[NU Sports] Cat Season Report Card (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

> I give Randy Walker an A.  We finished 7-4, after all the so-called 
> experts and naysayers predicted us to go 2-9 at best.  Please tell me, 
> in exactly which games was RW outcoached?  Only one -- Penn State.  

I can't give him anything better than a B+. but it is a strong B+.

The defense was 116th (next to last) in the NCAA (Total Defense) this year.  
They were 68th last year, 88th in 2003, 116th (next to last again) in 2002, 
107th in 2001, 89th in 2000 and 100th in 1999.

There's a pattern there.  One way or the other, the head coach has to
take responsibility for the fact that the Northwestern defense has been
at best mediocre and usually terrible every year Walker has been the 
head coach.  

Is that a fatal flaw?  Not quite.  But the head coach had better DO 
SOMETHING about that pattern fairly soon or I think it could become one.

Walker's Miami(Ohio) teams were known for their defenses.  However, Terry 
Hoeppner (now at IU) was Randy's DC and was promoted to head coach when 
he left.  

Here's a direct quote from the NU website about current DC Greg Colby:
"Since coming to Northwestern, the Wildcat defense has improved vastly under Colby..."  It has?
--
Mike Nolan