[NU Sports] Experience, 2011 prognosis

[Eric Kunkel]

Mark and List Friends,


   I saw that too.  Offensively, this group reminds me of the 2000 team, providing Persa is healthy.  I read a few articles at the Boston Herald's web site for BC.  It seems Randy Walker is running Summer Camp in Boston as 1/2 the team will be missing for the 1st game.  We get the nod of having our players physically ready for Saturday; let's hope nothing goofy happens in practice this week. I bet Walk's camps were brutal...
   Back to the experience factor. A parallel could be made with the 2009 Io_a team that we upset. Weren't they a BCS team?  Lot's of experience, great QB...let's hope the defense responds.  It's a new year! 
   I'm trying to convince myself that Persa will be physically able to go, and our defense won't stink it up. I want so bad to believe this will be a BCS-caliber team.  With all the "ifs",  I don't see it.  But I think we'll be better than going to Detroit, although if we went there I'd be happy to win the damn Bowl game, don't care if its Temple , Ohio, etc.   I also believe we could be tough to handle if we beat BC,Army and Illinois. Common sense tells me that if we go 2-1 on the road vs. this group, its good.  If we're 3-0 vs. BC, Army and Illinois, its great. 5 of the next 6 are rock-hard (as if Illinois and Indiana aren't:), but I like closing with Rice, Minnesota and Michigan St. at home. If we stay healthy and play defense, we could go 10-2.   
   But I see too many variables; defensive issues and health being my 2 top concerns.  I see (1) brain-numbing loss to Army, Minnesota or Indiana; we'll beat Io_a or State Penn but not both.  And we'll upset punk Bielema or Sparty as well. (I'd love it to be Wisconsin; man I hate Bielema)  We'll go 8-4, which is one or two more wins than what most prognosticators are figuring.


  I'm calling for a Wildcat win on Saturday in typical, nail-biting, heart-stopping fashion. Nothing like getting us all in mid-season form!


  So happy its Wildcat Time....GO CATS!!               Eric




-----Original Message-----
From: Sportsbiz <sportsbiz at gmail.com>
To: nwu-sports <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Sun, Aug 28, 2011 5:45 pm
Subject: [NU Sports] Experience


I was reviewing a wagering publication packed with information from Phil
Steele's bible of pre-season football and came across a chart of the
experience levels of all 120 Division I-A schools (yea, I know there's a new
PC term for it but I refuse to use it). NU is number 2 on the chart behind
only SMU.  We were given 86.3 "experience points" on a 100 point scale, but
there was no explanation on how the points were calculated. SMU got 90.5.

The other numbers listed, and we have discussed some of these:  16 senior
starters returning; 80% of lettermen returning; 89% of yards (gained, I
assume)returning; 72% of tackles returning; 137 Oline career starts
returning.

By comparison and since y'all know I follow Louisville - it ranked 119,one
below Iowa,  with an experience point score of 36.7, 8 senior starters,
60.7% of lettermen, 29% of yards; 63% of tackles and 15 tackles.  Auburn
ranked 120.  Boston College was 59.

Our conference brethren ranked as follows:Pur. 14; Mich. 19; Penn St. 46;
MSU 60; OSU 66; Ill. 75; Minn 79; UNL 81; Ind. 103; Iowa 118.

Not sure how meaningful this is in the overall scheme of things but I would
rather be where we are then where everybody else in the conference is
experience wise.
Mark

-- 
*Mark S. Ament*
sportsbiz at gmail.com
SportsBiz - The Business of Sports
Illuminated<http://thesportsbizblog.blogspot.com>
When it comes to sports, you know it's all about the money
Follow me on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/msament>


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