I thinking that for us part of the issue as fans is coming off of 6 years of a coach that couldn't be more different than this one is. I keep catching myself watching NU through the lens of Sadler--looking for discipline, ferocious defense, a sense that no game can be taken for granted from a team that knew it wasn't good enough for swagger. In short, a more humble crew.
It's as if for the first time in years, we have to return to the Nee days--a coach far more similar to Miles--where the tradeoff of getting better athletes is that you lose some of the blue collar charm of a lesser talented team that knows it has to bust its ass to win against anyone.
Maybe I'm alone in that thought, and that's cool. But I'm finding it hard to like this team at all; not because they're bad kids, but because their approach to playing the game is so different than what I've been conditioned to and also the way they're coached is so different than what I was used to.