[NU Sports] Respect

[CHerron604 at aol.com]

I would posit that it is not disrespectful to Randy Walker to discuss 'what  
happens next ?'
 
RW was a career football guy, his kid is on the staff, they have been a  
career football family.
 
Wouldn't he have appreciated the rough and tumble world of the game ?   
Wouldn't he have had (at least in the back of his mind) a plan for the succesful  
turnover of the program after he went off to retire ?
 
Wouldn't he have understood that any instability in a program, especially a  
month before camp and two months before kick-off, is something to be avoided  ?
 
Wouldn't he have anticipated that some individuals involved with some  
programs might use said instability to perhaps persuade young men that they  might 
have a better chance to succeed elsewhere ?
 
RW was a battler as a coach, so isn't it fair to assume that he'd  appreciate 
the need to 'put the pieces in place' so that his beloved program  would 
continue to succeed ?
 
Having said that, the RV talk is interesting, but I would agree that  JoePa 
would be loath to give him up on the eve of the season (and he might be  hoping 
to be a player in the eventual (?) JoePa succession, since many of the  
old-guard PSU coaches have retired already).
 
Elliot Harris stated the Pat Fitzgerald case eloquently in today's Chicago  
Sun-Times - he's going to be a good coach somewhere, why not at NU ?
 
Pat was masterful in speaking to ESPN Radio in Chicago after RW's passing -  
he can electrify a room, he knows football, he is a man of great  integrity.
 
In this day and age of heavily negative recruiting, we have to be careful  
that in interim coaching situation might be used against us by others in the  
recruiting game ('You don't want to go there - he'll have moved on in a year or  
so')
 
Isn't our concern for RW's program a sign of the ultimate respect ?
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85