Up close: OSU's Gunter Brewer

By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer - 11/4/2009


STILLWATER — How do you cope when your stars turn into falling stars? Oklahoma State co-offensive coordinator Gunter Brewer said the Cowboys handled it this way: “Do what you do with who you have.”

Running back Kendall Hunter, the Big 12 rushing leader in 2008, played in two games this season before suffering an injury that has limited him to one carry in six games since.

All-America receiver Dez Bryant played in only three games.

But OSU is a ranked, bowlbound team because the defense has played well and because the offense has adjusted with new faces in playmaking roles.

In three games with Bryant, OSU averaged 364.0 yards. In five games since, the Cowboys are averaging 421.6 yards.

Brewer said the Cowboys want to lean on strengths, stay away from weaknesses and accentuate positives.

“Each guy has something he does a little bit different,” Brewer said. “We try to design certain plays at times for certain people. That’s our job as coaches is to get a good game plan.”

Brewer has been around the coaching business since birth. He is the son of Billy Brewer, a former head coach at Southeastern Louisiana, Louisiana Tech and Ole Miss.

Didn’t your dad give you speeches about how you should never go into coaching?

Oh yeah, all the time. Quite a bit. It’s one of those deals where you come in at 6 (in the morning) and leave at midnight and somewhere along you get two or three weeks off the whole year. It’s just part of the deal.

But you decided to go into the family business anyway?

Oh yeah. Something is in your blood. You find a love for it and love kids and love what you do. It’s just like anything else.

Twenty years ago, you helped coach a team in France. What did you learn?

I learned how to communicate different ways — sign language and speaking a little bit of different languages because they are so diverse. Just kind of seeing how the game has progressed through different cultures, really. It was pretty neat.

What’s your best memory of growing up in a college football family?

Just the camaraderie of traveling around and riding on buses and trains and automobiles, going to bowl games and just being part of a giant family and meeting people that you had never had a chance to meet before in your life, whether it’s a billionaire or a kid who didn’t have (much). Just meeting a lot of different people and being exposed to a lot of different things.

Who is your bigger-than-life icon?

The manning family (archie Manning, father of Peyton and Eli, is a former Ole Miss quarterback) was pretty neat, growing up as an Ole Miss person and getting to know all the different Mannings. Because of who it was and having a tie to Ole Miss and being involved with them and what has gone on with their family since, knowing them from kids to grown-ups to adults to players, that was probably it.





FAST FACTS

Position: Co-offensive Coordinator/ recievers coach

Alma Mater: Wake Forest (1987)





Jimmie Tramel 581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com



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Tulsa World Reader Comments
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PIRANA, Tulsa (11/4/2009 1:42:31 PM)
Go Pokes!!! Beat Iowa State!!!



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