[NU Sports] Re: signing day

Fri Feb 6 14:26:35 CST 2009

I was just thinking and getting ready to post almost the exact same thing,
Chuck.  The stars really have to align for any team to win a national
championship--it's just that a few teams have a little more margin for error
than most others.  For example, how long had it been before 2002 that tOSU
won its most recent previous national championship?  How about Texas before
Vince Young came along?

As it was, we went into the Rose Bowl ranked #3; had we not lost to Miami I
bet we would have been #2 at the end of the regular season (assuming
Nebraska still would have been #1).  If Fitz and Valenzisi hadn't been
sidelined, we would have had a legitimate shot at beating anyone in a
national championship game.  Our recruiting classes these days seem to be
more highly-regarded than in the early '90s, so I don't see any reason the
'Cats can't be successful with the guys we're getting.  Heck, we went 9-3
this year!  Fortunately for us, I think, coaching plays such a huge role
beyond recruiting at the college level.  Just look at what Houston Nutt or
Mike Leach are able to do with middle-of-the-road recruiting classes,
compared with, say, what Charlie Weis has been able to do with top-tier
recruiting classes.

Consider that there are over 100 I-A/FBS teams, and all of them want and try
to go undefeated every year.  If everything were equal, each team would get
one national championship every century or so.  Of course, everything isn't
equal, so you get the old-guard powers you're your Alabamas, tOSUs,
Michigans, USCs, Notre Dames, Penn States, Texases, etc., plus relatively
new powers like the LSUs and Floridas of the world, and everyone else trying
to sneak up when the traditional powers slip (or are pushed).  I'd be
interested to see a statistic about the mean number of years between
national championships for every team in I-A and then determine a realistic
expectation about contending for a national championship.

Having had the perspective of becoming a Wildcat fan without any expectation
of ever winning regularly (that expectation having changed my senior year)
and understanding the Big Ten landscape as well as certain advantages and
disadvantages held by NU, here are my baseline expectations at which I'll be
contented, beyond which I'll be quite happy, and below which I'll be
dissatisfied:

1.  Go to a bowl game every year, or at minimum three out of four years.
2.  Seriously challenge for a Big Ten title (in the running in mid-November)
every three to four years.
3.  Win a Big Ten championship (and, by extension, compete for a national
title) at least once every decade.

That said, I'd rather have student-athletes of whom we can be proud but have
a losing record on the field than student athletes who win on the field but
are losers in life.

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of cherron604 at aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 1:47 PM
To: jonathanwhodges at gmail.com; e-west at northwestern.edu
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Re: signing day

Let us remember it was only 13 years ago that we missed a perfect regular
season by one game?due to a few problems on special teams.? That team may
not have had any 4- or 5-star recruits.? As long as we have a schedule that
allows 4 non-conference games (3 at home), and allows us to miss 2
conference teams a season, the possiblity, while faint, does remain

Chuck Herron?? Tech '85

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Hodges <jonathanwhodges at gmail.com>
To: Eric West <e-west at northwestern.edu>
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:16 am
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Re: signing day

Northwestern football has it's priorities straight when it comes to goals.
Clearly listed in the football meeting/film room are the following
priorities: graduate, be national champions, be Big Ten champions, be bowl
champions.  Fitz has done nothing but say the right things in terms of
priorities and has the program aiming high - i.e. this season wanting not
only to make a bowl game but win (NU got closer to achieving that than it
has in 60 years), and his "one game at a time" attitude was really taken up
by this whole team and one could see the results in the record.

We may have our own thoughts on this list, but the fact is that the program
has its head in the right place and is always aiming high.  Even if they
know a national title is a pipe dream, they would never admit it publicly
and are always striving to succeed.

Jonathan

On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Eric West <e-west at northwestern.edu> wrote:

> Dennis W. Brandt wrote:
>
>> So let's get this straight:  All you doctors, lawyers, business people,
>> etc. who have done so well from your days at Northwestern are content to
be
>> middling?  I assume you are not content with the average or even the
merely
>> good.  Why expect it from your football team?
>>
>
>
> So let's get this straight: you think that Afghanistan should change its
> name to "Zafghanistan" so that some other country can get a turn at being
> alphabetically first? It's as accurate a summary of your statements as
yours
> is of ours.
>
> If you want to try again, you can start by explaining how seriously
> contending for the Big Ten championship every year equals "middling," then
> move on to what recruiting rankings have to do with anything substantial.
>
>
> Eric West
> e-west at northwestern.edu
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
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>

-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
1237 Emerson St Apt 2
Evanston, IL  60201-3577
(847) 736-2449
jonathanwhodges at gmail.com
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