One of the common comments is that Rod Carey hasn’t capitalized on the Orange Bowl. What does that even mean? Please explain.

Does that mean he’s expected to get 4 and 5 star recruits? Win 10 games every year? Go to an Access Bowl every year? Win the MAC every year? Get invited to a P5 conference? Sorry, but none of that is realistic, not only for us, but for almost any program.

Why couldn’t UConn capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t Hawaii capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t UCF capitalize on their BCS bowl? They were 0-12 two years later. So why? Because it’s hard, damn hard. Football, like life, is cyclical. It’s impossible to maintain that level. It’s remarkable that NIU had the 6 year run they had. It’s probably over, at least for now. Hopefully we don’t become UConn or Hawaii but instead gravitate more toward Boise State or TCU and what they have become, but they are the exceptions.

Rod Carey was given an impossible situation. He came in at the absolute pinnacle of the program. It is literally impossible for him to have more success than his predecessors. It’s exceptionally difficult to even maintain what came before him. Maybe he shouldn’t have been the guy, but hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to pile on after the fact. Frazier can’t fire him and he shouldn’t. There are no resources to do so, nor are there resources to bring in some miracle Nick Saban-like coach that many apparently feel should be hired. Sorry, but that’s not reality.

The arrow is pointing down for the first time in a long time. It happens. It was also pointing down at the end of the Novak years when he couldn’t maintain what he built. It wasn’t that long ago. MANY people wanted Joe fired toward the end. 2007 was rock bottom but the recovery was quick. Maybe it will happen again. Maybe not. It’s college football. There are more important things in life.

Central Florida is in the hotbed of Florida. They should never go winless, which is why their coach got canned.

Boise State is good year after year, and they're in Idaho.

NIU has built a G5 power and if a coach can't keep that going he has no business being our head coach.

I expected NIU not to be ranked 122nd in total defense after the first 3 games of his 4th year.

Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

Like most college teams, we were good because we had quality quarterbacks that made everyone better. It was fun. I'm sure we'll hit the QB jackpot again. Until then, I like to see my team win & compete, not be embarrassed.

We have all these facilities we did not have years ago. Shouldn't that help us in getting good recruits?

(09-19-2016 08:02 PM)niubrad00 Wrote:  One of the common comments is that Rod Carey hasn’t capitalized on the Orange Bowl. What does that even mean? Please explain.

Does that mean he’s expected to get 4 and 5 star recruits? Win 10 games every year? Go to an Access Bowl every year? Win the MAC every year? Get invited to a P5 conference? Sorry, but none of that is realistic, not only for us, but for almost any program.

Why couldn’t UConn capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t Hawaii capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t UCF capitalize on their BCS bowl? They were 0-12 two years later. So why? Because it’s hard, damn hard. Football, like life, is cyclical. It’s impossible to maintain that level. It’s remarkable that NIU had the 6 year run they had. It’s probably over, at least for now. Hopefully we don’t become UConn or Hawaii but instead gravitate more toward Boise State or TCU and what they have become, but they are the exceptions.

Rod Carey was given an impossible situation. He came in at the absolute pinnacle of the program. It is literally impossible for him to have more success than his predecessors. It’s exceptionally difficult to even maintain what came before him. Maybe he shouldn’t have been the guy, but hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to pile on after the fact. Frazier can’t fire him and he shouldn’t. There are no resources to do so, nor are there resources to bring in some miracle Nick Saban-like coach that many apparently feel should be hired. Sorry, but that’s not reality.

The arrow is pointing down for the first time in a long time. It happens. It was also pointing down at the end of the Novak years when he couldn’t maintain what he built. It wasn’t that long ago. MANY people wanted Joe fired toward the end. 2007 was rock bottom but the recovery was quick. Maybe it will happen again. Maybe not. It’s college football. There are more important things in life.

No, but is it too much to ask for 3 stars on a consistent basis? Like 50%+ more 3* by some other MAC schools? Not be middle to bottom have in recruiting rankings?

And there are more important things. But his job is coaching football and recruiting. He is not winning, not recruiting well. If you wan to stick to more important things, I suggest not talking football and focusing on political or religious board.

(09-19-2016 08:09 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Central Florida is in the hotbed of Florida. They should never go winless, which is why their coach got canned.

Boise State is good year after year, and they're in Idaho.

NIU has built a G5 power and if a coach can't keep that going he has no business being our head coach.

The reality is that NIU has not built a G5 power, rather they have built a MAC power. MAC football is inferior to G5 power programs as evidenced by the NIU bowl record since the Orange Bowl...overwhelming losses to G5 teams Utah State, Marshall and Boise State...and overwhelming losses to three G5 teams this year. The Utah State and Wyoming losses were actually less than overwhelming but those programs are certainly not G5 powers.

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

This is an excellent point and spot on. Harnish and Lynch were once in a generation QB's for a MAC school.

(09-19-2016 11:01 PM)Spudskie Wrote:  We have all these facilities we did not have years ago. Shouldn't that help us in getting good recruits?

Why would it? Everyone else has equal or better facilities than us. We've barely kept up with the Joneses. And by Joneses I mean peer MAC schools, nevermind the inferiority compared to P5 programs.

(09-20-2016 12:32 AM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 08:02 PM)niubrad00 Wrote:  One of the common comments is that Rod Carey hasn’t capitalized on the Orange Bowl. What does that even mean? Please explain.

Does that mean he’s expected to get 4 and 5 star recruits? Win 10 games every year? Go to an Access Bowl every year? Win the MAC every year? Get invited to a P5 conference? Sorry, but none of that is realistic, not only for us, but for almost any program.

Why couldn’t UConn capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t Hawaii capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t UCF capitalize on their BCS bowl? They were 0-12 two years later. So why? Because it’s hard, damn hard. Football, like life, is cyclical. It’s impossible to maintain that level. It’s remarkable that NIU had the 6 year run they had. It’s probably over, at least for now. Hopefully we don’t become UConn or Hawaii but instead gravitate more toward Boise State or TCU and what they have become, but they are the exceptions.

Rod Carey was given an impossible situation. He came in at the absolute pinnacle of the program. It is literally impossible for him to have more success than his predecessors. It’s exceptionally difficult to even maintain what came before him. Maybe he shouldn’t have been the guy, but hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to pile on after the fact. Frazier can’t fire him and he shouldn’t. There are no resources to do so, nor are there resources to bring in some miracle Nick Saban-like coach that many apparently feel should be hired. Sorry, but that’s not reality.

The arrow is pointing down for the first time in a long time. It happens. It was also pointing down at the end of the Novak years when he couldn’t maintain what he built. It wasn’t that long ago. MANY people wanted Joe fired toward the end. 2007 was rock bottom but the recovery was quick. Maybe it will happen again. Maybe not. It’s college football. There are more important things in life.

No, but is it too much to ask for 3 stars on a consistent basis? Like 50%+ more 3* by some other MAC schools? Not be middle to bottom have in recruiting rankings?

And there are more important things. But his job is coaching football and recruiting. He is not winning, not recruiting well. If you wan to stick to more important things, I suggest not talking football and focusing on political or religious board.

Go back and look at recruiting rankings under Novak, Kill and Doeren. If you believe in those numbers, Carey has done as well or better than any of them.

Kill was a recruiting machine!! i think those might have been his own words.

(09-20-2016 07:22 AM)NIU17 Wrote:  Kill was a recruiting machine!! i think those might have been his own words.

Exactly, Kill also rebuilt NIU football hahaha. If only the world according to Kill was the real world....

(09-20-2016 06:28 AM)niubrad00 Wrote:  

(09-20-2016 12:32 AM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 08:02 PM)niubrad00 Wrote:  One of the common comments is that Rod Carey hasn’t capitalized on the Orange Bowl. What does that even mean? Please explain.

Does that mean he’s expected to get 4 and 5 star recruits? Win 10 games every year? Go to an Access Bowl every year? Win the MAC every year? Get invited to a P5 conference? Sorry, but none of that is realistic, not only for us, but for almost any program.

Why couldn’t UConn capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t Hawaii capitalize on their BCS bowl? They’ve been irrelevant ever since. Why couldn’t UCF capitalize on their BCS bowl? They were 0-12 two years later. So why? Because it’s hard, damn hard. Football, like life, is cyclical. It’s impossible to maintain that level. It’s remarkable that NIU had the 6 year run they had. It’s probably over, at least for now. Hopefully we don’t become UConn or Hawaii but instead gravitate more toward Boise State or TCU and what they have become, but they are the exceptions.

Rod Carey was given an impossible situation. He came in at the absolute pinnacle of the program. It is literally impossible for him to have more success than his predecessors. It’s exceptionally difficult to even maintain what came before him. Maybe he shouldn’t have been the guy, but hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to pile on after the fact. Frazier can’t fire him and he shouldn’t. There are no resources to do so, nor are there resources to bring in some miracle Nick Saban-like coach that many apparently feel should be hired. Sorry, but that’s not reality.

The arrow is pointing down for the first time in a long time. It happens. It was also pointing down at the end of the Novak years when he couldn’t maintain what he built. It wasn’t that long ago. MANY people wanted Joe fired toward the end. 2007 was rock bottom but the recovery was quick. Maybe it will happen again. Maybe not. It’s college football. There are more important things in life.

No, but is it too much to ask for 3 stars on a consistent basis? Like 50%+ more 3* by some other MAC schools? Not be middle to bottom have in recruiting rankings?

And there are more important things. But his job is coaching football and recruiting. He is not winning, not recruiting well. If you wan to stick to more important things, I suggest not talking football and focusing on political or religious board.

Go back and look at recruiting rankings under Novak, Kill and Doeren. If you believe in those numbers, Carey has done as well or better than any of them.

It's comparative. The others got better, NIU didn't. Look at the #'s vs other MAC schools the last few years.

When you have the success NIU had you should have been able to flat out destroy other MAC schools in recruiting by alone being in Chicago. PERIOD.

(09-20-2016 06:24 AM)niubrad00 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

This is an excellent point and spot on. Harnish and Lynch were once in a generation QB's for a MAC school.

Our success goes back farther than Harnish. We had a string of talented RBs prior to that. Year after year there were guys you could count on to produce big games. Where are our star players now? We have none other than Kenny G. But that doesn't get us very far when there is nobody to get to ball to him. Recruiting has definitely taken a downturn.

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

Marshall also moved to a different (better) conference. If they were still in the MAC no telling how many championships they would have had.

(09-20-2016 02:03 AM)namron Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 08:09 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  Central Florida is in the hotbed of Florida. They should never go winless, which is why their coach got canned.

Boise State is good year after year, and they're in Idaho.

NIU has built a G5 power and if a coach can't keep that going he has no business being our head coach.

The reality is that NIU has not built a G5 power, rather they have built a MAC power. MAC football is inferior to G5 power programs as evidenced by the NIU bowl record since the Orange Bowl...overwhelming losses to G5 teams Utah State, Marshall and Boise State...and overwhelming losses to three G5 teams this year. The Utah State and Wyoming losses were actually less than overwhelming but those programs are certainly not G5 powers.

I agree with this.

The Huskies are still a good MAC school, and the '16 Huskies are still undefeated in the MAC. They may not be favored in all of their MAC games, but they should win at least half of them, and they just might upset one of the three favorites in the East trying to replace the Huskies as division champs.

I hope Graham can develop really fast, because this team could go much farther with a good QB.

(09-20-2016 09:41 AM)pjfleck82 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

Marshall also moved to a different (better) conference. If they were still in the MAC no telling how many championships they would have had.

Maybe. They were good when they had a record setting qb. They just got pummelled by Akron, so they're also not able to sustain their dominance. And their conference is not much better than the MAC.

(09-20-2016 09:41 AM)pjfleck82 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

Marshall also moved to a different (better) conference. If they were still in the MAC no telling how many championships they would have had.

Nonsense. UCF was about winless in the MAC their last year and won CUSA the next year.

(09-20-2016 09:41 AM)pjfleck82 Wrote:  

(09-19-2016 09:06 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Carey is a disappointment, but I agree he's not the cause of the demise. NIU was just lucky to have their two all-time best QB's back-to-back. Marshalls' rise to prominence was because they went Pennington-Leftwich back-to-back. They then went 6 wins,4,5,3 after Leftwich left. CMU would have had the same stretch of success we enjoyed if Dan Lefouvre came right after Gary Hogeboom. AFter Lefouvre left they won 3 games, then 3 the year after that.

Carey could have done better, but teams tend to crash hard after such a run.

Marshall also moved to a different (better) conference. If they were still in the MAC no telling how many championships they would have had.

They were in the Mac for 2 years after leftwich. They won 8 and then 6 games.