The Alaska Mojo Moose can just do so much, but they were no match for the Bad Omen of Air Willie's return. There at the entrance to the N-Zone Pregame Northwestern Alumni Tailgate stood an inflated Air Willie. Quick, someone kidnap him and make sure he is deflated before we play Indiana.

For those who were not here to share the angst of Air Willie in doomed days past, below is a link to the late FarEast Wildcat's archived piece on HailtoPurple.com.

Air Willie's Ominous Past

Pictured below is first, Air Willie making his return in Seattle.

It is followed by my photo of the original Air Willie.

Finally are selected scenes from Saturday at the N-Zone Pregame Northwestern Alumni Tailgate at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Kid has battled and made the right decision more often than not. The INT directly to the LB at the end of the first half was inexcusable, but beyond that the kid has stood in there competing. Multiple dropped balls from guys who just have to make plays for him outside. Kirtz, Johnson, Gordon, and others have all dropped catchable if not perfect throws.

Second career start at Washington isn’t easy. Hopefully taking the lumps now pays off long term. Today’s stats are gonna be ugly, but the tape won’t be bad.

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Starting way back with Kevin Wilson and Bill Walsh and the spread/motion wizardry offenses there was a proliferation of young magical offensive coordinators and it was all about the scheme....slight of hand,,,,motion left, motion right....stand up sit down.....but defenses have caught up with this stuff with more dbs and other defensive schemes as well as just understanding them better...and now it is back to can my man on the offensive line beat your man on the defensive line....or can my wide receiver get open against your db and my oline protect the qb......it is back to the basics....and all the fancy stuff just is not sufficient if you cant win the line of scrimmage.....The Cats and the Bears are relearning this....while both have Harry Potter OCs that wave their wands that are really just sticks.

NU looks to be having a few visitors this weekend.

Good news, only one players on NU's current "it" list committed elsewhere. Bad news, lots of competition for the remaining guys.

Here are the promised WildcatReport Fan photos:

Pictured below are Dave Eanet; DarkAgesSurvivor and Mrs. DarkAgesSurvivor; SimpsonElmwood; SeattleCat, and the Astro's Zoom Chat faithful who made a virtual appearance:

Other than 2018 we signed one back per class and if I remember correctly Evan Hull was a throw in at the end cuz we had not signed anyone. Is it true that we signed Kamalofe to be a db originally? We lost Anderson and Bowers when it became apparent that Porter was going to get most of the carries...Why have we struggled to fill this position room. Is this normal to only recruit one back per class? if not have we just missed on signing backs ? as a position are they now like qbs where high schools only have one? so there is a limited supply? But the chances of Cam Porter staying healthy for the rest of the year????
2018 we signed Drake Anderson and Isiah Bowers
2019 Evan Hull as a 2 star....and I think late as well
2020 Cam Porter
2021 Anthony Tyus as a 4 star
2022 Joseph Himon
2023 NO running backs signed ....can that be true? Kamalofe is listed as a db and 2 stars.
2024 Dashun Reeder
others on the roster
Grissam Anderson no idea,,says he played for Duke in 21 ?????
Jake Arthurs...who I believe was a walk-on ?????
Albert Kunnickis III listed as a sophomore ...another walk on?

This team has to have the worst hands I’ve ever seen. Snaps and long snaps are consistently bad. WRs don’t catch. Tight ends, an extremely experienced rooms, have hands that remind me of my high school on linemen days. RBs who aren’t Porter can’t hold onto the ball. Pretty bad.

Your challenge is to say something legitimately positive about the offense. You cannot use an underhanded compliment that is actually an insult, but you may damn with faint praise or by omission.

I’ll go first:

Jack Lausch has a lot of heart out there and deserved more completions than he ended up with.

The offensive line is probably better than it could have been given the lack of experience entering the year and all the injuries, especially in pass pro.

This season so far when the Moose have made their presence known the Cats have won. Gotta feel good about today's encounters. A pair walked across our street this morning. Then this evening they returned with one more to make it a rare trio.

Moose Mania
This morning two Moose showed up. Then in the evening they returned with a third.
After the others had their fill of the tasty vegetation, this one stayed on for dessert.

Video Link:

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The morning Moose:

The evening return:


Dinner for three:

The last to leave:

Here is link from yesterday’s Tailgate in Seattle where both WGN’s Northwestern Play-by-Play announcer Dave Eanet and NU’s new AD Mark Jackson Spoke.

Just to hear Jackson’s enthusiasm in taking on his new role is worth a watch-listen as he is flanked by the Northwestern Spirit Swuad and an animated Willie the Wildcat!

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Watching red zone all day and KC v ATL on Sunday night a whole lot of pro teams have had similar problems scoring on the ground from a couple of yards out. Most go pistol or shotgun as well

I missed the Coco injury, was going to the bathroom. I heard it didn’t look good. Any ideas? And did Theran Johnson also go out with an injury? I saw we replaced him but didn’t notice a play where / if he got hurt.

And do we know what Cam Porter’s injury is, any idea when he’s back?

@mikefitz77 has three things we learned, two questions we're asking and one bold prediction after Northwestern's 24-5 loss at Washington.

As much as I want him to be, he is not. We will be fortunate to end 5-7. I love this team and university, but thisis not a group of players that can compete with teams that have resources we don't. Wright is better period.

In fall of 2005, I was off campus as an intern at GE healthcare up near Waukesha and the ugliness that Camp Kenosha became. When @CoralSpringsCat discovered Kenosha, it was PERFECT for football. A massive campus that was dead at the end of summer where Barnett could rally the team, coach them without distraction, and build a positive culture of optimism. This is what I was sold as a preferred walk on when Northwestern recruited me in 2002. I turned down scholarships at smaller schools after my one season of varsity football. I was sold on the whole “3 Big Ten Championships in 8 years” too. I loved Big Ike, Coach Walk, Coach Patton, Coach Brown from Kent Roosevelt (I helped turn nearby Hudson from a loser into a winner by playing and then coaching for free during the summer of 2005. I talked Bill Nagy’s dad out of sending him to Wisconsin because of what happened to me in 2002).

When I was at GEHC, my friend Caleb killed himself. I got an email from my buddy Jon on the rugby team listserv and was saddened and confused.

When I got back to campus, I wanted to find out what happened to my friend. Caleb and I had befriended at 600 Lincoln my freshman year. I quit the football team but was cool with all the student athletes on campus except for the guys who bullied and abused me as a 19YO. There were constant fights and drunken nights amongst the student athletes, and a few brawls. The cops were there a couple of times even.

I found out that Caleb killed himself because he was gay. I was shocked. I did not know that Caleb was gay, and I did not care.

I had a bunch of gay or bisexual teammates at Hudson and at Northwestern. Now it is commonplace, but back then they were bullied the most and quit or transferred at a faster rate. Even if we needed them and their talent.

I now suspect that Caleb was assaulted or shamed. I think someone threatened to tell his parents back in Hong Kong that he was gay. His family was very anti-gay, and Caleb should have been safe in Evanston.

He wasn’t. I heard it was a grisly and bloody mess in his dorm room. 😔

I miss Caleb. He was smart, kind, and the kind of guy you wanted to be friends with at Northwestern. He played rugby for years despite being too damn skinny and had a funny nickname.

I spoke out for Caleb and all the kids in the nupredators thread and many other survivors of the toxic Northwestern atmosphere.

I want a full investigation by Loretta Lynch into all campus suicides for the past 20 years in honor of Caleb and other LGBTQ+ who were assaulted and shamed.

40% of LBTGQ+ people consider suicide at some point in their lives. This is inhumane. It must stop.

#GreenLivesMatter
#AllPeopleMatter
#RIPCalebNU2005
#PurpleAngel2Soon
#SellTSLA
#BuyTLSA

Go Cats.

That is all

@mikefitz77 has three things we learned, two questions we're asking and one bold prediction after Northwestern's 24-5 loss at Washington.

@lou v has the story on new Northwestern RB commit Ronny Johnson's decision.

Too many depressing things to talk about on offense so in the interest of finding a positive topic - 13 Josh Fussell came in at CB and looked really good I thought. Tight coverage and a couple nice breaks on the ball. As a redshirt Freshman thought he looked athletic and promising. Reminded me of when Sherrick came in off the bench and was lockdown in his first game. Hoping we have another talent. Looked better than 12 right away IMO, admittedly small sample size, and I think potentially better than 10 as well. Hope he can keep it up.

Triumphant Cats fans
Wonder where to lake the posts
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