1LDTFS, Post 13: The Punter.

I bring you: the most boring post you will ever read. First off, it's a preview post about a position which will not undergo any changes, most likely. If you're not bored yet, it's about punting, which is the most inherently boring position in any sport, besides maybe first-base coaches. 

But, look: there's college football in 20 days. When I first started doing these posts, there were 72 days left. If you're not excited, even if it's to read about punters, you're not a friend of mine.

Days Til Football: 20. (Can you read, son? Look, like, two lines above here.)

Sad Demos face.

Who did it last year?: Wildcat #1, Stefan Demos. As far as I can tell, everybody's favorite rugby-style punter made three mistakes last year: twice, he punted the ball into the end zone, and one time, he punted a low-lying ball directly down the middle of the field to a guy who was probably the best kick returner not being paid large sums of money to return kicks. Like Amado Villarreal, he made a big boo-boo at the worst time possible, and like Villarreal, his blunder ended up being one of the contributing factors in our Alamo Bowl loss, ruining what was a pretty good season for Demos.

Demos downed 26 punts - 40 percent of his total punts - inside the 20 with only 2 touchbacks, and averaged 39 yards a punt. That's pretty good. The year before, he was arguably better, with 40.1 yards per punt with 42.5 percent of them landing inside the 20. This, folks, is a good punter.

Who's got next?: Same bat punter, same bat channel. Stefan will probably be punting again, in addition to his field goal and kickoff duties. A pretty steep load, but he'll have to handle it: although Jeff Budzien could be competing with Demos for the role of placekicker, nobody else on the NU roster is listed as a punter, although Brandon Williams has punting experience. 

Song this unit reminds me of: "Frontin'" - Pharrell.

Never mind that I'm show-owin off, I was just puntin? A bit of a stretch, but I was out of ideas.

I hope this makes up for the fact that I didn't last long enough to show up at Pharrell's performance on Dillo Day. 

Is that an improvement: This segment of these posts... kinda pointless in this one, right? Demos will return, so, no improvement or dropoff, here. 

Welp. There it is. I've covered every position on the football field, from the QB to the holder. That being said, we still have 20 days till kickoff vs. Towson, and I plan on posting every one of them, twice or more some days, so keep checking back every day. I've got some surprises in store for you, so, seriously, keep coming back.  

1LDTFS, Post 12: Returners

So football practice starts today. Which means I've gotten through the brunt of the newsless summer, and we're fast approaching, well, the part of the year we enjoy. Long story short, I'm excited.

Quick site note - one of the perks of being half-Cuban is that I get to go visit Miami as frequently as I want with the excuse that I need to see my family. I'm taking advantage of that this week, as I'll be down there, so don't expect posts every day, because, let's face it, there's more interesting things to do in Miami. I might put up one or two, but don't hold your breath. 

Days Left Til Football: 25.

Who did it last year?: Stephen Simmons returned kicks last year, and was nothing to write home about, but wasn't too bad either. He busted out some 30+-yard returns, but his reputation as a return man rightfully rests on one play, his 99-yard return for a touchdown against Ohio State in 2007. When Simmons was injured for a few games, a platoon of Jeremy Ebert, Jordan Mabin, Jeravin Matthews and Sherrick McManis took over, and Matthews' speed made him look pretty good at it.

Punt returns were handled by Brendan Smith, with a few cameo appearances by Eric Peterman. Smith's best return was obviously his pick-six against Minnesota, but he had a 51-yard punt return against Illinois that wasn't too bad either. 

Who's got next?: Except for Peterman, we return (ughhhhhhhhhh) everybody mentioned above, meaning Smith pretty much has a lock on the punt-returning gig. 

As for kicks, I'd assume Simmons will be deep pretty much every time, but with him as a likely candidate starting running back, I assume he won't be taking every single kickoff just to give his legs some time off before taking the field, although he did return kicks in his few starts last year. Look for a big role for Jeravin Matthews here, and lesser roles for the other guys mentioned. Also, if Fitz is to break in a true freshman, the kicking game is where the least mental adjustments are needed. As evidenced by the contributions of Ebert and Matthews, last year's only two true freshman, in the return game, Fitz won't be afraid to set some freshman loose here, so don't be surprised.

Is that an improvement?: Truth be told, last year's kick returning game was pretty bland. I mean, they got the job done, no Iowa-esque catch-and-coughs, nobody ran backwards, but there wasn't anything that truly put the offense on the brink of scoring. Pretty much, I'd be satisfied with just one good play. Other than Smith, I can't remember any electrifying returns, although Matthews and Simmons each had 40-yarders. If either unit can bust out one return that either puts six on the board or puts the offense in a position to do so quickly, I'd call this unit an improvement. 

Oh, and, I added a new poll - listen to Diddy!

1LDTFS, Post 11: Field Goals and the people associated with them.

Today's post is oddly titled, because it's really 1.5 posts. You see, we didn't just lose Amado Villarreal this year. We lost every possible human being associated with kicking field goals: the kicker, the backup kicker, the holder, and the long snapper. It's very similar to what the Mayans predict will happen in 2012. Since I wasn't sure where to place a post about the more marginal positions, I'm lumping them in at the end of my Amado post. Enjoy.

Days left til football: 31. (This number is guaranteed accurate: I'm no longer going off math, but off of HailtoPurple's countdown to kickoff counter and this site, which alternates playing a different song every time I go to the page, luckily, the songs it picks are pretty much the only songs I could ever want to hear: Young Jeezy's Put On, Kanye's Homecoming, Zombie Nation, Mo Greene's Go U NU bowl game remix (why haven't I ever heard this song before? He name drops EVERY SINGLE OFFENSIVE LINEMAN!), and other classics.

Who did it last year?: Surely you remember Amado Villarreal. I've been deading Villarreal since this site's very first sentence, but, truth be told, he was a pretty servicable kicker for his two-year career, even briefly earning nickname "Amado-matic." 

Don't get me wrong: Amado Villarreal was far from a great kicker. A great kicker wouldn't miss any PAT's, and would be able to hit 40+ yard field goals, which Amado essentially couldn't. But he was, without a doubt, an alright or better kicker. He gets a pretty bad rap for a few reasons: first off, kickers ALWAYS get bad raps. People remember even the great kickers for the one time they missed one that could've won a game. Just hitting a field goal or extra point doesn't seem that impressive - it's expected, so fans get mad whenever a kicker misses one. Secondly, Amado didn't have any positive defining moments - no game winning field goals or anything, his only game-winning attempt came at the end of the 2007 Michigan State game, and he missed from 36 yards. 

And third, Amado's failures couldn't have come at worse times. Villarreal missed three extra points this year, four in his two year career. The first came in the aforementioned MSU game, which ended up being a 48-41 NU victory in overtime, but could have had a final in regulation of Amado hadn't missed an extra point attempt. The second came in last year's Iowa game, when NU scored a touchdown after being down seven and had to watch Amado shank one to leave the score 17-16. (We won eventually, in case you forgot.) The next came in last year's Indiana game. The final score was 21-19, but if Amado had hit all his PAT's, NU would've had the opportunity to tie it up at 21 with a two-point conversion. The most painful, of course, was a shank job in last year's overtime Alamo Bowl lost, which prompted people to get very angry at our kicker, because another point would've won NU the game.

But until the PAT - a really, really, really outdated aspect of football - is eliminated, very good kickers will always miss them once in a while. They'll plant their foot wrong, the snap will be high, or the hold will be an inch too far to the left, and it'll get shanked, and there's nothing you can do about it. Long story short, Amado worked hard for five years, kicked relatively well for two of them, and it's sad that he'll be remembered for his propensity to shank.

(Oh, and, what a bad idea to write 500 boring words about PAT's a few days after I get linked to because I'm "witty." I think I just lost all my readers.)

Song this position reminds me of: Posting "Can I Kick It" would be too cliche, so until somebody writes a song about Amado Villarreal, this section of this post goes barren.

Who's got next?: It's a toss-up between our good friend/punter Stefan Demos and incoming recruit Jeff Budzien, who's like an All-American or something. There's two options here: we could let Budzien and his golden leg get to work right away nailing 50-yarders, or we could let Demos swing double-duty as a punter and a kicker at the risk of his leg falling off but with the reward of keeping Budzien around the program another year. Chances are Demos would be servicable as a placekicker, but to be honest, I the upcoming year is one of the more important ones in franchise history. Kicker isn't a position which requires an adjustment period. If Budzien is a better kicker, just shove him in the starting lineup. We've got more to lose this year than we do in 2013, when he'd be a senior if we redshirt him, so I say set him loose. 

It should also be noted that Brandon Williams, a freshman kicker on our roster, played quarterback and wide receiver in high school. For some reason, that reminds me of that one Bugs Bunny cartoon where he was playing baseball, although odds are Williams' method of getting in the end zone probably wasn't unfurling posters of 1930's pin-up girls to defenders about to tackle him.

We also have Steve Flaherty, a walk-on kicker who played wide receiver in high school, and Mark Ison and Tim Weak, who were listed as kickers on last year's roster but have moved to wide receiver and cornerback, respectively. Point is, our kicking corps could totally demolish any other kicking corps in the Big Ten in a footrace. Not sure why our kickers need such great hands, though. 

Is that an improvement? With Demos, maybe, with Budzien, probably. Dude's a high school All-American. What more can I say? 

THE OTHER POSITIONS

We also lose a long snapper and a holder. These are two positions that you forget about, but, which, well, you need somebody to do. I remember the first game I saw at Ryan Field, against Ohio. I had read something about how Ohio's long snapper was suspended or injured or something silly like that, and as a joke, I said to a friend that this would totally change the course of the game.

Three hours later, NU had blocked two field goals and Ohio had missed it's only other opportunity, because the backup long snapper kept bouncing it back to the holder, and Ohio couldn't get off a good punt because everything back to the punter was a two-hopper. It totally ruined what could have been a winnable game for them. 

Kyle Daley had been holding for two years and Phil Brunner had been long snapping for three. And they were pretty consistent, I guess, I don't remember them ever messing up. Replacing Brunner will be a guy named John Henry Pace, who transferred from The U (slang name used here to avoid confusion with Miami (OH), who we're more familiar with, for some reason), and replacing Daley, we don't know yet, although several wide recievers and safeties have "might be a holder this season" on their player profiles. 

If you read these last few paragraphs, you're a trooper. Sorry this post was so long.  

1LDTFS, Post 10: Safeties.

Woah, comments on my last three posts? I know that's pretty run-of-the-mill for any normal blog, but, yo, I just started this joint less than a month ago. Three comments on three posts from three different people makes me all warm and gooey inside. Keep it up, everybody.

Oh, and re: Think Blue Crew, who suggests we play someone who isn't Illinois, therefore making the Wrigley game less of a spectacle in which NU happens to be a part and more NU-centric: that's the pipe dream. That would definitely be better for NU, if we could actually get people to make us the focus of the game. But Northwestern just doesn't have the brand recognition to be able to book Wrigley Field just for us, and Illinois has the upper hand here: they want to play at Wrigley, Wrigley wants them, therefore, they're not going to be the one giving up a home game. We have to take what we can get, and what we can get is a home game at Wrigley Field against Illinois. So let's do it.

On to safeties, yo!

Days til Football: 35.

(The Daily had a ridiculously good photo of Brendan Smith about three seconds after this photo was taking wherein he is lifting his hands victoriously, but I couldn't figure out how to actually get it on here. So, you get this photo with a sullen Eric Decker in the background instead.)

Who did it last year?: NU had two star safeties: free safety Brendan Smith, was great in pass coverage and was a huge asset in the returning game, and strong safety Brad Phillips, who became NU's biggest hitter and had three interceptions. Each had plays that won conference games: Smith won the Minnesota game with his last-minute pick six to give NU the 24-17 victory, and Phillips' hit on Shonn Greene, despite being completely illegal, cuz of the whole "helmet-to-helmet" thing, forced Greene to put the ball on the ground, giving NU a chance to score, and took Greene out of the game. Which we won.

When Phillips played nickelback or moved up a few yards to play a sort of hybrid linebacker, Brian Peters came in as an extra defensive back in the strong safety position. Peters is a big hitter too - he knocked Arrelious Benn out of the Illinois game. (By the way, the reason Arrelious goes by "Rejus" in sports columns isn't because it's a nickname of his, but because "Arrelious" causes more spelling errors from lazy sportswriters than Dwyane Wade and Jarrod Saltalamacchia combined. This is what's known as a "Coach K nickname" in the biz.) (I just made that up.) (But it works. Even though I can totally spell K-R-Z-Y-Z-E-W-S-K-I with my eyes closed.)

Who's got next?: Brad and Brendan are seniors this year, and both made it onto the cover of the media guide, so, yeah, they'll be starting. And Brian Peters will also be doing his thing in those aforementioned nickelback situations. I nominate we call this unit "The Killer B's". Here's to not getting sued by an overzealous Brad Ausmus and Lance Berkman.

Song this unit reminds me of: Killa Beez, by... the Wu-Tang Killa Beez, a very uncreative rap group affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan. Although you probably just thought it was the Wu-Tang because everybody with a verse on this song is, well, also a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. It's for the better: the rapping by the other members of the Wu-Tang Killa Beez on the rest of this album is historically bad. 

Not to tell U-God what's ghetto, but, dude, I have a Chad Pennington jersey in my closet. I don't wear it for a reason. 

And, yes, I'm running with calling this unit the Killer B's. I'm so uncool.

Is this year's unit an improvement? Well, it's the same unit, a year older, a year wiser, and a year better at game-winning interceptions and the not safe for work Chris Tucker quote in Friday-ing of opposing running backs. I like it. 

So, yeah, have a good weekend. Special teams is next. Football season isn't close yet, but it's close to close. 

1LDTFS, Post 9: Cornerbacks.

Sorry for the four or so day posting break - me and some of the boys went camping, no internet access out in the woods. Hopefully, the new poll on the right makes up for my time away. (Seriously, folks, give Wet Paper Bag his due.)

Days Left Til Football: 38. (Please, nobody actually do the math to figure this out. I'm probably so far off at this point - I keep subtracting from the last time I did this post, but I'm probably losing like 4 days each time I do that.)

Yeah, that's pass interference. 

Who did it last year?: The purple-clad fella above is Sherrick McManis, who started every game last year and did a downright fantastic job. McManis was in his third year starting games at cornerback, his second year full-time, and he's improved every year. He was originally joined by Justan Vaughn, who jumped some people on the depth chart to earn the starting job, but after the Syracuse and Duke games, Vaughn suffered a season-ending injury, and in came Jordan Mabin, who was pretty much as good as McManis, and earned hisself a Freshman All-American honor. 

In the tradition of naming graduated players who sorta contributed in these posts, NU loses David Oredugba, who played a decent amount of corner when we needed three or four on the field, and will forever go down in NU history as the guy whose poor hands led to Brendan Smith's game-winning pick six against Minnesota. Because I'm a journalism student, and I therefore specialize in reporting to you, the reader, the most important and relevant information I can find, I am here to tell you the following information: Oredugba is now gainfully employed playing football for the Helsinki Roosters in Finland.  For all of you who were wondering about ex-NU occasional nickelback David Oredugba's post-collegiate football whereabouts,  you're welcome, and donations are accepted in the form of cash, checks, or credit cards sent to my dorm room. Here are some money quotes from an interview with David from the Roosters' website.

"I understand that during the summer Helsinki is a great place to
be, because of the nice weather, festivals, midnight sunsets. While in
Finland I hope to forge many lifelong friendships."

" I hope to do whatever it takes for the Roosters to win the Maple Title."

The Purple Drank: providing the information you need since June 2009.

Who's Got Next?: McManis and Mabin ensured their starters roles with great performances last year, and with Vaughn back from injury, we've basically got three cornerbacks who we'd be pleased with in a starting role. If needs be, Mike Bolden seems to be the most likely candidate to play in a dime set, although we'd probably end up putting in safety Bryan Peters and having Brad Phillips playing a nickelback role with Vaughn also in the game. 

Is that an improvement? Oh yeah. Essentially, the difference from last year to this year is that we know we have two lock-down corners in McManis and Mabin, plus, our third CB - a pretty necessary position - changes from Oredugba to Vaughn. Don't tell the Helsinki Roosters, but Vaughn was higher than Oredugba on the roster last year, so that's a good thing. Our secondary should be pretty sweet this year, and by now, you've probably noticed that all of the defensive posts since DT have been really complimentary, and the DT one was pretty complimentary too. Long story short, we're going to have a nice defense this year.

And, yes, consider the hunt on for any further evidence related to David Oredugba's Finnish American football career. First person to find anything wins a prize.

1LDTFS, Post 8: Linebackers.

Coming down the stretch of this series, which is a shame, because I clearly have nothing else to write about.

Days Left Til Football: 44.Who did it last year?: On the outside, senior Prince Kwateng, the dude doing something in the photo above, and Quentin Davie started every game. Kwateng was the team captain, and had a pretty solid season, with four games with more than ten tackles, including 13 in the Alamo Bowl. Davie was relatively nice with it as well as a sophomore.

In the middle, Malcolm Arrington seemed like an invaluable part of the defense for the first half of the season. However, he turned out to be just regular old valuable, because Nate Williams came in and replaced him effortlessly, doing as good a job as Arrington had been. 

We also graduate a senior named Mike Dinard, who was a backup OLB who started games in 2006 and 2007 before entering a backup role last year. Sadly, my only recollection of him was a particularly egregious late hit in the Indiana game, but then again, I have a knack for only noticing bad things. 

According to the record books, Brad Phillips started two games at outside linebacker, but I see him as a safety first with the ability to play up a few yards if need be to allow Mike Hankwitz to get creative with his defensive setups.

Who's gonna do it this year? Williams and Davie will reprise their roles from last year. Replacing Prince Kwateng will be TPD favorite and NU folk hero, Ben Johnson, who played a smattering of backup linebacker and struck fear into the hearts of opposing special teamers, and, all things told, should be a pretty good player. 

There's a few other guys who I can't guarantee won't play, so, for the sake of completeness, I'll mention them: Chris Jeske has been injured in a variety of ways for his entire NU career, and is a senior now, and played a bunch of reps with the first team in spring ball, so don't expect his career to end with only blocks to his name. Aaron Nagel transferred from Notre Dame and sat out last year due to NCAA rules, but being a Notre Dame recruit doesn't mean as much as it used to. And as we all know by know, they have a bit of a knack of messing up their LB recruiting priorities anyways. Bryce McNaul was a backup last year, and thus got into the games a little bit, but I don't know much about him.

Is that an improvement from last year? It easily can be. We know Davie and Williams can play from their roles last year, and if you're not a Ben Johnson fan yet, you will be. He's 6'4 and his player profile tells you he was a great high school receiver and set multiple records in track. To sum it up, we have a young unit with two juniors who have proven themselves with starting experience and a sophomore who looks primed to break out.

All said and told, linebacker should be one of many solid units on the defensive side of the ball this next year, and in 2010 for that matter. 

1LDTFS, Post 7: Defensive End

Why did I do two seperate posts about the defensive line, but only one about the offensive? I wish I knew. Sorry bout the double standard, offensive linemen. 

Days Left Til Football: 46. (Woah, under 50?)

Who did it last year?: Primarily, three dudes. 

The one above is senior defensive end/beast/2008 team MVP/2008 first team All-Big Ten/2009 Preseason All-American candidate/2009 Playboy All-American/baby-eater Corey Wootton. Corey Wootton is the truth. Corey Wootton is so good, the Northwestern athletics department embedded a highlight clip in his player profile, which I'm pretty sure is a first for any Wildcat athlete in any sport. You may remember him from doing these things.

On the other end, most of the time, was Kevin Mims, who notched 38 starts as a Wildcat. Mims had been a starter since freshman year, when he recorded a 30 yard pick six in the Sun Bowl, and was Big Ten defensive player of the week once last year, but despite all the achievements, the youtube video he'll be defined by isn't a highlight reel like Wootton, but this:

Mims was also NU's most talented sideline celebrator, besides Pat Fitzgerald, of course.

When those guys took a breather, in came Vince Browne. Vince was a revelation as a RS Freshman, sometimes racking up more tackles or sacks than Wootton or Mims in less playing time. He even managed a Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week nod against Ohio. His year was cut short by injury, but he somehow made it back for the bowl game.

Who's doing it this year?: We return Wootton and Browne, which is great. Wootton was a prospect to go pro until his knee went one way and the rest of his leg went the other while pursuing the QB in the Alamo Bowl, and decided to rehab and return to college after getting surgery in January, a good choice for Corey, because the injury probably would've lowered his draft stock some. Corey will know the decision was worth it when he gets his NU degree 

when he has to walk to Tech in February with four inches of slushy gross stuff on the ground

when NFL DE Luis Castillo comes over to his tiny Evanston crib to visit and lights a cigar with a stack of crisp, clean $100 dollar bills, and flies away in his personal hot air balloon  

when he gets selected highly in April's NFL Draft.

Song/songs this unit reminds me of: 

From Kevin Mims...

To Corey Wootton. Errr, Victor Wooten. Who played a solo show at NU last year. It was awesome. 

I'm close to 100% sure that what he does in that video isn't humanly possible. But hey, same goes for Corey. 

Is that an improvement? Oh yeah. Corey Wootton has probably steadily improved, as he has his whole career, and Browne was arguably as good as Mims last year, and is still a sophomore. No offense to our secondary, but Browne and Wootton are probably the best unit we have on defense, and should put an absolute world of hurt on opposing quarterbacks next season. 

Who else we got? For those of you who are big fans of when I say stupid things about players deep on depth charts I've never heard of, sorry, this feature is done. The way I see it, if you don't actually have a history of playing for us, you don't deserve getting slandered by some dude online, so, no more. I apologize to all the fans of slander out there. 

1LDTFS, Post 6: Defensive Tackle

Yeah, onto the D. Much less interesting to write/read about, so, sorry about that, but, hey, if you want me to write something about NU sports every day in the middle of the friggin summer, which you clearly do, well, this is what you get. 

Since there's no clear order of where to start on defense, like there is on offense with the QB, I'm going from the inside out, or something like that. 

Days Left Til Football: 51.

Who did it last year?: Most notably, the guy in the photo above, John Gill, who, judging from his excitement and the relative depression on the faces of Hawkeyes fans, is pictured immediately after recording a game-saving pass deflection on fourth down against Iowa this year. Anyway, Gill was a pretty dominant DT who started over 40 games at NU. Unfortunately for us, he's now trying to wiggle his way onto the Detroit Lions roster, and you can go ahead and insert your joke about how that's unfortunate for him too, but I'm too classy for that. 

Gill was joined by now-junior Corbin Bryant, who started most of the year as the second DT in our 4-3 defense before an injury at Michigan, and now-senior Adam Hahn, who had started the two years before, started the rest of the year.

Marshall Thomas also played in every game at DT, although quite frankly, I don't remember him, and Jack DiNardo appeared in eight games, but, again, no recollection of this. 

Who will do it this year?: Bryant and Hahn, the two guys with starting experience, will start.

The aforementioned Marshall Thomas is a true senior, and should also get some serious snaps. 

That was easy.

Is that an improvement?: Well, no. John Gill was a serious talent, the type who was clearly good enough to start four years ago and just got better as he went along. Bryant and Hahn are two guys who are pretty good, but, not football-on-Sundays good, and it might show a little in our ability to stop the run. Luckily for us, we have two grade-A beasts roaming the D-end positions, so our line won't be too bad. And, when it all comes down to it, these guys have played before, so it's not like newbies are going in for Gill. But it's a drop-off. 

One Less Day Til Football Season, Post 5: Superbacks

Pat Fitzgerald calls them "super players who do super things." Every other college football in the nation "tight ends and fullbacks." I call them "the topic of today's post, cuz I've covered every plausible offensive position besides superbacks already."

Days Til Football: 52.

Who did it last year? "Starting superback" is sort of an oxymoron, because it's a position that means multiple things and requires a decent amount of depth, especially considering that goal line sets will often have three of them, one as a fullback and two as tight ends. But, Josh Rooks and Brendan Mitchell both caught TD passes in goal line sets as tight end-y superbacks, while Mark Woodsum appeared out of the backfield a lot as a blocker.

Who will do it this year? Because this post just wasn't boring enough, pretty much the same guys. The only difference is the addition of Drake Dunsmore, who showed flashes of good athleticism as a true freshman before missing last year with an injury. He strikes me more of a RB/WR cross than a FB/TE cross superbacks are supposed to resemble, but he's a "superback" because he's too big to be a regular running back and probably too slow to be a regular wide reciever, but he's got the speed and catching ability that hopefully can make a difference out of the backfield, especially with our confusing RB situation. I'd expect everybody mentioned so far to get some playing time, with Rooks acting more like a true tight end and Dunsmore maybe more like a fullback/second running back, with everybody else getting in on goal line sets.

Song that this position inherently reminds me of due to its name: Included due to the Toto incident in last week's O-Line post. Today, here's Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly", from the movie of the same name, which, incidentally, told the story of a young Mark Woodsum (played by Ron O'Neal) and his life as a cocaine dealer. It's a pretty great song/album, with a really mediocre movie. 

Who else we got?

Senior Brendan Mitchell has already been mentioned, but I feel the need to point out that as a beat writer, I noticed that for whatever reason, he's consistently the loudest supporter at any given NU softball game. Your guess is as good as mine.

RS Freshman Brett Nagel was a high school quarterback, which makes me wonder why he isn't playing wide receiver for us like every other high school quarterback in the United States. He was also a highly touted linebacker, but, hey, superback.

John Plasencia is not yet a freshman, but is already a TPD legend as the GTEOATU19.

So, yeah. From here on out, it's football time. 

One Less Day til Football Season, Post 4: O-Line

Probably should start calling this "One Less Week" cuz of the frequency I've been doin em, but, hey.

There's a line between being a football expert and being a guy who knows a lot about football. 

I, sirs, fall on the "guy who knows a lot about football" side. And one thing I think falls on the other side of that line is being able to watch a game and judge how good someone is at offensive line.

Basically, the only time I notice an offensive lineman is when they do something bad, like allowing a sack, or holding, and even then, half the time I'll be like "wow, what a play by that defensive end!" So, the better you are at it, the less you get noticed. Fortunately for NU fans, our five guys up front did a great job blocking for CJ and opening up holes for Tyrell. Unfortunately, that means I barely noticed them.

Case in point: Couldn't find any photos of NU's o-line blocking for CJ all year long. Found one photo of an anonymous, possibly dead O-lineman lying face first while CJ Bachér doesn't know he's about get absolutely crumpled by a blindside tackle from a Mizzou linebacker doing his best Dark Knight impression.

So, here's to the offensive line, the great season they had last year, and to giving them the respect they deserve.

Days till Football Season: 57.

Who did it last year?  From left to right, Al Netter, Keegan Kennedy, Ben Burkett, Doug Bartels, and Desmond Taylor. 

Last year, coming into the season, O-Line was a major issue: Only two players, Joel Belding and Kurt Mattes, had extensive starting experience. The way it turned out, the line became one of our strong suits, despite the fact that those guys didn't even factor in, and instead we started three RS Freshman, a converted defensive lineman in Kennedy, and Taylor,a junior who took Mattes' right tackle spot. Essentially, five guys with no experience whatsoever made themselves into a cohesive unit.

Who's going to do it this year? Everybody mentioned above except Kennedy, the left guard, and Belding, who started at right guard in 2007 only to be usurped by Bartels last year, will return. This leaves an opening at LG, which could be filled by a bunch of people.  Junior Keegan Grant, who is now the only offensive lineman on our roster whose first name is Keegan and whose last name is that of a president, was the starter there in spring ball, but the way to maximize experience and seniority would be to move Taylor, who plays guard as well, there while moving Mattes back to RT, so who knows. (Taylor is the only player listed as an "OT" on his player profile, but I think this is an accident - even centers have "OL" instead.) I predict a line of Netter, Grant, Burkett, Bartels, and either Taylor or Mattes and RT, but, let's face it: I'm in way over my head writing about this stuff, made up mostly of my opinions based on player's profile pages, and, the point of this paragraph is that we have a lot more experience than we had last year. 

In lieu of more analysis, here's the 1979 smash hit "Hold the Line" by Toto.

(Hey, lead guitarist guy: the cherry red sunburst Les Paul looks awful familiar. Looks nice, but you could use some stickers of sub-par basketball players on there.)

(And, for those of you wondering: yeah, it's sort of emasculating to know that my guitar is the same as the one the guy from Toto uses.)

Is that an improvement? I'd say so. Sure, we lose a guy, but think about it this way: where last year, we started five guys who had never played offensive line, much less together, in a unit where cohesion is required. This year, we'll start probably either four or five guys who have experience, depending on how we rejigger people. 

During spring ball, I asked offensive coordinator Mick McCall whether he felt confident with essentially no returning experienced skill position players, and he told me, paraphrased, "well, last year, people were telling me we didn't have an offensive line, and look how that turned out." This year, offensive line has turned into the part of our offense we don't need to worry about. And that's definitely an improvement.

Who else we got? Totally not going to write about every other O-lineman we have on the roster, there's just too many, and I don't know anything about their respective playing styles, so I have nothing to offer. You'll get over it.

One Less Day til Football Season, Post 3: Wide Receivers.

Another day another post. I wondered what I would do with myself with a job that gets off at 2 PM even though my friends generally don't get off until 5, and the answer is "start an overwhelmingly thorough sports blog."

Oh, and vote in the pointless poll! What distresses me is that one dude changed their vote from "I like your 1000 word screeds" to "I like Northwestern sports." Dear that guy: I hate you. I hate you I hate you I hate you. 

Days till football season:64. (You may notice the sunday post said there were 66. Well, I went back to the original post, which was based off of NUsports.com's calculations, and it turns out I am terrible at math. In my defense, I'm a journalism student, and can only understand basic principles of math if they are somehow phrased as per game scoring averages.)

8

9

10

Who did it last year? The guys above, Eric Peterman, Ross Lane, and Rasheed Ward. You needed all three: Peterman provided the closest thing we had to a go-to guy, Lane was a big man on the outside, and Ward, at the risk of sounding vaguely racist, provided speed out of the slot (what? he was really fast!), and was our resident man of a million slants.

Our fourth leading reciever was Tyrell Sutton, who really augmented the spread through his play out of the slot - hopefully, ex-WR Jeravin Matthews can continue the tradition of good receiving running backs, but, you never know. 

There were also decent contributions from Andrew Brewer, who got healthy about halfway through the year, the true freshman Jeremy Ebert, who was our fourth reciever last year and is one of two people to have caught a TD pass from Mike Kafka - the fade at Minnesota - and Sidney Stewart, who settled under Eric Peterman's lone career TD throw. 

Because I'm all about paying respect, Jeff Yarbrough, a receiver who didn't catch a single pass last year, but once had 100 receiving yards and a TD against Michigan State, graduated. Not a big deal, but we could use all the experience we could get right about now. 

Who's got next? Welp, we need a new wide receiving corps. In a dream world, we'd slap Peterman's name on Ebert's jersey, Ward's on Stewart's (again with the vague racism) and Lane's on Brewer's. Anyway, I think they're a good trio. None of them have ever been a #1 receiver, hopefully we'll get a tandem like we had from the last three with a few others contributing. 

I'd be pretty certain that these will be the three biggest contributors based on how they slotted into the offense last year, but the Cats certainly made it difficult for people to predict by passing to nine different recievers in the spring game, with none getting more than three catches. 

Is that an improvement? Eh, probably not. Not a knock on these guys, it's just hard to replace three experienced seniors.

I like Brewer's combo of Lane-esque speed and size, but we've never seen him play wide receiver due to his brutal performances as a quarterback back before I was an NU student and his many injuries. He had a nice 55 yard TD grab in the spring game, so signs are good. Ebert might be a good receiver for years to come, and has a pretty sweet rapport with Kafka judging from that one pass. Stewart also looked decent in limited action last year, we'll just have to wait and see.

Who else we got? NU has 14 - count em - wide recievers listed on their roster. For the hell of it, I'll write a little bit about all of them, but considering only five have ever caught a pass in a game, and I've already written about three of them, and one of the two other people to have caught a pass I hadn't heard of up until spring practices, imagine how little I have to say about the other nine. Done imagining? Prepare to be underwhelmed.

For your reading pleasure, I've seperated the remaining 11 recievers into "guys who have caught a pass in a game, might potentially catch a pass in a game this year, yet I still know relatively little about" and "people who may or may not be figments of NUsports.com's imagination."  

4. Charles Brown caught two passes last year and three in the spring game, and is likely our next guy down the depth chart from the three written about above. Brown was his class valedictorian, and according to his NUsports.com profile, brings "explosiveness," so blame them for the vague racism.

5. Zeke Markshausen is a walkon and the only other player on the roster to have caught a pass in a game. He figured somewhat prominently in spring drills and the game, look for him to pop up once or twice in the slot. I'm also disappointed that his name is actually "Zeke" by birth, because "Ezekiel Markshausen" might have made for the best Amish football player in school history, which in turn would be a great reason to bring back the black uniforms.

Now, in class order: wide recievers who have never caught a pass in a game, might not this year, but who cares. All random facts are courtesy of their NUsports.com profiles, obviously. I'd say any junior or senior on here has the potential to show up on a statsheet. But, like I said, I have absolutely no idea.

6. Senior Kevin Frymire broke a leg in spring ball last year, causing him to miss the whole season, so hopefully he's back to football shape, and hopefully he doesn't mind pretending to be a senior again, because that's probably medical redshirt material. 

7. Senior Kevin Mitchell was a high school quarterback, which according to google translator, is romanian for "Northwestern wide receiver." He's not related to superback Brendan Mitchell or the previously mentioned Kevin Frymire.

8. Junior Carl Fisher has played special teams at NU, and played the role of Gaston in his high school production of "Beauty and the Beast", a fact I'm sure he loves on his football playing resume. 

9. Junior Lee Coleman had a special teams tackle last year. He was a high school quarterback, and there's a joke about that four lines above this. 

10. Walkon junior Mark Ison was listed as a punter/wide receiver up until spring ball, which always fascinated me, because one is close to the most athletic position on the field and the other is probably the least athletic, and yet Ison apparently did both, making him an instant Purple Drank favorite. However, he's dropped the punting gig, which leads me to believe he was pretty bad at it, considering our current punter wants to be our place kicker, leaving an opening there, and the fact that he'll be approximately 12th on our wide receiving depth chart. Here's hoping Ison catches a pass and/or punts at least once this year.

11. RS Freshman Martin Bayless's dad played safety for the Chargers for 13 years, had NFL-player uncles, and is Charles Woodson's cousin. No pressure, kid. 

12. Want to read something interesting about RS freshman Brendan Barber? Too bad. 

13. Ditto for RS freshman Demetrius Fields, although I can say I hope that he and incoming freshman running back Arby "RB" Fields host a buddy sitcom together. Working titles: "Ryan Fields", "Fields of Dreams", "Demetrius and Arby's Fun-Time Variety Hour, sponsored by Goose Island, whatever that is"

14. Last, but not least, incoming freshman Drew Moulton. Obviously, college football recruiting is very difficult and our staff is very good at it, and getting better at it every year, but, Fitz, did you really need to tack on another wide out to make this post 14/13ths longer? Really? I'm sort of mad.

Too much writing about wide receivers has made me need a nap, and made me renege on the "no 1500 word post" policy, but this is probably the last time that happens, because, damn, there's 14 of them, and I felt like it. 

Remember, kids, i before e, except after c, and go vote in the poll. 

One Less Day til Football Season, Post 2: Running Back

(Author's note: I've decided my posts are too overwhelmingly long, after my QB thing clocked in at 1700 words. They say Medill is supposed to teach you to be concise, but then again, they also said it would teach me not to mercilessly mock sub-par kickers, and it took me a preposterously short amount of time to do that, so, shows you what they know.

Unfortunately for fans of conciseness, I've already written this 1600 word piece on running backs - enjoy it, but henceforth, there will be more, shorter posts.

Also, I hope you enjoyed the irony of these hundred or so words about how long my posts are.)

Days Left Till Kickoff: 66

Who did it last year?: Tyrell Sutton won't be a Wildcat next year, and that's probably the definitive difference between this year's team and last. It probably seems weird that I open up these preview posts with a recap of last year, but, first off, crank up the cliché-o-meter, but, you have to know where you've been to know where you're going. But in some cases, it serves a much deeper purpose: I need to eulogize these people who we're losing who have been major figures in Wildcat football history.

With Tyrell, we're losing our superstar.

Tyrell has been our running back for four years, which is just about as long as you can be a college starting running back. He was dominant as a true freshman, dominant as a sophomore, dominant when healthy in his final two seasons.  Flashy, yet workmanlike, Sutton's story of how a record-setting high school running back, managed to slip under the radar of major college dynasties due to his size and ended up killing them for it for four straight years in Evanston is pretty much the embodiment of Northwestern football. (Apparently, it's such a touching story, it requires a soundtrack of Creed.) Long story short, Sutton was the guy you associated with our football program, and he had a truly amazing career.

Let us remember Tyrell with this poorly edited seven-minute highlight reel, which, despite the sub-par editing, has truly tremendous musical choices. (Gladiator and Godzilla, yo.) (Also, everybody who thought I was never going to use my "P Diddy" label again was dead wrong.)

My favorites: the cutback against SIU, the two where he just merks Northeastern linebackers, and the 2nd-and-21 run for 17 yards against Mizzou that prompted him to jump up and start celebrating.

I will always remember Tyrell, for his great running talent, the thousands of unverifiable rumors people told about him - another thing which made him a true college superstar was that he was probably the one dude on the football team able to inspire folkloric tales of his off-the-field exploits that may or may not have been true - and for his impressive ability to turn in his test in my Geography class a good 15-20 minutes before anybody else, then walk out of class remarking about how poorly he did on it. (By the time I'm a spring quarter senior, I'll probably be pretty good at this too, although, I won't be moonlighting as a Green Bay Packer while doing it. I'll just be being lazy.) And of course, for his memorable return from injury in the Alamo Bowl, where pretty much every senior played their hearts out and had ridiculously great games, yet we managed not to win, resulting in a preposterously tragic moment for Northwestern sports.

We also lose Omar Conteh. He was serviceable when called upon, busting out some 100 yard games when Tyrell was out, and, to be honest, I'm not sure why Omar never redshirted. He was never going to start with Sutton there, and it would've made more sense for the program to have him around next year. His career ended badly - after being thrust into the spotlight, he was second fiddle to Mike Kafka in the Minnesota game and suffered an injury in practice that ended his career before three games in which he truly could've helped the team. 

Stephen Simmons started the last three games, and was not Tyrell Sutton. His total yards and yards-per-carry increased in each of the games he started, so that was a good sign. People were down on him as a back, but, remember, we beat Michigan and Illinois with him as our back, so, chill out.

Who's got next: Tough to say, for sure. Stephen Simmons obviously played last year, but in spring ball, he was just part of a three-headed running back monster. Not to keep jacking things I wrote for the Daily and giving shameless plugs, but, as relevant articles go, this one is a pretty relevant one. 

The guys say it best themselves: each of them has different skills, and they sort of like going at it by committee. Steph actually endorses that approach in the article, saying he didn't really like being the lone guy last year. 

Pardon the esotericness, but all I could think about when Steph gave me the quote I used first in the article was that interview you hear at the album version of the end of Protect Your Neck, where Method Man and Ghostface describe the various things each member of the Wu-Tang Clan does, why they got their name, and how they contributed: Stephen Simmons, Jeravin Matthews, and Alex Daniel each have different running styles. Stephen brings experience, and seems like a more patient runner, Jeravin is overwhelmingly speedy and, since he played wide out last year, might be able to replace some of Tyrell Sutton's recieving skills out of the backfield, and Daniel is the more powerful of the three. If they were a boy band, Simmons would be The Shy One, Jeravin would be The Young, Brash One, and Daniel would be The Moderately Introverted Guy With Unnecessary Tribal Tattoos. (Even if none of those descriptions fit their personalities whatsoever.) 

Earlier in the spring, I had spoken with RB's coach Matt Macpherson, or, as I quickly found every single person involved with the team calls him, Mack. I thought he was feeding me coachspeak when he told me that yes, although they had made Jeravin the starter the year before, everything was new coming into training camp, and that everybody was getting equal reps, and everybody had a shot to start, and that they hadn't named a starter yet. Turned out this was less coachspeak and more of an actual representation of the way everything was going: we might be looking at a committee approach come September, and that's not necessarily the worst thing, because all three running backs looked good in spring. 

So I'm a proponent of the RB-by-committee setup, but, who knows. We could get all Simmons or all three, all we know is that at the least Simmons will be a major factor in the running attack.

Is this an improvement on last year?: No. It's much worse. But like I said earlier, we're losing a superstar, and, there's nothing you can do about it other than be glad you had him in the first place. Remember: NU won two of three games with Stephen Simmons as our premier back last year. Now, he has experience, and he has Jeravin Matthews and Alex Daniel there as either his backups or as his running mates. (In a literal term, not as in a vice presidential one.) Also, the way we used Simmons was extraordinarily conservative. Most of the time, he was running delayed draws back up the middle, and most of the time - with one touchdown against Michigan as the exception - he was getting stopped three yards or less past the line of scrimmage because the defense was expecting it. So, to elaborate on my one word answer at the beginning of this paragraph, it's worse than the Tyrell/Omar setup, but probably will be better than Simmons was in his few games last year. When Simmons played last year, it was almost like NU was trying to cut losses by giving Simmons low-risk, low-reward plays, this year, we're going to try and win with him and whoever he brings along for the ride, which could be both or neither of the other two guys at this point.

Who else we got? In addition to Simmons, Matthews, and Daniel, there are four running backs who don't look to factor in much - then again, we said that last year about Stephen Simmons, who, at the time, was a third stringer, so you never know. At least look for these guys to get some late game reps, especially if we do plan on using all three of the aforementioned backs in steady RB rotation.

Scott Concannon is either a redshirt sophomore who has been playing special teams, and of whom I know nothing. His nusports.com profile shows that he had a high school game with 320 yards rushing on 8 carries, including 3 90+ yard scores, presumably because the opposing kicker was kickoff specialist Mike Vanderjagt or because their kick returner averaged -23 yards per return.

Jacob Schmidt is a walkon, also a redshirt sophomore. He's the only one of these four to have carried the ball in a game, and managed to block a punt AND recover it against SIU, which is pretty impressive, although I seem to remember it bouncing off a few other guys before he got to it because it was so rainy. He is most famous in my mind for making special teams tackles, and promptly being confused with linebacker Stone Pinckney by announcers because they wore the same number, which is funny not because Pinkney was redshirting last year, but because the two look sort of different. He says a song that describes him is "Go Getta" by Young Jeezy, probably because of Jeezy's verse about special teams tackles. 

We feature two incoming running backs who will probably redshirt, but, then again, Sutton and Conteh came in the same year and they didn't, so you never know.

Mike Trumpy was ranked the number one running back in Illinois last year, so he was probably a good land. He was also a track star in high school, as opposed to Schmidt, who is best described by a song by a guy who also released a song called "Trap Star". Subtle difference. 

Arby "RB" Fields has a great name for a running back, and, like Evan Watkins in the last post, will have some big shoes to fill by being assigned the number 19. He will join Quentin Williams as a football player/outfielder for the baseball team, as he will play centerfield for the Cats. 

So there we go. 1500 words later, you know about our running backs. We'll do wide recievers on wednesday - different type of post tomorrow. 

And yes - I do plan on having a label for every athlete I mention. What now?

One Less Day til Football Season, Post 1: Quarterback

As previously noted, it was a truly terrible call on my part starting a blog in mid-June, the exact dead point of any college's sports calendar, but I guess you could think about it as me having a few months to tune up, or something. Whatever. 

Anyway, I'll be dropping fire on weekdays I don't have other posts planned in the form of these posts previewing how our football team looks at various positions. (That should eat up, like, two weeks.) Today, we take a look at quarterback.

Days Left til Football: 72 (Mad props to Nusports.com for doing the math!)

One Less Day Til Football Season, Post 1: Quarterback. 

 Mike Kafka (13) becomes the first human to actually use Madden's "juke stick" function in a real life situation, as he did for the entirety of a Minnesota-Northwestern football game.

Who played last year: CJ Bachér. Familiar, yes? CJ, the quarterback for three relatively successful seasons, was a generally solid QB. Pretty good, but nothing to write home about. What I'm trying to say is that CJ wasn't really a bad QB, but the one common thing linking most male Northwestern students was the ability to jokingly crap on CJ Bachér's throwing ability. It made for a great party ice-breaker. Anyway, CJ has moved on to be the star QB for my hometown franchise, the creatively named UFL New York, where he and star wideout Noriaki Kinoshita will combine what I believe to be the first 3/4 asian battery in professional football history. (correct me if I'm wrong, japanese football scholars.) Anyway, it's sad to see the end of the Bachér era, especially for enthusiasts of the letter "é". He will be remembered by a simple Bachér memorial plaque on a bronzed Hundo barstool. (But seriously, folks: all kidding aside, CJ was a really dependable player and a beacon of consistency. He will be missed.)

Who's got next: Mike Kafka. You're also familiar. For a refresher, watch this. (By the way, best part of this blog so far for me: rewatching highlights of games we shouldn't have won but did.)

Mike is one of the best running quarterbacks... well, I've ever seen. His skill at eluding people in the open field is preposterous, better than the stuff you see from some of guys who only run,  and when he's got room ahead of him, he's got wide reciever speed. People fear that he can't throw, but that throw to Ebert was just perfect. I've watched Kafka play in games and in spring practices (for my article in here - mine's the one on the centerfold on the left side where the words meander around Andrew Brewer's crotch) and from a technical point of view, he's got the tools to be a good passer. I've seen him put touch throws over the top to guys on flies and fades three times I can think of. Meanwhile, the only pick I saw him throw in three practices and the spring game was a dump pass that bounced off of Steph Simmons' hands into those of a waiting defender. I'm sure he threw more, but from what I saw, he's become a better decision maker. People will remember his hideous throw for a pick 6 into the flat to a waiting Minnesota DB, but his picks aren't really bad throws in that they're poorly thrown, they're just stupid throws. He should've seen that guy waiting to pounce on that quick pass. In spring camp, he wasn't even making those throws. So here's my thesis on Kafka: he's got the tools. He can do anything we ask of him. He might not actually be able to put them all together for 60 minutes: even against Minnesota, he dug NU a major hole with two silly picks. Kafka has tremendous potential - let's hope he comes through. At the very least, he'll be fun to watch. My only fear is in the way we call plays for him - last year, after the "Oh sh*t" game at Minnesota, the coaching staff wanted to keep playing him even after CJ came back, but absolutely would not let the guy throw the ball. The key to any success from Kafka is going to be his ability to mix it up. As a runner, he needs open space, like, three or four yards worth. And designed draws won't give him that open space. What will are a few pass plays, establishing his arm, and then either one of those designed draws or a good ol pass play he decides to bust looses on, after all, that's how he got most of his yards in that game. But what won't work is the way we utilized him late last year, where he'd come in, run two draws and an option and then ride pine the rest of the way.

Is that an improvement? The jury's definitely still out. I'm not sure Mike Kafka will be a better QB than CJ, as impressive as I find his skill set.  If the public eye is any indicator, while CJ was the occasional butt of those ice-breaking jokes I mentioned earlier, people talk about Kafka in hushed tones. (You could probably tell by the hushed tones that previous paragraph was written in.) For a dude who played two games, lost one of them, and needed a Minnesota missed chip shot field goal and a dramatic finish to bail out him throwing an inexcusable pick six, people talk about Kafka like he's an NU football messiah. Everybody, including me has a harebrained scheme about how best to use him. Mine is the essay-length space above me, some people think he should be a wide out, running back, people say he shouldn't be allowed to throw, everything under the sun. He's achieved cult hero status at Northwestern, and while CJ was by all respects a good QB, he never got the love that Kafka got immediately after that Minnesota game, and to the current day. I've got my fingers crossed that he'll prove he deserves it.

Who else we got? Well, there's redshirt sophomore Dan Persa, whose defining characteristic so far is his willingness to play special teams, even returning a squibbed kickoff last season, much to the confusion of the announcing crew and the delight of coach Fitz, who loves his Fitzian desire to randomly throw his body at other people and do whatever it takes and do things that are easily defined in coachspeak such as "grit", "determination", "hustle", and "flow". His days as a special teamer, however, are over, he's now our backup. He performed satisfactorily in spring games and practices, completing pretty much every pass he threw in the spring game if I remember correctly, although almost all of them were dinky little things nobody cared about.

There's junior Joe Mauro, who may or may not actually exist.  His player profile says that the one person in all history he would like to dine with is Dirk Nowitzki, which sets off all sorts of alarms in my head, because Dirk is probably not in the top 150 current professional basketball players I'd like to eat dinner with. He is famous to me personally for getting into a fight in practice in my NCAA Football dynasty, getting suspended for three games, then getting into another fight in practice the week after he was allowed to come back, getting suspended for another three games. If my Playstation 2 is to be believed, QB # 14 needs some serious moral conditioning. 

There's new recruit Evan Watkins, who, according to those people who pay attention to high schoolers, is good at quarterback, which is swell for all the people hanging around Northwestern after I graduate. (Unless I take a redshirt year for journalism, which doesn't exist yet.) Watkins is tall for an NU quarterback at 6-6, and is the heir to CJ Bachér's number, meaning he will presumably be the only mortal allowed to sit in the aforementioned Bachér stool at Hundo. (Metaphorically. Not in an underaged drinking way.)

To end, I have a bit of a sad note about the bottom of our quarterback depth chart. During the practices I attended for my spring article, I noticed all the quarterbacks pretty easily. (They had purple jerseys.) Every time I went, one boy in a purple jersey didn't get to play with all the other boys in purple jerseys. He played the dummy quarterback in the defensive line drill.He yelled hike, pretended to hand the ball off, or, sometimes handed the ball off, and then stood around for a few seconds, then repeated. Every other player in the drill was a lineman, and they would recruit some linebackers to come and put on red pinneys and play pretend running back, and they would run pretend plays. I always wondered why they needed a real quarterback to do a job which a linebacker in a pinney, a lineman in a pinney, a coach, a sports reporter, or, quite frankly, anybody with arms could have done. (Legs: optional.) I became quickly aware of this quarterbacks plight, and looked him up in my media guide. His name was Harrison Scott, #16. He threw for 5,700 yards in high school, was an all-state quarterback in his class, and, yet, somehow ended up as a walk-on at Northwestern, playing with all the defensive guys in a drill where he wasn't really allowed to throw or do quarterback things. I thought to myself: this quarterback deserves better. What harm could letting him throw occaisonally possibly do? When I wrote this article, I went looking for Harrison on the roster page, but he wasn't there. Only the other four quarterbacks were listed. Maybe he transferred to someplace he could play. Maybe he gave up on football to pursue his academics. Maybe Joe Mauro kicked him into a bottomless pit, 300 style. All I know is that it appears Harrison is no longer a member of the Wildcats football team. 

The Purple Drank is sure he is in a better place, where he can participate in non-contact passing drills from dawn til dusk. You'll be missed. 

Meanwhile, it's a good thing the Daily has editors, because otherwise, every article I wrote would be, like, this long. 

Also, as you might have noticed, I'm overly enthusiastic about labels. And somehow, every post I've made so far has a different font, which is disconcerting, because I haven't tried to change them.