Tim Brewster, Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach from 2007-2010
Instead of hiring a person with head coaching experience, the U of M went after an assistant and it was a disaster.
Tim Brewster came in promising Rose Bowls and a bunch of great stuff, but didn't deliver anything.
His first year was an absolute disaster, going 1-11. But hey, cut the guy some slack, it's year one and the cupboard was empty.
His next year started out a little better, beginning with a 7-1 record. But then there was a massive collapse. The team lost to a 3-9 Michigan and couldn't take down a 7-6 Wisconsin team. The season ended in a blow out loss to Kansas.
Then 2009 happened. Minnesota won its first game against Syracuse on the road and won its home opener at the new TCF Bank Stadium. Now, some of the losses on the schedule were not as surprising, it had No. 8 Cal, No. 14 Penn State, No. 18 Ohio State and No. 15 Iowa. But the team also had a loss against a 3-9 Illinois squad. Additionally, just to get bowl eligible they barely beat an FCS South Dakota State team. The year ended with a miserable performance in a bowl game vs Iowa State.
2010 was the worst, though. Minnesota barely beat a 6-7 Middle Tennessee team and then lost in embarrassing fashion to FCS school South Dakota. The Big Ten Minnesota defense was absolutely shredded by South Dakota. Next week was a loss to USC, fair enough right. But then, the Gophers followed that up with a loss to MAC school Northern Illinois. Then came losses to a 7-6 Northwestern team and a 4-7 Purdue squad.
After that, Tim Brewster was fired.
In the end, the guy's teams never lived up to what he was selling. His defenses were sloppy every year, unable to produce anything special. And on offense, he went through three coordinators because he couldn't decide on an identity for the team.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the teams reportedly lacked discipline and didn't exactly make the best grades.
In the end, his final record was 15-30. There have been other MN coaches with more losses, Jim Wacker, who was head coach from 1992-1996 was 16-39, but his teams were more competent.
At the very least, Brewster's firing made way for the U of M to hire Jerry Kill, who made improvements every year. His first squad went 3-9, but made improvements every game, cleaned up the sloppy play from before and beat rival Iowa. 2012 they went 6-6 and made a bowl game where they were edged out by Texas Tech.
Then 2013-2014, they went back-to-back eight win seasons. It was the first time they had consecutive 8+ win seasons since 2002-2003, it was the first time they beat Nebraska consecutively since the 1960s. 2014 was the first time they had a win over Michigan since 2005 and the first time since the 1960s that they beat both Michigan and Iowa. At the end of 2014, the Gophers wins earned them a trip to the Citrus Bowl, their first New Years Day bowl since 1962.
Plus, under Kill's tenure, eight players were drafted into the NFL, a big spike from the Brewster years when maybe one or two were picked. Unfortunately, Kill had to retire because of health issues related to his epilepsy.
And finally, Kill righted the ship with discipline, making sure the athletes got solid grades and kept mostly out of trouble.
Now, I'm not saying Kill was perfect. He had some tough bowl losses, that's for sure. But he really righted the ship, which was majorly needed after the Brewster era.