[NU Sports] Cat report card

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

I think any grades for NU this year have to take into account the Persa injury. 

Yes, I realize that injuries are a part of the game and that Persa was not on defense, but losing a guy as valuable as #7 and replacing him with a redshirt freshman truly did make this two different seasons, and the turnovers and such just fed into the defense.

Based on the first 10 games this year, I feel any F is pretty harsh (maybe the running game). You had a team who lost their top quarterback, receiver, defensive back, defensive lineman and a lot of other seniors who was 7-3, with leads in those three losses. The Purdue game was the only time I really felt let down by that team this year.

The last two games were simply a different team. Watkins showed us a lot to like on offense, but he is someone who was thrown to the wolves without the offseason or even a bye week to prepare. And the turnovers put the D in a hole and just kept everything spinning out of control. I expect we will be a much different team for the bowl game with some time to practice, regroup and gameplan.

That's football - our season turned on a dime when Persa went down. The first team was a fairly successful one, the second a nightmare. Overall, though, we did get our young players some snaps and got back to the postseason for some extra practices.

And for next year, I really like us as a Big Ten darkhorse with Persa back along with much of the team. Yes, Nebraska will be the clear favorite in our division, but they have a brutal draw in the cross-division schedule, while we have a favorable one. And no one else in our division should scare us - we're in Iowa's heads, have played Michigan well recently and owe MSU big-time.

But first, let's catch our breath and regroup for the bowl. We knew our schedule was backloaded before the Persa injury and the last two games just seem like a bad dream/blur. Hopefully with some extra time, we can get that elusive bowl win and build from there.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT


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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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