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The Northern Illinois Huskies have earned it. The coach, Joe Novak has been at NIU for 8 years during which he improved recruiting, coaching and the facilities. Proximity to Chicago doesn't hurt either.

Interesting placard he posted on his arrival in 1995, "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions"

If Phil is the guy, we will need to share a very long journey with him and his players if we want to be Champions.

NIU was competitive last year and is making some real noise this year, but does your comparison mean we have to wait 8 yrs for Bennett to take us to that sam place?

P.S. I wonder how many partial and non-qualifiers who were rejected by Big 10 schools dot that NIU roster? Advantage...state school!

Thanks, CP

My point is not that it requires eight years, but that it is more than year and a half. NIU and other MAC schools have delivered upsets against BCS schools (Wake Forest last year)and given Big Ten schools trouble for years.

Our impatience and sense of entitlement works against building the right program to win long term. I don't care that we have suffered since 1989, this is a new start and the point from which we measure progress

It took Ron Meyer 5 yrs to build a winner and that was with "bag men". It took Frank Beamer 6 yrs to get Va Tech rolling, but of course he had that "state school" advantage. We do need to be competitive at this "mid-major" level by Bennett's 4th year, or 2005, in my opinion...and that's getting harder to accomplish with the improvement many of the non-BCS schools are showing.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Water Pony:
<B>
Interesting placard he posted on his arrival in 1995, "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions"

If Phil is the guy, we will need to share a very long journey with him and his players if we want to be Champions.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Exact placard that Ron Meyer used in 1979.