[NU Sports] Interesting article in the daily

[Roy Lamberton]

Correction: #2 should be "If Fitz...."

One further idea for your consideration:

Duke's Head Coach is also their defensive coordinator, freeing up an additional
coaching slot. Roof got a top flight offensive guy to run that side and
essentially game plans the D - as a big time former LB and Coordinator, he knows
exactly what to do. He's the guy who recruited those big, fast D-linemen from
all over the US for the Dookies.

While many of the Duke players recruited were not considered "good enough" to
play in the Big 10, they did get their share of 3 star folks over the past 3
years and its starting to bear fruit, much the same way GB chipped away at the
recruiting wars to build the 1995 team at NU.

In Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern has that elusive commodity - an Alum who can
coach and wants to coach for his old school. I honestly believe that the entire
assistant coaching issue will resolve itself at the end of the season with a few
changes that will amaze, astound, and anger many of the more vocal alumni.

Because Fitz was the heir apparent to a coach who would have filled out his last
contract, he's going to be very hard to just fire for a bad season. When Murphy
and Beinen picked Fitz to replace Walker, they did something that FDR did when
he chose Eisenhower and Nimitz to lead the major commands in WWII. Both were
fairly junior Flag rank officers, much like position coaches on a football team.


Fitz proved he was a fast learner, and was the defensive field general during
games [Colby was usually upstairs] and they made a decent team. I know some
folks wish Colby had left when Fitz was promoted, but I think the ties between
Fitz and Colby are stronger than anyone knows - remember that Fitz sits in on
defensive meetings, something Head guys don't do regularly [at least that's what
the article suggests].

These Cats still have an upset or two inside - Cardiac Catism is not dead in
Evanston, and we've got a QB who seems to love playing that game.

I was on one of the radio stations in Ann Arbor Thursday - I predicted NU over
Michigan in a "victory right" type finish.


Go Cats

rsl



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
"You have a Republic Madam --
     If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin
============================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> Behalf Of Roy Lamberton
> Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 11:17 PM
> To: 'Neil Kaplan'; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Interesting article in the daily
> 
> Raises a couple of questions:
> 
> 1. Did Dunbar leave because he thought Walker was moving away from the
> Spread to
> something else?
> 2. I Fitz is more hands-on the defense, who is watching over the offense,
> since
> he's also the special teams coach.
> 3. When does Fitz sleep?
> 
> rsl
> 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
> Computer Applications & Support Associates
> and Publisher of Purple Reign,
> The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
> (http://www.purplewildcats.com)
> AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
> ======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
> "You have a Republic Madam --
>      If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin
> ============================================
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> > Behalf Of Neil Kaplan
> > Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 9:12 PM
> > To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> > Subject: [NU Sports] Interesting article in the daily
> >
> > http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=uwire-
> > catsseeingchangesinfootbal&prov=uwire&type=lgns
> >
> >
> > "While Walker was the offensive maestro who powered NU's spread attack,
> > Fitzgerald's ideas rest on the defensive side of the ball. Colby
> > described Coach Walker's defensive checkups as walking in, seeing how
> > the coordinators were doing, and leaving if all systems were good. A
> > change of pace has occurred in Fitzgerald's first 16 games as head man
> > -- the presence of a head coach in defensive film sessions, with a
> > supply of ideas and a wealth of expectations."
> >
> >
> > Found this really interesting given our incredibly innovative offense and
> > our usually pathetic defense and spec teams in the Walker era.  In
> > retrospect, the level of offensive innovation was a once in a generation
> > thing.  The level of surprise that we had in 2000 with our version of the
> > spread in the B10 was almost unprecedented.  Remember how completely
> > unprepared people were to play us?  Now everyone else has caught up.
> > Because of our talent pool, we need to consistently be innovators - that
> is
> > our key to success.
> >
> > _________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
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> > nwu-sports at tssi.com
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> 
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