You all realize we only have 6 wins, right? Will you still feel like champs if we end up 6-8? Do you think the Media will consider us anything but a joke? I think winning out would be urgent if we want to be considered better than those lucky tournament winners in March. Let's get it done!
Let's take the next 2 games seriously
- Thread starter spartcat
- Start date
If they are healthy, or if their injury cannot be made worse, they should play. If injured and there is the possibility of making it significantly worse, rest in appropriate. Hartage, for example has a bad hammy. Hammys are tricky as one bad move could make it much worse so he likely should not play till cleared. Don't know the other injuries but similar decision process would be appropriate.
No one’s paying attention to any of us, so it’s all good!
Teddy had an interesting take on this in his Chicago Tribune article. Basically adopted hdhntr1's position but taking it one step further. He impliedly advocates being overly conservative with regard to playing the presently injured players for the next two games.
Anyone who isn't near 100% healthy won't play these last 2 games.
Fitz will absolutely go for wins against Minnesota and Illinois.
An 8-4/8-1 record with a nice top 20 ranking would be a good way to finish the regular season.
Fitz will absolutely go for wins against Minnesota and Illinois.
An 8-4/8-1 record with a nice top 20 ranking would be a good way to finish the regular season.
Hence the conundrum: try to maximize overall wins or maximize your chances of winning in Indy.
Not “throw the games”: rest the injured starters to stay healthy for our most important game in years and develop some depth. There is no reason to risk losing Hall, Hartage, or Doles when we have capable backups. Thorson also needs to rest his legs for the big game, why not see what Green can do when he’s not rotating series.
We should treat these like NFL programs use preseason games: play healthy starters like Thorson for one quarter and then see what the backups can do. They (mostly) received scholarships, so it’s time for them to show us what they got.
For the record I think we can finish 8-4 even with this philosophy, but we’ll see what Fitz does.
There is no conundrum to me: play to win each game. If winning is a habit, so is losing. Hate to see the Cats feel it is OK to play not to get hurt rather than to win. After all, the whole point of competing is to win. And with only 12 guaranteed games each season each win means a lot.
I can assure you that Fitz has the exact same mentality.
The best example is the Notre Dame game.
All of us here knew the ND game didn't matter except as a spotlight/big stage win (we aren't looking to get to the CFP this year and with 3 losses before that game we didn't have an obvious route to the NY6 with a win, since we'd be at 4 losses after a B1G title game loss; meaning there was no Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl or whatever else that would open up with a ND win).
Minnesota and Illinois are basically like that; we're going to be ranked with plenty of people talking about us the next 2 weeks. These 2 weeks are chances for us to stay in the top 25 discussion and keep people talking about us positively as an opponent to a possible top 4 Michigan/Ohio State.
Guys that have been injured the past couple of weeks (or got injured against Iowa); I don't expect to see them the next 2 weeks.
Everybody else? Go get the last 2 wins. This stuff about resting players... is not going to happen.
And that about sums it up. We will rest injured players, not starters. We'll rotate more players in, if we establish any dominance.
SI and ESPN are projecting NU in the Citrus Bowl now, presuming we win out the regular season and lose the B1G championship. Not a bad consolation even though I hate Orlando.
Lose either of the next 2 and god knows what sh!t bowl we’d get if we lose the B1G championship.
A thousand times yes. Obviously do not play anyone who is not comfortably medically cleared but otherwise play them as if our season depended on it. If we “rested the starters” we run significant risk of losing at least to Minny, and could actually end up with a losing record in the year we win the West. In addition this division title would carry very little respect from anyone outside the program if we end up 6-6 and losing to the worst teams in the West. Of course that could still happen even with keeping the starters in, but at least we’d know we put our best team out on the field.
Yes, and at the end of the day starters who will be playing their last two regular-season games don't like to be rested. Almost everybody is coming toward the end of their football career.
When asked if he would be more cautious in the next games before the Championship game at the press conference today, Fitz said "Absolutely not. It will be all hands on deck".
"This is football, not NBA basketball or baseball where you can rest. We'll rest in January."
That answers that!
"This is football, not NBA basketball or baseball where you can rest. We'll rest in January."
That answers that!
Last edited:
I want these next two games as much as any of the others. We're only guaranteed to get 12 games a year (but 14 this year!), so every one is something special and something to build my Saturday around.
If we have a capable backup to Doles, I wonder if they can help elsewhere on the line...
In most years I would say, "the kickers." But even that isn't the case this year. None's near 100%.
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
FOOTBALL Five things to look for at Northwestern's open spring practice
- Latest: CoralSpringsCat