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Agreed. Unluckily for us, NW is prolly his DREAM school. So yearly we will continue to witness Fitz making his favorite whopping-boy KF look silly.
It's his dream job because even if they have a terrible year, no one with any credibility wants to fire him. The fact that he won the division over Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska is a historic moment for Northwestern. Hell, he even had Notre Dame on the ropes. Fitz understands that programs will have down years and he's in such a totally different recruiting pool than most other programs that he ain't too worried about everyone fleeing if he does bad. He knows he just needs a QB and then some solid role players that he can develop.
 
Even counting Minn (and they won't be undefeated when we get them, but they'll still be ranked), that's still only 5 of 12 games in the hard/ pretty hard category.

respectfully disagree. NW on the road, a Purdue team that has some potential, Nebraska, on the road with maybe Marteniz, there are very few “gimee’s” in conference games. Winning in power five football is hard.
 
It's his dream job because even if they have a terrible year, no one with any credibility wants to fire him. The fact that he won the division over Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska is a historic moment for Northwestern. Hell, he even had Notre Dame on the ropes. Fitz understands that programs will have down years and he's in such a totally different recruiting pool than most other programs that he ain't too worried about everyone fleeing if he does bad. He knows he just needs a QB and then some solid role players that he can develop.


Are you talking about Fitz or KF?
 
Jesus who did we piss off at the B1G to draw that schedule? That only further shows how much of a missed opportunity last year was. I wouldn’t say 7-5 is the ceiling though. Reiff has missed time this year and we’ve barely missed a beat so not that concerned there. I don’t think Alaric is NFL ready but maybe he goes.

Wisconsin is going to lose a lot. Most likely Taylor their two top Olinemen and their two stud linebackers Orr and Baun. Their TE Ferguson might leave early as well.

But ya early estimate is I wouldn’t like Iowa’s chances in the west next year, which sucks to say out loud.

Wisconsin has 1 SR starter on offense and 2 on defense.

They'll obviously lose Taylor and maybe their LT early.

Iowa will lose more SR starters than Wisconsin and they'll lose more guys early to the NFL.

Wisconsin will be loaded next season.
 
Shit, I just looked at it. FML. We could have a decent, but not great team, and wind up with 4 wins next year.


No kidding. The first 2/3 of the season goes like this:

UNI
ISU
@Minnesota
N. ILL
MSU
@OSU
@PSU
NW

And of course they'll end the season with their annual loss to Wisconsin.

I never thought it would be possible to say this as a member of the B1G West because that division is such a joke, but that is a brutal schedule.
 
Wisconsin has 1 SR starter on offense and 2 on defense.

They'll obviously lose Taylor and maybe their LT early.

Iowa will lose more SR starters than Wisconsin and they'll lose more guys early to the NFL.

Wisconsin will be loaded next season.
They’ll be good for sure. Their Center could have gone top two round last year he's most likely gone. As I mentioned there is an outside chance on Ferguson. Baun and Orr are their two best players on defense. How much does Jonathan Taylor make that team go though? They don’t appear to have a stud back waiting in the wings but it’s Wisconsin so one will probably appear. Actually there is also a lot of speculation they could lose their DC Jim Leanord as well.

Game at Kinnick. Again I speculated Iowa as a dog but it’s a much more winnable game than the contest their this year that’s for certain.
 
They’ll be good for sure. Their Center could have gone top two round last year he's most likely gone. As I mentioned there is an outside chance on Ferguson. Baun and Orr are their two best players on defense. How much does Jonathan Taylor make that team go though? They don’t appear to have a stud back waiting in the wings but it’s Wisconsin so one will probably appear. Actually there is also a lot of speculation they could lose their DC Jim Leanord as well.

Game at Kinnick. Again I speculated Iowa as a dog but it’s a much more winnable game than the contest their this year that’s for certain.

At first glance you would say Taylor 100% makes them go but I said the same thing about John Clay, Montee Ball, Melvin Gordan, & now Taylor. The only season in recent memory where they didn't have a great RB was 2015 between the Gordon & Taylor years. So do they have any RB just waiting to be a star?

Damn do I hope you're right about Leonard. That guy bleeds Badger red though. I have a co-worker that's a huge Badger fan and I asked him: "What is preferable to badger fans if the choice had to be made, fire Chryst and promote Leonard to HC, or lose Leonard and keep Chryst as HC?" He's obviously just one fan but he believes a majority of Badger fans would want Chryst cut loose to keep Leonard. And that even if Leonard leaves he's just counting the days until he can come back as HC.

I think the overall narrative here is that the Badger football program isn't going anywhere. 2018 was just a bump in the road. Iowa is going to have to make huge leaps forward to get even. And with the on field coaching advantage they're always going to have over Iowa, Iowa is going to have to out-recruit and out-develop them.
 
At first glance you would say Taylor 100% makes them go but I said the same thing about John Clay, Montee Ball, Melvin Gordan, & now Taylor. The only season in recent memory where they didn't have a great RB was 2015 between the Gordon & Taylor years. So do they have any RB just waiting to be a star?

Damn do I hope you're right about Leonard. That guy bleeds Badger red though. I have a co-worker that's a huge Badger fan and I asked him: "What is preferable to badger fans if the choice had to be made, fire Chryst and promote Leonard to HC, or lose Leonard and keep Chryst as HC?" He's obviously just one fan but he believes a majority of Badger fans would want Chryst cut loose to keep Leonard. And that even if Leonard leaves he's just counting the days until he can come back as HC.

I think the overall narrative here is that the Badger football program isn't going anywhere. 2018 was just a bump in the road. Iowa is going to have to make huge leaps forward to get even. And with the on field coaching advantage they're always going to have over Iowa, Iowa is going to have to out-recruit and out-develop them.
I don’t disagree with anything you said here. I live in Madison so I have a good feel what they got up here. They’ve been well ahead of Iowa for quite some time as painful as it is to say.

I agree we need to strive to get there. I do feel our recruiting has been trending upward. Could a kid like Tyler Goodson be a program changer for us? I do feel we have some better Oline talent in the pipeline as well.

I’m not like a huge KF backer. I respect what’s he done but understand his shortcomings. We know he isn’t going anywhere so I’m hopeful we can improve with he and BF at the reigns.
 
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