It's the final recruit roundup of 2024! DT Tanner Jumpp wrapped things up for the Class of 2025 in Florida's state title game, albeit with a 52-19 loss to Venice. There was just one capsule to write for Jumpp so I've also set this up as your one-stop shop on the Class of 2025 (and O'Brien in the Class of 2026). Each player should have fully updated capsules with their post season accolades, highlights and their most recent interview with WildcatReport, if applicable.

2025 Northwestern Football Schedule
Saturday, August 30 – at Tulane (New Orleans, LA)
Saturday, September 6 – vs. Western Illinois (Evanston, IL)
Saturday, September 13 – vs. Oregon (Evanston, IL)
Saturday, September 27 – vs. UCLA (Evanston, IL)
Saturday, October 4 – vs. ULM (Evanston, IL)
Saturday, October 11 – at Penn State (University Park, PA)
Saturday, October 18 – vs. Purdue (Evanston, IL)
Saturday, October 25 – at Nebraska (Lincoln, NE)
Saturday, November 8 – at USC (Los Angeles, CA)
Saturday, November 15 – vs. Michigan (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL)
Saturday, November 22 – vs. Minnesota (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL)
Saturday, November 29 – at Illinois (Champaign, IL)

Per university release

On the move again. Going to UMASS. The football hotbed of the east coast

All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. Rankings come from the CFP poll. I will add future CFP matchups/rounds as they are determined, so this post will be up for a while. I shall return in August as NU rolls into New Orleans.

Sadly, Northwestern did not qualify for a bowl game.

And the rest:

Friday, December 20

CFP First Round
#8 Indiana @ #5 Notre Dame (ESPN College GameDay)
7:00 PM, ABC
PxP: Sean McDonough
Color: Greg McElroy

Saturday, December 21

CFP First Round
#10 SMU @ #4 Penn State
11:00 AM, TNT
PxP: Mark Jones
Color: Roddy Jones

CFP First Round
#7 Tennessee @ #6 Ohio State (ESPN College GameDay)
7:00 PM, ABC
PxP: Chris Fowler
Color: Kirk Herbstreit

Thursday, December 26

Rate Bowl
Rutgers vs. Kansas State @ Phoenix, AZ
4:30 PM, ESPN
PxP: Wes Durham
Color: Tom Luginbill

Friday, December 27

Las Vegas Bowl
USC vs. Texas A&M @ Las Vegas, NV
9:30 PM, ESPN
PxP: Dave Flemming
Color: Brock Osweiler

Saturday, December 28

Pinstripe Bowl
Nebraska vs. Boston College @ Bronx, NY
11:00 AM, ABC
PxP: Mike Monaco
Color: Kirk Morrison

Monday, December 30

Music City Bowl
Iowa vs. #19 Missouri @ Nashville, TN
1:30 PM, ESPN
PxP: Taylor Zarzour
Color: Matt Stinchcomb

Tuesday, December 31

ReliaQuest Bowl
Michigan vs. #11 Alabama @ Tampa, FL
11:00 AM, ESPN
PxP: Dave Flemming
Color: Brock Osweiler

Sun Bowl
Washington vs. Louisville @ El Paso, TX
1:00 PM, CBS
PxP: Brad Nessler
Color: Gary Danielson

Citrus Bowl
#20 Illinois vs. #15 South Carolina @ Orlando, FL
2:00 PM, ABC
PxP: Mark Jones
Color: Roddy Jones

Wednesday, January 1

Rose Bowl (CFP quarterfinal)
#1 Oregon vs. TBA @ Pasadena, CA (ESPN College GameDay)
4:00 PM, ESPN
PxP: Chris Fowler
Color: Kirk Herbstreit

Friday, January 3

Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Minnesota vs. Virginia Tech @ Charlotte, NC
6:30 PM, ESPN
PxP: Matt Barrie
Color: Aaron Murray

Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue, UCLA, and Wisconsin did not qualify for bowl games.

Why does the portal have to open up now in December when there are still many bowl games to play?

There is no reason, perhaps except for impatience by coaches and players alike, to start it so soon.

Just hold off opening it until mid-January and let the bowl season end normally.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/penn...oblem-player-enters-despite-upcoming-cfp-game

For those who celebrate.

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Decomitted from coach prime today. Didn’t NU recruit him pretty hard?

Over 18 years ago, 3 Duke lacrosse players were arrested for raping black stripper ,,Crystal Mangum. The case was prosecuted by corrupt DA Mike Nifong, who withheld exculpatory evidence, eventually leading to his disbarment and dismissal of the charges.

However, the 3 players have lived their lives under the cloud of the original accusations and many including our own , StPC have insinuated that they were still guilty

Today Ms Mangum admitted to fabricating the entire story. She is currently incarcerated for murder.

I had immediate knowledge of this case since one of the indicted was my son's best friend. It was beyond belief that the accusers charges were true. The charges were subsequently dropped due to Nifong's malfeasance but today the lingering cloud of guilt ,over the 3 Duke players was finally lifted.

My son's friend , a mathematics savant, has had a very successful career on Wall Street, but not before ,years after charges were dropped, he was denied housing in Philadelphia, while attending Wharton. He . was still listed on the National sex offenders' list.

His lawsuit against Duke was settled, when Duke realized that his demand was non-negotiable.

Today, I hope he can enjoy the long overdue verdict of not guilty.

He’s legit and we offered. No excuses. Get it done.

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Their OC stepped down and rumors saying it might be Bajakian as the interim

@lou v checked in with Northwestern transfer target Jack Tanner after his visit to Northwestern.

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Haven't finished this yet, but just 10 minutes in and it's great to hear Brooks reflect on his journey so far.

My uncle, who passed this weekend, requested that donations be made to the Florida Gators’ 100 Years of Football endowment. A dentist based in Florida, his boat was The Drillin’ Gator.

Has anybody here made that request in their estate planning docs? Send it to TrueNU!

NU Content: He was also an NU dental school alum.

Earlier this week the City Council approved an ordinance implementing gameday parking restrictions (link, the relevant blurb is 2/3 down). The Roundtable summary is light on details and raises at least one important question. It starts by saying the ordinance goes into effect immediately, but later there's a quote that they're not planning to install new signage until after the first of the year. So when will it start being enforced?

As the article mentioned, this idea has been in discussion for several years. I assumed it would happen, but was hoping it wouldn't be until the new stadium opens and the East lot is back in new and improved form. That will reduce the number of people parking on the streets, which is noticeably higher since the East lot closed during last season.

Fortunately, a number of alternatives to street parking have been added with the passage of this ordinance. Just kidding. I haven't seen any new proposed alternatives, and I don't really expect to. Since the East lot closed NU has promoted the garage on Central across from the parking lot and that's it. I live about a mile and a half from the arena. I often take the CTA bus to football games, but it stops running at 8:30p on weekdays and doesn't run on Sundays so it's not very helpful for basketball games. I guess it's time to scope out a spot just outside the restricted zone. Good luck to people who don't know the area and get blindsided by this change.

He’s back. Looks like our WR suspicions have also been confirmed.

Wonder if we will also land his brother?

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It is moderately annoying that some brokers will not reveal seat numbers. I understand why, but I will generally not purchase tickets without knowing the seat numbers. When you have rows that can be 25-30 seats wide, it is hard to pull the trigger on a non-championship event without knowing the seats, especially with all those fees tacked on.

So take that.

All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. I will add announcers as they are assigned, except for BTN+ games.

First, the NU game:

DePaul @ Northwestern
Saturday, December 21
3:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: Bruce Weber

And the rest:

Tuesday, December 17

Michigan State vs. Oakland @ Detroit, MI (College Basketball in the D)
6:00 PM, ESPN2
PxP: John Schriffen
Color: Jon Crispin

St. Francis (PA) @ Maryland
6:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Ross Jr.
Color: Tavaras Hardy

Valparaiso @ Ohio State
7:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Jac Collinsworth
Color: Stephen Bardo

Prairie View A&M @ UCLA
8:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Don MacLean

Wednesday, December 18

Michigan vs. Oklahoma @ Charlotte, NC (Jumpman Invitational)
8:00 PM, ESPN2
PxP: Dave O’Brien
Color: Debbie Antonelli

Cal State Northridge @ USC
9:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Don MacLean

Washington State @ Washington
9:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Aaron Goldsmith
Color: Eldridge Recasner

Saturday, December 21

Maryland vs. Syracuse @ Brooklyn, NY (Gotham Classic)
11:00 AM, ESPN2
PxP: Jon Sciambi
Color: Jay Williams

Chattanooga @ Indiana
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Wayne Randazzo
Color: Stephen Bardo

Rutgers vs. Princeton @ Newark, NJ (Never Forget Tribute Classic)
11:00 AM, FS1
PxP: John Fanta
Color: Jim Spanarkel

Penn State vs. Drexel @ Philadelphia, PA
11:00 AM, UNTELEVISED

Fairleigh Dickinson @ Minnesota
1:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Jordan Taylor

Florida Atlantic @ Michigan State
1:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

UCLA vs. North Carolina @ New York, NY (CBS Sports Classic)
2:00 PM, CBS
PxP: Brad Nessler
Color: Bill Raftery

Purdue vs. Auburn @ Birmingham, AL (Battle in Birmingham)
3:30 PM, ESPN
PxP: Dan Shulman
Color: Jay Bilas

Ohio State vs. Kentucky @ New York, NY (CBS Sports Classic)
4:30 PM, CBS
PxP: Brad Nessler
Color: Bill Raftery

Iowa vs. Utah @ Sioux Falls, SD
5:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Chris Vosters
Color: Shon Morris

Oregon vs. Stanford @ San Jose, CA (San Jose Tip-Off)
7:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Guy Haberman
Color: Don MacLean

Sunday, December 22

Illinois vs. Missouri @ St. Louis, MO (Braggin’ Rights)
12:00 PM, ESPN
PxP: Tom Hart
Color: Daymeon Fishback

Purdue Fort Wayne @ Michigan
12:00 PM, BTN+ (streaming only)

Detroit Mercy @ Wisconsin
1:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Brian Butch

Southern @ USC
3:00 PM, BTN
PxP:
Color:

Nebraska vs. Murray State @ Honolulu, HI (Diamond Head Classic)
8:00 PM, ESPN
PxP: Roxy Bernstein
Color: Sean Farnham

The first NET ratings of the season have been released, and NU checks in at #73. Obviously this needs to get better, as that is not enough to make the tournament, but there's a lot of season left to play. I'll track our resume every week or so.

A general rule of thumb is that Quad 1 wins help your resume and Quad 3/4 losses hurt it. So here's our first resume of the year:

QUAD 1 (0-2)
A #40 Dayton - L
N #47 Butler - L

QUAD 2 (0-0)

QUAD 3 (2-0)
H #132 Montana State - W
N #149 UNLV - W

QUAD 4 (4-0)
H #161 UIC - W
H #279 Pepperdine - W
H #299 Eastern Illinois - W
H #302 Lehigh - W

We'd like to see Butler stay in the top 50 to keep that as a Q1 loss, but Q2 losses don't hurt so it's not a big deal either way. Similarly, UIC would be a Q3 win if they improved just one spot to #160, but a Q3 win isn't worth much more than a Q4 win.

This week, NU has a Q1 road game at #54 Iowa and a Q1 home game against #10 Illinois. Obviously any win over Illinois would be big, but the game in Iowa City appears winnable and would be a good early resume builder.

The WLL

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Tulane QB rated #1 in the portal transfers to Duke. Were we ever in the game for him?

I will be traveling at the end of Jan/early Feb and won't be able to attend three games. I also will be in a different section for DePaul, so need to get rid of my usual seat for that game. I'm trying to be proactive to ensure that a fellow NU fan is occupying my seat:

12/21/24 vs DePaul (3pm tipoff) SOLD
01/29/25 vs Rutgers (8pm tipoff)
02/01/25 vs Wisconsin (1pm tipoff)
02/04/25 vs USC (8pm tipoff) SOLD

For each game, I have a single season ticket for sale: Section 107, Row 13, Seat 23. (Section located behind NU bench)
Price negotiable - will entertain all reasonable offers. Message me.

Here are @mshelton33's takeaways from Milwaukee...

Northwestern (7-3, 1-1 Big Ten) plays Georgia Tech (4-5, 0-1 ACC) today at 3 pm. The matchup between the Wildcats and Yellowjackets is the second game of the MKE Tip-Off tripleheader and will be played at Fiserv Forum, the home of the Milwaukee Bucks. The game will air on BTN.

He'd look better in purple, if we were hiring. Yet I have hesitation from the pro to college move, but college football is now pro so he would draw a lot of attention and players.