...they are 100% positive and supportive of Creighton! In fact, they are so far over-the-top with positivity and optimism, they could have been written by the PR people in the Creighton Athletic Department!
Hate to pick on just one comment, but this one seems reflective of the mood of many here on the board.
My question is:
Is this seriously what a writer should be; an extension of the PR department for the local university?
It seems that some would want the writers, no matter what the situation, to be like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House, "ALL IS WELL!" regardless of the situation happening around him. (No, there's no chaos right now with the program.)
I find it more responsible for the media to be initially skeptical rather than a mouthpiece for the University. I hope I don't have to draw the parallel for everybody.....
Sure, a lot of what Wessler said in the article is "Duh!"-type material for us, but again, any writer needs to write to the masses, not a niche; in this case (as has been said by dogsrus), casual fans and die-hards, respectively. Basically, it's the "Lowest Common Denominator" argument.
It's a fact of life for almost every sport, when you move to the next level, the game is faster, stronger, quicker, etc. "Rookies," generally speaking, do not initially match production levels they achieved at the lower level. Now, do some "rookies" achieve productive seasons, yes, and Coach pointed out good examples in one of his initial posts. But, Andrew Warren and Jim Les' quotes provide "evidence" that indicates "rookie growing pains," for lack of a better term, are the norm, not the exception of productive rookie seasons.
Is this article a rehash of a widely-accepted theory and applied to the team? Yes, but articles like this are written all over the country about all sorts of teams. Here's a general example: when da Bears went into this week with a couple of rookie cornerbacks, should the Chicago media have completely ignored this and just honked for them instead? Here's what David Haugh of the Tribune said in his article (
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/chi-20-haugh-bears-chicagooct20,0,6373427.column ) about one of those guys: "When the Bears elevated Bowman from the practice squad Tuesday, the thought of counting on him with the game on the line didn't exactly fill people at Halas Hall with confidence." Should Bears fans form up and storm the Tribune and haul David Haugh out to the streets so he could be tarred and feathered because he (as well as da Bears Coaching Staff!) dared to be skeptical about rookie contributions?
I cringe every time this comes up because it seems to me that a "persecution complex" seems to have made inroads to our fanbase. We're better than this.