[NU Sports] We're not very good ...

Tue Oct 20 14:27:40 CDT 2009

Regarding the penalty assertion, you are right to some degree, here's how
Walker & Fitz stack up in penalties:

*Walker / Fitzgerald*

Seasons: 7 / 3 & change
Games: 83 / 44
Winning %: .446 / .523

Average penalty yards/game: 59.1 / 41.7
Average penalty yards/game national rank (lowest to highest): 66.5 / 23.8

Average penalties/game: 7.1 / 4.7
Average penalties/game national rank (lowest to highest): 64.8 / 17.3

Note that in Fitzgerald's first year, Northwestern was #1 nationally in both
fewest penalties/game (3.3) and fewest penalty yards/game (28.0).
Meanwhile, in Walker's Big Ten co-Championship 2000 season, NU was #108 in
yardage/game (83.1) and #109 in penalties/game (9.6).

I've looked at the NU season by season data and there is really no
correlation between penalties and winning percentage.  I'm not sure how this
looks at a national level, but I suspect that penalties are somewhat of a
red herring in terms of actually winning games.

The key, as others have mentioned, is the "killer instinct" type mentality
and the ability to come up big when needed (and to avoid big mistakes when
they would be bad).

Examples would be this year and last year - last year, NU came up with big
plays at a lot of key points and avoided killer mistakes.  This year, NU has
had costly turnovers (like on potential game-winning drives vs. Syracuse and
Minnesota) along with costly penalties that have put NU behind the chains
when the 'Cats have needed to score.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my findings.

Jonathan

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 1:36 PM, Beamsley, Jeff
<Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>wrote:

> RW's teams were some of the most penalized in the league.  As I recall, he
> viewed it as evidence of effort.
>
> Jeff
>
>
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> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com on behalf of cherron604 at aol.com
> Sent: Tue 10/20/2009 2:27 PM
> To: Alan.Abrahamson at nbcsports.com; bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com;
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] We're not very good ...
>
>
>
>
> After a lot of years watching our guys (since 79), from very bad to pretty
> good, I always hoped that the intangibles - avoiding stupid penalties,
> avoiding stupid mistakes, understanding complicated offenses/defenses,
> winning the 'close ones' - were more a property of well coached NU teams -
> while we might not always out-talent or out-speed an opponent, we could
> always outwork, outprepare, outlift, outwit, etc.  And we seemed to have
> those intangibles that could often turn a close game into a victory.
>
>
>
> My problem this year is that I see bad penalties, mistakes, cases where we
> should have known better, etc. and I wonder - on paper, the current
> recruiting classes definitely grade higher than the classes in the
> Barnett/early Walker era, but I am not altogether sure that those higher
> 'grades' are translating into guys who are less prone to silly penalties,
> mistakes, poor judgements and the like.  We also seem to be losing 'the
> close ones' lately.
>
>
>
> I have heard said that Football, like all sports is more a game of reflex
> and instinct than thoughtful consideration (because thoughtful consideration
> takes too long in most of us).  A pure athlete has to see a situation and
> act instinctively.
>
>
>
> Are our guys now more instinctual, but also more subject to actions that
> are not always as beneficial to the team ?  Why do our recruits grade out
> better, but play in a way that is different from some earlier teams that did
> not grade out as well ?  Or does this just prove that recruit grading is a
> (very) inexact science ?
>
>
>
> The kind of mind wandering that takes place on a Tuesday after a loss...
>
>
>
> Chuck Herron   Tech '85
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Abrahamson, Alan (NBC Universal) <Alan.Abrahamson at nbcsports.com>
> To: bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Sent: Tue, Oct 20, 2009 12:34 pm
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] We're not very good ...
>
>
>
>
> I agree with this, too -- and to echo what I wrote the other day,
> nfortunately.
> I had thought going into the season that we would be really, really
> ood. Defense wins, and I thought the defensive showing in 2008 signaled
> he same or better from the defense in 2009.
> Whether injury or whatever, that hasn't happened.
> Even so, and this is of course a dramatic change from Wildcat teams of
> rior generations, we are not getting blown out. Which I acknowledge is
>  backhanded compliment, and I don't mean it in that sense at all. What
>  mean is the corollary to what Brad said below -- that is, this team is
> n every game. But as Brad points out, it hasn't been able to win the
> lose ones.
> That's because the Wildcat margin for error is so thin that one mistake
> - and the three he lists below are spot on -- has proven the difference
> etween W and L.
> The solution, of course, is to clean up the mistakes.
> Easier said than done, right?
>
> ----Original Message-----
> rom: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
> n Behalf Of bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com
> ent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:15 AM
> o: nwu-sports at tssi.com
> ubject: [NU Sports] We're not very good ...
> But the case could be made we're three plays away from being 7-0:
> 1) Kafka's pick against Syracuse
> ) The Kafka-Stewart sure-TD bomb non-hookup against Minnesota
> ) Dunsmore fumble at MSU
> This team, unlike many NU teams of recent vintage, isn't able to win the
> lose ones. That is a shame, because the games are there to be won, but
> hat's the way it is.
> Brad Wilson
> ent on the Sprint(r) Now Network from my BlackBerry(r)
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