[NU Sports] Jim Phillips Greatest Hits

[Jonathan Hodges]

I agree that the Outback Bowl was quite an accomplishment on Phillips' part
given the high profile of the bowl.  I also think that this year's trip to
Houston was an accomplishment as most (including myself) figured NU would
be relegated to Detroit in this scenario.  And those are just on the bowl
front; he has led some other big changes like driving attendance up by a
large amount (the 50+% jump from 09-10), made the Wrigley game happen, and,
under the radar a bit but important to NUMBALUMs like myself, brought NUMB
under Athletics Department funding, which was desperately needed.

Murphy clearly also did a solid job that included the key decision of
installing Fitz as head coach despite his lack of experience.

Jonathan

PS: I think that the 2008 9-win NU team (that played Mizzou in the Alamo
Bowl) is the team you are thinking of as the best since 1996; they
certainly had the best defense since the mid-90's, went undefeated in
regular season non-conference play, and were ranked at various points in
the season.  The 2009 team lost to Syracuse and Minnesota early in the year
and though they had a fabulous finish, the defense regressed a bit relative
to '08 and they only won 8 games on the year.

--
Jonathan Hodges
Contributor, HailToPurple
Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
Twitter: @hailtopurple
Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu



On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 12:47 PM, Tom Maycock <tkmaycock at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The Outback bowl, because it mattered the most.
>
> That was probably the best NU team since '96, and getting them that game
> and that matchup was a really big deal, both as a reward for those players,
> and as a building block for the future. The icing on the cake was the fact
> that the game turned into an instant classic of almost surreal proportions.
> I suspect we'll still benefit from that exposure for years to come. If only
> we had won!
>
> It's funny, I do almost wish we had landed in Detroit this year, where
> we'd have an excellent chance at winning, just to get that monkey off our
> backs. But I'm guessing the players and coaches are all thrilled at getting
> a chance to play in a bigger bowl, against a better opponent with a much
> better pedigree. Our chances of winning took a major hit, but the potential
> payoff is much greater. (A&M is 13th/11th in the Sagarin ratings--ouch).
>
> And from the snippets of comments from bowl reps, it sure sounds like a
> lot of the credit goes to Phillips--not just for the how he handled the
> specific talks, but the entire way he goes about doing things.
>
> I do think Murphy did an amazing job at NU. Phillips seems like the
> perfect guy to build on what Murphy accomplished.
>
> Tom
>
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