Seven months after his tenure at Minnesota ended, Tim Brewster is finally breaking his media silence.

"I poured my heart and soul into that situation in Minnesota and I was disappointed with how it ended," Brewster told Naples (Fla.) Daily News reporter Woody Wommack in a story posted on the paper's website Friday. "But I'm a positive guy and you're not going to keep me down long."
That he's been quiet this long is surprise enough. The former Gophers coach, fired Oct. 17 after a 1-6 start to the season, has refused all interview requests from Minnesota reporters since that day, content to remain out of sight at his Naples home.
But the 50-year-old Brewster, who will apparently be out of football this fall for the first time since 1985, has been visiting high school spring football practices in Fort Myers lately, and told Wommack "I want to get back into coaching."
He was a finalist for the head-coaching job at Texas State in January, a job that went to Dennis Franchione, who coincidentally was the football mentor to Brewster's Gopher successor, Jerry Kill. Now Brewster, 15-30 in 3 1/2 seasons with the Gophers, plans to stay in Florida until jobs come open again at the end of the year.
Brewster and a couple of other fired coaches, ex-Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and former Kansas coach Mark Mangino, traveled around the state last week watching high school practices, the newspaper said, and Brewster said he was impressed with what he saw.
He even addressed the players at Immokalee High, lecturing them on the importance of academics.
"I've tried to get out to see some of the top players down here," Brewster told the Daily News. "I've got a little free time, and it's been a lot of fun to get out and watch."