I’m fairly certain this is Cam Johnson’s last year. Henning has one more year left, correct? And looking at his bio, I think Kirtz has one more Covid year of eligibility left if he wants it? Can anyone else confirm this? Braun made a comment about the WR position being in good shape going forward so wonder if Bryce may be coming back for one more season. That would be nice to have him and Henning. Now if only we can find a QB to throw it to them…

Illini beat Mizzou, MD takes down UCLA and Bucky has no problem with Chicago State, winning by 27. Maybe a bit too early to go shopping for that Formal for the Big Dance.

Had nothing on our bowl game and our victory. When I got home about 30 minutes after the game it was broadcasting a replay of an OSU game and the programming through the night was either other game rebroadcasts or their human interest stories. Nothing on the bowl game or even on the Rutgers BB game

Unexpected?

Sucked to see him go down. He was playing very well last night. He was moving guys in the run game. He was getting to the second level. He did get blown up on the 3rd and goal on the goal line stand, but he will build more strength in time.

His pass sets were solid. Utah mostly tried to overload our right side. He gave up a pressure in the second quarter but Bryant scrambled for a gain. I don’t think he had any penalties.

Also, our DL played great, and I think Bastone was probably the best of that group last night.

TS scheduled to start this weekend-Zach Wilson out

Please express your interest in attending a pre game gathering at the Ri Ra Irish Bar-vote as many times as the number in your party that will be attending
Ri Ra is in The Shoppes at Mandalay Bay 3950 S. Las Vegas Blvd near Allegiant Stadium-walking distant to Allegiant Stadium

I’m guessing it comes out Tuesday announcing the staff changes. No point in waiting any longer

Any chance it contains a hiring announcement too?

First time I ever went to Vegas was for the NU game in 2001. Made it off my flight home on September 10, about 12 hours before Everything Started.

Who else was there in 2001? Fun trip.

@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.