The biggest item of interest for ESPN was the Minnesota QB's fiance. Understandable. Very cute.

These announcers were the C team, particularly compared to the team the other night for the NU game.

Only allegations but he turned himself in and is suspended indefinitely including 1/2 v NU

I hope the allegations aren’t true

He will be starting a gamee vs the Cleveland Browns. I like Flaaco, but I would love to see TS get a win.

Rutgers just scored a TD with the Tush Push play. I guess it is legal, but it seems like that is bending the rules.

I think many of us are still in a daze (happily so) over the tremendous season, 8-5 with a bowl win over a solid (if not somewhat depleted) PAC12 opponent. How could this happen coming off the summer hurricane that nearly blew up the program? How did the coaches and players manage to turn things around in a single season after 2 losing seasons? I think having a solid qb who could pass and connect with receivers who could get separation and catch was plus. The defensive turnaround was huge and the defense’s ability to create turnovers was impressive. We were just so much more effective on defense this year and we scored enough to win close games behind our defensive efforts.

Maybe the most important factor was the coaching change that brought Braun into leadership that the players and staff bought into. I just don’t think that Fitz would have been as successful this year. Braun seems to have pumped new energetic leadership into the program that had been fading under Fitz and his long-term contract. NU was fortunate that this change brought about an unexpected level of success fueled by the vigor of players and staff who were unrelenting in achieving what few thought could happen based on recent history. Congrats again to the Cats for an incredible year!

Assuming they have correct sources??

Per his instagram he will be back for another year!!

It was easy to be patient during the season. Team was winning, no real decisions except HC. Now there are a lot of pending announcements and it's tiresome. 1. Post below - when do we find out about coaching staff. 2. What players will return? Or,.here's an easy one: 3. WHERE TF ARE WE PLAYING NEXT YEAR??

The offseason is here and @mikefitz77 has three things we learned, two questions we're asking and one bold prediction after the Las Vegas Bowl.

I am bright-side looking here, and fully expect to get a couple of "no" responses, AND...

Given that we can't/don't get involved with transfers until the spring window, do we have an advantage during that window. The rationale being that a lot of places on other squads are filled and good players who are looking for PT see a Big Ten team with PT available.

Is there any data to support this?

Does anyone have a list to share? I know Henning and Kirtz have another potential year but not sure about the rest.

For me it was Friday night's $150 hold 'em tournament at Caesar's. Played well enough to reach the final 5 players (think there was 47 entries), but blinds were getting huge. Shoved all in under the gun with pocket 4s, only to run into pocket 9s. Turned a 4 to suck out against a local/really good player. Led to a couple of big hands, and a win for the old guy in the Northwestern sweatshirt! $1896... Allowed me to put $100 of that profit on the Cats (1/2 each with points and money line) for another $150 in profit. Came home with the pleasure of seeing another bowl win and $1400 of other people's money in my pocket.

I saw a lot of North Dakota State in NU last night, and I've watched them a whole lot.

What I saw was toughness, relentlessness, confidence, sacrifice, and team unity. Positive attitudes even when things are heading south. Coach Braun CAME to NU with these attributes, he didn't automatically acquire them because he was now a part of the Big 10. He developed them at North Dakota State. His mentors there did a great job, just as he is now doing at NU. Hopefully that attitude and character is being absorbed by every coach and player at NU.

And football is football, the game and the fundamentals are the same. Don't be persuaded to think that a gifted coach from a "lower" division can't succeed at the Big 10 level - that's Big 10 and power 5 hubris!. Coach Braun is proving that to be nonsense, and doing it with possibly less talent than the Big 10 teams he's beaten. Actually, I think North Dakota State and South Dakota State could beat half of the Big 10. Watch them play and tell me that they suffer from being poorly coached

Next time, and that will be soon, when NU needs to hire, don't be so quick to judge the quality of the candidate by what level he's from, but rather what he's done while he's been there. Think about what Braun (North Dakota State), Binns (Youngstown State), Foster (East Carolina), Hicks (Utah State), and Smith (South Dakota State) have done since they've arrived at NU. How many of these guys would you trade away?

This chart illustrates how much of a handicap the NU athletic department faces in relation to their fellow B1G members.

Login to view embedded media

Great article on UDub and their coaches. Have won with offense at every level. How coaching partnership of Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, Ryan Grubb landed Huskies in CFP

https://theathletic.com/5162823/202...deboer-ryan-grubb/?source=user_shared_article

Why in the world is this guy--a kid from Detroit metro--playing for the Goofs?

For some reason I am having difficulty transferring the photos from my iPhone I took at the Purple Party, but in the meantime here are a few taken with the Nikon SLR in the stadium before and after the game:

The National Anthem is sung as fireworks explode, the Northwestern Marching Band takes the field, and the Spirit Team brings on the Wildcat "Banner:"

I figure our game did pretty well given it was close, on ABC and didn’t really have a ton of traditional competition (NFL game was on streaming only). Anyone know when the ratings come out though? Will be interesting to see.

As viewed from my seat at Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl.

Pictured first is the final stat scoreboard as captured during the final minute of our win.

Following are photos leading up to the winning touchdown.

In the first Ben Bryant launches the 34 yard ball that A.J. Henning leaped up to grab and bring down in a circus catch - arguably the "Play of the Game." The immediately subsequent shots capture 'THE CATCH" both on the field and on the replay.

The final two photos chronicle the consequent secondary "Play of the Game" as they show the team gathered to get ready for the kill which then came on the next play with Bryant's 19 yard toss to Kirtz for the wining touchdown.

Bajakian made the ultimate “screw you move” to NU and Braun by leaking the “premature” announcement? Imagine if Braun was still on the fence about McGarigle as DC and Bajakian gave him no choice now that the “cat is out of the bag”? Reminds me of Alex Levy announcing Bradley Jackson as Mitch Kessler’s successor on The Morning Show.

We've had better teams and less frustrating teams at times, but this was a great season. So proud of these guys.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but I feel like the announcers always know/remember Martinelli is a lefty, but teams aren't prepared for him to be so strong with his left. Maybe it's just his non-conference opponents don't really scout that far down the rotation (they should!), but I'm always surprised by how surprised our opponents are that he can shoot with his left so well. He has a nice touch around the basket - feel like when he gets close it's a higher percentage shot than just about any shot from our roster.

I have great respect for that program and its fans They do things the right way as opposed to the football factories.

Couldn’t we set up a two-game matchup in the future? A game in Evanston and one in Salt Lake City.

I have some bias in this, what with family in Salt Lake City and our home in Billings. I can almost guarantee my wife and I will drive our motor home to SLC for the game there should it materialize.