[NU Sports] OSU game highlighted Randy Walker's shortcomings

[Frank F. Loomis III]

Amen!!!!!

Right on, John DeGroat. I commend your courage to speak out. 

Finally, someone is telling it like it is. But unfortunately, what you’re saying, is a harsh reality that most alums will plug their ears to and refuse to accept. 

With most NU devotees, an overall-losing record is OK, as long as OCCASIONALLY we get competitive football and some spectacular, exciting, wins. To his credit, Walker does this. Yet, because of things like you mention, he’s an overall loser (440?). For that alone he’d be gone at most Div I schools. 

But for us, that’s no problem, because it’s our sixty year or so tradition and reputation that we accept losing. We don’t demand or expect a winning record.....we just want to be competitive, but only now and then, that is. 

What Barnett did two years in a row, won championships (went to the ROSE BOWL), maintained academic standards, graduated the kids, and won the admiration of the country....well, apparently our predominant mind-set is that those years were aberrations. We can’t expect that....just be competitive, though inconsistently so, and once in a while go to some kind of a bowl. 

Walker's ilk is about tops we can expect to have. We should be glad to have him. 

In football, we cannot demand the kind of coaching excellence we have in our lacrosse coach, Hiller-Monte.

After all, we’re Northwestern!

Well, I, for one, do not agree with all that thinking. I say we can get another young-Barnett type. Chancellor Weber got one. So, Bienen and Murphy can do likewise. 

And just maybe, as you mention John, he’s right in front of our noses: Patrick Fitzgerald. 

Despite his youth, considering his recruiting talents and enthusiasm, I think it’s something that should be considered. 

Bottom line: We need a new coach. After seven years, Walker has proved himself inadequate for what SHOULD BE our needs. So, let’s move on this and in the process purge ourselves of the thinking that because we’re Northwestern we cannot expect and get excellence in football coaching. 

Frank Loomis 


"John A. DeGroat" <johnadeg at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
The Ohio State fiasco highlighted all of Randy Walker's many short 
comings including no defense and no kicking game. As the game 
announcers over the past several seasons plus have said, NU has an 
offense, some linebackers and that is it. NU's defense has been ranked 
in the bottom 100 ever since Walker showed up. Add to that his failure 
as a recruiter. Rivals.com's ranking of the recruiting classes for the 
past several years puts them at the near bottom of the Big Ten and in 
the 70 plus ranking nationally. Add to that the number of players who 
have left or quit the program with eligibility left and it says a lot 
about Walker. I attended the 2003 Miami of Ohio game and happened to be 
sitting next to the father of a current and past Miami player who told 
me that the Miami players didn't like Walker and were glad to be rid of him.



Not only has Walker never developed punters or kickers, he uses them in 
truly bizarre ways. Squib kicking with no defense assuring good field 
positions for the other team makes no sense, neither does punting when 
NU is behind and in a short yardage situation near the end of a game. 
Walker has said that he doesn't know much about the kicking game and 
seems determined to prove it. 

If Walker is retained as the coach, NU will be relegated to mediocrity 
for as long as he is there. Mark Murphy told the NY Alumni organization 
shortly after he arrived that his criteria for a successful football 
program would be NU in ranked bowl games on a regular basis, i.e. 
something better than the Motor City Bowl.

If we get stuck with Walker for the foreseeable future, then Murphy has 
to force Walker to hire a new defensive coordinator and hope that Pat 
Fitzgerald doesn't leave. Chris Spielman, the ESPN color commentator, 
who knows something about playing linebacker has said several times that 
Pat Fitzgerald will be a great head coach at some point in time. Murphy 
must take the dominant role in hiring defensive coaches otherwise Walker 
will play the old insecure corporate executive trick of never having 
someone working for you who could be a threat to taking your job.

<>Mediocre teams means a half empty stadium unless a team with tough 
home game tickets plays at NU. Combine that with the resulting low 
sales of memorabilia and poor bowl game opportunities and it translates 
into low revenues for both football and the other sports programs. <>

Randy Walker has to go if NU expects to fix the current sshort comings 
and compete with Michigan, Ohio State and now Penn State for the Big Ten 
Championship on a regular basis or even show substantial improvement. A 
lot of luck rather than anything else has helped Walker.

John DeGroat


_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports