[Husker] Cosgrove at Wisconsin

[Pat Gaule]

Bob commented that when Cosgrove was at Wisconsin, he had some "good to 
very good defenses."  I can't find any statistics prior to 1999, but 
here is how Cosgrove's Wisconsin defenses stacked up in the years 
immediately prior to his arrival at NU:

All of these statitics were gathered off the NCAA's archive:
http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/mainpage.jsp?year=2000

1999 - #15 in total defense.  #5 in scoring defense.  I'd consider this 
a a great defense.

2000 - #79 in total defense.  #34 in scoring defense.  I wouldn't 
consider that a good defense.

2001 - #58 in total defense.  #81 in scoring defense.  I'd consider that 
to be an awful defense.

2002 - #63 in total defense.  #38 in scoring defense.   I wouldn't 
consider that a good defense.

2003 - #43 in total defense.  #50 in scoring defense.  I wouldn't 
consider that a good defense.

I think it's worth pointing out what has happened at Wisconsin since his 
departure:

2004 - #9 in total defense.#6 in scoring defense.  I'd consider this a 
great defense.

2005 - #92 in total defense.  #48 in scoring defense.  I'd consider this 
an awful defense.

2006 - #5 in total defense.  #2 in scoring defense.  I'd consider this a 
great defense.

2007 (thus far) - #30 in total defense.  #34  in scoring defense.  I'd 
consider this a pretty good (at least average) defense.


If anyone has access to the rankings of earlier Cosgrove defenses, I'd 
love to see them.  For all I know, he could have had a string of top ten 
defenses in the 90's.  What I do know is that it doesn't appear he's had 
a great or even "very good" defense in almost 8 years.  He had a pretty 
good defense at NU in 2005 (around 25th in both categories), but my gut 
feeling is that Cosgrove's best defensive season doesn't compare 
favorably to Blackshirt defenses over the previous 30-40 years.  
Unfortunately, I don't have access to all that data...