Cancel the new stadium. Wind is our best friend. THATS Chicago.

We forced a punt! Making us the victors!

Limiting the damage and covering and losing maybe only 41-17?

Or losing 77-0 which Fitz can't coachspeak away and with such a Dark Ages result force some change which will of course not happen anyways.

Could not put tent up in west lot. Gusty winds. In the stadium in the East stands, we are having gusts to 30moh with drizzle and rain in our faces. Lots of red here. Rather be here than at home. Go Cats.

I'd use the dOSU in the headline, but that seems kind of weak given how this one seems likely to go.

Time to prognosticate...

Deer eyes 49
Cat eyes 13

I have a couple of friends who are (nice) Ohio State fans...they just texted me asking about getting tickets to the game next week.

I replied, "I might be ready to sell you mine."

There have been times in my life where I'd rather burn my own house down with my season tickets in them to ensure they didn't go to an Ohio State fan...but at this point am I wrong for dreading a trip to the game next week? Ohio State fans everywhere for what promises to be the single worst beating in the last X decades? And let's agree...there have been some really bad ones.

There's that part of me that says "you need to support the players." But at this point I don't know what else we as fans can do to give Fitz a wake up call other than to turn our backs on him.

The floor is open for responses/reactions. Either affirm my disillusionment or talk me out of it because I'm at my life's low with this team that is making Brian Ferentz a candidate for the Broyles Award.

Maybe our loss to Southern Illinois wasn't so bad after all!

The answer is Yes.
Go Cats!

Henceforth to be known as The Oh_o State University. By proving that a program with Integrity can play well and hang in with a program, without. We have done that recently, let's do it again and keep the "I".

Integrity works both ways,though. Cats cannot give up 28 points in the first half from blown explosion plays, without revealing NU's Integrity to be the problem.

What seniors and grad students will be returning next year. Does anyone know?

All times CENTRAL, and all games played on Saturday, November 5. Rankings come from the CFP poll. All games nationally televised unless otherwise indicated.

First, the NU game:

#2 Ohio State @ Northwestern
11:00 AM, ABC
PxP: Sean McDonough
Color: Todd Blackledge

And the rest:

Minnesota @ Nebraska
11:00 AM, ESPN2
PxP: Anish Shroff
Color: Brock Osweiler

Maryland @ Wisconsin
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Anthony Herron

Iowa @ Purdue
11:00 AM, FS1
PxP: Eric Collins
Color: Devin Gardner

#15 Penn State @ Indiana
2:30 PM, ABC
PxP: Bob Wischusen
Color: Dan Orlovsky

Michigan State @ #16 Illinois
2:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Matt Millen

#5 Michigan @ Rutgers
6:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Jake Butt

Anyone know how recruits are identified and whether that responsibility falls on director of recruiting or they have another process? I like Fitz and think he is a good man and a great role model for our program. However, one of the many things Fitz has struggled with is identifying talent. QB recruiting has been disaster under his watch with the exception of Thorson. I feel that Walker's regime was either better at identifying people or better at coaching them up. We have amazing facilities, yet the talent is not there.

Okay, let's talk about what we can legitimately hope for on Saturday. What would be a moral victory? Save your "Hur, hur, hur. There's no such thing as a moral victory. Hur, hur, hur." posts for another thread. We're not going to beat OSU. We're not going to come close to beating OSU. Still, I am going to be there on Saturday. And so are many of you. What can we cheer for? I have three ideas. Add to the list as best you can.

1) Make OSU punt at least once each half.
2) No more than 2 turnovers.
3) Score at least once each quarter.

In addition, and it won't be part of my moral victory calculation, let's complete at least three passes of more than ten yards inside the hashmarks. That's just a thing that has been on my mind.

I enjoyed being able to clearly hear the players calling stuff out to each other, the coaches shouting direction from the sidelines, the bench shouting encouragement and warnings, the players on court responding, and etc. I don't know how the players felt about the empty stands, maybe it just reminded them of the covid season or something, but it was good for me.

And some of the band comments were pretty funny, another something I've rarely been able to hear over the years.

Best college football offensive or defensive lineman. Anderson will probably win, guy could be a #1 pick. Peter should be high on the list though.

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I would cut and paste a brief preview but you really have to read the whole thing, This is totally screwed up.

Some Indiana guy writes about the Wildcats prospects


The Athletic has an article on Bryant McIntosh as one of the Power 5's youngest assistant coaches


A Twitter video of our guys scrimmaging...

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Ryan Young comparing Jon Scheyer to previous coaches...


Pete Nance talks about his new team, with a lot of video from practice.

Unfortunately, a real University of Southern Mississippi football star has passed away (unlike the recent fake news postings about Brett Favre's demise). In this instance, Ray Guy aka the Greater Punter in Football History passed away. He is an Pro Football Hall of Famer who is also the namesake of college's most coveted award for punters - the Ray Guy Award. Guy was the first pure punter drafted in the NFL Draft First Round. He won three (3) Super Bowls with the Oakland (1976, 1980) and Los Angeles Raiders (1983). In Super Bowl XVIII against the Washington Redskins, he was noted for helping keep the pressure on Washington's prolific offense by kicking multiple punts deep in Washington territory including making a Herculean catch on a high snap in the 2nd Quarter and coolly getting off the kick.

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Something we haven't really discussed much here, but probably worth a conversation since that season alone interrupted what would otherwise be an an inexcusably bad stretch in the program's history.

First and foremost, does anyone remember when Peyton Ramsey committed to playing? Just wondering if his commitment was influenced either way by COVID. I think it is fair to say he was our MVP that season; obviously the defense was stout but without a QB we wouldn't have been close to this level of success.

Looking back, I think we had a fairly balanced schedule - neither too easy nor murderer's row. We missed a scheduled game vs. Minnesota due to COVID, and they finished that season at 3-4 so it's reasonable to assume a win there (rather than assume a definite loss).

However you look at the 2020 season, I give full credit to Fitz and the coaches for keeping the train on the tracks - I get that people might argue 2020 was weird - OBVIOUSLY it was, but this season was all about discipline and tuning out the weird, which Northwestern did better than just about any other team. Just wondering if people think we would have enjoyed comparable success if COVID had not been a thing.

This is the worst performance. No defensive discipline. No defensive toughness. Blown assignments.

Anderson blows. Year 4 or 5. We are noticeably bigger and cannot dominate this inferior team called SIU. He stinks.

The offensive game plan/calling it outright atrocious.