[NU Sports] Sad

Mon Oct 17 11:19:39 CDT 2011

The first thing to say is that I agree with you. The second thing is that I wonder why you make these arguments for a football program whose results have gotten worse over the last few years, but not for a basketball program whose results have gotten better over the last few years (not to mention better than ever before). Either way, I may have to save your messages for March. ;)

Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Alan Abrahamson
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 10:47 AM
To: Jonathan Hodges
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Sad

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Fitz isn't getting fired. That's the very last thing that ought to happen. He and Jim Phillips are the best things that have happened to Northwestern athletics in the 35 years I have been around the university. (My freshman year -- 1976.)

I mean, now we have a legitimate expectation of going to bowl games; every young man on the football team graduates; the team has a cumulative GPA of about 3. In every respect, we are doing things the right way.

So we have a four-game losing streak. In particular, our defense is not playing well. I mean, we have seven first-year starters on that side of the ball.

Is that disappointing? Yes. Did we all have huge expectations going into this year? Yes. Are our expectations unmet? For sure.

On the other hand -- we have been competitive in every one of those losses.
Indeed, we led or were tied in every one of those games. (BTW, Army is a freak game and a freak loss. For the sake of this discussion, I am ignoring
it.) Illinois: ahead with 75 seconds to go. Michigan: up 10 at half and should have been 14. Iowa: tied going into the fourth quarter.

A look at the statistics would suggest we killed Iowa. But turnovers doomed us.

Same with Michigan. (Turnovers. Not stats.)

Our margin for error -- traditionally, but especially this year -- is just not significant enough that we can afford to make those mistakes. We can't beat other teams and beat ourselves, too.

We can win every game that's left on our schedule. For real. We are that competitive. (Not saying we will. Saying we can.) The defensive deficiencies are fixable. Our offense is obviously capable of scoring points.

To suggest, six games into the season, that people ought to be fired -- at least from my point of view -- is absolutely ridiculous.

Anyone who disagrees is obviously welcome to disagree.

But you'd be entirely 100 percent wrong.

Cordially, Alan

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 7:54 AM, Jonathan Hodges < j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu> wrote:

> The advantage of firing head coaches mid-season is showing recruits 
> that the school is committed to a positive change during a key 
> recruiting period (since the vast majority of recruits have made their 
> decisions by December) and also to get a head start on the coaching 
> search (don't want someone else grabbing your future coach).  And it 
> doesn't exactly help having a lame duck coach around for the rest of a 
> lost season.
>
> On the assistant coaching front, it is less typical to can someone mid 
> season because that is one less recruiting hand and one less coach 
> overall to help during the year - and it's difficult to find an 
> assistant who can just drop in and fit the current system (or find 
> anyone who is unoccupied at this point since those without jobs have 
> likely found something else like a lower division job or non-football 
> work).  Just the reduction in recruiters is a big disadvantage.  And 
> trying to change schemes/systems mid season with NCAA limits on 
> practice time is a recipe for disaster.  What you usually see is 
> plenty of changes after the season when teams swap or bring in new 
> assistants (note that NU and Indiana swapped WR coaches prior to this 
> past season).  This is the main reason that calling for assistants' 
> heads mid-year is silly (just clarify and say they should be run off 
> after the year).
>
> Personally, I am against midseason coaching changes.  There's plenty 
> of time if one just waits until the end of the regular season 
> (presuming no bowl) and then makes the move - there are relatively few 
> hires before then and usually the guys without jobs know they are 
> better off waiting for more opportunities and therefore competition 
> for their services.  I can see some advantage on the recruiting front, 
> but not enough to justify running someone off quickly - if anything 
> their players (who they likely recruited) deserve to try and send them 
> off in a better fashion.
>
> Jonathan
>
> --
> Jonathan Hodges
> Contributor, HailToPurple
> Web: http://www.hailtopurple.com/jhodges/
> Twitter: @hailtopurple
> Email: j-hodges at alumni.northwestern.edu
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Joe Thiegs <thiegs at umn.edu> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at tssi.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > > I would be surprised if people could cite examples of college 
> > > teams that fired assistant coaches mid-season and saw ANY 
> > > improvement during that season.
> > >
> > > I doubt it happens with head coaches, either.  I wonder if anyone 
> > > has stats on how often interim head coaches gets promoted to 
> > > full-time head coach (either mid-season or afterwards), and how successful they are?
> > >
> >
> > Well, I'm not advocating for a mid-season change here, but last year 
> > when Tim Brewster got fired after starting 1-8, interim Minnesota 
> > head coach Jeff Horton went 2-1, first losing at Michigan State but 
> > then posting
> improbable
> > wins at Illinois and at home against Iowa to win back Floyd of 
> > Rosedale
> for
> > the first time in four years to close out the season.  (The Gophers 
> > lost
> to
> > the Hawkeyes 0-55 and 0-12 the two prior seasons under Brewster.)
> >
> > -Joe
> > _______________________________________________
> > nwu-sports site list
> > nwu-sports at tssi.com
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> >
> >
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