[NU Sports] No one talking basketball

Tue Jan 5 11:26:53 CST 2010

In my humble opinion,

We need a guy kicking off who can put the ball in or through the end zone often.  Auburn had that, we didn't.

We need a punter who can consistently kick them high and long, and drop them near the coffin corner to limit the return guys options

We need a backup kicker who has at least kicked field goals or extra points, so that if something happens to our starter, we have a believable option coming off the bench.  Against Auburn, nobody believed that our backup was even a legitimate kicker.

I do wish we would win another bowl game someday, but that is mostly selfishness.  As a group, what do we think of the 'Bowl game win drought', other than the fact that it is an easily quoted number on ESPN, and allows anchors and analysts short on insight and/or analysis to quote something that makes them sound clever ? 

a) I don't think any potential recruits care - the fact that we have been to 7 bowls in the last 14 years (5 of them very competitive, exciting games) is or should be far more important to them than the fact
 that we have ended up on the short end of them lately.

b) We care as fans because we have watched or attended the 7 bowls, and we naturally prefer winning to losing, but the value of bowls (it seems to me) consists of added practices, greater program visibility (recruiting and attendance), a treat for the players, and a chance to go someplace warm for the fans, and we are (it seems to me) reaping these benefits.  Have we lost any recruits due to losing Bowl games ?

c) This whole thing we have been doing is a journey.  First we had to learn to look respectable in games, then we had to start winning games.  Then we had to start winning conference games.  Finally we had to start putting together winning seasons, then winning conference titles (our three titles since 95 are still the moments that give me gooseflesh).  From that we have moved to playing in bowls.  Soon we will learn to win most of them (like Penn State does), then it will be time to learn how to compete for National Championships.  It's a difficult journey, and not everybody can complete that journey, but we need a special kind of coach, special assistants, and very special kids.  It would appear that we are progressing well in this journey, but we are not 100% there yet.

Anyone who understands facts would see clearly that the '61 year bowl game win drought' is fairly meaningless, since for 26 of those years (49 to 75), only 1 team, the conference champion, got to play in a bowl.  And for 8 of those years (73-80, very conservatively), we weren't even attempting to win football games, much less bowl games.  So a more meaningful stat is that we have gone to bowls in 4 of the last seven seasons, losing those games, on average, by 6.5 points.

I am already looking forward to fall 2010, and seeing what we can manage next season.

Chuck Herron   Tech '85 

-----Original Message-----
From: bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Sun, Jan 3, 2010 1:30 am
Subject: [NU Sports] No one talking basketball

... Thank goodness. 
I was at a 2003 (I think) game against Wisconsin when the fumblerooski Fg worked 
or a key score and the Bucky fan I was with was yelling "Fake!" from the outset 
not that that helped any) so perhaps it is easy to spot. 
I still agree with going for the win, though. 
To my mind the biggest thing about next year is eliminating the need this year's 
eam had to get (at the least) 10-14 points behind before starting to play (PSU 
nd Wisky the exceptions). We were exceedingly fortunate to beat Purdue, 
ndiana, and Iowa after double-digit deficits and we lost to Syracuse and Auburn 
ecause we fell behind early. That has to stop. 
My second worry is special teams and no one who watched the Outback Bowl could 
isagree.  
Third is who replaces McManis, to my mind the biggest defensive playmaker at NU 
ince Fitz. 
Brad Wilson
ent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
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