[NU Sports] genius or luck?

[Roy Lamberton]

I consider Randy a football genius because of 

#3 - he seems to be able to get much out of kids who were not as highly
recruited as other head coaches.

Walker always talks about character and heart. When his teams don't win, he
sometimes talks about it "not being our team" out there. He won't say it, but
its pretty clear that what he means is that somehow they lost heart during the
game, which is hard to get back in a 5 minute half time speech.

I've been doing a few Scout.com related radio shows lately, and they always ask
about Walker - is he that good, etc., and they ask about his recruiting
technique. After you mention the challenges, you drop back to his technique of
telling the recruits that he plans to try to find another kid who is even better
to challenge them the next year. What he's doing is telling the prospects that
he expects them to play at their top game for 4 or 5 years and in return he'll
help them become as good as they can, and help them earn a top flight education.

The kids who think they're a lock for the NFL blow that kind of talk off, but
the smart ones know and understand what RW is talking about. 

Many fans dump on Walker because of play calling, defensive sets, etc. but what
they don't understand is that Walker lets his assistants put those plans
together, then he and the assistants work thru the plans and try to make them
better. During the game he lets those assistants call the plays from up top, and
chimes in when he has something to say. Meanwhile he's prowling the sidelines,
watching, listening, and discussing. 

He pats the kids on the back, tries to pick them up when there's a problems,
rags on the refs.

What I've never seen on TV is him giving a player a hard time for making a
mistake. [Yes I know there are reports of negative locker room events, but those
are always from someone with an anti-Walker axe to grind and virtually always
2nd or 3rd hand.]

Some of you guys almost had me convinced that RW was done a year or two ago, but
I kept saying that RW would finish out his contract thru 2007. Now I'm not so
sure that I won't retire before he will.

Go Cats - Blast the Buckeyes

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com 
> [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Beamsley
> Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 5:29 PM
> To: NU Sports List (NU Sports List)
> Subject: [NU Sports] genius or luck?
> 
> 
> OK I give up.  For seven years I've been trying to figure out 
> whether Walker is lucky or good. 
>  
>