(12-01-2017 11:14 PM)Captain Huskie Wrote: I did a quick analysis of NIU All American selections for the last 25 years to determine who was NIU’s best recruiting and developing talent coach.
Here are my Picks:
#1 Joe Novak 1996-2007
Recruited and developed All Americans:
Ryan Diem
Justin McCareins
Steve Azar
Dan Sheldon
Michael Turner (Huskie Legend) One of NIU’s greatest players
Garrett Wolfe (Huskie Legend) One of NIU’s greatest players
Sam Hurd
Doug Free
Larry English (Huskie Legend) One of NIU’s greatest players
Scott Wedige (Recruited)
Chandler Harnish (Recruited)
#2 Charlie Sadler 1991-1995
Recruited and developed All Americans:
LeShon Johnson (Huskie Legend) One of NIU’s greatest players
Brad Capes
Brian Steger
Steve Wild
Gerald Nickelberry
Tim O’Brien
Raymond Roberts
Chris O’Neal
#3 Jerry Kill 2008-2010
Recruited and developed All Americans:
Jordan Lynch (Huskie Legend) One of NIU’s greatest players (Recruited)
Jimmy Ward (Recruited)
Chandler Harnish (Developed)
#4 Dave Doeren 2011-2012
Recruited and developed All Americans:
Tommie Lee Lewis (Recruited)
Jordan Lynch (Developed)
Jimmy Ward (Developed)
Rod Carey 2013-Present
Recruited and developed All Americans:
Shawun Lurry
Sutton Smith (Will make an All American list)
Your thoughts?
This is a great post, however it only gives part of the picture.
It only focuses on stars versus damage by recruiting the wrong players.
Charlie Sadler really sucked as a recruiter and left NIU's roster in a co plate mess.
His record really sucked.
He inherited a good program and screwed it up perhaps more than any other coach in FB history. A program's success in recruiting is not about a few stars but rather about team chemistry and win loss record.
Putting Sadler up there w/o a disclaimer seems like inadvertent misrepresentation,
The man's name should not be remembered Ina positive light after what he did, inheriting a winning program and turning it into the worst FB program in Div1a.
Even Corso's damage to the NIU FB PROGRAM was far less than Sadler.
I wish that NIU would have fired him sooner. Five years of damage, could have been mitigated,
Novak should get credit as a coach who inherited the worst NIU FB team in history and building it up ii to a top 25 contender. Took three years to get niu into a 5 loss team. Amaizing achievement considering the 23 game losing streak.
Several former players under Coach Sadler have told me that he screwed up the NIU FB program. Delete that 3-4 year rebuilding nightmare and Coach Novak has a different record. He still is #3 interms of wins.