[NU Sports] Expectations for our football team

[Clark Zahn]

I am certainly not an expert on football, but I do qualify as a long time Cat fan as Ara was coach when I was there.  First I would agree that we cannot expect to frequently compete for the national championship.  Once in a great while when everything falls into place it could happen,  but usually the football factories have a built in advantage.  We can expect to have a winning record except when we are hit real hard with injuries.  I don't think we can expect NU to have the depth that UM or OSU has.  We can also expect to often compete for the Big10 championship.  I believe the RW can do this.  He's shown that he is flexible enough to adapt to the athletes he has, rather than force those same athletes to adopt his system.  He also seem's smart enough that he will try to solve the problems on kick coverage and defense.  His main weakness seems to be too much loyalty to his assistants.  I expect that he will address that problem.  I certainly would not be in favor of bringing in some other coach who would want to impose his "system" on our team.

I do wonder if we will always have some trouble on defense.  When you are on offense you get to dictate the flow of the game.  Smart plays and smart players can often overcome deficiences in talent.  When you're on defense you have to react to what the other offense does and playing smart can't always overcome the athleticism of the opposition.