[NU Sports] Our 2005 schedule in retrospect ...

[Bryan Bowser]

As I was reading through this thread, my 16 month old
daughter tore all of my old magazines out of the
storage rack and handed me the Lindy's 2005 Big Ten
College Preview. (Truly an insightful prodigy...)Their
predictions from five months ago give some interesting
perspective and back up some of the recent comments.

"Good news: RB Jordon should pick up where Noah Herron
left off."

"Loren Howard: Ready for monster year...could be the
star pass rusher Northwestern has lacked"

"Bad News: Too many holes to fill on the OL and
DL...special teams are a major concern"

"Our call: Gonna be tough to keep the Wildcats from
sagging back to the bottom."

Predicted finish: 9th place, no bowl.

The upside: "With a healthy defensive front seven and
more consistent pplay from Basanez, Northwestern could
sneak into the post-season with six or seven wins."


I fall in with the camp that is excited about the bowl
and wants to enjoy the ride. Walker still needs to
make some improvements, but this has been a much
better year than most of us expected. Now is the time
to enjoy what the team has accomplished.

- Bryan
  


--- "SjT (Stephen J. Truog)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> As an NU fan excited about the team's sixth bowl
> appearance in school history, I'm a bit dismayed
> that
> our main topic for the past two weeks has been
> calling
> for our coach's head after a 7-4 season.
> 
> As a teacher, however, I've read this grade
> discussion
> with a bit more interest ... Walker certainly didn't
> ace the 2005 season (not going for the kill early in
> the PSU game bit us), but I'm amazed that anyone
> could
> give the coach a failing grade.
> 
> Not only were expectations low at season's start
> (the
> "experts" and many on the list) ... but they
> worsened
> after the preseason injuries and the disaster in the
> desert against (what was then a pretty good) ASU and
> the heartbreak to PSU (who no one expected to win
> the
> Big Ten back then). To get a 7-4 mark by season's
> end
> against the #3 schedule in the country has to take
> SOME coaching ability, no matter how much some folks
> dislike the guy (and personally, I like a coach
> who's
> no-nonsense and all football instead of one who
> loves
> the camera on him, plays games in the press and
> likes
> getting his picture taken around town).
> 
> But now that the season's over and ASU and NIU have
> won necessary games this weekend, let's look back
> again at that schedule, because as a teacher, you do
> need to remember to grade on the level of test
> attempted. And NU's 2005 test was pretty steep,
> making
> the 7-4 mark even more remarkable.
> 
> We knew coming into the season that we had a tough
> schedule - and even some fans like me who wear
> purple-colored glasses were hard pressed to find six
> wins. But preseason can be deceiving at times (look
> at
> Notre Dame's schedule), so upon post-season review
> ...
> 
> * 7 of our 11 games were against teams going bowling
> in 2005-06
> * 4 of our 11 foes were top 10 at some point in the
> season
> * 8 of our 11 foes were top 15 at some point in the
> season (MSU and Purdue peaked at #11, UW and ASU at
> #14)
> * 2 of our losses will come to BCS teams if OSU is
> chosen
> * 2 of our 4 non-bowl foes were teams ranked at one
> point in the season (MSU, Purdue) and just missed a
> bowl at 5-6.
> * Our 2 "easy" games were the season opener against
> a
> better-than-expected Ohio team and a final game
> against rival Illinois.
> 
> So finishing in 3rd place in the Big Ten with a 7-4
> mark for that schedule clearly merits a passing
> grade.
> I'd say a B for 2005.
> 
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
> 
> * * * * * * * * *
> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
> sjtruog at yahoo.com
> GO CATS!!!
> 
> 
> 	
> 		
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