[NU Sports] Change the coaches?

[cherron604 at aol.com]

Jonathan raises a few interesting points.
 
FSU before Bowden.  FSU was 101-99-12 in prior to Bobby Bowden.  Bill Peterson (1960-1970) was 62-42-11.  His successor Larry Jones was 15-8 through 1972, before an awful 3-year stretch (0-11 in '73, 4-18 under Darrell Mudra in 74-75).
 
In fact, I've seen some talk on the FSU boards about the 'myth' that Bowden inherited a program in ruin.  The Brooks International website (Bobby Bowden's speaker's bureau http://www.brooksinternational.com/bobby_bowden.htm) even states:
 
"And most of the fans were disheartened because 28 years ago, Bowden inherited a program far from the dynasty that he now commands. In fact, FSU had only won four games over the previous four seasons combined and there was talk that perhaps the school should shelve the program unless it was more successful."
 
In fact, the program had won 4 games over 3 seasons (73-75), but had gone 49-25-3 over the previous 7 seasons (66-72).  It would be very surprising that any school would consider dropping football over a 3-year slump.  
 
Nebraska before Devaney was not very good (67-120-5 between 1942 and 1961), but I'll let someone more expert on Husker Football explain why that might have been.
 
Penn State before Paterno had a very impressive history.  Hugo Bezdek (1918-1929) went 65-30-11.  Bob Higgins (1930-1948) went 91-57-11.  Joe Bedenk went 5-4 in 1949.  And the great Rip Engle went 104-48-4 from 1950-1965.  In fact, Penn State had not had a losing season since 1938 (Bob Higgins 3-4-1), until Joe Paterno in 1988.  Paterno also had the 4 losing seasons out of 5 (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004).
 
Jonathan adds:
 
"...he (Walker) certainly finds himself in a position where he's in the driver's seat to build a program from nothing and turn it into a perennial contender."
 
Not exactly from nothing - his predecessor had won 2 Big Ten titles, and had a 27-21 record in the previous 4 seasons.
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85


 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Michael Hawkins <spiritu at northwestern.edu>
To: Clark Zahn <clzahn at mindspring.com>
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:16:17 -0600 (CST)
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Change the coaches?


> I don't buy the argument that a coach whose goal is being the best would > necessarily want to move on after achieving success at NU. RW has said > that he wants to be part of establishing a long term winning tradition > at NU. I take that to mean that he wants to be our JoePA. I believe > that he means that and as long as the NU administration supports him > with facilities and necessary operating funds he will stay no matter > what other offers he receives. 
 
Agreed. In what state was FSU's program in before Bobby Bowden, or Nebraska's before Devany and then Osborne, or PSU before Joe Paterno? For that matter, what was Duke Basketball before Krzyzewski? There is an opportunity for us to be building a program up, but it takes dedication, a coach who can fix the problems, and most especially someone with the wherewithal to stick around for long enough to build up that record of consistent winning seasons. 
 
I'm not ready to put Randy on a pedestal like the coaching greats, but he certainly finds himself in a position where he's in the driver's seat to build a program from nothing and turn it into a perennial contender. 
 
I wish him the best in this. 
 
Go 'Cats, 
 
Jonathan 
 
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