[NU Sports] 4th Quarter

[Eric West]

At 08:23 AM 10/2/2007, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) wrote:

>Look, we have this conversation every few months and
>it seems even more pointless to have it in the middle
>of the season ...

I'm with Stephen. The past few weeks have been discouraging, but let's get 
a little perspective, please?

Northwestern football, 1990-1994: 13-41-1, 8-32 Big Ten
Northwestern football, 2002-2006: 26-35, 17-23 Big Ten

Not to mention...
Michigan State football, 2002-2006: 26-34, 14-26 Big Ten
Indiana football, 2002-2006: 17-41, 7-33 Big Ten
Illinois football, 2002-2006: 13-45, 6-34 Big Ten

While we're obviously not world-beaters, the notion that we're somehow back 
in the pre-Rose Bowl days -- or that we are hopelessly outclassed by Big 
Ten rivals with their allegedly enormous recruiting bases -- is 
demonstrably ludicrous. Oh, and if every school that got blown out by Ohio 
State recently had to leave the Big Ten, it would be something like the Big 
Four.

Look, we've got an unexpectedly inexperienced head coach and an injured 
would-be MVP. Let's all take a deep breath, shall we? I'd at least prefer 
to see what happens with the rest of this season (if not the next few 
seasons) before even entertaining some of the...interesting notions that 
have popped up lately. Automatic insta-panic does no one any good.


---
Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu