@mikefitz77 has three things we learned, two questions we're asking and one bold prediction as Northwestern begins its offseason and preparations for 2025.

I’ve long been a proponent of:

• Braun is safe this year as it’ll be hard to hire a coach without the stadium
• Jackson will (likely) use his deep football network to hire a new coach when the stadium opens

However, the in game decision making has been really bad. Jackson has to see that

To those who know: how confident are you that Braun is coming back?

Is it 100% chance he’s back, 75%, or 50%?

Literally all year. Cost us wins. Hate to say it.

Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's 66-61 win over UNLV to finish third in the Arizona Tip-Off.

All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. I will add announcers as they are assigned. This is the first week of Big Ten conference play.

First, the NU games:

Northwestern @ Iowa
Tuesday, December 3
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Paul Burmeister
Color: Stephen Bardo

Illinois @ Northwestern
Friday, December 6
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Robbie Hummel

And the rest:

Tuesday, December 3

Sam Houston @ Indiana
6:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Brian Butch

Michigan @ Wisconsin
8:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Noah Eagle
Color: Robbie Hummel

Washington @ UCLA
9:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Trent Rush
Color: Casey Jacobsen

Wednesday, December 4

Ohio State @ Maryland
5:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Jason Horowitz
Color: Robbie Hummel

Michigan State @ Minnesota
7:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Stephen Bardo

Oregon @ USC
9:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Guy Haberman
Color: Don MacLean

Thursday, December 5

Purdue @ Penn State
5:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Rapheal Davis

Friday, December 6

Miami (OH) @ Indiana
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Shon Morris

Saturday, December 7

Nebraska @ Michigan State
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Chris Vosters
Color: Shon Morris

Rutgers @ Ohio State
11:00 AM, FS1
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Stephen Bardo

Wisconsin @ Marquette
12:30 PM, FOX
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Jim Jackson

Iowa @ Michigan
1:00 PM, FS1
PxP: Sloane Martin
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

USC @ Washington
5:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Aaron Goldsmith
Color: Don MacLean

Sunday, December 8

Maryland @ Purdue
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

UCLA @ Oregon
5:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Guy Haberman
Color: Don MacLean

@mikefitz77 has three things we learned, two questions we're asking and one bold prediction as Northwestern begins its offseason and preparations for 2025.

I still think the flashes from Lausch are interesting enough that I’d like to see him and Boe come out of a full season competition, but that just wasn’t it. At some point you gotta be able to see the field corner sinking when you’ve started this many games in a row. No idea why Lujan went away from QB run in the second half, it’s about the only thing that had been working.

Illinois running inside for big hitters was way too reminiscent of the first Wrigley game, just piss poor. Terrible angles and communication all game long, but especially in the second half.

Zero idea why Lovelace was out there over Okrotahi.

The in-series QB rotation made no sense, seemed to throw off timing and execution throughout the game.

Hope Admissions actually follows through on their agreement to let the program be active in the early portal window because we need a lot of near-term help, especially on offense.

Derek Simmons from Western Carolina picks up an NU offer. Originally from Jacksonville, FL.

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Northwestern (4-7, 2-6 Big Ten) hosts No. 22 Illinois (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) today at Wrigley Field. The game is set for an 11 am kick and will air on BTN.

In other news, Michigan and Ohio State are tied at 10 in the fourth quarter. The Michigan QB just threw an INT at the goal line. Yikes.

I talked to 2026 four star safety Marcello Vitti about his gameday visit vs IU, his bond with Harlon Barnett, and his recruitment.

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Three-star WR Amarion Jackson from Omaha already has an offer from Northwestern. He was supposed to visit for the Illinois game but had to cancel. He told me he is planning to go to a junior day in February.

Jackson has seven Power Four offers but, interestingly, doesn’t have one from the Huskers as of yet.

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Can we do away with the wrigley field games?!

There are already numerous legit quarterbacks in the portal. NU says they’re gonna be aggressive early, let’s see it!

Northwestern's season may be over, but five members of their Class of 2025 played this weekend, including cornerback Marquet Dorsey and DePaul who won New Jersey's Non-Public B state title.

Northwestern's season may be over, but five members of their Class of 2025 played this weekend, including cornerback Marquet Dorsey and DePaul who won New Jersey's Non-Public B state title.

Back to back to back. Congrats to fitz and his family. Turning into quite the football factory.

This weekend at Wrigley made something painfully obvious (though I admit this is not a groundbreaking thought) - our new athletic leadership will probably be content pricing our fairweather fans out of the stadium and effectively generating revenue by selling de facto home games to our visitors here in Chicago - which fans from Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska (and Indiana?) will reliably oblige.

I will admit, I am personally concerned about getting priced out of the new stadium. I have not taken my Northwestern degree into law or high finance. I can certainly go higher than the $400 per head that season tickets have cost most recently at Ryan Field (parking included), but I fear it will more than double, which may not be palatable to my co-STH friends who are not alums...and this is to say nothing about what appears will be even less parking availability since the golf course will no longer be viable. It's clear to me in the new marketing materials that they are subtly prepping us to bike or take the train to the stadium and enjoy the "gathering areas" around the stadium...which I now also imagine they will charge admission to access. I think visitors making a weekend getaway to Chicago will pay inflated prices for a one-off game (just like I/we do for bowl games). I don't think I can do that 6-7x per year.

Maybe this was inevitable - perhaps we could have priced Wrigley tickets at $1 for NU fans and there still would have been a sea of red, but I felt like Phillips and Morty understood how unreliable NU fans are and clearly built a strategy around getting purple in the seats, even at a financial cost to the bottom line. Either the new regime doesn't understand this (yet?) or they don't care what color the fan is wearing who buys the seat, as long as they pay full freight.

Who ya got? I think Vrabel makes the most sense. Freeman would do wonders in Columbus but I don’t think he leaves South Bend. Lashlee is a dark horse. His offense with those OSU athletes would be scary.

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Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's 38-28 loss to Illinois to close out the 2024 season.

Winter Classes Begin.

Let’s check back on January 7th to see where we are. The next 30 or so days will be critical to the future of our program.

I for one, am excited about the possibilities. I have the utmost confidence in Jacob Schmidt to do his part. The jury is still out on Braun and Walerius. We will lose some players; hopefully we will gain a good number of quality players to fill the deficiencies on our roster.

The Braun quote below and Lou’s recent article give me reason to be optimistic. Time will tell. Buckle up; it’s going to be a wild ride over the next month or so!

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Interesting move and consistent with college football programs becoming more and more like NFL organizations. Will be interesting to see if other programs follow and how head caches react to this structure.

That this time he really, actually, definitely, will bring Gronowski to NU? That he “deserves” another season with a second-year Lausch?

I see no defense of the miserable, mistake-prone offense he put on the field this year. We saw what a mistake it was to let JON keep going when our eyes and brains said to move on. There is zero reason for optimism that Lujan will get better absent an unprecedented talent infusion. Guy coasted on having better Jimmies and Joes at SDSU.

For that matter I also don’t see Braun surviving past next year at this pace, so wondering what the benefit is of keeping him around another year either. With competent coaching this team probably manages 6-6.