[NU Sports] Football Fatigue ?

[Eric West]

For football, I think there is just less to talk about at the moment. 
We're not vying for the conference championship, and we know we're going 
to a bowl. We probably won't know where for a while, and it's possible 
that the outcome of this next game won't even affect where we eventually go.

To beat Wisconsin, we will likely have to play better than in previous 
games and/or rely on Badger injuries. I'm looking forward to watching, 
but there's not much more to say about it right now.

As for basketball, it goes without saying that the injuries are a major 
letdown, but I don't think one can form a valid opinion about the entire 
season based on the first two games. What any team does now will not be 
what they do in February. (Dennis and Maureen better turn in their 
completed NCAA brackets by the end of the week if they truly believe 
otherwise.)  Even if we won every game between now and Christmas, I 
don't know what that would mean for the Big Ten season.

I will say that regardless of anyone's post-injury expectations, the 
team itself had better not view this season as a "wash" while waiting 
for Coble to come back. They would need to work on improving themselves 
even with him in the lineup, and that's even more true without him. 
We'll see.

Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu


cherron604 at aol.com wrote:
> I have noticed less mailing list activity this week, leading up to the Badger game.  Additionally, I have noticed no discussion this morning of the (seemingly annual) loss to Butler.
>
> Iowa leadup            Nov 1-7             114 messages
> Illinois leadup          Nov 8-14           190 messages
> Wisconsin leadup    Nov 15-present    39 messages
>
> Could it be a symptom of Wildcat Football Fatigue ?  We woke up October 18 at 4-3, with 5 games to go, and a need to go 3-2 (with 3 tough foes and a trap/trophy game at Illinois), and strong desires to go to a warm weather bowl and avoid Detroit.  And with the win at Illinois, we essentially accomplished what we needed to do.  Is it possible that the pressure of the last 4 weeks has worn everybody out ?
>
> On the basketball side, it seems to me that the weird vibe of the Carmody era wore most of us out a long time ago.
>
> Will we have anything to talk about between the Bowl game and Lacrosse season ?
>
> Chuck Herron   Tech '85
>