Teams have 25 seconds to run a play and 60 minutes to win a game. aaaaaaaa

And, according to college football’s unwritten rules, Randy Walker has five years to build a program.

His first taste of success at Northwestern came earlier than expected, in his second year at the helm.

But with the 2000 season looking like a fluke – the Cats went 4-7 and finished tied for last in the conference in 2001 – Walker is attempting to prove in his fourth year that his Wildcats, with his recruits, can win games and compete in the Big Ten.

“That’s why they give coaches five-year contracts,” said current Miami (Ohio) head coach Terry Hoeppner, an assistant under Walker who succeeded him as the RedHawks’ head coach in 1999. “A lot of coaches say you need five years, that’s kind of the magic number.

“By the fourth year, you’re with the guys who understand you. The communication comes easier – you don’t have to explain and reiterate everything.”

In Walker’s Miami coaching gig, he followed the five-year theory perfectly. His fifth season in charge of the RedHawks produced a third-place Mid-American Conference finish and started the team on the road to a conference co-championship in 1998, Walker’s last year in Oxford, Ohio.

Bobby Johnson, who played for Walker at Miami from 1991-94, said the reason the RedHawks improved so drastically in year No. 5 was because the players were all brought in by Walker.

“When you have a team that you recruited, they choose your system,” said Johnson, currently an assistant coach at Miami. “The kids buy into it. That has a huge effect on if you’re going to be good.”

Normally, it takes five years for all the previous coach’s players to graduate (including their redshirt seasons). But that point has come sooner for Walker at NU.

Just three fifth-year Cats are left on the roster. NU tailback Kevin Lawrence, cornerback Raheem Covington and defensive end Onaje Grimes are the only current players who were around for Gary Barnett’s last season, which was their redshirt year. The 16 current fourth-year seniors were recruited by Barnett but have been coached exclusively by Walker through their college careers.

Most of the potential playmakers for the Cats in 2002 were recruited by Walker, including quarterback Tony Stauss, wide receiver Kunle Patrick, and running backs Torri Stuckey, Noah Herron and Jeff Backes.

“I sat in Torri Stuckey’s house,” Walker said in November. “There’s a difference there to some degree because I did recruit them, I did go in their homes, I did go in their high schools and built those long-term relationships.”

And that history might be a good thing for Walker and the Cats.

“Until this year, there’s still some of Barnett’s guys,” said former NU safety Sean Wieber, who played from 1998-2001. “Someone comes to replace (your coach), there’s tension.”

Because he redshirted his first season, Wieber still had a year left when he opted to bow out before the upcoming campaign. Wieber is one of six NU players passing on their fifth year of eligibility with the Cats.

Tight end David Farman – also one of the six – won’t be returning to the football field because he’s heading to medical school in the fall.

“I’m done with the team now,” Farman said. “That’s a chapter of my life that’s closed. Everyone has different ideas about how things should be done, and sometimes there’s conflict with people’s ideas, (when they’re) confronted with something different.”

The loss of so many experienced players would be problematic for any program, NU assistant head coach Jerry Brown said.

“Any teams that have been good, the senior leadership is essential,” said Brown, who is entering his 10th season with the Cats. “If it’s anything other than that, to be good you have to be awful talented.”

Farman, who could have been part of NU’s leadership core, was part of the old Barnett guard. Like every other player, he assumed the coach would be in Evanston for his entire collegiate career.

Before his departure for Colorado in January 1999, Barnett had been with the team for seven seasons. He sent an e-mail to players talking about a return to the Rose Bowl less than a week before he bolted.

But, as Brown said, “In college sports there can be no guarantee of four years.”

‘IT WAS HELL’

The transition year, 1999, was especially tough for the players. The Cats went 3-8 – 1-7 in the conference, finishing 10th. It was the Cats’ third straight subpar season after the 1995 Rose Bowl season and the 1996 Citrus Bowl campaign.

“I thought it was hell,” Covington said. “It was hell because I wasn’t expecting it and I really didn’t like (Walker) at first. That made it kind of hard for me.”

And Covington wasn’t the only one.

Even Walker said his first season at NU wasn’t easy. He brought vastly different styles of play – as well as high expectations – from Oxford to Evanston. These changes were among the major reasons that so few members of the 1998 recruiting class will take the field for the Cats this fall.

“The fifth-year seniors, if they’re still here, they’ve signed on more or less to coach Walker’s way,” Farman said. “If they didn’t like that, they probably would have left.”

Many did just that, either transferring or reneging on their verbal commitments before arriving in Evanston. Four recruits – Chris Brown, Gabe Nyenhuis, Wayne Lucier and Anwawn Jones – followed Barnett to Colorado. And current Michigan quarterback John Navarre was ready to sign with NU, but he decided to play for the Wolverines because of uncertainty regarding Barnett’s status. (Lucier’s departure opened up a scholarship for center Austin King, and Navarre’s created a spot for Notre Dame transfer Zak Kustok.)

The three fifth-year seniors who will return – not including Jeff Roehl, another Notre Dame transfer who is now coming back for his fifth year of eligibility – are from a crop of nine that could have kept playing. In the 2000 season, only three of 14 players elected not to return to the Cats for their fifth year.

“You come and you pick the school, but you also pick the coach,” Lawrence said. “He is one of the reasons that you’re going there. Coach Walker will probably be the first to tell you that not everyone can play for him. That being said, not everyone was feeling what he was saying. I understand that sentiment perfectly.”

SUCCESS OF HIS OWN

One of the biggest changes in Walker’s recruiting strategy is the ability to sell the 2000 Alamo Bowl season to recruits.

Covington, Lawrence and Grimes were all signed on the heels of the 1995 and 1996 bowl seasons, but Walker recruited his two most recent classes after the Cats’ trip to San Antonio.

“I saw Northwestern going to the Rose Bowl and the Citrus Bowl when I was in high school, and that made my decision to come here,” Covington said. “The younger guys, they see Walker.”

The allure of a Big Ten championship and a potential trip to a bowl game also snagged linebacker Pat Durr.

“The reason why I came here was I wanted to win,” Durr said. “I saw the Rose Bowl team, Citrus Bowl team.”

Now Walker has an accomplishment of his own to lure players to Evanston. But the 2000 season won’t hold up indefinitely. Walker needs more success on the field to continue to sign good recruits – even if the wins come with some of his predecessor’s players.

Despite the fact that he didn’t bring the current seniors to NU, Walker isn’t going to throw them off the field anytime soon.

“Obviously there are still kids here that coach Barnett recruited,” Walker said. “But I like them.”

COMPLETING A CHANGE

Covington, Lawrence and Grimes said they have acclimated themselves to both the coach and his style despite being recruited by another man.

Even though the three fifth-year seniors insist their transition is complete, both Hoeppner and his defensive coordinator Jon Wauford – who played for the Redhawks before and after Walker’s arrival – said it’s easier to coach players after recruiting them into a certain scheme.

“Part of the reason is you recruit to a style of play on offense and defense,” Hoeppner said. “There might be pla
yers that you have to tweak to your system. (NU) went to the spread (in 2000) out of necessity because of personnel.”

During Walker’s impressive second season that yielded a share of the Big Ten title, he went from the most conservative offense in the league to the most radical. A running back during his college years at Miami, Walker began his coaching career at NU with a hard-nosed ground game. So the four-wideout style wasn’t necessarily his first choice.

Since he’s been at NU, Walker has recruited players to fit into the drastically different styles of play, bringing in both tight ends and agile quarterbacks. When he arrived in 1999, there were only three tight ends on the Cats’ roster.

“Gary (Barnett) did not put as much on quarterbacks being mobile and running,” Walker said. “So we’ve kind of recruited toward that. We’ve tried to recruit guys that throw the ball well but also make plays running.”

The success of these new recruits will be crucial for Walker as he continues to build his own program. The revamped and expanded offense, headed by new coordinator Mike Dunbar, will take the talents of Walker’s recruits into account. This year’s playbook includes split-back and two-tight end sets as well as the I-formation.

According to Wauford, employing schemes left over from a previous coach – or out of necessity based on personnel – limits a program’s potential success.

“You’ve got to run what you believe,” he said. “If you’re running somebody else’s stuff, you’re not going to be very good.”