Right, most of this is true,
Barnhizer was hurt, played hurt, played a lot and completely broke down.
Coach Collins has to take some blame there, no?
Unfortunately, the injured Barnhizer was not a particularly good player after awhile.
I agree that the culture at NU under Collins is strong. Thats a nice change from a few years ago.
But it is pretty hard to credit Collins when guys he wasn't playing are proving they are pretty good.
This is actually a recurring theme.
Ciaravino and Windham are going to compete - that was obvious long ago.
However, Mullins has been something of a fiasco from a coaching perspective, along with the Hunger/Fitzmorris confusion.
Using Clayton over Windham seems to be an ongoing mistake.
On the other hand, inserting Ciaravino into the lineup for Berry worked well for awhile.
I'm sure this will incite howls, but I think the players have re-rallied and pulled their coach out of his personal funk after Leach went down with his injury. So I credit Nicholson, Berry, Martinelli, Windham, Mullins and Ciaravino, in that order, for carrying on with passion.