So many All Big Ten players yet still 6-6
- Thread starter BigNUFan51
- Start date
1. Nobody - except JJTBC - played like all B1G in the first 2 games (and I would say against Minny as well).
2. You are right, we lacked depth in some places due to injury. Namely the secondary (Harris probably would have been first team) and OL.
3. Yes, coaching has something to do with the consistency of performance of the team.
4. Schedule was pretty challenging with multiple top 10 teams.
2. You are right, we lacked depth in some places due to injury. Namely the secondary (Harris probably would have been first team) and OL.
3. Yes, coaching has something to do with the consistency of performance of the team.
4. Schedule was pretty challenging with multiple top 10 teams.
Look at where the OL winners came from? DL as well. Winning teams dominate upftont.
Your 9 of 21 is misleading as well. We had 4 all B1G players on the first 3 teams. The rest were HM. Not saying HM is something to sneeze at, but we had 4 of 75 selections on the first 3 teams. Sounds about tight for our record.
Seems like this team was more skilled than it's record but not better than it's record as a team.
I wonder if we lacked strong Sr. leadership. Fitz made some comments after the bad start that he had to be more motivational than with previous teams, More shouting more revving guys up in practice. One of the best games was the one where Odenibo "got mad" and fired up the team. I have always felt that Fitz is not an emotional coach. He preaches playing within yourself more than go out there and punch em in the nose. I think he looks to players for that and it didn't happen.
The loss of Harris and Long may have hurt the whole team. I have noticed in other years what appears to be an emotional collapse on the field immediately after a serious injury to key players. Instead of "Let's go get the bastard that hurt our guy." it's more "Oh no, now what are we going to do?" More hand wringing than revenge seeking. One time that didn't happen was when Walker took over the PSU game and Fitz openly criticized his spectacular performance because he was out of position too often and played out of control. I think that was Walkers first start.
It was a difficult schedule. Perhaps WMU is a better team but we were woefully unprepared for ISU. Win the ISU game and we can at least argue that we are consistently better than average and on the cusp of reaching the upper tier because we played fairly solidly in our losses.
Next year CT will be a better leader IMO as will JJ. If for no other reason simply because they are older guys will look to them more. They also should have figured out better how to lead and inspire those around them. Not sure who will step up on D or with the WR's and OL but CT as QB is key for motivation and JJ as one of the leading all time RB in school history should have some chops with the guys if he uses them.
We recruit a pretty tame group of gentlemen for such a violent sport.
A 5-4 record in the Big Ten is not bad. The 1-2 record in the out-of-conference games is hurting the overall record and the perception of the team. I still do not understand our slow start this year - very atypical for Fitz's teams. I said at the time that it seemed like we lacked senior leadership and Fitz seems to have confirmed that.
A lot of what you typed is probably true but WMU is not better then NU. Look at the offers their players received during recruiting for example, compared to NU and other Big Ten programs. That was a bad loss, no matter how many wins they have now. The truth will come out when they play a legitimate team in a bowl, just like Northern was exposed. Losing to ISU is just unacceptable for many reasons. Is it bad recruiting or coaching by NU? Maybe it's a bit of both.
No offense to you as you are a great poster, but online sports psychology is a slippery slope to dumbness. There is so much conjecture involved. All of what you say is plausible, but it would equally plausible to say that ISU treated us as their Super Bowl and just outworked us. Who knows?
Yeah exactly I think a lot of people here are misreading the math. We had 5 of 75 (Ifeadi Godwin AWalk Carr JJ) that actually made All B1G teams, if you combine split coach and media selections that probably gets to 80-85 players, which is 6 per team. So we are very slightly below average.
* forgot Vault was 3rd team on media so that's 6 which puts us directly on "average"
We had 2.5 out of 25 on the first team, which is slightly above average.
Honorable mention- I could be wrong but I think that's just anyone who got any vote for 1st 2nd or 3rd team. I counted 77 on the coaches alone, didn't take the time to count further but if you combine with the media I bet there are about 90. So that's about 165-170 players, which divided by 14 teams is about 12 per team. So again, we are below average with 9.
We did not have a lot of All B1G players, in fact we had somewhat fewer than average. If they had these voting rules in 95-96 I expect 20 of our players would have qualified when you include HMs.
As you would expect, there is a strong correlation between number of All B1G players and wins. Using the Coaches list it results as follows:
17 Michigan 10-2
15 OSU 10-2
9 Whisky 10-2
9 Iowa 8-4
7 PSU 10-2
5 NU 6-6
5. MSU 3-9
4 Minn 8-4
3 Ind 6-6
1 Nebby 8-4
1 Purdue 3-9
1 IL 3-9
0 Mary 6-6
0 Rut 2-10
On this basis, you could say NU comparatively underperformed, but not as bad as MSU. Nebby, Mary, Minn, PSU and Ind would have overperformed based on this comparison.
The more likely explanation is that NU was weaker on a comparative basis at the other positions.
Gee Jack, all I've got is conjecture.
I would agree that ISU did treat us like their Super Bowl; WMU too.
We were the best team on both their schedules and early enough in the season for them to put in extra time in the summer studying our film from last year.
Still, somehow NU wasn't ready for them.
You should probably also have a graduated weighting for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and HM as well. At the end of the day NU probably over achieved if anything
Says the guy who spams the board with his stream of consciousness posts?
