Sullivan officially the starter.
- Thread starter FeralFelidae
- Start date
That’s… basically what you’d expect from a QB who we know is still a developmental guy.
It kills me that people can’t see the difference between Iowa’s OL and ours.
Between this and Caitlyn Clark, tell me you live in Iowa without telling me you live in Iowa.
Now you're starting to get it. Iowa is my least favorite team in the BIG after Ped State. It dates back to when I was in school many years ago. They were always the most obnoxious fans. If a guy transfers to Iowa, then he deserves all the crap he gets on this board.
I agree. I'm not down on him, I just dispute those trying to project improvement out of each of his ups and downs. It doesn't seem reasonable to me from what I've seen to assume the Purdue game means anything for the next three games given how we've seen him YoYo as his competition changes.
The next three games are pretty big for him, would love to see some improvement. Not a death knell if we don't. I'm not down on the kid, I'm just not ready to get all up on him after Purdue like it was tempting to do after his FCS win and Maryland.
I don't disagree. The two hot topics on offense are Lausch and Lujan. Both deserve a lot of criticism, but both are only parts of the overall problem, and probably not even the biggest part in either case. The line, Porter's lack of health when he was out, the receievers... all problems at least as large as the big talkers.
If I could take one problem on the offense and upgrade that issue to Big Ten average, I'd probably upgrade the O Line. If I could upgrade any unit to Big Ten elite... I'd have to think hard about if I'd go with the WRs or the QB.
A few Sullivan thoughts:
I don't think we'd be any better of a team with him as our #1 QB. I truly believe we'd still be a 4-5 team at this point.
He's a good fit for what Iowa is and what they are doing on offense this year. They have a pretty lousy receiving corps (yes, I wish Gill was still in purple, but he's arguably their best receiver, which is not a good thing) and actually don't have a great TE for once. But they do have a good offensive line and a solid running bak room, led by a really good RB. He's not asked to do too much passing the ball and the threat he brings running the ball makes their running game even better. It's really a nice fit for what they want to do offensively.
Iowa doesn't play any great defensive teams until at least their bowl game - they only have UCLA, Maryland and Nebraska left. He should still be able to operate like he has been and not be asked to do too much passing the ball for the rest of the year. He also won't have to play in any tough environments, so he's got a pretty nice situation ahead of him.
Multiple things can be true.
1) I'm okay with him moving on.
2) He is a QB that is limited in what he can bring to the table...
3) ...but he does make Iowa better compared to McNamara and any other option that they have. He's done a nice job for them.
I don't think we'd be any better of a team with him as our #1 QB. I truly believe we'd still be a 4-5 team at this point.
He's a good fit for what Iowa is and what they are doing on offense this year. They have a pretty lousy receiving corps (yes, I wish Gill was still in purple, but he's arguably their best receiver, which is not a good thing) and actually don't have a great TE for once. But they do have a good offensive line and a solid running bak room, led by a really good RB. He's not asked to do too much passing the ball and the threat he brings running the ball makes their running game even better. It's really a nice fit for what they want to do offensively.
Iowa doesn't play any great defensive teams until at least their bowl game - they only have UCLA, Maryland and Nebraska left. He should still be able to operate like he has been and not be asked to do too much passing the ball for the rest of the year. He also won't have to play in any tough environments, so he's got a pretty nice situation ahead of him.
Multiple things can be true.
1) I'm okay with him moving on.
2) He is a QB that is limited in what he can bring to the table...
3) ...but he does make Iowa better compared to McNamara and any other option that they have. He's done a nice job for them.
I live far from Iowa, but I still know talent when it’s obvious. Clark goes without saying. I’m only discussing Sully because it gets under the skin of the few you hate him for no apparent reason.
Who knows? Maybe? 1000% is a lot of percent - like 900% more than the max. That feels like a lot. I think you're thinking about what Sullivan is now with the Iowa players and the Iowa system. He's really not that much different than what he was the last two years though. Not a bad QB, but not one that makes a big difference.
Maybe we do win the Duke game with him. Maybe we win that game with Lausch. It's hard to say. I personally think he wouldn't be making the 2024 Northwestern football team much better. In my eyes, he is still the same QB, but he's found a nice landing spot with better players and a system that is expecting less from him than what we were. That's not bitterness or anything like that - to me, it's just reality.
No Jim, I don’t hate Sully and never have. I just dispute the notion that we would be better with him. In fact, I didn’t see anything in that Wisconsin game that Lausch can’t do.
If you want to see “shitting on” a player watch the comments on Lausch. It’s only going to get worse when he plays the next 3 defenses we face. In fact, I will say now that I believe Lausch is better than Sully right now. Apparently the Coaches believed this months ago. I realize this will be thrown back in my face when Sully faces 3 very mediocre defenses and Lausch goes through a gauntlet. If Lausch finishes on roll, I will be pleasantly surprised. I think it’s far more likely he runs for his life. It’s still a team game. Sully plays for Iowa, I don’t care what he does out there and people constantly bring him up like he is Clayton Thorson. He’s not.
The Sully to Iowa topic seems to viewed only on the assumption that he was driven out of NU or, at least, nudged out by the coaching staff who would not name him the starter.
What if this is not the case and, instead, he was actively lured to Iowa by their coaches (who happen to have a new friend in the Sully-knowledgeable Fitz)?
What would that mean for NU’s future ability to attract and retain QBs? Perhaps the start of a pattern?
What if this is not the case and, instead, he was actively lured to Iowa by their coaches (who happen to have a new friend in the Sully-knowledgeable Fitz)?
What would that mean for NU’s future ability to attract and retain QBs? Perhaps the start of a pattern?
We literally know what happened, we don't need to speculate. The coaches sat him down in spring and said he wasn't going to enter the summer as the anointed started and they would be pursuing a QB in the transfer portal, who Sullivan would be set up to compete with. That's a good and honest thing to do, and pretty reasonable on the coach's part, we'd have all been bugging out if they'd eschewed the portal and just rolled with Sullivan. They gave him a heads up on their plans.
Sullivan didn't like this and felt he should be the anointed starter so he left. You can decide how you feel about that. It's a little bit of a combo of over-inflated self assessment, wounded ego, and a guy perfectly reasonably looking to play as much football as possible. Ultimately the result was him going and being somebody else's backup.
Yup. Congrats to him. And starting on a good team, a much better team than NU, so he doesn't even have to do that much to be part of something successful. The only part of that I don't like is the Iowa being better than NU bit.
I know he's a perfectly good kid. I knew his late uncle who told me during his recruitment that Iowa and Michigan State came sniffing around late in his recruitment as he was a late riser, but he'd fallen completely in love with Fitz and told them to take a hike and committed to NU. MSU had been his dream school growing up (he's in a big time MSU family) but he was a Fitz guy. Not surprised to see him embrace Fitz after the game, as guttingly painful as it was to see. I'm still not really convinced we aren't better off in the long term having made a change, but that image can just get added to the pile of images that remind us how ridiculous our administration and student newspaper is.
Sullivan was perfectly willing to go to Iowa to "compete" for the job; he wasn't anointed the starter at Iowa.
I think whatever the coaches leaked to the insiders was also self-serving/face-saving to an extent.
That's why I said it was an ego thing. It's a tale as old as time in sports that a guy feels his ego wounded where he's at and then accepts a similar assignment elsewhere. It's a decision not born out of fear of competiting but of feeling like he shouldn't have to and deserves not to.
I don't personally mind that TOO much. I want my QB to be cocky and a little arrogant. But Sullivan isn't nearly good enough to be anointed by any Big Ten team, either.
All this "we know exactly what happened with Sullivan" is ridiculous.
Just shaking my head.
And then the "And I say he's a baby for leaving" monotony takes it to an even more pathetic level.
He got his degree. They fired his head coach and his offensive coordinator.
He left.
Yeah we know "exactly what happened."
Does Bajakian beat Duke? Yeah, probably. I know "exactly" what would have happened.
C’mon. This is speculative as anything anyone else has said. What we do know is left a full season after his HC was fired. He still remained for Spring ball after a new OC was hired. He stayed for Spring ball and was told by his HC that there was not a named starter at QB ( Braun publicly said this). He left immediately after Spring Ball and after his HC publicly confirmed a QB was not determined after said Spring Ball. Conclude what you want but “speculation” that he left due to not be named starter is far from ridiculous.
I guess you missed the sarcasm? My statement that "Bajakian would definitely have beaten Duke" was just to point out how silly it is to claim to know exactly why Sullivan left.
My guess is that Sullivan got his degree, watched Bajakian get fired and thought, "Well. I have another year of eligibility, lets see where this goes."
When it was clear that he wasn't getting any special deference (or was being shown the door), he left.
In other words a completely rational decision, with some potential monetary considerations thrown in, as well.
I can't understand how that would trigger such vitriol from some on here.
It reflects poorly on those who spew it.
If a guy gets his degree, he is free to leave. I've said that the entire time I've been on here. I don't get my undies in a bunch when a Northwestern student/athlete seeks another opportunity elsewhere. The indignation from some people is laughable.
Yep, missed the sarcasm point.
Bottom line for me is he left. He had every right to do so for whatever reason he wished. I don’t even care if he got his degree, still his decision.
I don’t wish Sully ill will, but I have no vested interest in what his does at Iowa. I absolutely dispute any notion that we would have won more games this season with Sully in charge and I feel ( I am I. The minority it seems) Lausch is better right now. I even feel that despite the ending of the Mike Wright era, he too could succeed under similar circumstances, but people tend to only remember the last game or two.
Agree with most of this - except I want guys to graduate before they leave.
Not sure how you can compare Lausch and Sullivan at this point- they're on different teams.
Mike Wright seems to have drawn a very short straw. Two games and then Siberia. Odd.
And Ben Bryant was a lot better than either Sullivan or Lausch.
This walkon Stratton is by far the best passer on the team. And we definitely are missing Gill with the injuries we’ve had this year at WR. That’s the big loss, not Sully.
Iowa falls to the 2+ time zone travel curse. They kept cutting away to Sullivan who had a thousand yard stare every time. Wonder why they showed him so much, was there some drama? Is not like they were benching Arch Manning or something.
It was actually a really good game to watch, at least the 4th quarter. UCLA looked like a good football team, better than their early record.
It was actually a really good game to watch, at least the 4th quarter. UCLA looked like a good football team, better than their early record.
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He got concussed by a hard hit. They were showing him with his helmet off.
I fell asleep. Iowa’s offense looks as bad as it usually does. Sully made some nice plays
That explains it. He did not look well, hope he takes plenty of time to recover.
The 5th string QB actually led a great long TD drive to tie it up with 2 absolutely clutch 3rd down throws to Gill but UCLA was lights out on O and D after that and keep the ball almost the whole rest of the game. In a small sample size he probably gives them a better chance to balance their offense with better passing.
There was a graphic showing that Sully and the other two QBs were knocked out (one by concussion; the other by a similar injury).
Either Iowa’s OL is terrible or their new OC does not know what he is doing either. Maybe both things are true.
It is rare to have 3 QBs knocked out due to concussions by the 9th game of a 12 game season. It happens but it shouldn’t at Io_a. I don’t get why their offense is always so brutal to watch.
Sully’s hit did not look as bad - he got tackled on the sideline and it looked like his head did not get smashed.
Hopefully he is able to recover.
Sully holds onto the ball too long he did at NU. He is also injury prone was at NU.
Coaching matters. Bajakian only won at NU when he had QBs who developed elsewhere. Ramsey was an Indiana QB for YEARS. Jake did not impress me much.
Sully should have more experience on the field by now. The Northwestern offensive shit system was not his fault. It was Fitz’s.
Sully looked pretty damn good in the Rose Bowl. I was proud of him. I hope he gets to start their bowl game for them (I will cheer for the Hawkeyes if he does).
I’m with @HawkCat on this one? Right, Hawky??
