best way would be to find an outstanding recruiter which seems like what we’ve done. The best example I always pointed to was Barry Alverez and Wisconsin. Wisconsin football was nothing during the Morton years. They had half empty stadiums and never challenged. Somehow Alverez overcame all that (with a 1-10 first year record).

Is Brewster the guy? I don’t know. But I strongly believe Mason wasn’t and I do know that.

I know I’m in the minority here but I generally like Reusse – just for the fact that he doesn’t pull punches and isn’t a homer. I think sometimes he goes overboard, and I find one of the criticisms that has been written on this site interesting – that he just doesn’t do his research. Can’t argue too much with that…but I still enjoy reading his columns. I remember just after last season he had a column on Brewster that I thought was quite good – he began by (somewhat predictably) lambasting him for going 1-11, but then wrote about a friend of his – can’t remember who – who was telling him not to pass judgment too quickly, and who claimed that Brewster would eventually field some very good teams here. I guess the friend had been right about something before (can’t remember what), so Reusse was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Anyways sorry for rambling and for being so vague, I just remember that article as interesting because Reusse admitted that he might be wrong about Brewster.