Horton tries to turn around Minnesota against Penn State
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Jeff Horton on Sunday was named Minnesota's interim coach.
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Minnesota football program is in a downward spiral.
The Golden Gophers fired Tim Brewster Sunday and replaced him with interim coach Jeff Horton for the rest of the season.
Brewster went 15-30 in three-plus seasons at Minnesota and 6-21 in Big Ten Conference games. His teams were 1-11 in November and December.
Athletic director Joel Maturi was blunt in his description of Brewster, saying potential coaching candidates are "not following Vince Lombardi here."
Minnesota (1-6, 0-3 Big Ten) is riding a six-game losing streak entering the game Saturday against Penn State (3-3, 0-2) at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The Nittany Lions have lost two games in a row and three of their past five.
Horton, 53, was in his first year as Minnesota's offensive coordinator. He began his career as a graduate assistant under Lou Holtz at Minnesota in 1984 and was the head coach at Nevada ('93) and Nevada-Las Vegas (1994-98).
He also spent seven years as the quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin (1999-2005) under Barry Alvarez.
Horton served as an assistant coach for four seasons in the NFL -- three for the St. Louis Rams (2006-08), the fourth with the Detroit Lions (2009) -- before joining Brewster's staff.
"The bottom line is we have to instill confidence in our players over these last five weeks, and we need to find a way to let them have the excitement and the thrill of winning football games," Horton said.
Minnesota's lone win under Brewster this year was a 24-17 victory at Middle Tennessee State in its season opener. But the Gophers also lost to Division I-AA South Dakota, 41-38, in their home opener.
"I'll do everything I can," Horton said. "We'll have the best plan available to give to our offensive football team and meet with [defensive coordinator Kevin] Cosgrove and the defensive side to put it all out there on the field Saturday and do everything in our power to beat Penn State."
Another change affecting Horton will be moving from the coaches' booth to the sideline to match wits with Penn State's Joe Paterno, who will be taking his third crack at career win No 398.
First Published October 21, 2010 12:00 am
