[NU Sports] I see an 8th Bowl spot slipping away...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> I am with Paul and often cringe when I read postings
> with over-the-top
> negativity, bashing of student-athletes, vitriolic
> calls for coaches'

I don't remember anyone bashing the student athletes
this year. It's all pretty much been directed where it
should be - the coaches.

Yes, the Duke loss hurts, but it goes with NU's recent
history (Miami '95, Wake '96, Iowa '00, Hawaii the
year it cost us a bowl, etc.). We should be kicking
ourselves about it - along with blowing leads against
Iowa, Purdue and Michigan.

But this goes beyond the loss. We all love Fitz as our
coach for the future and I'm certain he's going to be
a great fixture on our sidelines for hopefully
decades. But he is new and relies on his coordinators
a lot, meaning they will be under the microscope.

I can see NU sticking with McGee because he is
learning, but he has to have a pretty quick curve next
year if he wants to stay beyond that. He'll have a lot
of weapons to mix around next year and we should have
a potent offense.

As for Colby, it's clearly time to move on. Yes, he
threw in more blitzes lately, but it's too little, too
late. We'll never have the talent the other schools
have, so we need to be smarter with innovative schemes
and coaches who make the right adjustments. Colby has
not done that and we need to give someone else a try.

But I think there should still be a positive vibe this
year. We need to learn a few things for next year,
especially closing out games and playing with leads
... but we were right in every game but one and given
the setback of last year's recovery from Walker's
death, we're right back in the bowl mix.

So yeah, we need to make some changes, but overall
it's a good year and hopefully it can be capped off
with a victory over the hated Illini and a bowl game.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


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