[NU Sports] Alamo not interested in Wisconsin

[Jonathan Hodges]

Indeed, Clemson had actually been running the spread for a year or so with
Rich Rodriguez as the OC and was pretty successful doing so.  Rodriguez
noted this season that NU basically took the offense verbatim in 2000,
including the same play signals.  In 2001 the offense put up huge numbers as
well, although it was vastly overshadowed by a poor defense that got
dinged-up as the year went by.

The Nebraska game showed up NU's offense and the fact that the Wildcats' D
could do nothing to stop a strong option running attack.  This was
reaffirmed a couple of years later as NU was killed 52-3 at Air Force
(2002).  Fortunately, 2008 has shown us that the NU D is much improved and
that a strong defense can win as many, if not more games, than a strong
offense by itself.

Although we likely won't see a rematch (the Gator Bowl seems intent on
grabbing Nebraska assuming Missouri loses to Oklahoma Saturday) it would be
interesting - Nebraska now sports a spread-like offense instituted by
Callahan during his failed tenure there as a replacement for the option
offense.

I agree that getting Sutton back will be a boon to NU and should help the
'Cats' cause in whichever bowl game they end up in.

Finally, in response to another question: it is very unlikely NU will end up
in the Insight as the Champs Sports Bowl is restricted to taking the highest
available team or a team within one win of them - so if NU and Minnesota or
Wisconsin are left, NU must be picked before them (NU has 9 wins, those 2
have 7 each).

Jonathan

On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 12:40 PM, Jonathan Michael Hawkins <
spiritu at northwestern.edu> wrote:

> Tom, you're right.  NU's spread offense entered at the beginning of the
> 2000
> season, leading to the incredible victories over Wisconsin (47-44) and
> Michigan (54-51).  As I recall, Walker and his OC (Wilson) studied with the
> Rams after the 1999 season to figure out how the spread would work in the
> college game.  They were not the only team from the NCAA to do so - I
> believe Clemson was another.
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > > Only good thing that came out of that was NU changing to
> > > the spread.
> >
> > I'm confused. NU had already switched to the spread before playing
> > Nebraska. That's the offense that got us there. Or am I confusing years?
> >
> > Although it doesn't sound like it will happen, Nebraska would be a very
> > tough, but interesting, matchup for Northwestern.
> >
> > Nebraska's offense is probably as good as any we've played against. Ohio
> > State probably has quite a bit more big-play talent, but are not as
> > consistent. However, no team has really dominated our defense, so that
> would
> > be fun to watch.
> >
> > And Nebraska has issues on D, although I'd hate to give Pelini 2-3 weeks
> to
> > work on stopping us.
> >
> > Whoever we play, I sure hope Sutton is back. No disrespect to Simmons,
> but
> > Sutton is a special player that can make things happen whether he's
> running,
> > catching, or just blocking.
> >
> > Tom
> >
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> >
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
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