[NU Sports] 4th Quarter

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Northwestern does NOT compete "on the highest. . .
> athletic level" in 
> football and basketball.  If we have risen above

Recently, we have in football - three Big Ten titles
since 1995, 4th or 5th in league wins since 2000, etc.
Basketball is an unfortuante exception. But on the
gridiron, we're faring much better than similarly
sized  schools or other academically focused
institutions.

And when you look at our entire athletic department -
we are definitely competing on the highest level. The
lengthy parade of All Americans and national finalists
on the football field Saturday during timeouts shows
that.

Look, we have this conversation every few months and
it seems even more pointless to have it in the middle
of the season ... at least during the off season I can
understand it. We're not building a stadium anytime
soon, nor is NU going to lower its admission
standards. Maybe we could raise some money to hire
some big-time assistants next year, but the rest is
spinning our wheels on pie in the sky.

We gave a game away against Michigan ... and I don't
see how you can call it anything but that with four
turnovers on our final four possessions. Nerves,
maybe, but we gave it to them. We also dropped the
ball big time against Duke. 

But as has been said, realistically we're one game
behind where most of us expected to be at this time.
Win at MSU this weekend and it's back to .500 and a
final six games where all are winnable.

Focusing on this year's team - we had a lot of
positives that I hope we take from the Michigan game.
The refocusing on the running game, effective mixing
in of pass routes (especially more crosses to Lane and
Peterman) and defensive intensity. We'll have to shut
down MSU's ground game to have a chance and hold off
their pass rush. But I liked how we called some
well-timed screens against Michigan's rush - we just
needed better execution.

GO CATS!!! BEAT SPARTY!!!
-SjT

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


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