Callen Campbell has prepared his whole life in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. to be a college football player. Thanks to his hard work in a gym in the garage, the right phone call at the right time, and a village of coaches, he got on Northwestern's radar. Check out our profile on the early enrollee from the UP.

All times CENTRAL. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated. I will add announcers as they are assigned. Happy New Year!

First, the NU games:

Northwestern @ Illinois
Tuesday, January 2
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Robbie Hummel

Michigan State @ Northwestern
Sunday, January 7
6:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

And the rest:

Tuesday, January 2

Iowa @ Wisconsin
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: LaPhonso Ellis

Purdue @ Maryland
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Paul Burmeister
Color: Tre Demps

Wednesday, January 3

Rutgers @ Ohio State
6:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Stephen Bardo

Indiana @ Nebraska
8:00 PM, BTN
PxP: Kevin Kugler
Color: Shon Morris

Thursday, January 4

Penn State @ Michigan State
6:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Noah Eagle
Color: Robbie Hummel

Minnesota @ Michigan
8:00 PM, Peacock (streaming only)
PxP: Jac Collinsworth
Color: Stephen Bardo

Friday, January 5

Illinois @ Purdue
7:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Brandon Gaudin
Color: Robbie Hummel

Saturday, January 6

Rutgers @ Iowa
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Shon Morris

Nebraska @ Wisconsin
1:15 PM, BTN
PxP: Jeff Levering
Color: Bruce Weber

Ohio State @ Indiana
7:00 PM, FOX
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Jim Jackson

Sunday, January 7

Michigan vs. Penn State @ Philadelphia, PA
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Wayne Randazzo
Color: Stephen Bardo

Maryland @ Minnesota
4:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Shon Morris

Big tv sports day yesterday. I enjoyed watching our win against Jackson St and our strong 2nd half. Overlapping the NU game was my San Diego State Aztecs beating #13 Gonzaga at their house (something that almost never happens- I think the Zags have only lost one home game in recent years.) The Aztecs should be ranked after that win. They looked really strong in beating the Zags by 10 on the road.

Plus- a big bonus at the end of the day was the Ohio State loss of their bowl game against Missouri with an offense that resembled Iowa’s.

OSU and FSU performances may just be enough to end the current bowl system. The fans deserve better competition> Players opting out either for the portal or NFL undermines teams' ability to play competitively, The bowl system may eventually just involve 12 teams. in the playoffs

The team that NU shellacked in Madison vs the #13 team in the country? Absolutely brutal

Is he still on roster?

The results are in from the boards and from Twitter, and the winner is David Braun! Check out @lou v's story on the first-year head coach picking up one more honor from 2023.

LSU-Wisconsin has been pretty darn fun.

I wonder if Iowa’s quarterbacks would have developed better if they had a real quarterbacks coach, and not an ex-OL coach’s son. I’m shocked they don’t have a true dedicated QB coach on staff.

I’d never noticed an announcer use the term “push pass” to describe the inside handoff thing on a jet sweep when the QB flips to the motion man, presumably so that a fumble is instead an incomplete pass, but it’s a good term. Bo Nix is an excellent push passer.


RGIII is a well-dressed man.

NU finished 2023 averaging 2.3 sacks per game. That is the most a NU defense has averaged since 2017 (2.5)
Some other seasons for comparison:
2022 - 1.4 (122nd in FBS)
2021 - 1.5 (116th)
2020 - 1.6 (98th)
2019 - 1.9 (75th)
2018 - 1.7 (99th)
2017 - 2.5 (28th)

A few bowl games left but NU is the only team in the B1G with 3 players that had 5 sacks or more.
Hubbard - 6
Saka - 5.5
Muller - 5.

Anyone, maybe Styre, have any idea what time that game will be? We're just over a week away, and it still says TBD.

The results are in from the boards and from Twitter, and the winner is David Braun! Check out @lou v's story on the first-year head coach picking up one more honor from 2023.

We have some very worthy candidates this year.

Question for the Evanston members. Is there construction fencing around the stadium and adjoining site plus office trailers being set up? If not, that would be a bad sign that anyone expects construction to start soon or that the contractor has been released to make major contractual commitments.

Here are our takeaways from tonight’s win, including remarks from Chris Collins on the passing of former DePaul head coach and Northwestern broadcaster Joey Meyer.

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VERY excited about a new S&C staff. My understanding is that Anderson’s job will be up to the new incoming OC.

Gotta think MacPherson is another potential casualty.

I'm just fantasy booking here, but I can't help but think there could be a few very simple, common-sense regulations implemented for players (who as a reminder, are college students) wanting to enter the transfer portal, to reduce the "wild west" elements that CFB is experiencing right now.

• You can enter the Portal once, unrestricted - for any reason or no reason at all.
• If you want to enter more than once, you either have to sit a year or lose a year of eligibility to play immediately, unless:
  1. There's a change to your head coach or position coach...then you can enter the Portal again.
  2. You've earned your degree...then you can enter the Portal once more.
  3. You've made academic progress in line with your status as a full-time student AND you can furnish an academic plan with assistance from an advisor to demonstrate your ability to graduate in a timely manner. This gets into the weeds but the idea being that academic progress isn't being stifled by the football. This rule would also support players who aren't getting any playing time, enabling them to get caught up in a year while also not burning through their eligibility.

As someone who works with undergrads...I can confirm that making steady academic progress in a degree program becomes difficult as a transfer. Then adding the scheduling restrictions as a player with games and practice, it reduces academic possibilities even further. I'm under no false belief that athletic programs care about academic progress, but enforcing rules like this would significantly reduce the fickle turnover we're seeing, which I think yields universal benefits for everyone involved (yes...including the players themselves).

I know many people cynically ask, "if the coaches can do whatever they want...then why can't the players?" I don't think there's an apples to apples comparison when it comes to a full-time professional and a full-time student for starters (but I would also argue that schools and coaches should stop entering into commitments that neither intends to honor). It worries me seeing players transferring 3-4 times just chasing after playing time, including those who land at Northwestern.

We have some very worthy candidates this year.

Given the Chi State debacle, we can take nothing for granted. This JS team was very competitive with Georgetown and beat Mizzou. NU can beat basically anyone when playing well, but an off night can be disastrous.

Ty Berry had his 2nd consecutive strong game, propelling the Wildcats to a comfortable victory over Jackson State. Nick Martinelli had another good game off the bench. When he plays the 4, things tend to go fairly well.

As noted by Matthew Shelton, Boo Buie had a very nice-looking +16 in his 35+ minutes, leading NU to a 67-51 advantage. No doubt the team is most effective when he is on the floor (Buie, not Shelton).
The notable thing here is that Jordan Clayton was not subbing in for Buie. Clayton did not play. Not sure if it was a health issue.

In this game, Buie got 3 short rests. In each case, we saw Martinelli/Barnhizer/Berry/Langborg with a center. In the first half Collins used those 4 with Preston and we won 5-4 over the two segments. With 11:08 to go in the 2nd half, Collins paired those 4 with Nicholson and Jackson State scored 8 points in 3 possessions. We scored 2 points in 2 possessions.

Luke Hunger played 4 minutes and we had a nice 3 minute segment that we won 8-3 with Hunger/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Berry/Buie.

I listened to this game on the radio before watching a replay the next day, At halftime, Special Assistant Brian James was interviewed. His statements were not particularly re-assuring. "Most teams would take advantage of Jackson State's lack of size by getting it inside to a big guy to score, but thats not what we do" or "thats not what we're good at or "we can't play that way" and continued "We have sort of a three man rotation at center and...." (yuck)

Not what you want to hear from the assistant coach who apparently is supposed to be developing the big guys.

If Clayton can't come off the bench and provide decent minutes, we're looking at a rotation consisting of 3 centers and Martinelli subbing for the other 4 starters. That can work until one of the non-centers can't play, for whatever reason. (I never got to see Hunger playing the 4, alongside Preston at the 5, which is one potential alternative).

Thru the 10 games I'm using, our best 5 man lineup remains Nicholson/Martinelli/Barnhizer/Berry/Buie, who have played to a 39-10 margin in 15 minutes. That group did not play against Jackson State, although Hunger did play with those other 4 (mentioned above) and won 8-3.

Another 5 man group that has put up sterling numbers is Hunger/Barnhizer/Berry/Langborg/Buie which is 62-30 in 28 minutes.

Open regular B1G play with a come-from-behind win against Rutgers. They outscored Rutgers 21-8 in the 4th. Third straight win.

He thinks Braun, not Bajakian, called hazing ‘allegations’ “totally made up”.

O’Donnell also becomes the first media source (I haven’t read anything) to specifically identify ‘the whistleblower’.


O’Donnell’s apparently been emailing Richardson’s dad since the summer.

It has almost been a week since attending our Bowl Game and I finally had a chance to see it as recorded on the DVR. I was surprised to see very few crowd shots of Purple fans in the stands . One that stood out was just after the interception as the first quarter was coming to a close.

So to remedy the situation, here are a few of my own shots of Wildcat Fans in the Stands starting off with NoChores and BosCat who were seated behind me. I have even included a TV Screenshot of the aforementioned broadcast view that was texted to me during the game in which he circled the finding of me with camera in hand.

At the end is a shot of Wildcat Willie and the Northwestern Cheerleaders looking up to the Purple Contingent.

We have some very worthy candidates this year.

Interestingly, it was a secret overnight visit that Priebe made to NU last week that sealed the deal for him. He didn’t announce that he was visiting. He spent the night in a dorm with Sam Stovall, went to Bat 17 for dinner with the starting five and just hung out with them. That’s when he knew he would be a Cat.

The other big factors (beyond the usual athletic/academic combo stuff) were Kurt Anderson (he loves the guy) and, in a new one, he really raved about the strength staff too. He said that the S & C staff was something he evaluated at every school.

It sounds like MSU was the runner up, and he visited East Lansing at least three times. He visited Michigan twice and Ohio State once. But he said that “nothing was as special as Northwestern and I felt like I fit in at Northwestern better than I did anywhere else.”

Story to come.

Per Sean McDonough