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

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> It's not a matter of optimism vs pessimism, it is a
> matter of being realistic and also having high
> expectations .

How about we just have reasonable expectations?:)

You can't just say "high expectations" and expect that
to magically make everything better without the
support or building process.

Northwestern was building under Walker, had a setback
and now is back to that level of contention - which is
a lot given that Walker's death wasn't even two years
ago.

We can't settle for just 6 or 7 wins (which is why you
see a lot of criticism - rightly so - of Colby), but
you can't forget that not long ago, 6 or 7 wins would
have us in purple heaven.

Northwestern will never have the talent of the big
powers - we just have to be realistic about that.
Depth will always be a problem and when one of our
starters is injured, it hurts us more than the big
schools. 

That's why even our Big Ten championship teams had a
slip-up loss in their season. We have to play well as
a team using innovative coaching and "sum greater than
their parts" team play in every game. When we do, we
can beat anybody. When we don't, we can lose to
anybody.

The Duke loss obviously sticks out this year, but I do
like how despite setbacks with Sutton, we were in
every game but one. Did we lose some we should have
won? Yes. Did we win some we should have lost? Yup.
But we did get to six wins and have a shot at a bowl
heading into the final week.

I certainly wouldn't call this year a disappointment.
Unless we win Saturday, I wouldn't call it a success
either. It's been a good year, but we have a lot of
talent back next year and hopefully that Duke game and
the blown fourth quarter leads in conference play
stick with them and drive them to reach up to that
next level next year.

Using this season as a stepping stone to 8-9 wins next
year would be a reasonable expectation.

But first, let's make this season last longer by
beating the hated Illini and going bowling!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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


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