This report was written by new WildcatReport staff writer Jeremy Greenberger. Jeremy is a sophomore who transferred to NU this year from Lafayette College, where he played baseball. He is also an Evanston native who grew up a Wildcat fan.
This is Jeremy's first official byline, but he has accompanied me to practice before and covered the Nebraska game from the press box. He wrote the post-game press conference notes for that game, but this is his first official byline.
by Jeremy Greenberger
WildcatReport Staff Writer
EVANSTON-All of the Trevor Siemian skeptics out there are going to have to wait.
Siemian was virtually perfect in practice Wednesday. The fifth-year senior completed every single pass he attempted during scrimmage (in fact, I didn't even see him throw an incomplete pass all day).
Though Siemian's ankles were still heavily taped, he looked like a different player Wednesday. He had a little hop in his step. He was looking downfield with confidence. He was throwing perfectly timed bullet after perfectly timed bullet. And quite frankly, he completely picked apart the defense despite stadium noise being blasted on the speakers behind him.
Perhaps Fitz was right about Northwestern's much needed bye week. The Wildcats definitely look a lot healthier this week:
- Ibraheim Campbell was back out there, and he was on the field for the majority of the first team reps on defense.
- Dan Vitale, though noticeably favoring his heavily taped left ankle while running motion in the backfield, was also out there Wednesday and managed to pull down a nice touchdown grab from Siemian during scrimmage.
- Miles Shuler, after suffering a scary injury in the second half of the Nebraska game, was back on the field taking his normal amount of first-team reps. Though Shuler was wearing a red jersey to avoid contact, he looked phenomenal regardless. The wideout looked to be Siemian's primary target during scrimmage, pulling in two solid touchdown grabs.
Neither of the scout teams (offense and defense) looked very good today. Quarterback Matt Alviti had an especially rough outing. At one point during scrimmage Alviti threw three consecutive interceptions, which sparked the defense to chant, "Let Matt throw the ball!" After overthrowing a receiver on the following play, Alviti once again threw a pick, this time into the hands of Traveon Henry, who wound up with two of Alviti's four interceptions during scrimmage.
Some notes:
- The team decided to conduct the second half of Wednesday's practice indoors, but as head coach Pat Fitzgerald put it, "not because of football reasons." Wind gusts surpassed 20 miles per hour during the first half of the Cats' practice, which forced the cameramen to come down off of their scissor lifts and stop filming the practice.
- Fitz huddled everyone up during scrimmage and reiterated the importance of a strong red zone offense before starting to run goal-line plays.
- Linebacker Drew Smith had the biggest "ooh" of the day when he put a huge hit on freshman super back Eric Lutzen after a short reception.
- Ifeadi Odenigbo looked good in pass rush, picking up a sack on Clayton Thorson and hurrying both Thorson and Alviti on multiple occasions.
Please post any questions and Jeremy will try to answer them
This is Jeremy's first official byline, but he has accompanied me to practice before and covered the Nebraska game from the press box. He wrote the post-game press conference notes for that game, but this is his first official byline.
by Jeremy Greenberger
WildcatReport Staff Writer
EVANSTON-All of the Trevor Siemian skeptics out there are going to have to wait.
Siemian was virtually perfect in practice Wednesday. The fifth-year senior completed every single pass he attempted during scrimmage (in fact, I didn't even see him throw an incomplete pass all day).
Though Siemian's ankles were still heavily taped, he looked like a different player Wednesday. He had a little hop in his step. He was looking downfield with confidence. He was throwing perfectly timed bullet after perfectly timed bullet. And quite frankly, he completely picked apart the defense despite stadium noise being blasted on the speakers behind him.
Perhaps Fitz was right about Northwestern's much needed bye week. The Wildcats definitely look a lot healthier this week:
- Ibraheim Campbell was back out there, and he was on the field for the majority of the first team reps on defense.
- Dan Vitale, though noticeably favoring his heavily taped left ankle while running motion in the backfield, was also out there Wednesday and managed to pull down a nice touchdown grab from Siemian during scrimmage.
- Miles Shuler, after suffering a scary injury in the second half of the Nebraska game, was back on the field taking his normal amount of first-team reps. Though Shuler was wearing a red jersey to avoid contact, he looked phenomenal regardless. The wideout looked to be Siemian's primary target during scrimmage, pulling in two solid touchdown grabs.
Neither of the scout teams (offense and defense) looked very good today. Quarterback Matt Alviti had an especially rough outing. At one point during scrimmage Alviti threw three consecutive interceptions, which sparked the defense to chant, "Let Matt throw the ball!" After overthrowing a receiver on the following play, Alviti once again threw a pick, this time into the hands of Traveon Henry, who wound up with two of Alviti's four interceptions during scrimmage.
Some notes:
- The team decided to conduct the second half of Wednesday's practice indoors, but as head coach Pat Fitzgerald put it, "not because of football reasons." Wind gusts surpassed 20 miles per hour during the first half of the Cats' practice, which forced the cameramen to come down off of their scissor lifts and stop filming the practice.
- Fitz huddled everyone up during scrimmage and reiterated the importance of a strong red zone offense before starting to run goal-line plays.
- Linebacker Drew Smith had the biggest "ooh" of the day when he put a huge hit on freshman super back Eric Lutzen after a short reception.
- Ifeadi Odenigbo looked good in pass rush, picking up a sack on Clayton Thorson and hurrying both Thorson and Alviti on multiple occasions.
Please post any questions and Jeremy will try to answer them
