Tim Brewster Finally Walks the Walk as the Gophers Establish a Ground Game

Tim Brewster has been the designated whipping boy for the majority of columnists and radio talk show hosts in the Twin Cities since he rolled into town early in 2007.

Promising to take the Gophers back to the Rose Bowl after a decades-long drought was apparently the wrong move. When the Gophers went 1-11 during Brewster's first season, the knee-jerk reaction was that Gopher AD Joel Maturi had made a giant mistake.

Things haven't gotten better by leaps and bounds since that first horrendous season, but the Gophers have been bowl-eligible the past two seasons, even though those have been losses in the lower-tier Insight Bowl.

Things didn't work out with Brewster's past two offensive coordinators. Mike Dunbar's spread offense did put points on the board. However, their inablility to control the clock and keep the defense off the field exposed glaring weaknesses on the defensive side of the ball.

Next came Jedd Fisch's "offense." I have no idea how to properly describe it, other than very loosely organized chaos. Fisch was supposed to install a pro-style offense, but I'm not sure what pro team could be successful executing his offense. It seemed like there was a sense of mass confusion and lack of organization and cohesion before most every snap.

Fisch did the Gophers a favor when he exited the University of Minnesota for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. Enter veteran coach Jeff Horton. Horton came to the Gophers after college stints in Nevada and Wisconsin and his previous post working with the NFL's Detroit Lions.

Brewster praised Horton and promised that the Gophers would once again be a power running team. Fans had already grown weary of Brewster's promises, so the coach's comments were met with a bit of skepticism.

The Gophers opened up the season last week against Middle Tennessee State and made it clear that they were going to make every effort to effectively run the ball this season.

The Gopher offensive line had a massive size advantage over the Blue Raider defensive line and it was clear from the opening kickoff that Horton and Brewster devised a game plan to exploit that weakness.

The Gophers ran at will against the Blue Raiders. While they struggled at times finishing off drives, for the most part, they were able to control the clock and keep their young defense off the field.

Junior tailback Duane Bennett led the Gophers with 187 yards rushing. Not a bad start to the season for the Gophers leading rusher in 2009. Bennett didn't even reach 400 yards rushing in 2009. At this pace, he could easily eclipse that total before Big Ten play begins.

Now the challenge for the Gophers begins. You should push a team around when you have a decided advantage in size. Whether or not the Gophers can continue to run the ball against more physical Big Ten teams will go a long way towards determining how many games the 2010 Gophers win.