What's actually obvious is that Mickey Joseph is the head coach. The position is actually filled, unless things continue to deteriorate, which I do not expect to happen.
I think its Mickey's job to lose.
The dude can reel in the talent, and when he goes recruiting and HE IS THE MAN, it's no longer a case of "I'll have to get to the head coach to make sure you're offered."
It looks like Applewhite was a helluva hire, and bring AJ along is gonna make him look even better. He might have worked Grant a bit too much last weekend though. But, tell me one stud RB who doesn't doesn't want to pack the ball 24-25 times a game?
I'm satisfied with Whip as OC. Seems like he and Mickey hit it off pretty well.
I see the OL making progress and as I mentioned in another thread, had Cam returned and Nouili not did his thing, this OL would be a really solid line.
Defensively, that's another story. But, bring in a top flight DC and maybe a change at LB and hit that portal really hard and NU could project upward fairly quick.
I think Trev will evaluate Mickey on his abiity to get these kids to play hard, every week. Are they up and down, can they string a couple wins together, a lot of questions that went unanswered under Frost.
At least since Trev pulled the trigger on Frost, us fans can take a personal look at what we see without the support OR baggage we all had after 4+ years of what we have been exposed to.
I just wanna see a great effort every week. We all know the defense is gonna make it hard to win every week. It's obvious NU will have to win some high scoring games in order to collect a few W's.
When they get to the Wiscy, Iowa type games, hopefully NU can make those less stellar teams run 8-10 play drives to score.
NU reminds me a bit of the first year of Bob Stoops at OU. Coming off several bad seasons, played good teams really tough even though they were all high scoring games due to OU being bad on defense.
hey were losing 28-25, 31-24 and getting better every week, just couldn't get over the top.
The OU kids had forgotten how to win.
Next year, OU was real good on offense, and GREAT on defense. Good enough to hold FSU to 2 points in the national title game. Heupel got it done with a controlled passing game and a good running attack. On defense, OU played every possession like the game was on the line.
That's a turnaround.
I remember in '83 NU stunk on defense. The next year, with almost the exact same kids NU was the #1 defense in the country. It can happen.
I majored in wishful thinking.