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

[Arthur Miller]

Hi everyone.  I'm enjoying this thread, as it is a variant of a conversation
I have with myself every week during football season. :)

I tend agree with Harry's statement below.  Other than Notre Dame, there is
zero precedent for a school like NU challenging for a national title with
any regularity.  And ND represents such a unique situation that's nearly
useless for us as an example.

This is not to say it can't be done, however--only that we there is an
intermediate goal that must be reached before we aspire to be a truly
top-tier program.  IMHO, this intermediate goal should be to consistently
achieve winning seasons, and thus bowl games.  By consistent, I mean we go
bowling 3-4 times every 5 years.  This, in turn, will require us to be
consistently competitive in the B10, since even with the easiest OOC
schedule we will need to win 3-4 B10 games to have a winning record.

Realistically, we need to exist at this intermediate state for another 5-10
years before we are ready to take the next step.  Thus, THE ONLY PRACTICAL
QUESTION we should be asking about RW is whether he is the man to help us
achieve/maintain this.  I suggest that his overall record and recent history
at NU shows that he can.

If, by the end of the 2010 season, we have had 3-4 more 6-7 win seasons (but
nothing more), then I would fully support replacing RW with someone else who
may be able to take us to the next level.  But college football (unlike
college hoops, BTW) is fundamentally and structually biased against small,
private, academically selective universities.  Those of you who think RW has
underachieved at NU should address these concerns in order to credibly call
for his replacement.

Regards-
Art Miller
McCormick '91



-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Hakirsch at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 12:41 PM
To: jeffb at hilgraeve.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] OSU game highlighted Randy Walker's shortcomings

>I was just looking to compare other programs with high academic standards
>to point out that none  consistently compete for national titles,  nor go
>to major bowls in most years.  (Except ND) I believe that a program that
>takes  prop 48 kids(if that is still the rule number--it may have changed)
>is not a program i  think compares with us- That is a different set of
>standards- If none of these other programs can successfully compete at the
>highest levels, I think it is unrealistic for us to expect that we can
>except in a small amount of years when we get a perfect storm  going our
>way.