Lately, some posters (or, a poster) on this board, in a consistent effort to move the goalposts, made the argument that while this season is unfortunate, it's not a cause for panic because "all programs have bad years" from time to time, with the exception of Alabama and Ohio State types.
I don't buy that for a minute, and neither should you.
The argument goes something like this: Because of injuries, a tough schedule and generally bad luck, NU is currently 2-8 (0-7). That's all right, though, because teams like MSU, Nebraska and Iowa have had bad years, too.
The thing is, NU also had what I think a lot of us would consider "down years" recently, in 2013 and 2014, and even they didn't compare to the dreadful offensive product that's currently being rolled out every Saturday this season.
But let's be more objective about it. As a reminder, NU went 5-7 in 2013 and 5-7 in 2014. That's 10 wins over two seasons and back-to-back years without a bowl game. That hasn't happened at Iowa since 2000 and not at Michigan State since 2006. Simply put, for a program that seemed to have "made it" with a bowl win, these next two years were a clear step backwards.
And yet, even those down years had their moments. The 2013 team snapped its 7-game losing streak with a win over Illinois. The 2014 squad obviously had the Notre Dame game, but also AWalk's coming out party against Penn State and Godwin's against Wisconsin. The offensive performance was pretty bad in those years, but it was never *worst in the nation* bad.
What exactly does this year's team have to hang its hat on? A narrow home loss to a Purdue team that was playing a walk-on QB and was without one of the top playmakers in the nation? Almost grinding out an ugly win against Nebraska, but falling short? There's nothing.
This is not just a "bad season." It's a cry for change on one side of the ball. There's a difference between underperformance and ineptitude. Remove McCall, probably remove Springer too, and bring in an offensive coordinator who has a plan for how to utilize Hunter Johnson for his remaining two years in Evanston.
Go Cats.
I don't buy that for a minute, and neither should you.
The argument goes something like this: Because of injuries, a tough schedule and generally bad luck, NU is currently 2-8 (0-7). That's all right, though, because teams like MSU, Nebraska and Iowa have had bad years, too.
The thing is, NU also had what I think a lot of us would consider "down years" recently, in 2013 and 2014, and even they didn't compare to the dreadful offensive product that's currently being rolled out every Saturday this season.
But let's be more objective about it. As a reminder, NU went 5-7 in 2013 and 5-7 in 2014. That's 10 wins over two seasons and back-to-back years without a bowl game. That hasn't happened at Iowa since 2000 and not at Michigan State since 2006. Simply put, for a program that seemed to have "made it" with a bowl win, these next two years were a clear step backwards.
And yet, even those down years had their moments. The 2013 team snapped its 7-game losing streak with a win over Illinois. The 2014 squad obviously had the Notre Dame game, but also AWalk's coming out party against Penn State and Godwin's against Wisconsin. The offensive performance was pretty bad in those years, but it was never *worst in the nation* bad.
What exactly does this year's team have to hang its hat on? A narrow home loss to a Purdue team that was playing a walk-on QB and was without one of the top playmakers in the nation? Almost grinding out an ugly win against Nebraska, but falling short? There's nothing.
This is not just a "bad season." It's a cry for change on one side of the ball. There's a difference between underperformance and ineptitude. Remove McCall, probably remove Springer too, and bring in an offensive coordinator who has a plan for how to utilize Hunter Johnson for his remaining two years in Evanston.
Go Cats.
