[NU Sports] Change the coaches?

[John Labbe]

Hey, wait a minute.  Aren't you the same one who just said the other day that you don't buy the "poor Northwestern" excuse, and now you're saying just that:  "poor Northwestern, we'll never be able to hire a coach who will want to stay here."  If NU isn't at the top of the coaching food chain, isn't it your point to change that (by paying higher salaries and/or developing a winning tradition that will be the envy of other coaches)?  If you don't think that mentality can be changed, then you, too, are accepting the "poor Northwestern" mentality.




On Friday, November 18, 2005, at 10:58AM, Jeff Beamsley <jeffb at hilgraeve.com> wrote:

>Sorry for picking on you again, but what is so bad about a coach doing great
>here and getting hired away?  Isn't that what RW has said his goal is for
>all of his assistants?  
>
>NU is not at the top of the coaching food chain.  I think most all of us are
>OK with that because we think that there is more to life than football.
>
>Anyone who does well here (including RW) is going to become the subject of
>rumors for open positions at higher football-profile schools REGARDLESS of
>what they are getting paid here and REGARDLESS of past statements of
>loyalty.  Whether they take advantage of those opportunities depends on how
>they see themselves.  
>
>For any school lower in the food chain, the only reliable way to prevent
>your coach from getting offers is to have consistently mediocre teams, and
>even in those circumstances the ambitious coaches will find a way to promote
>themselves.  
>
>So our choices are to pick a coach who thinks that NU is the best that they
>can do, and hope that continuity translates into success - OR - pick a coach
>who is ambitious and does his best to build a program which reflects that
>ambition.  
>
>I personally would prefer to have a coach who wants to be the best, deal
>with the reality that they may some day move on, and hold them accountable
>when they don't perform.  That appears to be Stanford's philosophy.  In
>other words, I would be willing to trade a handful of Motor City Bowls for
>the occasional Rose Bowl.  I also realize that this is a personal opinion
>and you can make a strong argument that coaching consistency will ultimately
>result in consistent winning.  
>
>As far as RW is concerned, I don't know what his personal ambitions are, but
>if he is able to put together another winning season next year, we'll
>probably find out.  I think we are all kidding ourselves, however, to think
>that he couldn't be hired away by someone else.  If that proves to be the
>case, it does point out that there are risks to the slow and steady approach
>too.  
>
>Jeff
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
>Behalf Of Hakirsch at aol.com
>Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 1:11 AM
>To: sjtruog at yahoo.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Change the coaches?
>
>In a message dated 11/17/2005 10:05:30 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>sjtruog at yahoo.com writes:
>
>> And as we see, Stanford either gets a coach who leaves in a few years 
>> for a better job or one who gets dumped in a few years.
>> 
>
>Yep--read Bill Walsh, Dennis Green, Ty Willingham-
>
>Adding credence to my argument that if the coach really gets to be top notch
>
>at a school like  NU or Stanford (or similar) he will likely leave because 
>either he doesn't see greatness opportunity or those institutions won't pay
>huge 
>$ to keep them
>
>Harry
>_______________________________________________
>nwu-sports site list
>nwu-sports at tssi.com
>http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
>
>_______________________________________________
>nwu-sports site list
>nwu-sports at tssi.com
>http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
>
>