I guess the MAC decided (?) to stop playing TV games during the week. Conference USA looks to have taken their place and are playing even Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Their stadiums don't look as empty as the forlorn MAC's, where you could count on lousy weather. Good decision on their part.

Good move by Gragg.

@EvanstonCat wrote about a mysterious recording.

“…not only having such an obvious axe to grind but being caught on tape outlining his scheme clearly and unequivocally,”…

Any details? Who has heard the recording? How long is it? What does it say?

Thanks!

Northwestern comes out of the bye week with a road game against Nebraska and their stingy defense. @lou v talked to HuskerOnline.com's Grant Hansen to get the inside scoop on the Huskers this season.

The others are Zach Edey (Purdue), Terrence Shannon (Illinois), and Jahmir Young (Maryland).

Although the Cats lost by 28 last week, there were additional signs of hope as they stayed with Penn State for the first half and the defense was effective until eventually getting worn down by the Lions. There is a path to bowl eligibility given the state of the rest of the B1G West.

That path is very unlikely without a win this week against the Howard University Bison, however. The Bison are an FCS team that was competitive with Eastern Michigan. And the Cats have lost FCS games in recent years, so this is a should-win game, but not a guaranteed win.

HU 17
NU 31

I talked to Najee Story and Carmine Bastone about the unusual defensive tackle committee at Northwestern this season, and their preparations to take on one of the best rushing offenses in the country against Nebraska this week.

An early kickoff and a national BTN broadcast.

The former player said Sunday that Schill was "extremely receptive" to his accounts of hazing within the program and offered him resources to deal with the trauma.

A current Northwestern player, who asked to remain anonymous, also told ESPN on Sunday that the former player, whose hazing allegations late in 2022 launched the investigation, informed him of a detailed plan with the sole objective to take down Fitzgerald. The current player on Sunday relayed a conversation he said he had early this year with the former player to Northwestern trustees and other influential university figures.

"He just kept emphasizing, 'Yeah, it'll be OK, I'm just trying to get Coach Fitz fired,'" the current player told ESPN. "I don't think he ever acknowledged what he's saying is not true. It was just like, 'I might embellish or exaggerate to get Coach Fitz fired.' He said his sole goal was to see Coach Fitz rot in jail.

"The truth is none of that stuff happened in our locker room."

The current player said the former player told him he would go public with detailed allegations if the university's investigation did not result in Fitzgerald's dismissal and referenced the 2021 situation involving athletic director Mike Polisky, who stepped down amid media and public pressure nine days after being promoted. Polisky had been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a former Northwestern cheerleader.

"He was thinking he could do the same with Coach Fitz, if he went to The Daily Northwestern and went public with it," the current player said.

Told of the current player's account, the former player said he wanted to "absolutely seek action to get Fitz out of the program," but had other objectives.

"I want to shed light on this heinous, illegal behavior," the former player said. "I wanted illegal behavior out of the program. This is an absolutely barbaric and egregious culture that ultimately lies on the shoulders of the head coach."

The former player told ESPN that hazing was organized and widespread in Northwestern's program, often led by a group of older players called the "Shrek gang."

…broke his hand. Ouch.

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I think Braun should be given the job. The university will wait until the end of the season as they should and I think the Cats will win more games this season. Braun is loved by his players and they will play hard for him. I also think he would be someone who would stay here. I believe he can recruit because he is a fine person who players want to be around. I feel one of those big name coaches or other up and comers would leave the minute they had success. Back in New York before Rutgers was in the big Schiano was a young successful coach and building a great program. They even gave him university land for free to build a house but he still left to try his hand at bigger things. Just think what Rutgers would be now if he had stayed. He came back but had to start all over again. The same thing happened to UConn. They had a young successful coach who got them to bowl games and then he left for Maryland. Look at Lou Holtz. He was successful so Minnesota hired him. He said the only job he would leave for was Notre Dame and guess who called right before Minnesota’s first bowl game in a long time. The interim head coach had to coach the bowl game. What would the big look like if Holtz had stayed in Minnesota? At Northwestern we had Ara who left for Notre Dame. If he had stayed what would the program have looked like in the early 70’s. Pappy Waldorf took us to the Rose Bowl and then left for California. Theses are all things to consider. If we do go with the established successful coach we need to have a good long game so we can have a philosophy that can plug in a series of coaches so can have continuity. We need to ready so we don’t have to lose a lot ground because a great coach leaves.

I talked to Najee Story and Carmine Bastone about the unusual defensive tackle committee at Northwestern this season, and their preparations to take on one of the best rushing offenses in the country against Nebraska this week.

Seeing between 10-12.5 points. A little surprising. We are not great but neither are they

Here is a rundown of the six newcomers - three transfers and three frosh - to NU hoops this upcoming season.

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All times CENTRAL, and all games played on Saturday, October 21. Rankings come from the AP poll. All games available nationally unless otherwise indicated.

First, the NU game:

Northwestern @ Nebraska
2:30 PM, BTN
PxP: Cory Provus
Color: Jake Butt

And the rest:

#7 Penn State @ #3 Ohio State (ESPN College GameDay)
11:00 AM, FOX
PxP: Gus Johnson
Color: Joel Klatt

Rutgers @ Indiana
11:00 AM, BTN
PxP: Connor Onion
Color: Matt Millen

Minnesota @ #24 Iowa
2:30 PM, NBC
PxP: Paul Burmeister
Color: Anthony Herron

Wisconsin @ Illinois
2:30 PM, FS1
PxP: Eric Collins
Color: Devin Gardner

#2 Michigan @ Michigan State
6:30 PM, NBC
PxP: Noah Eagle
Color: Todd Blackledge

Maryland and Purdue are off this week.

Love it.

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Another important thread bites the dust. If it weren't so pathetic, it would be kind of comical.

One week after losing to our Cats 23-20. Howard played Ivy League Harvard and lost 48-7. I find that interesting. Nothing more.

Northwestern coaches told four-star 2025 DT Jason Dowell of Belleville (Ill.) Althoff Catholic that they will offer him if he visits. He's got a pretty impressive offer list already.


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The Huskers are a 12.5-point favorite over the Cats on Saturday. I'm just starting my breakdown of the Huskers, but a couple things jumped out.

Nebraska can run the ball, and that's going to be a problem. They rank second in the Big Ten (behind only Penn State) with 200.5 yards per game. Northwestern's run defense, on the other hand, ranks dead-last in the conference, allowing 172.3 ypg. So a lot is going to hinge on whether NU will be able to contain Nebraska's running attack. Interestingly, their leading rusher is QB Heinrich Haarberg, but we don't know if he'll start because Jeff Sims is back from injury and the Huskers are holding a quarterback competition this week.

On the flip side, the Cats have the worst rushing offense in the league at 103.0 ypg. Some of that is due to the fact that NU has trailed so much and had to throw, but the bottom line is that the Cats aren't going to be able to run the ball on Nebraska effectively. The Huskers' defense ranks second in the league vs. the run (again behind only PSU), giving up just 75.8 ypg. Ironically, I think that might help. I think NU's best shot is to throw the ball all over the yard, anyway -- assuming Ben Bryant is healthy. The question is whether they'll be able to protect him: the Cats have given up 22 sacks, second-most in the league, and Nebraska has some dudes up front.

The other major factor, as usual when you play Nebraska, is turnovers. They have a new coach in Matt Ruhle, but turnovers are again a problem for the Huskers. They rank 130th out of 133 teams nationally with a -7 turnover ratio (13 lost, 6 gained), or -1.17 per game.

Blast from the past.

Skip to 3:39 if you want to see the main event.

Good ole Pat

Btw Eddie George was/is a big dude.

Braun's weekly presser just wrapped up, here are my initial notes. A takeaways article will be up this afternoon.


Wouldn't confirm Bryant is back, Henning, Lausch and Hagarty are all cleared

"Ben continues to progress, not sure exactly what his status will be come game time. But he is progressing and we anticipate that being something we evaluate as the week goes along."

Not what we wanted to hear, if Northwestern wants a shot against Nebraska's defense they'll need Bryant to be healthy. Could be some gamesmanship from Braun as he was stingy with naming Bryant a starter and has been stingy with injuries all season. Very concerning and surprising though as he said multiple times there wasn't a long-term concern, and this would be three weeks on the sidelines for Bryant. AJ Henning and Jack Lausch were both out against Howard, they are cleared for Nebraska. Richie Hagarty left the Howard game late and was listed doubtful to return, he is cleared for Nebraska as well.

Braun broke down the recruiting pitch

Northwestern has regained its footing in its Class of 2024. After a wave of decommitments, they've picked up two new commitments in the past weeks and are poised for more. Braun elaborated on how he's sold players on coming to Northwestern amidst all the uncertainty.

"We talk about telling a story. At the end of the day, recruiting is presenting a story and giving young men and their families thorough information. I think the story that exists here at Northwestern is special."

He fell back on the tried and true selling point, the team's unique blend of academics and athletics, including that the team has proven to be a strong developmental program. He said those traits stand out, even with an interim job title.

"I think what you're seeing is that young men and their families are realizing that even though there's a level of uncertainty, we're not going to focus on that. We're going to focus on the things we can commit to at Northwestern and that's an opportunity to play in the Big Ten and an opportunity to do it at one of the best institutions you can find."

He's in an equally unique position as someone who is balancing their first season as a P5 head coach on the field as off it. He gave a great answer to how he's balanced the increased recruiting workload.

"I've leaned into relationships, genuine relationships. I'm going to bust my tail, put every fiber of my being into [recruiting]...how do you do that? You identify young men across the country that fit the profile here at Northwestern, that love football, that value a degree and that you feel like, in due time, can be developed into great, big time football players.

"And then you tell a story, but a story of truth. What truly exists here. We're doing that through genuine relationships. We're telling them what this looks like moving forward and clearly, a bunch of young men and their families deem that as something that they want to be a part of moving forward."


Braun reflected on being halfway into his first head coaching season

The bye week bisected Northwestern's season, so Braun had some time to reflect on his coaching job so far.

"It feels like I've grown exponentially, simply through having no other choice. Your greatest growth comes in situations of adversity and new trials."

Braun demurred about giving himself a grade halfway through, but he did note that this team's goals remain in front of them.

"There's a lot of room left for my own personal growth, just as there is for this entire football team. That's what's so neat about [the bye week], we get to take a deep breath, look at yourself in the mirror, take full ownership of where you're at and set the course for how we're going to move forward."

I took a tour yesterday of the new Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley, home of the San Diego State Aztecs. It is a beautiful facility that seats 35,000+, maxing out at around 40,000. The old Qualcomm Stadium site was acquired by the Cal State system from the city of San Diego after a referendum passed by popular vote. The construction costs are being financed by revenue bonds. The stadium has lots of open corridors and you can walk around the entire structure. It features great views of the surrounding hills and the surrounding Mission River valley. I think he architects did a great job in design and incorporating local attributes into the design. For example, one upper deck is a long pier like structure that juts out towards the playing field. We were able to go inside some of the luxury suites which were very appealing. Besides the Aztecs football games, Snapdragon will host the recently newly minted MLS San Diego FC as well as women professional soccer, men’s professional rugby, concerts, motorcycle and monster truck events. The project cleared off the old Qualcomm Stadium and moved the new stadium to a higher elevated site which is less impacted by flooding in the river valley. There is also a lot of green park open space and the site will also include apartments and other research labs and offices for SDSU. The stadium cost over $300M and is Gold LEED certified. I believe there are so many positive attributes of this stadium as a public investment. The old Qualcomm site had become an eyesore and the city was not properly maintaining the stadium. SDSU is very mindful of the impact of events on the surrounding community and there a design features built into the lighting and sound systems to help mitigate impacts. The San Diego Trolley helps mitigate the traffic impact- about half of the attendees to Aztec football games take the trolley. This is a multi-year project, the stadium was the first structure to be constructed along with clearing then site for parks and open space. Apartments and other university labs and offices will be built on site in upcoming years. My hope that the new proposed stadium project for NU will move forward and the stadium can host events in addition to football games with measures in place to mitigate the impact. I think a new stadium will be a win for both the university and for the community.

Interim head coach David Braun addressed the media for the seventh time this season ahead of their matchup with Nebraska this weekend. Here are our takeaways from his press conference.