@mshelton33 and I are at the gate at O’Hare, waiting to board our flight for Las Vegas. There’s definitely quite a bit of purple on the flight — not a ton, but quite a few. Shelton, on the other hand, is rocking a Bucks hoodie and Sox hat. 🙄

We’re gonna get in too late for today’s press conference, but we’ll be posting some stuff here and on X.

Go Cats!

Alright, let’s see what we think our record will be. Will the Cats return to a bowl game?

@ Rutgers
UTEP
@ Duke
Minnesota
Penn State
Howard
@ Nebraska
Maryland
Iowa
@ Wisconsin
Purdue
@ Illinois

like me!

ESPNU is replaying the whole game today at 8PM central and again Tuesday 12/26 at 10 AM central. For me, it's worth another look.

The Cats defense really was tough. I liked Hollis’ penalty. Showed that the Cats were not going to take crap from them and will not back down Everyone had that edginess. I don’t remember that mentality. My wife will confirm I don’t remember a lot, but the Cats had Hankeitx toughness with added Braun grit and street fight toughness. Fun to see it along with the win. I am ready for next years traveling show!

We all know the NU D was nasty last night, making many hard hits and preventing Utah from ever getting any real offensive momentum, but for the life of me, I can't remember a single broken tackle the Utes had. I know there was one play that Mueller couldn't wrap up the QB but he slowed him enough that someone else got credit for the tackle, and on the one Utah TD, Bernard bounced off a guy or two on the way into the end zone, but I'm not sure either would be considered a broken tackle. Nice to see the D making the plays last night on the first touch.

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's 14-7 win over Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Haven't seen any mention of Holtz in weeks. Is he still involved with the program? What if anything did he contribute to our turnaround? Will he be retained going forward? Was he in Vegas or at any other of our games?
Inquiring minds yada yada

@lou v has the story on Northwestern's Las Vegas Bowl win from Allegiant Stadium.

@lou v talked to Illinois recruiting guru @EdgyTim to get his read on Northwestern's 2024 QB commit, Ryan Boe.

This could be a program changing win! Numerous guys played their best game as a cat. Studs:

Bryant
Joseph
Heard
Hollis
Mueller
DL line


The HC might just be the best thing to happen to this program in years! The program has life when just a few months ago most of us thought it was dead. Amazing!!

Defying all rational expectations before the season, the Cats are bowling. They face a rematch from the 2018 JV Rose Bowl of CCG runners-up (AKA the Holiday Bowl) against coaching legend Kyle Whittingham. Whittingham had had an 11-game winning streak in bowls until the run in with the Cats. His teams have not won one since. So there is likely some motivation for redemption. However, the Utes have been hit hard by injury and the Transfer Portal, so they might be vulnerable to an upset. The point spread has dropped from double digits to under a touchdown, favoring Utah.

The Cats, meanwhile, are playing with house money and likely more motivation than the Utes. While Whittingham's teams are generally very sound, they have been known to stumble...see the 3rd Quarter of the 2018 Holiday Bowl.

So, with all that, time to prognosticate:

NU 23
UU 19

What a great win! What a great season! (That’s 8 w’s, friends.)

It is so fun to watch this defense play with confidence and with arrogance and with attitude. It is *also* exciting to hear that McGarigle — who should’ve gotten the job three years ago — will be here to continue what works at NU.

It is so exciting to think that the offense will have some new attitude and a new approach next season.

I suspect that many, many key contributors will be back, but I’m just guessing.

Things will be tough without a West division and with a CFP finalist as a conference kickoff, but, geez, what a season.

Thanks to this team. How fun.

And how nice to get a full postgame show on ABC. A great commercial for someone who appears to be a great, great young head coach.

I still can’t believe the performance of our d-line this year. A group that we feared may not even have enough players to get through a full season ended up becoming a position of strength,

It feels like every single guy in that room played a part.

An absolute amazing job by Coach Smith and everyone involved. They weren’t the best group in the country, but they worked their asses off and played to their full potential. Couldn’t be prouder and happier for this group.

@lou v has the story on Northwestern's Las Vegas Bowl win from Allegiant Stadium.

They lose their coach and QB and respond by...getting a good coach and QB. I will be happy when this stupid, made-up rivalry ends

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After leaving Evanston in 1974, I got to four Wildcat football games, two at Ryan Field and two on the road (1996, Durham, NC, a post-Rose Bowl win over Duke, and the forgettable 2002 loss to Air Force at Colorado Springs). Living in Montana has its rewards, but air fare to just about anywhere comes at highway robbery rates. And while I’ve retired comfortably, I’m not one of the rich NU alums.

Also memorable: being in the stands at Buckeye Stadium in 1971 when the Cats beat Woody Hayes and Ohio State.

So, making the jaunt from Billings to Las Vegas for the Northwestern-Utah game proved to be one of the finest experiences of a Wildcat-watching saga that started in the fall of 1969. An NU buddy, watching the game on TV somewhere in the Chicago area, texted me that he watched a “nice NU win.” Nice? It was terrific! Ben Bryant and his supporting cast coming up with the clutch fourth-quarter TD to put the game away. And the lights-out defense? Wow!

We’ve got the best young coach in America. And we’ve won five straight bowl games going back to the 2016 Pinstripe Bowl win over Pittsburgh. We’re near the top in that category in the Big Ten and close ton the best in the country.

Frosting on the cake was attending the pregame function at Mandalay Bay where, by chance, I met the grandparents of Ben Bryant, who live in the Tucson area. Our conversation was delightful. And Ben’s grandfather stated Ben’s belief that the team with the most desire usually wins. Nothing against Utah, a program I highly respect, but this year’s Cats were oozing with desire. And it showed throughout the season and today.

Happy holidays, fellow diehard NU faithful folks. Mine already is.

This is the second greatest season in Northwestern Football in in my lifetime. I am 64 years old. The only season that beats this is the 1995 Rose Bowl team. I am busting with pride for this team. GO CATS!!!!!!

Thank you to all of our players and their families for the support they have given to a beleaguered fan base. They could have left us. They could have folded on us. They could have forsaken us. Instead, they looked to each other and out of pride and respect for one another made this a season to remember. Go Cats!

Northwestern (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten) is in Sin City to play Utah (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12).

Kick is projected for 4:35 PM PT and the game will air on ABC.

"I didn't want to do it, but I felt I owed it to them"
In Caddyshack, Judge Smails explained to Danny why he sentenced teenage boys to the gas chamber.
Oddly, my rationale for posting the +/- numbers for the Chicago State debacle is similar.
We lost - we weren't toying with an overmatched opponent, padding our stats.

So here are the numbers...


The Net +/- is 20% of the player's Raw +/- plus his Player Adjust.
I did not count the last 7 seconds of free throw shooting, so the "final" was 74-69.

Nicholson's +/- jumps out. We scored 24 points and allowed 41 in 20 minutes.
It is a bit baffling because we had a 10-7 lead after 5 minutes. That means in the remaining 15 minutes of Matt's time on the court, we got outscored 34-14.
Nicholson scored 9 points during that time, meaning the other 4 guys poured in a total of 5 points in 15 minutes after the opening segment.
Not exactly sure what was going on!

We also see that Luke Hunger played 7 minutes (all in the first half) and NU outscored CSU 18-13.
The team struggled mightily with Clayton in the game. In his 3 minutes, we got outscored 8-1.
When Hunger was out there with Barnhizer, Berry, Buie and Langborg, NU outscored Chicago State 17-7 in under 6 minutes.

Collins' surprising lineup switch to Martinelli at the 5 produced a 22-9 beatdown over 8 minutes, turning a 43-38 deficit into a 60-52 lead with 8:52 to play.
But then Collins put Clayton in for Barnhizer for a minute and we lost that momentum, getting outscored 11-4 with Nicholson back on the court and 11-5 with Martinelli at the 5.

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Priebe in the portal because he doesn’t know who his position coach will be next season and there is no timeline for the hire. Need to get the staff set for next season. What is going on?

Looks like Coco is a no go today. 😕

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Cats were left for dead
Braun spins and lands all sevens
Once more roll the dice