[NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes

[cherron604 at aol.com]

I agree with Dennis that we have to do better.  I am afraid, however that the era of the tough non-conf game is gone.  As examples, here are the three teams Dennis mentioned:

Penn State - Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Illinois
Michigan - Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Delaware State
Ohio State - Navy, Southern Cal, Toledo, New Mexico State

And the rest of our mates:

Iowa - Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Arizona, Arkansas St
Wisconsin - Northern Illinois, Fresno St, Wofford, Hawaii
Michigan State - Montana St, Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Western Michigan

Minnesota - Syracuse, Air Force, Cal, South Dakota St
Purdue - Toledo, Oregon, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame
Indiana - Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan, Akron, Virginia
Illinois - Missouri, Illinois St, Cincinnati, Fresno St

And I believe that we have to play a non-conference schedule that is equivalent to those of our conference mates, and it would seem that we do.

Everybody is playing the 
a) 'win 4 n-c, go 6-2 in conference and make a big bowl' game or
b) 'win 4 n-c, go 2-6 in conference and just make a bowl' game, so we have to as well.


Chuck Herron   Tech '85


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis W. Brandt <tbng at comcast.net>
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Tue, Oct 27, 2009 12:01 pm
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes


<Fitz is succeeding in making us a 'Bowl caliber' team every year, that gets us recognition from fans, media and prospective recruits. 
 
We may become "bowl-eligible" principally because we schedule wimp pre-season opponents like Towson, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio, and Syracuse. Even then, only once in the last fifteen years have we beaten all four of our wimp non-conference opponents and often struggle even when we do win. Quite a contrast from my senior year ('67) when we played number-one ranked Miami (and won) and highly ranked Missouri, and the year following we took on O. J. Simpson's USC team. A weak pre-season schedule doesn't make NU unusual, but it doesn't make us a quality program either. What we clearly have accomplished is not being the doormat we were in the past, but that is not good enough anymore. I want a legitimate shot at beating Penn State, Michigan, and especially Ohio State every season, and I want to see some pre-season games against quality teams and have a good chance at winning those, too. Anything less is a loser's mentality. Recruiting better talent is the only way that can happen. It may take another five to ten seasons for Fitz to pull it off, but once the stream starts flowing, it will tend to keep flowing.  
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