I can’t make it, sick sick sick, and I have four seats going to waste. Anyone want one? To go and not for resale, please.

I talked to four-star DE Austin Alexander about his visit to Northwestern last weekend, where the Wildcats stand and his decision timeline.

Tight end Zach Giuliano committed to Northwestern over 16 other offers, including Washington, Auburn and Texas A&M. I got in contact with Zach to learn about his visit to Northwestern and the background that shaped his decision.

I was looking at the game thread from the last game against Purdue and it was interesting to reread two months later. Turnovers were great, but so many missed shots early, missed free throws late, and a ton of fouls. Plus Purdue rebounded very well in the first half when it looked like NU would get blown out. Barnhizer disappeared in the second half.

In other words, NU beat Purdue when it was far from the best basketball they can play. I worry about Purdue getting calls tonight at home and otherwise being out for blood, but Purdue might be surprised that NU is playing better now than they were in December and last February.

Boo Buie was named as the B1G’s only Cousy Award finalist:

https://www.si.com/college/indiana/...d-michigan-state-tom-izzo-win-700-vs-michigan

In a related fine whine of the day, Hammer and Rails can’t understand why Braden Smith wasn’t selected, maybe because they haven’t had the heart to watch a replay of the December 1 game for a side by side comparison:

I had a nice interview with PWO commit DT Henry Fioriglio this afternoon. Might end up writing up some of the details for a longer story once there's a quieter hoops/2025 recruiting stretch, but here were some of my initial takeaways:

-Raved about the staff's attention to detail, especially with how the staff greeted his mother. Said they knew all about them, asked her questions about her job and the area, thought it was an impressive touch that the staff was so dedicated to getting it right for a PWO they had an overwhelming chance of bringing in as he had no other FBS schools in contact.

"All the coaches were extremely nice, knew stuff about her and knew her job. They had a lot of questions and kept her engaged. She loves me and loves football but she doesn't know as much [about the game] as I do or nearly as much as the coaches do. They were super great with her and that was a big part [of why I committed] because they treated me like family."

-NU had been in contact a bit throughout the fall with Bryan Payton in the lead, then it ramped this winter. They were waiting on admissions clearance, they got it, he took a trip and it sealed the deal

-Was part of the DL visit so he split off with Austin Alexander and Tommy Rupley for the film session with Christian Smith

-Said Carmine Bastone was used as an example of a "monster" DT and an example of not just Northwestern's walkon success but developmental success

-Said part of the PWO/developmental pitch was being able to put in long and extra hours in the building helps the staff evaluate them and opens the door for them to advocate to keep and play those players rather than search the portal: "If you want to and put in that work, they're going to take you over a portal player. They're going to advocate, Coach Smith is going to advocate for me if I'm doing everything right and I'm working my tail off."

-Liked Smith's philosophy of freedom within the system, talked about how he gives DL/DE freedom to improvise and use their experiences so long as they're getting to the right spots in the scheme
"Not many coaches give you that much [freedom] in pass rush. He does that but all in concept and scheme, so if you're going to take inside, you have to get back to the tackle's upfield shoulder as an end, but he gives the ability to do your moves to get where you want."

-He committed to NU at the dinner on the visit, said Braun gave him a big hug when he told him.


I think Fioriglio has a long road of development to make an impact at NU but there's no such thing as a bad walkon, and I thought the attention to detail he mentioned from the staff was worth sharing with the board.

It’s called Reacher. i’ve watched two episodes just to verify that this is indeed footballphil. It turns out his real name is Alan Ritchson.

The only thing that’s missing is an overindulgent dose of Old Spice.

Here’s a link and some photos for those of you who are too lazy to google it.

I talked to four-star DE Austin Alexander about his visit to Northwestern last weekend, where the Wildcats stand and his decision timeline.

NFM

They call it a basketball availability, I call it an opportunity to poke around the construction before and afterwards.


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The swarm of contractors and workers is increasing as some big guns in terms of machinery are being brought in. A few gravel dumps and some minor earth moving. Outside structure and field still totally intact, they seem to be prioritizing clearing the concourses and the interiors first rather than just knocking it all down like a Lego set. Working to get official word on a progress meter/live stream type set up, will let the board know as soon as I get anything back.

Tight end Zach Giuliano committed to Northwestern over 16 other offers, including Washington, Auburn and Texas A&M. I got in contact with Zach to learn about his visit to Northwestern and the background that shaped his decision.

How cool is it that the Wildcats were in the last bowl game to be played in Allegiant Stadium where the next bowl game to be held there will be the Super Bowl? As the sports world ramps up for the Super Bowl bets are already being taken on every thing from how many TV appearance Taylor Swift will be caught on camera (assuming she makes it back from her tour performance in Tokyo the day prior) to whether the coin toss will be heads or tails. On that later point here is some added trivia:

If it weren't for the ancient Greeks deciding to place the head of Athena on one side, and an Owl - with its visible tail - on the other, of their "Athenian Owl Coin" the coin toss as we know it may never have become a thing. This design choice popularized coins having "heads" and "tails." Prior to that a turtle on what is claimed to have been the world's first coin, which was minted in Ionia, was headless on its opposite side.

Here are my photos from the coin toss for our game played at Allegiant Stadium on December 23rd. Note the participation of Purple and Red clad Las Vegas showgirls to add a local touch.

Henry Fioriglio from Riverside HS in Sarasota.

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JonAnthony Hall from Fishers, Ind. Hall has offers from Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue and five others.

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Here's the story from Edgy....

There’s our mystery commit No. 3!

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No PWO offer for the visitor from Lincoln-Way East yet, but an anecdote and background from the interview that I wanted to share:

His older brother, Mike Florentine, was recruited to North Dakota State in 2021 by David Braun, who was then the defensive coordinator and helping with special teams. Mike Florentine snapped every game of their national championship season before transferring to NIU.

Back to Jack, he said he had a great time on the visit talking with Paul Creighton, the new special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. A few of the other schools talking to him are UConn and Bucknell, with past conversations with Illinois and NIU.

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Good read. Also:

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It's happening.

EDIT: The Evanston History Center posted a multi-part series on the history of football playing fields at NU that was pretty interesting. I didn't know there had been so much controversy about building Dyche Stadium/Ryan Field in the first place. A lot of the debate discussed in the series could have easily come from the 2020s instead of the 1920s.

Their NIL group has over 4,000 members, so there’s bound to be some bad apples:

No. 2 Purdue is on the horizon and Northwestern basketball hosted media availability. Here are our takeaways from remarks from Chris Collins, Ryan Langborg and Boo Buie.

No. 2 Purdue is on the horizon and Northwestern basketball hosted media availability. Here are our takeaways from remarks from Chris Collins, Ryan Langborg and Boo Buie.

Looks like Coach Braun has dipped back into North Dakota to hire Ean Deno as his Director of Scouting. Deno had been at North Dakota since 2019. He was most recently the Director of Football Recruiting and Player Personnel under Matt Entz.


Nice to see Braun building a strong personnel/recruiting department.

I traded texts with 2024 PWO target Landon Lauter tonight. He visited NU today.

He’s choosing between PWO offers from NU and Illinois and said that he will make his decision in the next few days.

The interesting thing is that NU is recruiting him as a defensive lineman, while Illinois wants him as an OL. He said he doesn’t have a preference.

“Wherever I can help the team the quickest,” is how he put it.

Lauter is a teammate of 2024 signee TE Patrick Schaller at Glenbrook North. He has scholarship offers from Army, Butler, Bucknell and Dayton, and a bunch of PWO offers, ranging from the MAC to the Big Ten.

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