[NU Sports] Talent

[hakirsch at aol.com]

Over and over again we discuss how to attract better talent; why cant we attract better talent ?, etc etc --Few repsonses really hit the key and that is so long as we want to have academic standards for football players higher than most otehr schools, we have a smaller pool to draw on and almost assuredly poorer talent than our rivals.  Yes we can do things to minimize the gap, and yes being near  a large metropolitan should provide some advantages other schoos dont have, but we will still have poorer tallent.  In college sometimes teams can overcome poorer talent,and you can have some very good seasons-



But look at all of the academic schools (that dont have significantly lower standards for their football players) that are in Division 1 (or whatever it is called) and none have good teams consistently year in and year out--(remember I am just talking about football)



Even ND hasnt been able to do it and they have a huge built in advanatage of tradition--



Harry

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net>
To: Northwestern Wildcats <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 11:52 am
Subject: [NU Sports] Talent



<I was of the understanding that our style of spread offense could be adjusted to compensate for lesser talent. 
 
Just how does one compensate for lesser talent? If the other guy is faster, he'll run you down. If he's stronger, he'll over power you. If he's more agile, he'll make moves you can't stop or respond in time to yours. A given offense may minimize talent differences, but it cannot overcome them. NU's football talent has improved, but it is still, on the whole, of average caliber. To attract talent, we must build a quality, on-campus stadium and supporting facilities that will wow a kid on a campus visit, which is what Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan do every year. (It will be interesting to see how Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota progress over the next few seasons now that they are playing in new or updated faclilities. We may not like the results, but they will be interesting.) New facilities will not be enough on their own, but recruiting top talent will remain a nearly insurmountable obstacle as long as we play in ancient, however-renovated, off-campus Dyche before crowds of 25,000, half of whom are rooting for the other team. This will be a slow and often painful building process, and we cannot afford back-sliding seasons as this year's is in danger of becoming. But any goal of short of putting us into annual contention for the Big Ten title is a waste of time and money. I am eager to hear the long-range goals of the incoming administration. 
 
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