FRR: Bruce: 9-3 Is Now The Goal

If we pull off the upset versus Wisconsin I think 9-3 is likely. Wisconsin is a really good football team. Beating them says the talent that I believe is deep on this team,has turned the corner.

I agree with you Duane, these kids need to shut up on twitter. If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. Fickell needs to put his damn foot down. I thought Luke would be tougher than Tressel, boy was I wrong.

Plus 1. BTN needs to get better broadcasters and more football and basketball coverage. You should be able to see every B1G football game in our conference over the weekend on BTN they have 3 dedicated channels on DirecTV.

I've always said that Fickell should not be evaulated on overall record. Essentially, at the end of the season we should ask ourselves "How confident are we that we will be contenders regularly with Fickell as the Head Coach?"

Fickell's actions over the following weeks should shape that opinion. A win over Wisconsin, however would have to suggest that improvements have been made. But, a win over Wisconsin would also raise expectations. And thus, losing a later game after a Wisconsin win would suggest terrible inconsistency.

I prefer to look at how he has treated Adversity over these past 7 weeks. I see far too much autonomy granted to Bollman after the insistence of playing Bauserman. That does not speak well of Fickell. I see off the field public complaints and hear about coaches going at it. That also does not speak well for Fickell. So more importantly than winning, I think Fickell needs to demonstrate he has control of this team.

I like the mantra however. "9-3 is the goal" and thats what it needs to be. A team rallying around each other and showing some progressive improvement would bode just as well for Fickell in my mind even if we lost to Wisky. Because right now, I'm just looking to see if Fickell can be a "Head Coach". A win or a loss against Wisconsin doesn't entirely say that. But it does make us all feel good if we win.

So I like what I am hearing. I hope to see Luke continue to try and get a hold of things and own this job.

Absolutely agree with you. As the Jo-Bros found out- you don't mess with the Mouse! My hatred for E!SPiN and their "journalist" has to be tempered with the fact that we need to maintain our deal with the devil. We need to be on ABC on Saturdays to maintain our recruiting footprint nationally. The only thing that's keeping Notre Dame viable to recruits is the fact that even though they are down, they will still get national exposure with their deal with NBC- which is why they are so reluctant to join the B1G.

He said he needed to go on the air for 610 WTVN, but I also found it odd that it happened right after I asked about Urban. Obviously something he's not comfortable talking about on-the-record. (And understandably so I suppose.)