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. 

The Metamorphosis

Yeah, yeah, yeah, enjoy the first and last Mike Kafka pun in the history of this blog. I needed to have at least one, and I needed to do it fast. Unless dude gets arrested, and I have to bust out "The Trial", there ain't gonna be no more, so, let's get this out of our system. Hey, everybody! I  got jokes! We're smart and go to Northwestern, and we like high-brow philosophy humor! 

Anyway, moving on, I needed to bust out my Kafkaesque humor in a relevant fashion, and I don't think there's anything more metamorphos-y than a generic preview of a football team losing a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, and like, our long snapper. (Pour some drank out for Phil Brunner, folks.)

I mean, change happens constantly in college football, we all know that but NU loses a ridiculous amount of experience, and it just so happens to be at the three positions where your average casual football fan can judge talent: we lose our third-year starting quarterback, and his entire corps of starting wideouts, and our senior running back who had been busting out 100-yard days since he got to Evanston as a true freshman. (And his backup, but, nobody really cares.)

And now? Well, some people are worried. NU optimists are getting to the point where they're starting "NU should expect a bowl game every year" talk, and, to be honest, in a world where the top 7 teams in the Big 11 go south (or to Detroit) every Christmas, and all you need is six wins, and folks like Towson be showing up on the schedule, we probably should be talking like that. And these same people see a huge blip on the NU bowl radar in a team missing veteran experience at the most noticeable positions on the field.

I, for one, am not worried. This post is going to be really vague, because, damn, I just founded a college sports blog in June, and have three months of detailed content to come up with and can't use up all my good analysis in one post, but, I'm optimistic about this season. I think this team is bowl bound, fingers crossed, pencil us in for 7-8 wins. As the summer goes on, I'll break down the schedule, and go position by position, but for now, let's just keep it basic. 

We return 8 of 11 from one of the better defenses in Northwestern history, and the fact that one of them - Kevin Mims - is leaving just means that Vince Browne, who, for the record, is a freakin monster, will be unleashed full-time upon opposing front lines. This leaves us with returning talent at the corners, the safeties, a speedy, young linebacker corps, and although our defensive line loses two of its four, including likely Detroit Lion John Gill, we still have, like, Corey Wooton and Vince Brown at the ends. What I'm saying is, get your weight up, Miami of Ohio.

As for offense, if nothing else, Mike Kafka will be way more entertaining to watch than anybody in recent Wildcat history. I mean, come on. He's got a stronger arm than CJ Bacher, runs like a mofo, and plays with approximately 8 times the reckless abandon that anybody should. If we use him as a true, dual-threat quarterback like we did against Minnesota, and not like a "HEY HEY EVERYBODY HE'S THE QUARTERBACK AND HE'S TOTALLY NOT GOING TO RUN A QB DRAW THIS TIME LIKE HE DID THE LAST SIX PLAYS" like we did against OSU and in bits against Michigan and Illinois, I'm tentatively excited about our chances. Sure, Steph Simmons/Jeravin Matthews/Alex Daniel is a big dropoff from Tyrell, but, that's not going to be the most integral part of our offense anyway. And, for the haters, you have to remember that a team without Bacher and Sutton beat a ranked Minnesota squad last year, and a team without Sutton womped on Illinois. And although, yeah, Steph Simmons didn't bust out 140 yards in any of those games, nobody complained, because, you know, we won. 

This year, we have a ridiculous defense, Mike Kafka and whatever happens on offense, and our out of conference schedule consists of Syracuse, Miami (OH), and rumblings from inside the athletic department tell me that we've replaced Eastern Michigan and Towson on the schedule with home dates against the surviving members of the XFL's Los Angeles Xtreme and a lucky co-rec intramural flag football team to be named later. Not to get cocky, because as NU fans, we really should never go into a game expecting a win, but, we really shouldn't drop any of those games. If we hold our own against our Big Ten opponents, or even do a little bit less than holding our own, this team should end up with 7-8 wins.