Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Tight Ends
Tim Brewster, who has more than 30 years of coaching experience, was named tight ends coach by Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders on Dec. 6, 2022.
Brewster joins Coach Prime from Jackson State, where he coached the tight ends for the 2022 season.
Prior to Jackson State, Brewster coached at Florida as the tight ends coach in 2020-21, where he helped Kyle Pitts become the winner of the John Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end. Pitts was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, becoming the highest drafted tight end in NFL history.
At Florida, Brewster made an immediate impact, coaching Pitts to a record-breaking season, culminating in the school’s second-ever Mackey Award recipient. Overall the tight end position caught 64 passes for 1,075 yards and accounted for 17 touchdowns. Pitts became the first unanimous first-team All-American for the Gators since Vernon Hargreaves III in 2015. His dominant performance last season also landed him a spot as a Biletnikoff Award finalist, which is presented annually to college football’s best pass catcher.
Pitts was the first tight end ever to be named a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, the first Gator to be named a finalist since Jabar Gaffney in 2001 and the fifth Gator overall to be named a finalist.
He has more than 30 years of coaching experience and joined Florida from North Carolina, where he was the assistant head coach and tight ends coach for the 2019 season. He has been a collegiate head coach for four years, an NFL assistant coach for five years and Colorado is the seventh Power 5 program for which he's coached.
Prior to North Carolina, he was the tight ends coach at Texas A&M for the 2018 season after five years in the same position at Florida State (2013-17). He was the head coach at Minnesota from 2007-10 and after one season as a college football and NFL analyst for FOX, he was the wide receivers coach for Mississippi State in 2012.
Prior to Minnesota, he spent the previous five season in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers (2002-04), being named the assistant head coach his final season there before moving to the Denver Broncos for the 2005-06 seasons.
Brewster got into coaching in 1986 as a graduate assistant coach for Purdue before coaching in at Lafayette Central Catholic High School in Indiana. His first full-time college coaching job was at North Carolina from 1988-97 and he coached at Texas from 1998-2001 before heading to the NFL.
An accomplished recruiter, Brewster helped UNC boast the 19th best recruiting class in the country in 2020, according to 247sports’ rankings. At Florida State, he helped the Seminoles' pick up the top-ranked 2016 recruiting class, which featured 18 four- or five-star rated players as well as 13 Under Armor All-Americans and four U.S. Army All-Americans. He helped the Seminoles' recruiting classes rank in the top 10 of ESPN's team rankings all five years he was on the FSU staff, including in the top five four times. Brewster was named the ACC's Top Recruiter by ESPN, made 247Sports' Top 10 Recruiters list and was among Rivals' Top 25 Recruiters.
During his career, Brewster has produced 12 NFL tight ends. Prior to Pitts being selected as the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history at No. 4 to the Atlanta Falcons, he saw five tight ends sign NFL contracts during his first stint at UNC, including Alge Crumpler and Freddie Jones, and two each at Texas, Florida St. and Texas A&M. He also discovered and developed one of the league’s all-time greats in Antonio Gates, who played basketball at Kent St. prior to transitioning to a career in football, while Brewster was the tight ends coach for the San Diego Chargers. Brewster served as the tight ends coach for the Denver Broncos from 2005-06 after coaching that same position at North Carolina from 1989-97 and Texas from 1998-2001.
In his first season back at Carolina, Brewster’s tight ends helped an offense that finished 12th nationally in total offense at 474 yards per game, including 285.8 yards passing per game, which ranked 25th nationally. They also helped the offensive line as the Tar Heels ranked 38th nationally in rushing offense at 188.2 yards per game.
During his lone season in College Station, Brewster had his usual effect on the tight ends. Standout Jace Sternberger garnered consensus All-America honors after leading the Aggies in receptions (48), receiving yards (832) and receiving TDs (10). Sternberger was also a first-team All-SEC selection and a semifinalist for the Mackey Award, given to the nation’s top tight end, before being selected in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. The tight end group also blocked for an offense that ranked 21st nationally in rushing offense at 219 yards per game, including a 1,700-yard rusher.
Florida State made the tight end an integral part of their offense during Brewster's time in Tallahassee. Nick O'Leary was a two-time finalist for the John Mackey Award, winning the trophy in 2014, while earning consensus All-America honors before being selected in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. Overall, O'Leary left Florida State as the school leader in every category among Seminole tight ends, including receptions (114), yards (1,591) and touchdowns (18).
In his one season at Mississippi State, Brewster worked with the wide receivers, including school record holder Chad Bumphis. The Bulldogs sported three wideouts with over 450 yards receiving, led by the 922 by Bumphis, which ranks sixth in the MSU single-season annals. Bumphis set a school record with 12 touchdowns under the guidance of Brewster en route to earning All-SEC second-team accolades.
As the head coach of Minnesota, he led the Golden Gophers to the Insight Bowl in both 2008 and 2009.
During his tenure with the Chargers, Brewster oversaw the rapid development of Antonio Gates, who in 2004 earned first-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press and a Pro Bowl selection after playing only his second year of football since high school. Gates set an NFL single-season touchdown record (13) for tight ends in 2004, while ranking third in receiving yards (964) and fourth in receptions (81) among NFL tight ends.
Before working for San Diego, worked on Mack Brown's staffs at both North Carolina and Texas and developed six tight ends who signed NFL contracts.
In four years at Texas, Brewster tutored two tight ends who earned All-Big 12 Conference honors, including 1998 first-team selection Derek Lewis, and coached two players who signed NFL contracts in Lewis and Bo Scaife, who was drafted in the sixth round by Tennessee in 2005. Brewster's tight ends at Texas blocked for a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his four seasons at the school, highlighted by Ricky Williams' 2,124-yard season in 1998.
In nine years at North Carolina, Brewster mentored four All-ACC selections at tight end and helped the school advance to six consecutive bowl games from 1992-97. As recruiting coordinator, his efforts secured the talent that helped the 1997 team go 11-1 and finish fourth in the nation.
Brewster guided Crumpler to a second-team All-ACC distinction and honorable mention All-America accolades from Football News as a sophomore in 1997. He also mentored Jones to a first-team All-ACC selection in 1995 and again in 1996, when Jones set a North Carolina single-season record for receptions by a tight end (32) to garner third-team All-America honors from Football News.
His tight ends at North Carolina were critical to the team's rushing success as their blocking helped clear the way for five different 1,000-yard seasons, including Natrone Means' back-to-back 1,000-yard years in 1991 and ‘92. Greg DeLong, a first-team All-ACC tight end in 1994, twice earned ACC Lineman of the Week honors for his blocking in 1996 under Brewster's tutelage.
Brewster spent 1987-88 as head coach at Central Catholic High School in Lafayette, Ind., directing a wide-open offense while his squad's won 15 of 23 games during that period. He developed Indiana's passing leader in both of his seasons as head coach.
A former two-time All-Big Ten Conference selection at the University of Illinois, Brewster led the nation's tight ends in receiving in 1983 and captained Illinois to the 1984 Rose Bowl against UCLA. Brewster, who graduated from Illinois with a bachelor's degree in political science, participated in training camps of the New York Giants (1984) and Philadelphia Eagles (1985).
Brewster was born Oct. 13, 1960, in Phillipsburg, N.J. He and his wife, Cathleen, have three sons, Eric, Clint and Nolan.
| Years | Position |
| 1987-88 | Central Catholic (Ind.) High School (HC) |
| 1989-97 | North Carolina (TE/ST) |
| 1998-2001 | Texas (TE) |
| 2002-03 | San Diego Chargers (TE) |
| 2004 | San Diego Chargers (ACH/TE) |
| 2005-06 | Denver Broncos (TE) |
| 2007-10 | Minnesota (HC) |
| 2012 | Mississippi State (WR) |
| 2013-17 | Florida State (TE) |
| 2018 | Texas A&M (TE) |
| 2019 | North Carolina (ACH/TE) |
| 2020-21 | Florida (TE) |
| 2022 | Jackson State (TE) |
Years Coaching: 36
Full-Time College Coaching: 28
Power 5: 27
Head Coach: 4
NFL Coach: 5
10 Win Seasons: 9
Bowl Games: 23
Conference Championships: 3
Division Championships: 6
Playoff Appearances: 1
Tital Game Appearances: 1
National Championships: 1
All-Conference Players: 27
All-Americans: 5
NFL Draftees: 7
John Mackey Award Winners: 2
Games Coached: 348
Wins: 226
