Although the Northwestern Wildcats have had surprising success this fall, Coach Randy Walker still wakes up Sundays with Miami University on his mind.

        Walker, who played at Miami from 1972-75 and was head coach from 1990-98, made it a habit to check on his alma mater — once known as the Cradle of Coaches — while an assistant coach at North Carolina. That tradition continues as Walker coaches one of the surprising teams in the country.

        Walker took over at Northwestern in January of 1999 and promptly went 3-8 with one Big Ten victory. This year's squad is 5-2, 3-1 in the Big Ten, and has a shot at the conference championship. But Walker, CNNSI's coach of the half-season, hasn't forgotten Miami. “Shoot, it's my alma mater, my wife's alma mater; my daughter's a senior there,” said Walker, a 1992 inductee in the Miami Athletic Hall of Fame. “I dedicated 15 years of my life to Miami, playing and coaching. You can't just cast that aside say "see ya' and drive off.”

        “See ya” is what four skeptical Northwestern recruits said when Walker replaced Gary Barnett, renegging on their commitments with two of them following Barnett to Colorado. In contrast, Walker, the winningest coach in Miami history, made sure not to impede the Miami turnaround he started in 1990. He and the assistants who joined him at Northwestern called all of their Miami recruits, urging them to stay at the Oxford campus. Northwestern sophomore Austin King, a graduate of Purcell Marian, is a Barnett recruit who stuck around under the new regime. “A lot of guys left, and that's their choice,” King said. “But I knew Coach — he recruited me, and he was a winner at Miami — so I decided to stick around.”

        King has started at center for a team that has gone 3-1 n the conference — with almost the same lineup that went 1-7 last season.

        Michigan State coach Bobby Williams saw the turnaround first hand, with Michigan State throttling Northwestern 34-0 in 1999 before losing 37-17 in Lansing this season. “Walker has done just a tremendous job taking a team that was struggling and developing its confidence,” Williams said. "That's not necessarily a team of great football players, but he's just got them playing well as a unit."

        After Northwestern upset Wisconsin 47-44, Walker referred to himself as “the least surprised person out of the 80,000” in Madison. Walker said he's survived 25 years of coaching by being an eternal optimist. “When I was a running back I told myself that no one could tackle me,” he said. “Of course, they did. But you need a certain attitude and confidence level to succeed, to find a way to win.”

        And win he has. Walker played in three bowl games at Miami. He earned his place in the “Cradle of Coaches” by posting a 59-35-1 record with a program that won two games combined in the two seasons before his arrival.

        “I eventually want to win a national championship,” Walker said. “If that's not what you set your sights on, then why are you doing what you do?”

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