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

Sun Jan 1 20:16:16 CST 2012

Wanted to expand on this a bit....

I have never seen any head coach come back to a former school as an assistant or a
coordinator.

They do it in the NFL quite a bit - Baltimore's Offensive guy is Cam Cameron, and there
are several offensive and defensive coordinators around the NFL who were head guys at one
time.

But college seems to be different and a guy who had Div I Head Coach as a former
occupation really doesn’t want to become an assistant at another school.

Not to say that NAIA and Div III coaches don't take assistant and coordinator jobs - but
they're working for the brass ring of being a head guy at another school.

Vandy's shot at Div I was derailed at Maryland, and I'm not sure if he's still a hot
commodity, especially after the idiocy at State Penn. Joe Pa didn't think enough of his
talents to promote him to Defensive coordinator after they got Sandusky to leave, so there
was something going on that kept him from one of the #2 spots.

Of course Vandy may have decided he didn't like the Head Man or Coordinator position and
chose to stay working with Linebackers.

Maybe one of our sports guys who knows him can get the inside scoop, but I'd be really
surprised if Vandy showed up at NU in other than a consultant position, kinda like
Barnett, ya know?

But now it's time to wait for signing day, and watch BC try to right the basketball ship.

Go Cats. Its time.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
Coach Roy's Random Thoughts - http://coachroy.org
Weather in Seaford: 
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=19973
-------------------- Also ----------------------
"Commissioner" Delaware American Legion Baseball
Director Media Relations - Little League 
  Senior League Softball World Series
CTR2 USN (67-70) - CTRCS USNR (Ret) (64-67/70-95)
Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi 1974, KD 1968
Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)
================================================
Opinions expressed above are mine alone and are not
those of any organizations of which I am a member.
------------------------------------------------
There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, 
love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens 
cannot cure - Dwight D. Eisenhower
=  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  = 
I don't always drink imported beer, but when I do, 
I prefer Dos Equis -- The most interesting man in DE
=  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =  =
If we become a country in which we say, 'Please, 
tell me how to live,' We're Doomed!"
                   -- Pete Hamill, "Prohibition"
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of
neonrye at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 5:16 PM
To: SjT (Stephen J. Truog); Scott Zeller, M.D.; NUSPORTS
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] may be a long time to break this streak

Anybody think that Hank's time may be up--either by retirement or involuntarily?  If so,
could Fitz lure his mentor, Vanderlinden, back to Evanston as Associate Head
Coach/Defensive Coordinator?

Vandy should be available, assuming PSU cleans house.

Any thoughts, Coach Roy, as you have offered many insights about Coach RV over the years?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:50:16 
To: Scott Zeller, M.D.<scottzel at gmail.com>; NUSPORTS<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Reply-To: "SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] may be a long time to break this streak

I know - it's a tough call. I certainly don't fault our AD for bragging up NU and moving
us up in the bowl process -- he's doing an amazing job of promoting Northwestern football.

But ... it was tough to watch our game and then swing over to sunny San Francisco, actual
green turf and all the picturesque vistas and beatable UCLA team and not wonder "what if
..." 

I'm sure we will hear from those who attended the game today, but on TV at least, the
Houston Meh Bowl had to rank low on NU's bowl experiences. Dallas at least had the
historic Cotton Bowl setting, Detroit has a better stadium, San Fran would have had the
sights, Phoenix has perfect weather this weekend, Tampa sounded like a first-rate
experience, San Antonio was a nice setting with everything nearby, etc. etc. etc.

As for next year, I'm pretty optimistic (and looking at our 2013 and 2014 schedules -
OUCH! - next year BETTER be our year!). We lose some big-time seniors, but I think we'll
be fine on offense. And the defense has to get better? Right??? Plus, we had some special
teams bright spots this year that were lacking in the past. And Fitz is the embodiment of
all the class and enthusiasm I want from a head coach on the sideline. 

The problem comes in the rest of the staff -- I'm not so harsh on Hank because he's
dealing with a tougher deck, but he needs to get better on playing aggressive and playing
smart. We can't just sit back and wait for teams to make 3rd down after 3rd down on us. If
we get beat, we get beat, but we gotta go out fighting and take our chances in smart ways.
My beefs are more on the offense, where it really appeared today that we "out-thunk"
ourselves -- our tempo push hurt us more than ATM with sloppy penalties and missed
blocking assignments ... and the rotating QB gimmick was a bust. Put Colter in for a
series or so, but alternating by play ruined any rhythm we had and made it predictable
when Kain came in what the call would be -- at the end when we stuck with Persa
consistently, he then developed a rhythm. We need to get our offensive game plan back to
the Walker days where the spread was used to SPREAD the field -- swing the D side to side,
test them
 deep and dink them short ...  then get smart about finding the holes and mixing it up.
Now it seems like we want to be more Oregon-lite with gimmicks and flash instead of smarts
and substance.

But I like our team for next year and our schedule is as good as it will be for a couple
of years -- our staff needs to kick it in gear and get back to making smart game plans for
NU football in 2012 - use or strengths to help us overcome the weaknesses NU will always
have.

Happy NU year!
GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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

________________________________
 From: "Scott Zeller, M.D." <scottzel at gmail.com>
To: NUSPORTS <nwu-sports at tssi.com> 
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 2:05 PM
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).
_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports