GOPHERS INSIDER; Brewster's true test will come next year; This year's recruiting class is basically Glen Mason's. We'll have to wait to find out more about the new coach's ability to persuade recruits to become Gophers.(SPORTS)

Byline: Chip Scoggins; Staff Writer

As he introduced his 2007 recruiting class this past week, new Gophers football coach Tim Brewster was asked if the class should include an asterisk since most of the players were recruited by his predecessor, Glen Mason, before he was fired.

Predictably and quite understandably, Brewster disagreed with that assertion. But in reality, the class does deserve an asterisk because it is essentially Mason's class and not Brewster's, even though Brewster managed to attract five recruits - including his son - in the final three weeks before signing day. Brewster's prowess as a recruiter won't be in full view until next year, when he and his staff will have had more time to cultivate relationships with their recruits. Brewster

didn't have that luxury this recruiting season. Essentially, his competition had a 70-yard head start in a 100-yard dash. Common sense says that's too much ground to make up. Brewster's best hope was to lay groundwork for the next recruiting season.

Brewster already has offered scholarships to a handful of the state's top juniors, but make no mistake, all eyes are fixated on his recruitment of Cretin-Derham Hall wide receiver Michael Floyd, a wonderful talent who will have his pick of schools next year. Fair or not, the perception of Brewster as a recruiter will hinge on Floyd's decision, even though the new coach is coming late to that party, too.

If Brewster lands Floyd, this whole Gophers Nation thing might become a full-fledged movement. All the things that have been said and written about Brewster as a master recruiter will have a measure of validity to them. But if he doesn't get Floyd ...

That's the funny - and maddening - thing about recruiting. So much of it is based on perception. A national recruiting radio host, in an interview with Brewster on signing day, actually gushed about the coach's ability to lure a recruit away from Indiana. No joke.

If, however, Brewster begins to attract a different caliber of athlete, don't be surprised if antennas go up around the country. The New York Times ran an interesting piece this week about Illinois coach Ron Zook, who created a buzz throughout college football by securing a top-15 recruiting class despite two consecutive awful seasons on the field.

Rumors of recruiting impropriety have circulated for weeks, enough so that former Michigan State coach John L. Smith shockingly offered this quote to the Times: "If they had a winning program and all of that, it would be a different deal. If they had the greatest facilities in the world, then maybe they could sell them. But what are they selling? ... Where there's smoke, there's probably fire."

Zook, not surprisingly, took offense to the rumors and accusations and defended his recruiting practices at his news conference on signing day. The school reportedly even hired a law firm to check into rumors of wrongdoing and found nothing.

That is the nature of the game in recruiting these days. The recruiting process should invite a fair amount of skepticism and oversight, but Internet message boards and negative tactics have blurred things immeasurably.

Brewster has been in the game long enough to understand how it works. He certainly sounds confident in his recruiting ability and seems driven to excel at it. He said every coach should be thinking about recruiting morning, noon and night, and he also constructed his staff with recruiting in mind.

His is a diverse staff, one that includes young coaches from different backgrounds and different parts of the country who see recruiting as a competition.

Brewster said he won't settle for anything less. He nearly leaped out of his shoes when asked on signing day whether he and his staff would take a few days to catch their breath now.

"We are never going to ease up on recruiting at any time," he said pointedly.

We'll get a true measure of their work this time next year.