[NU Sports] Our non-conference schedule

[WildElk2 at aol.com]

Scheduling always gets a wide variety of opinions, so here's  mine:)  
1) schedule 3 year series with beneficial MAC schools, like NIU,  Toledo and 
Miami.  I think it's fair that we visit their place once in  a while.
2) under no circumstances do we schedule home-and-homes vs.  mid-majors.  
Either they come to Evanston "one and done" , or two out of  three years they 
come to our place. If this can't be worked out, we schedule  bottom feeders and 
1-AA teams.  And, as one poster pointed out, this  doesn't guarantee a win.
3) I like Rutgers and Navy in the Northeast, UCF and Tulane in the south,  
and Cal and Stanford out west. BTW, Navy isn't the re-tread they were in  
2002...And how about Texas A&M for something different?
4)  No more Duke. That series has become tiresome, and we could  do a lot 
better.
5) I like Vanderbilt as Duke's replacement. One way or another I'd like to  
visit Nashville!
 
Let's talk this week.  Any word when Kim Thompson will be back?   Not much 
comment the last time I brought this up, but it seemed that he was  getting rave 
reviews, then one week prior to the opener, he gets hurt.  I  believe our 
deep threat was taken away.  While Herbert is a fine receiver,  we needed 
Thompson's speed and height to stretch the field. To see him  return would be a lift.
 
our defense.  I'm not sure what to think.  Throw out the first  half vs. UNH, 
and we've given up 16 points in 5 halves of football, and 7 of  them UNH had 
to go a whole 25 yards.  But we our opposition (save UNH) is a  combined 0-6. 
(How could Miami lose to Kent?!?)
  We're getting better pressure un the QB, and the game that was on  TV, our 
defense appeared to be the fastest I've seen in years. Who knows, maybe  if 
Heinz plays against UNH, he would have slowed down their excellent WR  Ball?
   My heart says our offense will show up in game 4, however, I  saw Nevada 
play an excellent game against Fresno (while losing) , wax Colorado  State at 
home, with a bad game against Arizona State mixed in (sound  familiar?).
  I do not like predicting NU losses, but our maddening idea about  
scheduling home-and-homes with mid-majors will bite us in the ass again.   Nevada 34 NU 
24. I say we'll  get our offense going, but I don't see a W  coming out of 
Nevada Friday night.  Hope I'm wrong; I predicted an NU 56-10  win vs. UNH!  (I 
thought we'd beat EMU 31-17)
 
  Trust the Plan!         Eric