[NU Sports] Sheesh people ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

... so much for any holiday cheer on the list.:)
Yeesh! Can we please get a little perspective and stop
being such sourpusses? An offseason of this and we may
just walk in front of a bus to feel better.

If all you're going to keep saying is "high
expectations" then please do something about it at
least. Just saying it doesn't make it happen. Like
NU's academic reputation, athletic success will take a
lot of time and effort to build up. We can bemoan the
past all we want and what wasn't done, but it won't
change anything. Build for the future and be realistic
about what can be accomplished and when. We will never
be Ohio State, and frankly, thank goodness for that.
We are an academic institution first and I'm proud
that NU can excel in that and still manage to be a
competitive Big Ten institution. If you want Florida
or OSU like numbers, you're in the wrong place. We are
NU - and proud of it.

And yes, we ARE competing. And better. This isn't a
professional league and ALL sports do matter. When you
look at the NU athletic department, our basketball
programs are the exception, not the rule. Doesn't mean
we can't work on that - but it does mean that any talk
of dropping out of the league or not being competitive
in the league is just foolish. We've won three
football titles since 1995 and had more .500 or better
seasons in the past decade than the previous four
combined.

Was the past season on the gridiron disappointing?
Yes. Was it reason to start jumping off the high rise
condos in Evanston? No. We were one game from a bowl
bid (likely) and we saw how close that one game was.
We're in the second year of a young coach's hopefully
long career and we're at six wins with a lot of talent
coming back next year. I, for one, am optimistic about
the future of NU football and most NU sports.

Northwestern is Northwestern. That's not a bad thing.
Or an excuse. It's just reality. We will always be an
academic institution first and I'm thankful for and
proud of that. Why try and be like OSU?

So let's please move on to something else - like how
we might be losing a terrific AD or the wrestling
season or spring football or bowl topics or ANYTHING
to get off this tired thread where it seems all
perspective has been lost. It'll be 15 years next fall
since I entered NU and aside for hoops, we're miles
ahead of where we were then. Done yet? No.
Competitive? No doubt.

It's as if our ridiculous NCLB-driven federal
educational approach has taken over the list and all
we do is scream "high expectations or else" at a
problem instead of actually looking realistically at a
situation, addressing problems and finding out what
needs to be done for improvement.

UGH ... let's get a reality check, drink up some
holiday cheer and move on to a better 2008!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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


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