This staff should be on a short leash

[Purple Pile Driver]

Not at all. I can't speak for the others, but I have great hopes now for the rest of the season. I thought this defense might be the best since 1995, and it certainly looked that way on Saturday. Our schedule is weak. Stanford may have been the best team on it. We have a chance to run the table. And dareIsay meet dOSU in Indianapolis. No predictions of doom here. Quite the opposite. I have great expectations now.

I expect those expectations to be met. If Fitz doesn't squeeze the potential out of this team, then I'll be on him like a duck on a june bug. As long as he keeps winning, I'm happy.

Huh? Run the table? C'mon, just about everyone that posted here thought a 7 win season was moving in the right direction in what was being called a rebuilding year. Now we have a very good first game and your "expectations" are Indy? I personally underestimated our Defense so I see raising the bar, but to say we have a weak schedule is just not right. You can get on Fitz all you want, but it was his staff who had the team ready for game one, contrary to our opponent.

We all seem to over react to the most recent game. Strong game, we are world beaters and could play OSU in Indy, putrid game, and we will be at the bottom of the conference. It's a long season. I hope your optimism is correct and it could very well be, but if we run the table this year, NU should extend Fitz another 10 years.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Huh? Run the table? C'mon, just about everyone that posted here thought a 7 win season was moving in the right direction in what was being called a rebuilding year. Now we have a very good first game and your "expectations" are Indy? I personally underestimated our Defense so I see raising the bar, but to say we have a weak schedule is just not right. You can get on Fitz all you want, but it was his staff who had the team ready for game one, contrary to our opponent.

We all seem to over react to the most recent game. Strong game, we are world beaters and could play OSU in Indy, putrid game, and we will be at the bottom of the conference. It's a long season. I hope your optimism is correct and it could very well be, but if we run the table this year, NU should extend Fitz another 10 years.

I didn't say we will run the table (chances are that we won't). I said we had a chance. I didn't think that before this game, but Stanford had a supposedly good offense - they were supposed to be in the conversation for the playoffs and a contender for the Pac-12 title, and we shut them down. It was terribly impressive. Look at our schedule. Who do you see on it that is better than Stanford? I'd say the Duke game and the Wisconsin game give me some pause. Maybe Nebraska and Iowa and perhaps Minnesota. No one on the schedule though scares me a lot. No dOSU, no MSU. We will probably lose more than one and possibly quite a bit more. But, I do think we have a decent shot to win every single game with this D. Thus, running the table is possible.

 

[stpaulcat]

Because of the high powered offenses we saw out of Minny and Wisconsin so far?

No. Because Minny's defense appears to be better than Stanford's so far, combined with the goofy play that Minny intentionally or accidentally runs which bites us in the butt seemingly every year. They aren't called the Goofers for nothing. I want to say that Wisconsin has our number, but based on our respective records against each other, they clearly don't, but if we don't play exceptional we won't beat them, especially in Camp Randall and even though they showed some vulnerability against Alabama (or maybe just Henry), that doesn't mean they will be vulnerable against us.

 

[shakes3858]

I hope your optimism is correct and it could very well be, but if we run the table this year, NU should extend Fitz another 10 years.

If we run the table and win the national title forget 10 years. I'd give fitz a contract with a fill in the blanks on years and salaries and let him do what he wants.

 

[hdhntr1]

Huh? Run the table? C'mon, just about everyone that posted here thought a 7 win season was moving in the right direction in what was being called a rebuilding year. Now we have a very good first game and your "expectations" are Indy? I personally underestimated our Defense so I see raising the bar, but to say we have a weak schedule is just not right. You can get on Fitz all you want, but it was his staff who had the team ready for game one, contrary to our opponent.

We all seem to over react to the most recent game. Strong game, we are world beaters and could play OSU in Indy, putrid game, and we will be at the bottom of the conference. It's a long season. I hope your optimism is correct and it could very well be, but if we run the table this year, NU should extend Fitz another 10 years.

From this point on, the schedule is relatively weak. We have the potential to be in every game. No OSU, MSU. PSU looks weaker than expected as does NEB. Some teams will be stronger by the time we play them but for now, no opponent seems insurmountable.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

If we run the table and win the national title forget 10 years. I'd give fitz a contract with a fill in the blanks on years and salaries and let him do what he wants.

I like your thinking.

Here is another cart before the horse thought. Assuming tOSU is as good as advertised should we be rooting for their trip to Indianapolis to be derailed somehow? I would like to think if we have a regular season to match that of 95 that we can get back to the Rose Bowl and be Big 10 Champs.

 

[shakes3858]

I like your thinking.

Here is another cart before the horse thought. Assuming tOSU is as good as advertised should we be rooting for their trip to Indianapolis to be derailed somehow? I would like to think if we have a regular season to match that of 95 that we can get back to the Rose Bowl and be Big 10 Champs.

I don't think it matters. It'll be OSU or MSU. Both will be really tough games with strong olines and defenses and great coaches. My gut says we have a better shot against OSU

 

[pawildcat]

From this point on, the schedule is relatively weak. We have the potential to be in every game. No OSU, MSU. PSU looks weaker than expected as does NEB. Some teams will be stronger by the time we play them but for now, no opponent seems insurmountable.

Let's win the next three games, which includes a hard one at Duke, go into the B1G 4-0, and then worry about the "weak" schedule. I've watched too many years of NU football to believe that any schedule is weak where Northwestern is concerned.

 

[shakes3858]

Let's win the next three games, which includes a hard one at Duke, go into the B1G 4-0, and then worry about the "weak" schedule. I've watched too many years of NU football to believe that any schedule is weak where Northwestern is concerned.

Yep we can win or lose any game on the schedule. I hope EIU is an automatic win, but I know better.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Let's win the next three games, which includes a hard one at Duke, go into the B1G 4-0, and then worry about the "weak" schedule. I've watched too many years of NU football to believe that any schedule is weak where Northwestern is concerned.

Who cares what we worry about?

 

[Mr. Stupor]

"If Fitz doesn't meet my artificially inflated expectations after one nice win, I insist that I will continue to grouse!"

It was a nice win where we saw plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the rest of the season, but let's not get carried away. We are still very young and/or inexperienced at plent of positions, so there will likely be some up-and-down swings throughout the year (especially now that teams have tape on our current personnel).

Still thinking this is a 7-8 win team if things come together well, more than that if they come together excellently... And 5-6 if we have key injuries or don't progress enough during the year.

Well, those young, inexperienced players are playing because they're better than older, experienced players. So if we suffer from playing the younger guys, that's the coaches fault.

And since when is youth a reason for excuse-making? OSU won with a third string frosh who hadn't played at all. Plenty of teams start young and inexperienced players at plenty of positions - and they win with them!! I see no reason why we can't. Some, apparently, always feel an excuse is warranted, however.

 

[pawildcat]

Who cares what we worry about?

Apparently quite a few people on this board.

 

[GlideCat]

Well, those young, inexperienced players are playing because they're better than older, experienced players. So if we suffer from playing the younger guys, that's the coaches fault.

And since when is youth a reason for excuse-making? OSU won with a third string frosh who hadn't played at all. Plenty of teams start young and inexperienced players at plenty of positions - and they win with them!! I see no reason why we can't. Some, apparently, always feel an excuse is warranted, however.

The last two quarterbacks that won the Heisman were both redshirt freshmen.

 

[Turk]

I'm with you on the defense. Didn't know what to expect although the Turk observations from watching practice were encouraging. Still not sold on the NU offense though. I think CT will struggle in Big 10 play. Take away CJ and NU receivers look pretty weak.Big 10 teams can stop 1 dimensional running games.

The problem continues to be the offensive line and wr. Not sure if its the talent or something else but our wr werent that great on saturday and it wasnt like our OL was wow. but at least the ol is trending up. All we need is for it to be better than last year and we may make a run for the division.
As far as our defense, the truth remains, the best way to beat us is by goin deep. Not that we dont mirror a guy deep but for whatever reason our A heel is trouble against the deep ball. Before last week i felt prater was the weak spot in the front 7, however i was thoroughly impressed with mr prater and Q. Its gonna b tuff ranking the top 22. And let us not forget, kuhar is our best DT and he didnt play. Many people watched the game on espn and told me that we look solid. Im talking casual fans in chicago.
And if u listened to huddlecast you heard me claim that walker will b our all time tfl king due to his nose for the ball. He is unstoppable. His pass defense is also incredible. He had 3 more tfl to give him 8.5 over his last 4 games.

 

[Gladeskat]

Before last week i felt prater was the weak spot in the front 7, however i was thoroughly impressed with mr prater and Q.

8:50 in the third quarter was an absolutely great play by Prater! He can be a hammer.