EagerFan said:

A buddy of mine has been a huge trash talking USC homer for ever and I've been enjoying his B1G results so far.

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Any day USC loses is a good day.

I read an interesting article on Jayden Daniels, the Washington whiz kid and Heisman Trophy winner. He spends a lot of time refining his throwing mechanics with an emphasis on accuracy. For the article he was working on accuracy going to his left. I mention this because I noticed how Lausch's first set of throws were just slightly off. Several throws were made off of scrambles. I just think the kid needs to keep working on his throwing skills particularly while scrambling.

Baz=Heisman said:

I mean we’ll see but Fitz had plenty of MAC guys. Damn near every QB post-2014 that he got was a MAC guy.

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Mustn't criticize St Patrick. Go do a novena

gocatsgo2003 said:

The University President seldom comes up in recruiting.

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No, but they can lead to changes in how you have to do things and that can affect recruiting

curdog said:

Recruiting was by far the biggest strength of Fitz and at NU, recruiting needs to be the strength of the staff. Most kids don’t grow up an NU fan or dream of playing at NU, coaches need to sell it. I hope Braun and company are able to do it.

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Consistency was. We were a developmental program just like is claimed today but then they were working with higher level guys to start with than Braun will have to work with

My biggest concern with Lausch isn't the physical, though he does have some mechanics inconsistencies that lead to his wildly inaccurate throws at times. My biggest concern is whether he will grasp the mental side of playing quarterback. It is often this mental aspect that sets aside the good QBs from the bad. So far, he seems pretty incapable of reading defenses, of anticipating pressure and of knowing where all his options are on the field. Some of this you can see on tv and the announcers have pointed out his mental misses numerous times. I also hear posters on here commenting on his inability to get off his first option. Good QBs can sometimes recognize even before the ball is snapped that their first option isn't going to work as planned and already is mentally ticking through what the rest of his options will look like.

In fairness to Lausch, he doesn't have a ton of experience behind center and so maybe this isn't surprising. I just wish there was some evidence that he was improving in this area.

JimStarr777 said:

Here ya go. Still think it’s a solid call?

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I agree in that second angle it looked like she got ball. If you're a Minnesota fan, it was the worst call in the history of sports. If you're a New York fan, you convince yourself it made-up for some horrible call against you at some point earlier in the series. As a neutral fan, it looked like a bad call, but not totally indefensible. The defender was leaning forward and there was clearly body contact, whether she hit Stewart with her arm or not. But it probably shouldn't have been called.

Also, not a travel. She was bobbling the catch on the inbounds pass, and then once she had control, she took her step and a half and went into her shot.

As with any bad call, they get magnified when they come at a key moment in the game. The bottom line is Minnesota was dominating the first half of this game and couldn't put it away, and then couldn't get the job done in overtime. If that bad call happened when Minnesota was still up 12, people don't complain as much. Bad calls happen. Those of us who are Cincinnati fans will never forget the phantom pass interference call on our LB against the Rams on third down in the redzone in the SuperBowl a couple years ago. Instead of ending the drive with a FG attempt, the Rams got first and goal and went on to score the eventual game-winning touchdown. Doesn't matter how much we complain... the Rams still hold that title.

TheC said:

I'll be perfectly frank, I didn't see any of the games. I am just having some fun with the Caitlyn Clark fan club here. At first, I found this thread about some University of Iowa player on our board kind of annoying, but now that it's taken on a life of it's own, I am just leaning in and having fun with it.

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Ok got it, though the refereeing issues are truly not fun. And just for the record - Stewart was (frustratingly, for me, as a big fan) horrible on offense (by her very lofty standards) and certainly did not merit receiving any “benefit of the doubt” from the refs. The referee also mentioned the Lynx defender “was not in a legal guarding position” as the reason for it not getting overturned. Seems like that’s garbage. I think the Lynx coach has a legitimate beef (recognizing WNBA referees are consistently poor).

TheC said:

Based on your post, I thought this was going to be a terrible call. But what was wrong? She clearly hit Stewart on the forearm as she went into her shooting motion. That call was pretty easy. Why is it so controversial? I saw the headline of the Minnesota coach complaining about it too, but that seemed a pretty clear foul.

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Here ya go. Still think it’s a solid call?

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Mossreportdos said:

Rivals is a joke but I still love Lou V and the WildcatReport, especially when covering NU Recruits for hoops. Since they are committed to Northwestern, they will probably never get rated.

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On the one hand, you got to respect Rivals for their integrity not winging a rating without actually evaluating the players, but on the other hand, you got to hate them for not giving a damn.

Pretty sure I saw Brooks on Ridge Avenue this morning not wearing a boot.

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NJCat said:

Apparently Rivals doesn't rate 2 of the 4 commits.......

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Rivals is a joke but I still love Lou V and the WildcatReport, especially when covering NU Recruits for hoops. Since they are committed to Northwestern, they will probably never get rated.

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PurpleWhiteBoy said:

Braun is facing a couple impediments that Fitzgerald didn't really have to deal with for the bulk of his tenure.
Michael Schill and NIL.

Not sure which hurts NU football more.

Fitzgerald's genuine affection for Northwestern had to be helpful when selling NU to players and parents. (Yes the parents matter)
Braun is really just a positive guy trying to make a career for himself who can't really distance himself from Schill.

Fitzgerald, because of his status, was able to credibly promise development and assistance (possibly even "protection") to the guys he brought into the NU football family. Braun can't make those same promises because everybody knows Schill threw the whole team under the bus in 2023. And if they don't know, other schools will make sure they do know.

Additionally, what Fitzgerald was selling has also been undercut by NIL, so Braun faces a significant disadvantage there.

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The University President seldom comes up in recruiting.

TheC said:

Based on your post, I thought this was going to be a terrible call. But what was wrong? She clearly hit Stewart on the forearm as she went into her shooting motion. That call was pretty easy. Why is it so controversial? I saw the headline of the Minnesota coach complaining about it too, but that seemed a pretty clear foul.

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Wrong. The other camera angle showed she only hit ball. The entire thing was a sham.

No mention of the travel, TheC?

AdamOnFirst said:

If you compare early Fitz to early Braun, it's less drastic, though Braun has some advantages Fitz didn't... but also some new disadvantages in NIL Fitz didn't have either.

I generally believe it Braun's ability to get guys excited to play for him, but we'll just have to see over the next couple of years. Last year's class wasn't really Braun's class and this year is just year one. Next year will be big coming off the nice year last year.

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Last year's team was arguably motivated by the "Cats Against The World" more than anything. Braun deserves credit for harnessing that energy and resurrecting the defense.

Now the offense looks confused and the coaches often seem confused when we have the ball. The defense seems capable enough and reasonably coached.

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Oklahoma fired their offensive coordinator (Seth Littrell) 7 games into his first season at that position.

He is an OU alum with 7 prior seasons as head coach at North Texas, which resulted in 6 bowl appearances (all losses).

Northwestern's OC has 2 years of FCS experience at that position with South Dakota State.
In 7 games at the FBS level he has established a pattern of terrible risk/reward decisions and largely ineffective play-calling.

Or am I being too harsh? (I suspect Braun is covering for Lujan by re-directing the criticism at himself)

PlowKing2 said:

Every game I can recall this season NU received the opening kick. Am I misremembering?

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I'm pretty sure we won one and received at the open by choice at least once.

curdog said:

Recruiting was by far the biggest strength of Fitz and at NU, recruiting needs to be the strength of the staff. Most kids don’t grow up an NU fan or dream of playing at NU, coaches need to sell it. I hope Braun and company are able to do it.

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If you compare early Fitz to early Braun, it's less drastic, though Braun has some advantages Fitz didn't... but also some new disadvantages in NIL Fitz didn't have either.

I generally believe it Braun's ability to get guys excited to play for him, but we'll just have to see over the next couple of years. Last year's class wasn't really Braun's class and this year is just year one. Next year will be big coming off the nice year last year.