[NU Sports] may be a long time to break this streak

Sat Dec 31 22:13:53 CST 2011

Morty told me at brunch today that Stanfords academic standards for athletes had dropped and ours were higher 

Also wondering if a prospective recruit  from Lake Forest academy has a lower GPA requirement than a public school under the thought that it may be more competitive than the average public school and therefore 0.2 could be compensated for  (assuming the information is accurate). And note I said average as I would bet Stuyvessant might be more competitive 

Harry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Scott Zeller, M.D." <scottzel at gmail.com>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:31:32 
To: Beamsley, Jeff<Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>
Cc: NUSPORTS<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] may be a long time to break this streak

Thanks for your thoughtful and well-reasoned post. Just to answer you, the
two 4-star recruits were Faith Ekatakie (from Lake Forest Academy), the #15
ranked defensive end in the country, and Abner Logan, the #24 ranked
linebacker in the country. Both would have filled positions of great need
for our team. They ended up committing to Iowa and Maryland respectively.
Ekatakie openly reported on the internet how much he wished he could have
gone to NU but apparently his GPA was 0.2 points too low.

I agree we don't want to change NU admission standards like many schools
but apparently these two were both "just missed" types who were just
outside the minimums. Stanford appears to have shown some increased
flexibility in admissions, to great results, and somehow their academic
reputation is intact.

In regards to our bowl location, a funny post on the Rivals Board from
today:

"Phillips to bowl committee...

P: Please pick NU. We are a plucky team that will lose to the local
powerhouse. Home crowd enjoys the wins. And we will sell out our
allotment...."

On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Beamsley, Jeff
<Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>wrote:

>  Scott,
>
> OK
>
> I hate losing as much as anyone (ask my wife).
>
> Still, this is not the end of the world and it is certainly not Phillips
> "fault".  His job is to get us into the best bowl game that he can.  It's
> Fitz's job to win them.  If we continue this streak of qualifying for a
> bowl game every year, he will win one.
>
> We had a 6-6 team this year.
>
> We were 10 point dogs in this game and lost by 11.
>
> Mabin and Mafuli on the sidelines really hurt our D and our secondary
> couldn't hold up when we blitzed.  We played the run well, but didn't
> tackle well.
>
> Bolden got burned a couple of times and that made us more of a passing
> team which made it much easier for them to blitz.  We have seen that before
> this season.
>
> This was one of those games where we needed to play perfectly to win, and
> we didn't.
>
> It was also one of those games where we needed the refs to be perfect too,
> and they weren't.
>
> All of those things said, we STILL came back and made a game of it.  This
> game certainly helped our profile and our recruiting.  Who wouldn't want to
> play for Fitz?  Our kids showed heart and guts.  I hate that darn monkey,
> but what kid wouldn't buy into being one of the players who gets to tear it
> apart?
>
> As we have read in earlier posts, the admissions department is NOT the
> enemy.  Fitz recruits kids who have the academic talent to graduate as well
> as the athletic ability to play Div I football.  I don't know who these
> prospects are that you reference, but if they didn't have the grades or the
> exam scores, they are not going to be a good fit.
>
> Whenever you graduate a senior QB, it's always a rebuilding year, but
> Coulter will be fine next year.  There was the same concern when Persa
> replaced Kafka.  Persa hadn't looked all that great throwing the ball in
> his backup role to Kafka either, and then turns out to be one of the most
> accurate QB's in college FB.
>
> We also clearly have a running game - that's something that all of us have
> wished for in years past.
>
> Special teams have improved dramatically from years past.
>
> On D, we are playing the run better than we have in the past.  I think
> that our pass D will improve too, if only because we played a lot of
> underclassmen this year.
>
> Does that mean that we will be a 10-2 team next year?  I don't think so.
> But I think we WILL extend our bowl streak and get another shot at that
> monkey.  I've got a good feeling that it won't live to see the 2013 season.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com on behalf of Scott Zeller, M.D.
> *Sent:* Sat 12/31/2011 4:05 PM
> *To:* NUSPORTS
>
> *Subject:* [NU Sports] may be a long time to break this streak
>
>  Next year is a major rebuilding project as we lose a lot of seniors, then
> our schedule gets really tough for the foreseeable future. Not scheduling
> many cupcakes anymore. Add that to our admissions office preventing at
> least two four-star recruits from committing to the team recently. We might
> not be back to a bowl for a long time, much less win one.
>
> Watched in San Francisco in a bar owned by an NU alum, with more than 100
> purple in attendance. I'm sure our fans would have packed AT&T Park today
> on a beautiful sunny day on the Bay, for a very winnable game against UCLA.
> Thanks a lot Mr Phillips, for doing all you did to "move us up" away from
> SF to a very difficult opponent in a much less attractive setting, when we
> could have been spanking the Bruins instead and ending this streak. As it
> is, there is no evidence of any Illinois presence in town, and none of
> their fans care (most of my family are Illini and none have any interest in
> the game).
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>
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