There's irony is Coach Fran's over-the-top behavior, which seems to be increasing. He was an assistant for years at Notre Dame under John MacLeod. Fran was much appreciated by MacLeod for his cerebral approach to the game, as well as display of high character. (Some of that was apparent in his post-game remarks after losing to the Cats and getting tossed.)

It's been said that the 18-inch move from assistant's seat to the head coach's position changes a person; in McCaffery's case it may have unloosed an explosive temper that isn't his best quality.

Hope @Alaskawildkat and his family are OK up there.

Author Nassim Taleb has a beautiful expression to describe people like Michael Schill - "Intellectual, Yet Idiot" - or IYI. These IYIs have academic credentials and titles of nobility, like President, but have zero common sense, no attachment to the organization they serve, and feel no downside for the moronic decisions they make.

Let's look at the Schill Scandal. Within days of a Daily Northwestern article and one phone conversation with Carl Richardson and his parents Kevin Richardson and Theresa Smith (both former Stanford athletes), the IYI Michael Schill decided on a Saturday night that the Northwestern athletics department had a major hazing problem and he needed to broadcast his feeling across the entire country.

Further, IYI Schill had perfect, God-like, all-knowing and all-seeing power to determine exactly who was at fault for these evil actions:

1) Alleged Victims - Bear no responsibility for 'saying no' or 'telling others' about questionable behaviors. Zero chance that they were willing participants or exaggerating claims.
2) Players that 'Hazed' - No individual responsibility
3) Players who witnessed what happened - No responsibility
4) Players Leadership Council - No responsibility
5) Football Staff, Assistant Coaches, Equipment Managers - No responsibility
6) Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald - COMPLETELY EVIL PERSON. TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING. MUST BE FIRED FOR CAUSE. MUST TRASH CHARACTER AND REPUTATION PUBLICLY IN NATIONALLY-RELEASED PRESS RELEASES. NO NUANCE TO BE USED.
7) Assistant ADs, Athletic Department Staff, Tutors, Career Counselors - No responsibility
8) Athletic Director - No responsibility
9) University President, University Staff, Teachers, Deans etc. - No responsibility
10) Board of Trustees - No responsibility

Thank goodness that Northwestern has a man with such incredible genius like Michael Schill. Who else but IYI Michael Schill could have decided so quickly and so exactly who the one person that was responsible for all the badness in Evanston.

Perhaps, Michael Schill is actually Pat Fitzgerald's best ally and attorney Dan Webb's best friend?

Northwestern has 19 varsity sports. Each year, these teams see ~150 first year student-athletes enter the University. Simple math says that over the last 20 years, approximately 3,000 student-athletes have chosen to represent Northwestern.

On an unremarkable summer Saturday night, the nation was breathlessly told by IYI Michael Schill that the Northwestern athletic department has a cultural problem with "hazing".

However, Schill's class-action lawyer friends have shown how idiotic the complaints are. Despite national press, only ~15 individuals have indicated that they were mentally-harmed by the actions of teammates. You know these people: Ramon Diaz, anonymous cheerleader girl, Carl Richardson and his parents Kevin Richardson and Theresa Smith, Lloyd Yates, Simba Short, Tommy Carnifax, John Doe, Jane Doe, John Doe, Jane Doe, etc. Not one person has actually named the individuals who actually harmed them, and many are too cowardly to share their story publicly.

My question: Where are the rest of the complaints? Based on Schill's press releases, shouldn't we expect to see 100's, if not 1000's of lawsuits?

Doesn't the lack of lawsuits show that the problem is, not actual sophomoric stupidity, but that Schill and Gragg have no idea what's going on?

Approximately 15 complainers of 3,000 athletes means that 1 in 200 or 0.005% of student-athletes who have chosen to represent our University have regrets.

That means roughly 199 of every 200 student-athletes to wear the Purple for the last 20 years have shown they loved their time at Northwestern. Maybe we should listen to them.

The eighth of ten questions we will be asking that determine Northwestern's season.

Who is starting QB?

Dwayne Haskins was struck and killed by a car last night. Sad.

It has become something of an annual tradition for me to post photos from the opening of the Alaska State Fair as it coincides with the beginning of our college football season at Northwestern.

This has been a rainy summer here in Alaska much like the storm clouds that have loomed over our football program. Yesterday's opening of the Alaska State Fair, however, saw the clouds lift and sunshine return. Hopefully that is a positive omen for Northwestern as well as the pieces of the Gridiron Puzzle are put back together:



OK, here are this year's photos which include finding the Purple at the Fair as well:

Views from yesterday Friday at the Opening Day of the State Fair:

Here are our takeaways from the press conference after practice today.

The eighth of ten questions we will be asking that will determine Northwestern's season.

Here are our takeaways from the press conference after today's practice.

What's the deal with the various helmet decals showing up in pictures of practice?

Here's @mshelton33's story from today's media availability on Ben Bryant, AJ Henning and the NU offense.

Northwestern's new long snapper commit Peyton Warford isn't a long snapper at all. He was recruited as a defensive end. In fact, he said NU has never even talked to him about long snapping.

I was surprised, given that he's a five-star LS and pretty much everything you see about him online is about long snapping. He's 6-3, 220, so he'll require some development and will have to gain a lot of weight. He plays OLB in high school but Coach Long sees him playing with his hand on the ground as a DE. "It should be interesting," he said.

Warford got scholarship offers from Colgate and Lafayette as a long snapper, also with "the opportunity to play defense." He also got a bunch of PWO offers. The fact that NU was interested in him as a DE only is a big reason he committed. The kid is intent on playing defense. As he put it, he considers himself an athlete and a football player. He wants to compete, play football and "get after it," rather than be relegated to another field with the specialists.

I'll create a player page for Warford and will have a story soon.

Anyone going to piscataway in 2 weeks? Gonna get tickets this week and was curious where the NU contingent usually sits.

Seems like he is still hiring coaches, new baseball coach.

This has probably already been discussed here, but I couldn’t find a thread. Sorry.

Did anyone happen to catch Hard Knocks last night? There was a hazing segment that may have been difficult for some to watch. Those poor rookies.

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Sounds similar to Remember the Titans! Maybe we’ll all be pleasantly surprised! Nobody believes in us!

"That education will continue. We're being very mindful of making sure that we find ways to allow this team to build and become cohesive and have fun in team meetings with music, making sure that this isn't an environment where it's just business. This team needs to come together."

The ex-Cat lefty has been pretty successful in Korea in recent years, pitching for Kiwoom.

Best I can tell, he hasn't pitched since early June. Presumably an injury of some sort - perhaps Tommy John surgery?

Anyone know what's up with him? Erik and I share a birthday tomorrow (7/29) although I beat him to it by decades.

Including 277 football players.

Nice to see so many speaking out.

Condemning hazing but praising the culture they experienced at NU. Signed by 277 former NU football players.

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It seems the UCLA Basketball coach agrees with what I have been saying here. This is not about benefiting the student athletes. It's all about money for the big guys in charge of the universities.

"The UCLA Bruins are heading to the Big Ten next year as part of a massive wave of conference re-alignment in college athletics, but it doesn’t sound like UCLA men’s basketball head coach Mick Cronin is necessarily a big fan of the move.

During a recent interview with USA Today, Mick Cronin made it clear that he doesn’t think the move to the Big Ten is in the best interest of the actual college athletes. Instead, he thinks the decision was entirely driven by money.

“None of it is in the best interest of the student-athlete, no matter what anybody says,” Cronin said. “It’s in the best interest of more money to cover the bills. That’s it.

“This all happened because of money, that’s just a reality. It’s not all because of football.”

mentioned in the Sun TImes today...6'6 from Mount Carmel...taking an August visit to NU.......