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

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Most importantly, Stanford's institutional
> commitment to athletics is
> unsurpassed.  The administration does NOT accept
> mediocrity in athletics, as
> their standings in the Sears Cup every year will

How many sports does Stanford field compared to NU? I
believe they are able to offer more because of their
weather/location and they excell in a lot of the minor
sports, leading to that Sears Cup.

But aside from that, I think one of my points got lost
in the old-fart rant the other day:) ... I don't
believe that Mark Murphy or NU *are* accepting
mediocrity or that the NU alums are accepting it.
We've gone out and hired solid coaches who seem to fit
well in our program and situation and now we're
building winning programs at the football and
basketball level -- places where NU has very little to
build on.

It seems to me that our mediocrity would be much more
assured if we went with the instant-gratification
route and fired someone if they can't deliver 10 wins
every other year. That's a sure recipe for failure as
a football program is just not something you can build
overnight.

So I guess I'm saying that keeping Walker is NOT
accepting mediocrity, but a smart move toward building
a consistent winning program at NU. Look at the 7
years so far ...

1999-2000: Taking over for GB, winning with GB's
recruits in '00
2001: A major setback after the Wheeler tragedy, a
season interrupted by 9/11 and losing an O.C. to O.U.
after it's done
2002: Starting over - different Walker, different
approach and his recruits are starting to get into the
system
2003-2005: A three-year span of winning that hasn't
been seen in decades at this school - two bowl games,
two straight winning records in a pretty tough
conference, a solid building block for the future

This is the best position the program has been at in
half a century at least -- it certainly stands to
reason that the man who did it should be given the
chance to take it to the next level and build on the
foundation for the next five years.

So it's NOT accepting mediocrity -- with Walker
clearly wanting to stay here, it's the best chance
we've had yet to build a program that consistently
wins and competes for the Big Ten title. The facts are
that NU *is* different than most schools and we don't
want that to change. And hopefully we know that
something worth having takes hard work -- losing
records for the early years are something you'll find
when you build a program from the ground up. This is
not mediocrity, this is a smart plan for the future.

> Well, I compiled this
> data after last season, and found that over the past
> 20 seaons (1985-2004),
> Stanford football is 107-117-4, with a 73-85-2
> record in the Pac-10.

Interesting. Gasp! A losing record - time to pull the
trigger!:)

GO CATS!!! BEAT THE ILLINI!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


		
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