[NU Sports] Something to argue over

[Dennis W. Brandt]

  Ahhh something to debate. ....Good Stuff.

  QB - Always liked Lenny Williams he would have been dangerous with a good team.....
  RB - How can you not have Darnell Autry. He was surely the face of the program. Damien was an excellent back.
  WR - Possibly Richard Buchanon 
  OL -  No OL from the Rose and Citrus Bowl teams...Can't argue with your choices though.

  Good LineBackers and DL.

  Chris Martin was a corner....(him and rodney ray did their thing)
  and I would take William Bennett at safety.....
  YOUR DAMN right about ISMAELI though....ONE of the best NU athletes of ALL-TIME....Somebody argue that fact with me.

  Kickers....take your Pick Gowins or Valensizi......I would take Gowins...he kicked in NFL.


  True about Darnell, but he's the face of the team because he was the first good running back we had enjoyed for a long while whose contributions actually 
  led to wins.  Damian was a bit larger and faster, but I'll take Darnell out there, too.  Hell!  I'll take ADRIAN Autry at this point.
I really didn't know who to put at free safety because we've never had a great one.  I recalled Martin as a safety but I guess my memory failed me, and rosters never differentiate defensive back positions.  Insert Bennett's name in his place.  I hesitated including Ismaeli because he played best as a fifth defensive back, a free-ranging rover that drove offenses nuts.  He was not as effective as a pure corner, but he was one of the finest athletes NU ever had on the gridiron.  I also cogitated over the pre-straight-arm-to-the-throat Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, but he was an old-timer.  (Big though.)I picked Tony Long at place kicker because he hit a number of clutch field goals, but Gowins did too.  Oh, that '96 Michigan game, my first in Evanston since 1967, where he had to kick the winning field goal twice.  Either he or Valensizi are acceptable.I look back at the 1997 team and wonder what might have been if Darnell hadn't gone pro, D'Wayne hadn't busted his leg, and Ismaeli hadn't smoked dope and gotten a rod up his . . . over Barnett and instead had returned for his final season.  We played Michigan very tough that year and darn near beat Penn State.  With those three guys in the lineup, we would have won a few more games and may have forestalled the subsequent downturn.  Maybe Barnett would have stayed.  (Thenagain, probably not, the (#$&$(!@)&~!)