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UNHWILDCATS05
June 30th, 2006, 10:30 AM
Northwestern's head football coach, Randy Walker, died yesterday at the age of 52 of a heart attack.

http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/063006aaa.html

UNH will be playing at Northwestern in September and I'm sure I speak for all Wildcat fans in saying that our hearts go out to Larry Walker, his family, and the Northwestern community.
DUPFLFan
June 30th, 2006, 10:53 AM
UNH - it was Randy Walker...
ISUMatt
June 30th, 2006, 04:54 PM
Im a HUGE Northwestern fan and this is aweful, just plain ol aweful...Seems everytome something goes right for NW (womens LAX- Champs, Softball-2nd place) something catastrophic happens. This follows the death of Ricky Birdsong, DB Rashidi Wheeler, FB Matt Hartl and now Walker...Just a SHAME...IMO he was one of the BEST coaches in the BIG 10...always managed to get the most of his players thats for sure
ngineer
June 30th, 2006, 10:36 PM
It will be interesting to see if this impacts recruiting. A local kid, upcoming senior at Bethlehem Liberty High School announced last week that he was giving verbal commitment to Northwestern. He's the QB, named Persa, and said how much Walker influenced his decision. Now, without Walker's presence, one wonders whether some of these decisions will be 'rethunk'.
ngineer
July 1st, 2006, 10:20 AM
Bethlehem Liberty HS Quaterback Dan Persa said in today's Morning Call that he would keep his verbal commitment to Northwestern, if they kept the coaching staff intact. From the interview he clearly expressed how taken he was by Walker's honesty and openess and the rapport with the coaches. The article also noted that Walker's son was in charge of recruiting. I imagine this is very unsettling on a young high school player who has just made the biggest decision, to date, in his life.
I would expect that with practice only 5 weeks away, the university would elevate one of the assistants for the year and let that be chance to show what he can do. If things don't go well, they can begin the search for a permenant replacement, but that would like lead to a significant dismantling of the existing staff since that is usually what occurs.