[NU Sports] Expectations for our football team

[cherron604 at aol.com]

Two points:
 
"He also seem's smart enough that he will try to solve the problems on kick coverage and defense."
 
The problems have existed for 7 years of the Walker regime - when does his solution kick in ?
 
"I do wonder if we will always have some trouble on defense."
 
As we will all recall, we had one of the nations best defenses (ranked #1 one year, I believe) under Ron Vanderlinden and Gary Barnett.  So we know it can be done.  It just isn't being done now.
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85

-----Original Message-----
From: Clark Zahn <clzahn at mindspring.com>
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 11:32:11 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
Subject: [NU Sports] Expectations for our football team


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 bringin!
 g 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.



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