re Barnett: "Barnett's overall record doesn't stand out, but you have to consider how bad Northwestern football was before he arrived. From 1972 to 1994, through Barnett's third season there, Northwestern never finished a season with a winning record". This is misleading. In fact, we never won more than 4 games during the darkest of the dark ages, and then only once or twice. Indeed, I think we averaged like 2 wins a year. Maybe less. A typical CFB novice reader might think we were a 3 to 5 win per year team.
I still maintain that the job that Dennis Green did to get us winning ANY games was also pretty huge. We were awful, and there was an enormous chasm between the haves and the have nots. Same was true in hockey, where Montreal dominated and Quebec was sucked. It was a case of the Habs vs the Hab-nots.