Jim Souhan: In the aftermath of lost season, team applauds leader who proved himself

Teammates expressed admiration for redshirt freshman QB Adam Weber.

By Jim Souhan, Star Tribune

Last update: November 17, 2007 - 11:31 PM

After Wisconsin started running out the clock -- and before Badgers coach Bret Bielema made his remarkably confrontational sprint toward Tim Brewster for the most perfunctory postgame handshake this side of Bill Belichick -- the Gophers' seniors started hugging on the sideline at the end of their last game.

Most of them sought out freshman quarterback Adam Weber, expressing admiration for the player who is the best reason to believe Brewster's bluster.

Weber completed his sweep of Gophers passing records on Saturday while his team set a school record for losses in a season, a combination that raised a couple of questions about this prolific-yet-horrific season:

How much better could Weber have been if aided by a competent defense and a consistent running game?

How much worse could this team have been if Weber hadn't emerged as a durable, tough and productive quarterback at an age when most of us are still worried about acne and fake IDs?

Brewster and his players talk about the bad breaks they got this year, but they came within a missed 33-yard field goal of going 0-12.

This was the worst season in Gophers football history. Never before had they lost 11 games in a season, and while the 12-game schedule is a new convention, the presence of four nonconference games against smaller schools should have rendered 11 losses impossible.

If there is any hope for BrewBall, it comes in the form of youth, and while we don't yet know how effective Brewster will be at attracting top talent to Dinkytown, we know that, for all of the losing, he found a few keepers this season.

Weber set pretty much every passing record you can set in his first season as an active player -- and he was often more effective as a runner than a passer. Saturday, he rushed 15 times for 99 yards and completed 21 of 37 passes for 352 yards and three touchdowns.

For the season, Weber threw 24 touchdown passes, breaking Bryan Cupito's record of 22. He threw for 2,895 yards, breaking another Cupito record, and he had already set records for completions and total offense.

Brewster said sophomore receiver Eric Decker could become one of the best receivers in the country next year. Even given Brewster's penchant for hyperbole, that's not far from the truth.

Decker caught six passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns Saturday while playing on a bad right knee. His 67 catches broke a team record.

If Brewster can fix the defense, Weber and Decker could play more meaningful games of catch next season. "Adam showed me a lot," senior linebacker John Shevlin said. "Because he's a freshman, and he handled himself with great poise.

"The kid would always come back to the huddle and command respect, and come back every day to practice, and he would never hang his head. That's something I will always remember, because he's such a young man, and he had to grow up fast. The future is very bright for him."

Weber owns all of the meaningful team single-season records, and he has yet to fully grasp Mike Dunbar's complex spread offense or bulk up to the requisite weight for a quarterback willing to run the ball a dozen times a game.

"This game, I got beat up a lot," said Weber, wearing a red welt on the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to have to get myself into the weight room. I thought I was ready for the beating, but you really have to experience it. Now I have to get my body ready for next year."

And his mind? "With Coach Dunbar's offense, there are always a million more plays we can run," Weber said. "Depending on the intelligence of the quarterback."

Weber proved he's smart and tough enough to be a big-time college quarterback. It's up to Brewster to build a team around him.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com

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