[NU Sports] Penn State and Bowl hopes

[Mike Nolan]

> I will be going to the game on Saturday and am not optimistic about this one nor any of the other 2 contender teams on the docket. Any thing can happen in college so no one can go the bank with it, but given that we have only beaten lousy teams and some of those by a  few hairs, I think we are looking at 6 wins.  I would not turn down any bowl bids at 6-6, but I dont think we would be deserving of any unless we pull one upset.

Personally, I expected this to be a down year compared to 2008, and that
was before taking any injuries into account.  6-6 is not what I was hoping
for, but 8-4 was probably the high end of my expectations, and that's
still within the realm of the possible, though unlikely.  (But teams can 
have really BAD days, who in their right mind expected Nebraska to tie 
a school record with EIGHT turnovers at home against ISU?  I'm actually
looking forward to the Iowa game, they've been living on the edge much
of the season, maybe they'll have that really bad game against us.)  

Most good teams are only an injury or two away from mediocrity, look at 
Oklahoma without Bradford, for example.  And aside from the perennial 
top teams (a group that evolves over time, it wasn't that many years ago 
that USC and Alabama were just good teams and FSU and Nebraska were 
top teams), many ordinary teams are only one or two star players away 
from being top 25 caliber teams.  (That's somewhat simplistic, I realize, 
because often what makes for a star player is a strong supporting cast, 
especially on the offensive line.  And can you have a great quarterback 
with no quality receivers?)

Am I worried about the future at NU?  Absolutely not!  Are there things
to fix in the short term, and things to get more consistenly better at over
the long term.  Yes!!  But the defense, which was suspect under RW, seems 
to be (mostly) on the upswing under Fitz.  

And as Notre Dame learned the hard way, you NEVER turn down a bowl invitation,
even if you don't think you really deserve one.  (With around 58 teams
getting bowl bids, they can't all be top 25 programs, after all.)

The extra practices alone are worth going, and the extra national 
exposure doesn't hurt, either, even if you lose the game.
--
Mike Nolan