[NU Sports] call and response on all comers here...

[Brad Wilson]

To Jeff: 

J: If anything, our need to 
recruit 
smart kids who value education is going to go a long
way towards 
overcoming an emotional bias to cold weather.  

You'd hope so. Your point is well taken, but I think
the Big Ten's rep for stodgy play hurts more. I hear
this a lot in Pennsylvania (I'm a scholastic sports
writer), that kids want to play for in an "exciting"
league with "wide-open" styles. Many kids reject PSU
on just this alone, and Mark's point that the really
fast kids see the NFL ahead and see a more wide-open
attack as a way to get there is well taken.

Look at NU this year. We had several big pass plays,
but almost all came on short routes that the receiver
made someone miss on. Even when Philmore was healthy,
we didn't fling the ball downfield. Many speedy WR
recruits would look at this and choose to play in a
more vertical Spurrier/June Jones-type offense.

J: I also don't accept your premise that kids in
Florida or California are 
inherently faster than kids anywhere else in the
country.  

You're putting words in my mouth. What I meant, and I
could have been clearer, is that so much of the talent
these days is in those states that, by definition,
much of the speed is as well.

J: (So much for not being able to recruit speed to 
NU).

Oh, we have recruited speed to NU - just not enough,
and if speed were enough to make a great wideout
Thompson would have played more. Or should have, that
may be Walker's fault.

J: Our challenge every year is to find twenty or so
good football 
players who are smart and fast.  This may be a larger
challenge than 
the 
state schools that we compete with, 

Yes, that's a challenge, and since we're drawing on a
smaller pool than anybody else in the league, it's a
huge challenge, one that may be beyond any NU coach.

To Sanford:

S: Is it possible that RW is tailoring his recruiting
and/or coaching to
the Big Ten style of play, and putting us at a
disadvantage when
we play outside the conference?  Any thoughts?

Yes, I think so, and he should be emphasizing the
league. The league is critical. We always have to be
able to win in Iowa City and Champaign; we rarely have
to win in Honolulu. The BT games are the heart of the
season and we have to be prepared for them. 

To me, Walker's greatest accomplishment is three
non-losing BT seasons in 5 years; the last time any NU
coach did that was -- amazingly -- 1941-1945 under
Lynn Waldorf. I want to win the league games first.

And yes, it probably hurts in non-con games. I would
still stay NU should beat the Hawaiis and TCUs of the
world, but we're not set up, esp. defensively, to stop
such teams. Maybe the n-c schedule should be against
BT-like teams.

To the Linhardts:

L: I think we need only 1 challenging non-conference
game in football

I am beginning to agree with this. As much as being on
regular-season TV is good, being in Bowls is better
(that extra month of practice!), I think. If a softer
n-c slate allows us to run off three or four years of
7-4 seasons, the ensuing glow of success and bowls and
good feelings would allow us to recruit better, esp.
given our Dark Ages past.

I know, I know, Mason's shenanigans haven't turned the
Goofers into Michigan, but: 1) his n-c slates have
turned Minny to a perennial bowl team and boosted his
recruiting; 2) one might argue that with a little
better game coaching/clock management vs. Big Blue
(thus aborting the usual post-Michigan collapse) Mason
would be in Pasadena -- or at least Tampa -- on New
Year's Day, and that has nothing to do with playing
Illinois State and 3) other than the BT co-title in
2000 (which I grant is huge), would we trade Minny's
last five years for ours? Uhh....yes?

I can't say I like endorsing this idea; it goes
against everything I believe in in sports, but I can't
talk myself out of it. Can anybody else? 

L: These were magnificient 
conference results(5-3) and the home games we saw were
exciting with good 
results.

Absolutely so, and let's not forget this. The 2004
Cats brought us a lot of thrills; one loss should not
erase the golden glow of a fine BT season.

To Mark:

M: Should Kansas be replaced 
by a
Sun Belt team?  

Maybe; I can live with Kansas in theory; the only
problem is they will insist on home-and-homes, and the
key to non-cons is to never leave home.

TCU should probably be replaced by 
Duke or
Army or Tulane.

Absolutely, 100 percent so. All are good suggestions
(and very friendly and exciting destinations for fans,
too, as opposed to Fort Worth or Lawrence, Kan.).

I think the schedule should probably have one 
"guarantee"
home game against a low level D-I team, one game (home
and away series)
against a peer institution, which we should usually
win, and one game
against a legitimate opponent on a home and away
basis.

Yes. The guarantee game should be against a MAC
garbage-barge outfit (NOT Miami -- those games we have
upcoming with them should be bought out NOW!). "peer"
should be Duke, which I'd never stop playing (alright,
I love the Carolina BBQ!). "legitimate" foes, I think,
should be good academic schools as well -- Stanford,
Boston College, Syracuse, North Carolina, Virginia,
Cal, say (even N*** D*** but no "home games" at the
Fruit Bowl, er, Soldier Field in that case); no
"stadiums with classrooms attached" as a Wisconsin
friend of mine refers to most SEC and Big 12 
outposts.

To Jonathan:

Ranting is understandable and welcome, given the
situation.

I even agree.

And can we agree, all of us, that Jerry Brown is a
nice man who needs to go work at NU's hospital or
something as a community relations flack or something
(Duke's hospital once had three ex-FB head coaches
there, I believe, serving out contracts)? Anywhere
else? Please? If fingers should be pointed at anybody,
I'd point them at Brown, whose units have been
miserable for years.

Also, maybe it's time -- long past time -- to hire a
special teams coach. So ship Brown out and hire a
special teams coach. The special teams will get better
and whatever Brown's doing cannot get worse. 

Brad Wilson




=====
"Life is more delectable/When it's disrespectable." -- Lorenz Hart 

"Quis ipsos custodes custodiet?" -- Juvenal


		
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