Dear Chris Collins,

Welcome to being a head coach.

Sincerely,

Everyone Who's Been One

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on tonight. Northwestern's young head coach has to learn that once you're in charge the job is a lot harder than you ever though it would or could have been. Making matters even worse for Collins he's in a job in which really no coach has ever been successful. In fact, the most successful one got fired and replaced by him.

What we know for sure is that this game showed why NU ran the Princeton Offense and the 1-3-1 in years past. Virtually every ISU player was more athletic than anyone on the NU roster and they're a weak D1 team. The future success Chris Collins will (or could have) is dependent on upgrading NU's athletic skill. He's making strides in that area. Are those big enough strides? We won't know for a couple years.

The positive from this game is Northwestern never quit giving effort. The negative is it is hard to imagine even with effort that is team is going to be very successful. I'd put the over under on wins at 10.