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.......

Check out Austin Siegel's story on Richie Hagarty and how he plans to make an impact this season.

Interesting no Gragg mention in this communication. Press Release

Here are my notes from the press conference today:

David Braun

QB Battle:

Braun said he saw good things out of both quarterbacks, though Bryant seems to be the favorite.

"Brendan Sullivan definitely brings a different dynamic in terms of his athleticism and some of the things you can do with his speed. Ben is is making some really sound decisions in the drop back pass game, getting the ball on time. Both are doing a great job of competing here today...

"Ben and Sully have been doing a tremendous job and we're excited to give them a couple more opportunities before we crystallize who we're going with going forwards."

Team is locked in going forward:

Braun said at Big Ten Media Days that the team needed to turn a corner at some point in its fall camp and focus on going forward rather than what had happened in the past. He said they've reach that point now.

"That realization has happened, that time was this week as we entered the third week of camp. We went through a tough week last week, we have a tough week ahead and our focus has shifted direction [forwards]. Our focus is on serving these young men and the people in the building and the best way to do that is to go out and work to win one in New Jersey."

Braun starting to feel more comfortable as head coach:

"It's very different as each day has gone by I've become more and more comfortable, but I still have a lot to learn. Coach Holtz has been a great resource, Jeff Genyk is a former head coach and I've also been talking with Matt Entz who is the head coach at NDSU. [Asking them] I never envisioned this, how would you handle this situation, and I still have a lot to learn."


Players

Ben Bryant on QB room:

"It's been a great process coming in here. I mean, everyone's welcomed me with open arms in the quarterback room. I can't speak enough about how awesome they've been. Any question I have they are willing to answer it and help me out and coach Jake, such a good coach and this is honestly one of the smartest quarterback rooms I've ever been around."

Bryant on if he or the transfers have asked any previous players about hazing:

"Since we've been here, our experience has been great and we've never felt like we had to have those conversations. All we know is what we know, and we know that we've had a great experience and we're excited to go out and play ball.

Richie Hagarty and Ben Bryant on team building:

Bryant: "Every day we start our team meeting with competition between position groups, and that's something that I think everyone enjoys. Our staff has done a really good job of putting that together and everyone's all excited and cheering each other on and that's been a really fun thing for us."

Hagarty: "Stuff outside of football, they brought in [basketball] hoops one day, playing Mario Kart, stuff like that to get away that brings us together."

Hagarty said that the team's Mario Kart ringer is strength coach Alex Spanos.


Stories to come from this afternoon from me and tomorrow from Austin Siegel.

Let's support this team!

In an ESPN article "Northwestern Coach "Very Calculated" About Bonding Activities by Adam Rittenburg, Braun expressed this hope:

"I certainly hope that this community, our alumni, all those that are associated with Northwestern University and Northwestern athletics, will come out and show full support for 103 young men that have worked their butts off over the course of the last four weeks and have come together to do something really special," Braun said. "I'm really confident that that's exactly what's going to happen."

David Braun

Go Cats!!

Check out Austin Siegel's story on Richie Hagarty and how he plans to make an impact this season.

The irony.

If you have ever met Fitz in person, even if only briefly, if he had knowledge about the actions being alleged, would he have tolerated the egregious hazing that took place and not done anything about it? I am sure that he would know that some less serious hazing takes place every year and at every other campus in the nation, and it is all part of a ritual. But if he had known about the serious hazing being alleged, do you think he would have done nothing and tried to cover it up?

Amazing that NU had so few transfers over the years despite all the alleged abuses. This leads me to believe the claims were greatly exaggerated.

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Have thought about what happened and maybe it’s the optimist in me but maybe there is some good to come out of this. Don’t get me wrong, I am sorry for Pat Fitzgerald. For all he did for this program and for what happened and the likelihood that it was a mean spirited hit job by a spiteful a-hole out to ruin him, he did not deserve this at all. I wish he didn’t have to bear this. However, let’s be real here. We were never going to be a Championship team under Fitz. St. Gary got us there, but Fitz had what 17 years and never got us there. We were 4-20 the past couple years, and our offense and defense stunk. Our recruiting sucked and this year it was as bad as it’s ever been under his watch. If there was ever a time to clean house, this was it.

And so as much as I’m sad that Fitz couldn’t leave on better terms, it is for the best. The program would have been mortally wounded and walking dead had he not been fired. Now we can rip off the scab and extract the toxins and clean it and allow it to heal. Maybe painful, but the only way we can recover.

What the firing enables us to do is to potentially reboot and have a chance to be something better. I have always thought we were selling ourselves short thinking this was the best we could do. A program that once won 3 titles in the span of 6 years won zero under Fitz. Illinois passed us under his watch. Color me underwhelmed.

Absolutely he made his contributions to this program. The 10 win seasons. He got the facilities built. The stadium (hopefully), but with divisions going away did anyone believe Fitz and his bullshit offensive philosophy was ever going to give us a chance to win the B1G? Was he the guy to take us to the next level? I doubted it before and especially after 4-20 but with this hanging over us, clearly he wasn’t. Now at least we can have a fresh start. We might not make the most of it and we might just suck now forever, but at least we have a chance now for some real change.

And I’m not nearly as pessimistic about who we could bring to Evanston. Always take a job when you’re at the nadir. Nowhere to go but up. See Gary Barnett. Never take one at the peak. See JON. Expectations are low, and this is still the B1G, $$$$ is big, no pressure to win, state of the art facilities, won’t even likely have to run kids off to make room for your own. One thing we’ve got to thank Fitz for is that he made this an attractive place to be. And that’s what I’m hearing. Wilbon made the point - people calling him telling him they’d be attracted to the job. We know Ed Orgeron is interested and say what you will but how many candidates have a national championship ring and knows how to recruit at an SEC level? Brian Hartline is intriguing to me. Big time. Who cares if he moves on if he earns that right by making us winners again? And we may actually end up with a modern offense that can actually score points! I’m getting a hard on just thinking about that. Again, perhaps I’m just an unbridled optimist, but I think we can get a major upgrade here. Not saying Schill and Gragg won’t eff this up, but until they do hope springs eternal. Time to move on and hopefully on to better days ahead. Thank you Fitz for what you have done. It’s time for us to bring in someone to take what you have built for us, and who can take us further and enable our full potential and now we can.

Really nice young man.

Went to a large family gathering here in Cincy today. My niece flys in from Tampa to be there. Pete drives down from Cleveland to pick her up at the airport and join her for the event.

The new world of dating. Tampa girl. Cleveland guy. Cincy date.

GOUNUII

Wednesday morning’s practice was scheduled to be open, but NU sent us an email tonight announcing it was closed. (I blame the T-shirts.)

They will have the regularly scheduled press conference afterward, though. Coach Braun, Ben Bryant, Richie Hagarty and AJ Henning will be available.

Next week’s practice was already closed, so last Wednesday turned out to be the only time we’ll see the Cats in camp.

Hey Gang,

The team previews for the second half of Northwestern's schedule ended up getting spread across 2 episodes.

Nebraska and Maryland start at the 24-minute mark of Episode 540.

Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue and Illinois are covered in Episode 541.

Our biggest takeaway overall is that we're higher on Iowa than most seem to be. The defense there is going to be unreal, and if the Hawkeyes roll out even a COMPETENT offense, that team will be stellar. With Cade McNamara and a slightly improved line, that looks possible.

In terms of meat on the bone for NU: Nebraska, Maryland, and Purdue actually all look like fairly decent matchups. The Huskers basically have a write-off season, Maryland could have issues on both lines, and Purdue's going through a pretty major reset.

Thanks as always!
Sam, John, and Scuzz/The West Lot Pirates

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

I originally posted this in July ‘21 after the SEC announced the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, before the addition of four PAC teams to the B1G. I still pretty much feel the same:

“I would appear in a vision to Kevin Warren and tell him that if he had the courage, I would help him:

1) Negotiate a merger with the PAC 12
2) Poach Duke and NC from the ACC
3) Accept the burden of adding Kansas, KSU, Iowa State and while holding his nose, Oklahoma State.
4) Form four divisions: the PAC 8 (The old PAC 8 teams) The B1G East ( the current East Division minus Michigan with Duke and NC added), the B1G 8 ( the old Big 8 except Nebraska, plus the Arizona’s and Utah), and the B1G Midwest, ( current West plus Michigan.)

I would tell him to organize a semifinal championship that would pit a 1 v 4 seed and 2 v 3 seed the week before Thanksgiving.

Further, I would ask him to negotiate with the Tournament of Roses to enter into an exclusive deal, move the parade and Rose Bowl to Thanksgiving weekend, and make the Rose Bowl the B1G COLLEGE National Championship, emphasizing the idea that the member schools remain committed to the college part of intercollegiate outside the football field.

As a gracious God, I would still let ESPN have its “National Championship Game” with The B1G Winner or an All B1G team versus Alabama of the southeast regional semipro league at some multi billion dollar NFL stadium, a game somewhat like the old College All Star game at Soldier Field.”