Saturday, December 29, 2007

FYI

My computer is having a ton of problems, but I expect it to it and RABA to be working at full strength in a week or so.

And to keep yourself busy, make sure to check out NIU Football's top 20 plays of 2007, courtesy of MadDawgz02:

20-11



10-1



We beat UALR 59-55 @ home today with an depleted team. More on that later.

Oh and it looks like we hired the 2007 FCS Coach of the Year in Jerry Kill!!!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Picture of the Day

Wolfe's screen play from Sunday's 35-7 beating of the Packers


CHICAGO - DECEMBER 23: Garrett Wolfe #25 of the Chicago Bears runs 33 yards for a first down as Atari Bigby #20 of the Green Bay Packers gives chase on December 23, 2007 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Huskies Road Woes Continue @ Wisconsin GB

For the Huskies, the day off for the Christmas holiday couldn't come soon enough after the 86-75 loss inside the Resch Center in Green Bay.

Looking at the stats, everything was pretty much equal, except for free throws and turnovers. As usual.

We went 16 of 26 (61.5%) at the line, while GB went 28 of 33 (84.8%). That is a dramatic difference. Our assist to turnover ratio was 13-18, while GB's was 20-12. We only had 9 points off turnovers, while GB had 19.

Shaun Logan had an ugly game, going 2-10 shooting and fouling out. Jake Anderson and Michael Patton were hot behind the line, scoring 15 and 14 respectively. Anderson also had 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

Mike Hart was really efficient scoring 11 points in only 10 minutes of playing time. Egan Grafel needs to be a lot more efficient with the playing time that he's getting (26 min in this game).

Jeremy Landers started, except he only played 7 minutes in this game, because of a bum ankle he hurt earlier in the week. Also, we let GB's 6-8 and 6-9 big men Tillema and Schachtner walk all over us. Tillema had 33 pts and 8 rebounds!

That makes our overall record vs Wisconsin GB 5-24. OUCH!

And to cheer up all you country music fans out there, here's George Strait performing "Wrapped" live @ the ACM awards (I'm living in Texas right now and this is all I ever hear on the radio!):

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Assistant Coaches Set

PJ Fleck is the only NIU assistant to retain their position, as he will continue to be the WR's coach next year. There have also been rumblings that Jeff Phelps may return as the D-Line coach, but we'll just have to see.

Gone goest Mike Sabock, who had been part of the NIU coaching staff for 24 years. Sabock was our Do-It-All Assistant who coached our DE's and has been our Recruiting Coordinator. One of our 4 commits is his son, Kevin Sabock out of Sycamore HS.

Here's the list of guys who have followed Coach Kill to Dekalb presumably:

Matthew Limegrover - Offensive Coordinator/O-Line
Patrick Poore - Quarterbacks
Robert Reeves - Running Backs
Brian Anderson - Tight Ends Coach
Carl Mauck - Tight Ends Coach

Tracy Claeys - Defensive Coordinator/Safeties
Tom Matukewicz - Linebackers/Co-Coordinator
Bryce Saia - Defensive Line

Jay Sawvel - Defensive Backs
Travis Stepps - Cornerbacks Coach

Eric Klein - Strength Coach

More to come

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Wolfe, Bears struggle against Vikes

That was bad.

I'm pretty sure the game can be exemplified by Ron Turner calling an INSIDE run for Garrett Wolfe on the Bears own 2 yd line. He gets engulfed by the brick wall of Kevin & Pat Williams and the #1 Run Defense in the NFL. Utterly ridiculous. Is Turner trying to get him killed?

Anyways, here's a cool picture of Wolfe from last night's game:


MINNEAPOLIS - DECEMBER 17: Garrettt Wolfe #25 of the Chicago Bears runs around end against the Minnesota Vikings at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on December 17, 2007 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Monday, December 17, 2007

Garrett Wolfe to get a shot tonight?



13 games in to the season...NOW WOLFE IS GETTING SOME LOOKS?

After being underused by Ron Turner and constantly ripped by sports radio personalities, Garrett Wolfe is supposed to be involved much more in this game. And guess what, it's been the same story week in and week out. Ron Turner has always sucked. He sucked at Illinois, except when he rode the coattails of guys like Kurt Kittner and such.

We draft Garrett Wolfe in the 3rd round and we barely use his abilities as a guy catching passes out of the backfield or anything like that. OK so NOW the Bears are using Orton? And now they're using Wolfe? Could have tried that a little earlier in the season.

Of course Wolfe is going to try and make his biggest impact of the season against the #1 rush D in the NFL. If he tries to run through the middle, he'll be engulfed by 628 lbs of Pat and Kevin Williams. He obviously doesn't have the assignment to block those guys, because then we would have a Wolfe pancake on the field.

Wolfe just hasn't gotten enough consistent playing time to show he can produce in the NFL.

This Sun-Times article by Brad Biggs specifically rips him a new one. He rips the MAC and talks about how Garrett Wolfe has yet to show he can do anything in the NFL. Well, he obviously hasn't gotten enough opportunities this season to show anything!

Wolfe seems fine with everything though, and is staying grounded:

''Any time I get the opportunity to play, I am excited,'' Wolfe said. ''This is what I am here to do: play football. I wouldn't say this season has been strange. It hasn't gone the way I would have liked it to. I am sure that is the same for everyone in this locker room.

''Opportunities [for me] just never materialized. Everything happens for a reason, and things have worked themselves out.''

I hope he finally gets a lot of touches this week, so we can all see what he can do. Everybody on winter break from NIU is rooting for you with their families tonight Garrett and we always get really excited when you get your opportunities in the NFL.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Loyola Chicago downs NIU in Overtime 76-72

This game was actually free to watch online @ http://www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv/, so that's probably where you can catch next week @ Wisconsin GB. I watched the first couple minutes and then I passed out, because I was so exhausted from finals and my flight back home to Texas.

Bench players were the stars, with Nichols scoring 15 and Jake Anderson filling in with 13. Shaun Logan was solid with 10 pts, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Everything was pretty much even for both of the teams, except Loyola got to the line 29 times and made 23 of their free throw attempts compared to our 10 of 15.

There were some blunders at the end of the game that cost us the victory before overtime. We're up 4 with 51 seconds left and we foul and stop the clock. It's 61-64 now. Anderson then has his layup blocked when he still had 10 seconds left on the shot-clock. Landers then takes a flop instead of playing D and lets this dude named Blount hit a 3 to force OT.

Unfortunate, but the young guys are still figuring out to win close games. This was a good learning experience for them. Conference play is all that matters in the MAC, so it's time to get fine-tuned for the weak MAC West.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

If you can't beat 'em...

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

The hire of former SIU HC Jerry Kill is official according to numerous sources.

The 46-year-old has reportedly signed a 5 yr 340k a yr deal according to Magic 95.1 Carbondale

Down to Martin & Kill

Apparently, GVSU's Chuck Martin and SIU's Jerry Kill have both been rumored to have been hired by NIU. Guess we'll just have to find out tomorrow @ 11 AM

Tampa Tribune reports Martin

"Insider" Message Board Rumors report Kill

SIU's side of the speculation

EDIT: I'm almost positive it's Jerry Kill, because Dog Pound Member "Mr. Info Man" gcd reported that it was him and he's pretty much never wrong.

Definitely an interesting hire, if true.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Press Conference Tomorrow Announcing New Head FB Coach!!!

Pep Band members have received a call to be there and perform tomorrow morning!!!

Dog Pound Forum Thread

Down to 2 Candidates?

Tom Deinhart's Coaching Carousel


Northern Illinois

A source close to the Northern Illinois coaching search says two finalists will be on campus later this week. I have confirmed that one candidate is South Florida assistant head coach Dan McCarney. A decision by NIU likely will come soon thereafter.



Here's also a message board thread at CycloneFanatic.com about what Iowa State fans have to say about McCarney.

And if you vote "other" in the poll, comment who you want!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

I'm Pretty Upset

Taking some time to talk about more important things than athletics...

This week was stressful enough with finals and everything. Now this stuff has to happen. The threats at the dorms, the Virginia Tech references, the racial remarks. It just puts a bad name on the university.

At least the university seems to be doing a good job at finding out who's responsible.

But can I really concentrate that much on finals? No, there's entirely too many things on my mind right now. There's the threats...and the weather. The ice storm is supposed to make the roads nearly impossible to drive on tomorrow.

Are we going to see another day of canceled classes because of the weather? It is very likely. There is going to be a 6 AM announcement on whether campus is closed again or not.

Now back to the racism thing. There's been a lot of racial tension this semester throughout campus. 3 of my fraternity brothers got mugged by black guys walking back from 7-11 in 2 seperate incidences. Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep) fraternity got kicked off campus because of fighting with some black people and yelling anti-semetic remarks at a jewish fraternity. And who knows who might have instigated the latter fight.

This comment in the Tribune today is completely unnecessary in today's context:

“This threat did not come out of the blue,” said Mitchell Gaddis, president of the university’s NAACP chapter. “It’s unsafe for us to walk down Greek Row . . . and we’re tired of it.”

Somebody posts racial threats in the dorms, and then you go and talk about Greek Row? That just makes the Greek system look bad overall. We get rid of the isolated problems and move forward. It is really unprofessional for the head of our NAACP chapter in my opinion to be saying stuff about Greek Row at this point in time. It's just ridiculous and unprofessional. The incident happened in the dorms! The people there and the people living on Greek Row are at completely opposite sides of the spectrum and it's completely unfair to group the 2 together.

We take time and do community service all semester and host a Christmas party for Hope Haven Shelter Saturday, donate a bunch of presents to little kids... and get slapped with this. Just because some underclassmen pulled some sick prank in the dorms? It isn't fair.

And besides, it's so much more unsafe to be walking around Greek Row for people that aren't African-American, because that's the race that has been involved with every single one of the random muggings throughout the semester over by the 7-11 area of Annie Glidden and Hillcrest. What an unfair statement.

Anyways, back to studying for my Thurs and now Friday finals...

Monday, December 10, 2007

Update: Monday Finals Cancelled

Campus Alert Update

University Closed Monday

12/10/07, 12:40 a.m. UPDATE

Continuing concern over icy streets and sidewalks and poor travel conditions, coupled with concerns and questions related to the previously-released campus alert, has resulted in a decision to close the university on Monday, December 10th. Final exams scheduled for Monday will be rescheduled for Friday, December 14th.

Only essential service personnel should report to work on Monday. Students who must drive should continue to monitor weather conditions and exercise caution with respect to travel decisions.

Several hotlines have been established to field questions and address concerns. Those numbers are:

  • (815) 753-1573
  • (815) 753-1585
  • (815) 753-6257
  • (815) 753-6143
  • (815) 753-1574

In addition, updated information will be posted here as it becomes available.



Yay no Monday final!

I hope everybody stays safe tomorrow.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

NIU on alert due to threats on restroom wall

Breaking news. Everybody be safe this finals week:

Campus Alert

Police investigate anonymous threat in residence hall

12/9/07 9:30 p.m. UPDATE

Anyone wanting to speak with a staff member may do so by dialing any of these three numbers until midnight tonight and beginning again at 7:30 a.m. on Monday:

  • (815) 753-1573
  • (815) 753-1585
  • (815) 753-6257

While final exams will proceed as scheduled, NIU officials are urging faculty to accommodate student concerns and allow make-up scheduling of exams later in the week as needed. Students who wish to schedule make-up exams should make arrangements directly with individual faculty.


12/9/07 6:45 p.m.

NIU officials are investigating a threat posted late Saturday evening in a campus residence hall which included a racial slur and references to the Virginia Tech shootings.

Written in black ink on a restroom wall in the Grant Towers D complex were two separate entries claiming that “things will change most hastily” in the final days of the current semester.

“Tell those n---ers to go home,” the first entry reads. “ME / OUT … Die Sem Burr 10th … Hmz Sdn Cr.” Officials believe the text message-style shorthand refers to “December 10” and “Holmes Student Center.” Underlined letters within the first entry spell out the word “WATCH.”

Following the initial entry is a second set of comments reading “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter …”

University leaders notified all students, faculty and staff about the threats through postings on the NIU website, all-campus email, voicemail, fliers and area news media. Security in and around the residence halls, student center and other campus buildings has also been increased, and the campus remains under a security alert through the end of the semester.

Additional communications and offers of assistance for students, faculty, staff and visitors will continue throughout the week. Updated information will be provided as it becomes available on the university website at www.niu.edu.

“My primary concern is for the safety of all members of our campus community, and to that end, we will err on the side of caution in all our actions,” said NIU President John Peters. “We will not tolerate threats against individuals or groups,” Peters said, “nor will we tolerate ‘hate speech’ of any type on this campus.”

Final exams will proceed as scheduled, and university officials said students and staff should remain “calm but vigilant.” Anyone with information about the threats are urged to contact the NIU Tipline at (815) 753-TIPS (8477), or their local Crimestoppers or law enforcement agency.

No Luck Against the Irish

Notre Dame is good. I mean really good. They only shot 72% in the first half opening up a 32-pint lead and won their 25th straight game at home. I mean, it's hard to win when a team is just superior physically in every way, shape or form to our young team who couldn't find a shot against the tough Irish zone D.

Of course we do start 3 freshman (Patton, Landers & Anderson) and 2 JUCO transfers that are only in their 2nd year (Logan & Grafel). Grafel hardly played last year. Starting with the AF game, the Huskies hadn't started three freshmen (Anderson, Landers and Patton) in a game since Jan. 30, 1988.

Hey Jake Anderson! Yeah, you. Please stop shooting 3-pointers. Jake went 0-5 from behind the arc to bring his shooting percentage there down to 13% (3 of 23) for the year. OUCH. Freshman's got a lot to work on. For a guy that averaged 32 ppg in HS, I'm surprised he's taking a while to develop in D-I

Oh and hey GVSU fans, stop voting in my poll!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Dan McCarney - Leading Candidate?

The Dekalb Daily Chronicle reports that Dan McCarney is the top candidate to fulfill the duties as head football coach at NIU.

He would be an interesting choice. If you look at his career, it's almost the same thing that Novak did. He coached for 12 years at Iowa State and brought that program from nothing to some respectability in the Big 12 going to 5 bowl games in his tenure. He turned 54 in July, so his age is getting up there. Novak was 62 when he retired this year. His overall record at ISU was 56-85, which is not impressive at all. Except he also had to deal with the Big 12's lowest budget and of course being in the middle of nowhere in Ames, IA.

The last part of this article is really interesting:

A sticking point could be the salary figures. Novak lost 35 assistant coaches in his 12-year tenure. Several former NIU assistants took jobs at BCS schools with coaches on the firing block because of the jump in salary.

A source indicated the new assistant coaches would earn a combined $1 million in annual salary to make the assistant positions more attractive and promote stability.

Phillips is searching for a candidate with head coaching experience, which would rule out former NIU assistant and Stanford defensive coordinator Scott Shafer.

According to another source, North Dakota State Athletic Director Gene Taylor has not been contacted by Northern Illinois for permission to talk with Craig Bohl.

OK.

So more $$ for assistants. All right. It's nice our budget is increasing. Assistant coaches have been such an integral part of the Novak regime here at NIU.

No coordinators (just like the search for NIU head basketball coach Ricardo Patton) as candidates. I like that idea.

We haven't interviewed Craig Bohl yet? Interesting, since his team isn't even currently in a playoff (NDSU's transition from D-II to FCS made them ineligible).

Personally, I like Grand Valley State's coach Chuck Martin. Craig Bohl to me sounds like a guy that would bolt to a BCS school the first chance he got. I mean, he did beat the crap out of CMU, who were MAC champs.

EDIT: I also found this little tidbit on the NDSU Bison Media Blog that Dan McCarney may already have the job! He says that he is planned to meet with President John Peters. Unbelievable news if true. Just rumors though.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Notre Dame players meet Coach Patton


Notre Dame G Kyle McAlarney: Hey guys, you like my sweet Ecko Unltd shirt? I think it's pretty tight.


ND F Rob Kurz: It's obviously not as cool as this polo that I like to wear. It gets me all of the chicks.

McAlarney: Yeah right, I bet your ass is still a virgin. And dude, stop looking at me that way it's really creeping me out.

Kurz: What are you talking about? Girls like tall men and I'm 6'9"

McAlarney: Whatever. You're still a douchebag. Your momma give you that haircut?

Kurz: No. You're so insensitive.


ND F Luke Harangody: Hey guys, what's up?

McAlarney: Dude, what happened to you???

Harangody: What u talkin bout, bro?

McAlarney: You're eyes are all glazed. Are you high or something?

Harangody: I just saw some brownies laying around, and I ate the whole plate. You know how I can't resist brownies.

McAlarney: DUDE! You just ate my weed brownies!!! That was going to be my post-game snack! You do know that we have a game in a matter of hours right?

Harangody: Nice polo Rob.

Kurz: Oh, thanks.

McAlarney: Ugh. Whatever. I might as well get high now too then... (pulls out ganja stash)



NIU Basketball HC Ricardo Patton: What the hell is this?

McAlarney: None of your business. Shouldn't you be preparing for the game?

Patton: NOBODY TALKS BACK TO COACH PATTON!!!

Harangody: Yeah dude, you're not even our coach.


Patton: Guess, what...IT DOESN'T MATTER! I look out for the integrity of ALL STUDENT ATHLETES. You're gonna sleep at the Convo tonight!!!

McAlarney: The convo? I don't think so homeslice. We have a game tomorrow, and it's here in South Bend.


Patton: That's it I'm pissed. I guess you didn't hear about me being a 5th degree blackbelt. YOU'RE SLEEPING AT THE CONVO WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!


Patton then kicks the crap out of the ND players and sends them to the convo to sleep outside in the below-freezing weather. See you guys Saturday @ 6!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

More FB head coaching candidates

Tom Dienhart of Sporting News

Northern Illinois

I have learned that Northern Illinois is focused on three candidates: South Florida assistant head coach Dan McCarney, Southern Illinois head coach Jerry Kill and Grand Valley State head coach Chuck Martin. I also have confirmed that Kentucky offensive coordinator Joker Phillips and North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl are in the mix.

Quite frankly, this guy makes up some stuff from time to time, so take this with a grain of salt.

EDIT:

The Tribune does a much nicer job of explaining what Jim Phillips is up to nowadays. Here is the article: Line forming for N. Illinois Opening

Leading Candidates:

Dan McCarney, USF Asst HC/D-Line
Jerry Kill, FCS Southern Illinois HC

Others:

Chuck Martin, D-II Grand Valley State HC
Craig Bohl, FCS North Dakota State HC
Joe "Joker" Phillips, Kentucky OC

And AD Jim Phillips is using Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search Firm to help him with his search.

Men's B-Ball Notches Nice Win vs Air Force

We won 63-52 and it was the most entertaining game I have ever seen at the Convo. These are the type of wins that gain you fans.

NIU and AF switched leads early on in the game, but then after that it was mostly tied or we were ahead by a few points.

F Sean Logan was Mr. Do-It-All for the Huskies finishing with 8 pts, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and 3 blocks.



The shooting of our guards was really good. Jeremy Landers had 14 pts, while Jarvis Nichols coming off the bench had 18, while going 10-10 from the free throw line. Nichols also had 4 steals and 4 assists.

You have to give it up to our bench players who outscored AF 34-7. F Sean Smith really came in to his own, scoring a season high 10 pts on 5-8 shooting. He has the prettiest shot on the team. Here's what Patton has to say about him (NStar):

“Sean Smith came in and scored some for us, which we expect him to do,” said Patton. Patton also added that Smith has to continue to get better for the team as a whole to keep improving.

I was surprised by our ability to shoot the 3-ball in this game. Logan, Nichols and Landers all were 2-3 from behind the arc.

Landers needs to work a little more on his FT shooting, as he was only 4-10 from the charity stripe. We did cause a season-high 22 turnovers, but we turned the ball over 20 times too, which is something we need to improve on.

F/C Egan Grafel looked lackadaisical out there and finished with a disappointing 4 pts and 5 rebounds in 29 min of playing time. F/C Mike Hart provided a boost later in the game and he got 3 rebounds and went 4-6 from the line in only 8 minutes of playing time to seal the victory.

Our defense and more specifically our perimeter D has been spectacular these past 2 games. We held AF to only 37% (17-46) shooting and a measly 25% (4-16) from the arc, which was key in the victory.

The weather was horrible again, but attendance was still pretty good at 1,169. Nice student section. My friend got his cowbell taken away though. The shirts the CAB were giving away were said something like "The Red Sea", which was weird because that's what fans of Nebraska are called. It was just really weird, because we have "The Red Riot" student section as well. I didn't get it.

And coming in the student entrance, it took a while for them to get the tix from somewhere. Why would I have to wait? This makes no sense either. And I didn't even get a shirt, because they didn't even have them out yet when I got there. Oh well.

Next game:

Notre Dame on Saturday @ South Bend (It's gut-check time)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

NIU Head Coaching Candidates

My friend over at http://www.niufootball.blogspot.com saved me some work and has compiled a very extensive list of head coaching candidates for NIU. Definitely check his site out to keep updated with all the candidates.

Another intriguing candidate is Bud Foster, the Defensive Coordinator of the Orange Bowl-bound Virginia Tech Hokies. Man, would I love to see some of that defensive dominance on the Huskies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112902375_2.html


Did hear rumors that Dan McCarney (former Iowa State HC) and others are being interviewed this week in Chicago. He is the USF D-Line/Assistant HC right now. One of his D-Linemen, George Selvie, is 2nd in the nation with 14.5 sacks. If he comes to NIU, Larry English should get something like 20 sacks.

Monday, December 3, 2007

NIU should be National Champions

Northern Illinois beat
Kent St who beat
Iowa St who beat
Iowa who beat
#13 Illinois who beat
#1 Ohio State

Northern Illinois beat
Kent St who beat
Ohio U. who beat
Louisiana-Lafayette who beat
North Texas who beat
Louisiana-Monroe who beat
Alabama who beat
Arkansas who beat
#2 LSU

Duh

Courtesy of College Football Victory Chain Linker

I'm all about BCS and I defend it all the time, but come on now about Kansas getting the bid over Missouri. Missouri beat the Jayhawks at a neutral field, became the #1 team, went to the Big 12 championship and then lost to Oklahoma who beat them for the 2nd time.

You punish a team for making it to their conference championship? Is one loss better than 2 losses to the same team? I don't get it.

And I keep trying to ward off idiots yelling for a huge playoff system. Anything more than 4 teams is just not going to work. It is important to keep the bowl games intact, that's where the money is made, the sponsorship is and the tradition continues to stand. Only one game would have to be added for a 4-team playoff in order to keep all the traditional bowls intact. A 4-team playoff for the national championship would work fine this year. #1 OSU vs #4 OU and #2 LSU vs #3 VT. All conference winners. Even though LSU blew out Virginia Tech earlier this year, it would be at a neutral site, not @ Death Valley. A 4-team playoff system would actually work well every year, as documented by Phil Steele in his yearly preview magazine. Sorry Georgia, you didn't go to your championship game and sorry USC you lost to Stanford!

Just think about it. The bowl system keeps coaches employed in the same way the 65 teams that get to the NCAA tourney does. 64 teams are participating in 32 bowl games this year. There's so many teams to go to so many bowls it spreads the wealth around every single year. If there were to be a 16 team playoff then that would be the only thing mattering and there would be no more bowls in effect. You just can't do both at the same time. This hugely takes away from any mid-major coming in and upsetting teams that have tremendous advantages every single year money-wise. Finally, the season would be WAY too long, these are student athletes and not professionals. It is not in the best interest health or scholastic wise to keep these guys going and forcing a playoff system.

Here's what the Oklahoma coach has to say and I agree with:

Stoops is anti-playoff. Too many moving parts, he said. His reasons: the regular season would become less important … fans would have difficulty traveling from playoff site to playoff site … regular-season attendance might suffer … the bowls might be adversely affected.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Mens Basketball wins a thriller vs Lamar

Grafel's earned his spot

First of all, I hope everybody was OK getting to and from this game. The weather outside was horrible with all the streets covered with ice. This should hopefully melt tomorrow, but it was really scary to drive in. Congrats to the 1,042 people getting there to watch the exciting first win of the season.


Weird thing about Lamar is that there's actually a guy named Lamar on their team. Could you imagine somebody named Niu? Or Victor E? Would be interesting. Or even naming your son Joe Novak?

Anyways, we barely beat these guys 65-63 with a buzzer-beater by consistent big man Egan Grafel off of Sean Smith's missed shot. Mr. Consistency got 10 pts and 8 boards.

Sean Logan scored a double double with 17 pts and 10 rebounds. Freshman Jeremy Landers got the start and scored 14 pts, had 5 steals and 4 assists. More assists that's what we need.

We still stink though. Lamar shot 6 for 24 from the 3-pt line, which is horrible. Was that good D by us? I hope so. 6-12 free throws isn't gonna cut it come on guys. 23 turnovers? Not great.

EDIT: Oh yeah I forgot about the horrible officiating in this game. They were from the Southland conference and were calling the most ridiculous fouls on us. It just wasn't fair. Despite this, we still won the game, so whatever. Enough Southland teams.

Lets hope this win inspires confidence so we can pull some miracle off and beat Air Force on Tues.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

More on the departure of the Ol' Ball Coach

It wouldn't be right to start looking at new coaches or anything else unless there was a fitting tribute on here to Good Ol' Joe Novak.



After 12 hard fought seasons, it's over. Joe coached the Huskies to a 63-76 (8th all-time in the MAC) career record and appearances in the 2004 Silicon Valley Classic and the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl. From 2000-2006, NIU had a winning season every single year. His teams won or shared the MAC West title 4 times, including making the MAC Championship in 2005. I still can't believe the 2003 squad went 10-2 and still didn't make a bowl upsetting #15 Maryland and #21 Alabama. We were ranked as high as #12 that year in the polls. I can pretty much say that I became an NIU fan because of the Wake Forest win in '02 and the Maryland win in '03, both thrillers. He's had 5 All-Americans and 9 of his players are in the NFL.

It's really easy to repeat over and over what the numerous articles have to say about Coach Novak. The most important thing in his tenure is that he had great integrity and his players really exemplified him as an individual. The overall scholarship of the football seems to improve every year. The success of Joe paved the way for the University to fund the Jeffery & Kimberly Yordon Academic and Athletic Performance Center. The Yordon AAPC is such a vast improvement over what would some say to be some of the worst facilities in the nation. Coach Novak took one of the worst teams in the nation in 1996 to one of the top teams in the Mid-American Conference almost every single year. From the worst to the best with both the teams and the facilities. That's what Joe Novak has accomplished here. It is almost a double-edged sword, because he has mentioned over this past season that players now are maybe just expecting to come to NIU to win. Obviously this season was a wake-up call. Another big difficulty Joe had to pull through was the abundance of assistant coaches that went on to bigger and better things making more money at BCS schools. That hurts when some of your best guys leave.

Joe Novak wasn't selfish. He saw that this was the opportune time to retire. He didn't go out on bad terms, despite our 2-10 record. We only have 9 or 10 scholarships to hand out this year and 4 guys have already committed. The new coach is going to have a senior-laden team and ability to recruit 20-25 guys, which is a great opportunity with the new coach already in place. Novak is going to stick around and help Jim Phillips search for a new coach. Coach Novak is a man of true character that is so hard to find these days. He did things the right way, the old school way. The NIU Huskie way that I hope continues to be a tradition. Here's to you, Joe.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Joe Novak to retire




Despite hinting at this all season, I really wasn't prepared for this. Sorry for lack of updates guys, school and everything has taken up most of my time lately.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


Sam Hurd to start today for the Cowboys due to an injury to Patrick Crayton

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Ouch

2 tough losses yesterday in FB & BB rounding out a week of the Volleyball & Soccer team ending their seasons in conference tournaments.

Looking past the outcomes, there were a lot of resolve in both the Football and Basketball squads. They could be mailing it in, but they work hard and there are always bright spots in every game that Joe Novak and Ricardo Patton coach. Congrats to both of those coaches in being successful and coaching up the players.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

GAMEDAY!

Navy better watch out for LB Josh Allen:



2:30 @ Navy on CSTV

7:00 NIU Men's Basketball @ #21 SIU

Let's hope to avoid the blowout we've had a week to practice for. Our only currently ranked opponent we face this season. Possible upset? Not likely.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Navy Blog Exchange

I've had the opportunity to trade questions and answers with Adam from Pitch Right, a very popular and interesting blog centered around Navy football. I really appreciate the time he took to answer my questions. My questions probably suck because this is my first time doing this, but I thought they were pretty good ; )


Q: The first thing I must ask about is your game last week against North Texas. There were SO many points being scored. Is there one spot on Navy's defense that is a major problem or is it an all -around thing? Also is there a major defensive standout, like our DE Larry English?

A: To the first part of the question; yes, it's basically a situation where the entire defense is struggling. In fact, as we've debated on my blog for the better part of this past week, struggling may be a generous term. The point is that the defense just isn't good and won't approach being good this year. It's young though, and the general consensus is that it will get better- just not this season. (As a side note, for an interesting take on Navy's defense, I'd check out the comments on this post. One of the comments is from one of Navy's senior defensive backs, who expresses hope for the future.) If I'd have to pick out the "biggest" weakness of the defense, it would probably be pass defense, where Navy is currently ranked dead last in the country in terms of pass efficiency defense. We do have a defense STUD at inside linebacker in Irv Spencer, who actually may have an opportunity to play in the NFL. He has all the physical tools and is an aggressive and instinctual player who currently leads the team in tackles. Also watch out for freshmen Wyatt Middleton. He's raw and makes some assignment mistakes, but he's an athletic free safety who can bring the wood.

Q: We've been decimated by injuries this season. Have you guys had anystruggles with this problem, just so there can be some comparison there?

A: You're not alone on the injury front. Navy lost it's two most veteran defense players for the season - LB Clint Sovie and FS Jeff Deliz- against Rutgers in week two. Since then the defense has experienced even more injuries, including our best cornerback Rashawn King (who is questionable for the game) and starting rover Ketric Buffin (who I believe is also questionable.) On offense, we've lost a very physical wide receiver in Greg Sudderth for the year, and as you know our starting quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku Enhada will not play against NIU due to a still undisclosed knee injury he suffered against North Texas.

Q: You've said that your defense consistently struggles against the spread offense. How do you predict that you will do against our pretty much straight-ahead balanced running attack and have you faced a team that runs as much as NIU does?

A: I think Navy will have some success against NIU's offense. We need to understand that in context though, as "some success" for this defense means holding the offense to less than 40 points. As I mentioned previously, there is some young talent on Navy's defense, but the biggest problems have been fundamental in nature. Basically, Navy's players struggle with the scheme, which makes them very slow when playing in space. To make matters work, most of the players just don't tackle well. Notre Dame runs a pretty "vanilla" offense and Navy held them to only 28 regulation points, and considering NIU's struggles this year I think Navy could have some success against the running game. We'll have to see though. I try to have an open mind when it comes to the defense every week, but every week the defense almost seems to regress. It's been frustrating to say the least.

Q: Can you pronounce the name of QB Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada? And will the switch from him to Jarod Bryant be a major change and how will it effect the outcome of the game?

A: Yep. It's phonetic actually, and a lot easier than it seems. Obviously anytime you lose your starting quarterback there is some dropoff, but Jarod Bryant is a player and has shown the ability to lead this team in the past. He's one of the best athletes on the team and led the Mids in a comeback win against Duke and what should have been a comeback win against Ball State. He also played most of the second half last week against North Texas, and ran for a score in the win. Remember, he's the guy who led Hoover High school to it's last "National Championship" in 2004 and was recruited by Auburn as a defensive back, so you know he has talent. The team should be in very capable hands on Saturday.

Q: Looking at the boxscore of the North Texas game, there were so many guys getting a decent amount of yards rushing. Just how many guys are in the backfield and are there truly huge playmakers back there, or is it all part of Navy's system?

A: You wouldn't be wrong to assume much of it comes from the system, but the individual players who make it work also have a lot to do with the success Navy has on the ground. It all starts with great blocking up front with the O-line and smart and athletic quarterbacks that makes the correct reads and react correctly. There is also a talented group of slotbacks and fullbacks in the backfield which do well to compliment each other. Eric Kettani, who is second on the team in rushing, probably has more talent than any other Navy fullback we've seen under Johnson, and that's saying a lot considering he shares time with Adam Ballard, who himself probably had a good shot at the NFL had he not decided to become a Marine Crops officer. Both Reggie Campbell and Shun White are legitimate 4.4 guys at the slotback position, while Zerbin Singleton, the other slotback, is an all around player who is dangerous as both a runner, receiver, and blocker. Watch out for Campbell though. He's one of the most dynamic offensive players in Navy history and something tells me he's going to have a huge game in his last home game on Saturday.

Q: I have to ask you for a couple predictions: What do you think the outcome of this game will be and how many rushing yards will be ran for overall?

A: I think Navy wins this one, and I'm almost tempted to say by a "comfertable" margin (ie. something more than a touchdown.) We'll almost certainly run for more than 300 yard, and if I'd have to guess I'd say Navy will top 500 total yards again this week and possibly even approach 500 yards on the ground. Th key will be the three stops Paul Johnson has been asking his defense to get. If Navy can stop NIU at least three times, the Midshipmen offense will carry the day.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Uh-Oh...

WE'RE JUST ABOUT OUT OF RUNNING BACKS!!!

RBs out for season:
Montell Clanton (ACL)
Ricky Crider (Broken Leg on Special Teams)
Chad Spann (Knee Injury on Special Teams)
Cas Prime (Hurt before season)

Questionable for this week:
Justin Anderson (Knee)
David Bryant (Ankle)

Converted to play RB:
FS Justin Stewart
FS Jeff Fontana

Here are their stats from the Chronicle

Stewart rushed for 412 yards and three touchdowns as a quarterback his senior year for O'Fallon Township in 2005. He led his team to a 11-1 record after rushing for 1,264 yards and 17 touchdowns on 159 yards (7.9 yards-per-carry).

Fontana was an IHSFCA Class 7A All-Stater as a senior, rushing for 1,163 yards and 14 touchdowns on 153 carries as a fullback for Libertyville.

Also in the mix:
RB Matt Schiffler

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Huskies FINALLY win at home 27-20


The win on Saturday felt soooo good. I can only imagine what it meant to the players. After so many close losses, this victory is exactly what the doctor ordered for the ailing Huskies.

The weather on Saturday wasn't too bad, and it was a pretty good crowd for tailgating. I can only assume that a lot of the people out there either went to the bars or just went home to watch the game. I went to tailgating really late, because I had stayed up so late the night before. I don't really know why I did this, because I really love tailgating but then again I was pretty sick all weekend. I couldn't even find my student ticket, so I went to the side box office and I got my ticket there. Of course none of my friends really wanted to go to the game, so I decided to go anyways. The crowd of people I was sitting by was mostly parents and their little kids, so I had to watch what I was saying about the refs and such.

The 1st quarter was such a microcosm of the season. We go the ball to start the game, Danny Nicholson throws a couple really huge passes to Britt Davis. We're already on Kent State's 31 yd line and then on 1st down...
ANDERSON, J. rush to the KENT34, fumble forced by MAXWELL, C., fumble by
ANDERSON, J. recovered by KENT WILLIAMS, Jack at KENT34.
I just about crapped my pants. Such a great start to the game, looking like the bye really helped and then a fumble. Just great, I thought to myself. Just another one of "those" games. Let's just drive our turnover margin down as much as possible so we look good for Phil Steele's predictions for next year.

So then Kent State begins their drive and they go for a while until we stop their little Garrett Wolfe-wannabe running back Eugene Jarvis from getting the 1st down. They go for it on 4th down on our 35 yd line and Brandon Bice and Alex Krutsch bring him down. More on Bice later. Of course the crowd was pathetic (Just under 14,000) and barely any noise was generated for our defense on these plays. Man our defense was looking good this game.

We get the ball back without them scoring and then we open up with a huge pass play to the other Davis, Brandon for 31 yds and we get to the Kent State 36 yd line. We hand it to Justin Anderson and he gets a few yards. And on the next play...
Nicholson, Dan pass intercepted by WILLIAMS, Jack at the KENT25,
WILLIAMS, Jack return 47 yards to the NIU28 (ANDERSON, J.;ONYEBUAGU, J.).
I already wasn't feeling good at the time and this just made me downright sick in my stomach. Dan Nicholson throwing a pick that wasn't even close to the WR. Now I know it could have been the WR's fault here, but it was thrown right in to the defenders hands. COME ON DAN!!! I just about had it. I had hope for this team, this time right after the bye week. I had faith in Joe Novak and my favorite team in all of college football. I also was an idiot all I was wearing was a sweatshirt and SANDALS. Why would anybody be wearing sandals in that sort of weather??? So I got up and left. "Are you coming back in?", said the ticket guy. "Nope", I replied.

Then I ran to my car because I am an idiot. Why would I be leaving an NIU Football game in the 1st quarter? I just couldn't take the punishment anymore. It was sort of like I gave up on the Cubs once I figured out that Dusty Baker wasn't giving them enough chance to win any more games that season. I really should have brought out the inner-cub in me going to every game no matter what, but that just wasn't the case. The weather and my own health was a major factor in my decision. I just wanted to lay down in my bed and watch the game from the comfort of my own room.

Kent State of course drove and scored as I thought it was going to happen. Then our offense came alive. A big 50 yd pass to Matt Simon helped set up the run and the Kent defenders lost Justin Anderson in the mix, as Nicholson threw him a 16 yds pass for a TD!

7-7

Then our offense just goes off. Both RBs Justin Anderson & David Bryant break off huge runs. Matt Simon again with a clutch catch. JA puts the ball in the endzone.

14-7 Huskies. And we never gave up the lead. This fun again.

THE RUNNING GAME

RB Justin Anderson got a little banged up, but David Bryant came in and definitely picked up the slack. That guy has some speed. Both RBs combined for 208 yds and were key in this victory. On that one TD reception, JA actually lined up on the wrong side!

“I actually lined up on the wrong side,” said Justin Anderson, the recipient of the touchdown throw. “I forgot the play and asked Dan if I was on the right spot. He said, ‘Yes.’ I ran the route and he threw a perfect pass.”

The offensive line was TREMENDOUS. Never had I seen so many holes for the running backs to run through. It has taken all season for them to gel, but wow have they are just mowing people over now. Their technique is out of this world awesome and were the main cogs in the victory Saturday. Not to mention Kent State's run D was tops in the MAC.

THE PASSING GAME

QB Danny Nicholson was...Danny Nicholson. A high completion % (20-28), but 2 interceptions. Even though at least 1 or 2 of those was the WR's fault. 275 yds and 2 TDs. Impressive.

WR Matt Simon was...Matt Simon. 4 catches for 96 yds. Standard studly Simon game.

TE Reed Cunningham was the unlikely hero catching 7 balls for 65 yds and a TD. Our OC Roy Wittke must think we have another Zach Miller on our hands. (Former ASU TE)

TE Brandon Davis...what did Britt Davis your brother teach you about catching the ball? Obviously the wrong things. The Davis Bros need to start using some stick-um on their gloves or something.

THE DEFENSE

Not too much to say here. The defense was very solid overall and put a lot of pressure on the QB forcing 4 sacks. Standard "NIU prevent D" let Kent State try and come back more than they should have late in this game. LB Josh Allen had the hit of the year later in the game (MadDawgz, put up the vid on youtube already!!!). And LB John Tranchitella had the game-sealing INT there at the end. DE Brandon Bice finally got his spotlight to shine winning MAC West Player of the week for garnering 8 tackles, 2 TFL and 1.5 sacks.

SPECIAL TEAMS

There were some miscues, including a botched snap & a missed FG. These are strange to see happen. Nendick also made 2 FGs.

INJURIES

Another one of our backup RBs Chad Spann hurt his knee on special teams and is out for the season. That leaves us with only 2 RBs left healthy on the roster in Justin Anderson & David Bryant. Montell Clanton (ACL), Ricky Crider (Broken Leg) & Cas Prime have all gone down with season-ending injuries as well.

QB Danny Nicholson got his bell rung (again) and left the game with a concussion. Ryan Morris came in and all he did was hand the ball off most of the 2nd half.


Overall it should be VERY interesting how this weekend's trip to Annapolis, MD will turn out...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

NIU Sports Weekend in Review

Friday:

  • NIU Women's Soccer loses 4-3 by penalty kicks in the Semi-Finals of the MAC tournament against Toledo. Their final record was 10-5-5, which is their best mark since 1998. Congrats to girls soccer for finishing with a great record and making a great run in the MAC tourney!
  • Women's Basketball beats Bradley 54-48. Aileen Rossouw & Kylie York lead the way with 14 and 12 points respectively. Rossouw also had 6 rebounds & 6 steals. We out-rebounded them 40-24!
  • Men's Basketball loses to Northern Iowa (@ the BTI Tip-Off Tourney in Cedar Falls, IA) 45-75. Ouch this one really hurts. We only shot 32.7% (18-55) to UNI's 51.9% (28-54) and 47.6% (10-21) from 3-point land. We also got out-rebounded 48-30. Starters were Smith, Logan, Hart, Paradise & Yelder.

Saturday:

  • NIU Football beats Kent State 27-20 to get their first MAC Conference Victory. RB Justin Anderson passes the 1,000 yd mark for the season. Our record turns to 2-8 with Navy around the corner. More analysis to come on that game later.
  • Men's Basketball falls to UMass 102-87 in the 2nd game of the BTI Tourney. UMass was leading by 30+ points at one time. The Huskies rolled back scoring 24-6 against the Minutemen over the last 5 minutes of the game. That showed a ton of heart by this team to get back in the game. Earlier, we gave up an insane amount of 3-pointers to the Minutemen, shooting 53.8% (14-26). UMass also scored 31 points off of our 28 turnovers. Overall UMass shot 57.4% (31-54) to our 43.9% (29-66). Michael Patton went out with what appeared to be an anke injury as well.
  • More positives from this game were that we out-rebounded the Minutemen 40-32 (20 offensive!), which is a major improvement from the last game. G Ryan Paradise led the way scoring 18 pts with 4 treys. F Egan Grafel had the game of his life scoring 14 with 11 boards seeing significant minutes.
  • Women's Volleyball sweeps Toledo 3-0 on Senior night. Seniors Laura Baetzel and Mandi Caputo both played well in their last regular season match as Huskies. Baetzel tallied 11 kills and Caputo notched 30 assists along with nine digs. The MAC tourney starts on Tuesday with the Huskies hosting Ball State @ 7 PM at the Convo.

Sunday

  • Cal Poly squeeks by NIU's Men's Basketball 88-78 in the BTI Tourney Finale. This is a game with huge runs and huge swings for each side. We were as close as 74-78 with 3:15 left in the game. The Mustangs, however, came back in this one mostly due to their 34 shots from the free throw line in the last 20 minutes. We couldn't stop fouling and we only shot 30.8% (12-39) in the 2nd half.
  • Positives were that G Jarvis Nichols made the most of his start over F Sean Smith making a small lineup. He scored 18 points, while Paradise had another good showing scoring 21. Ryan Paradise may have scored a lot of points, but he was only 5-20 with 4 of those being 3-pointers. He scored 7 points from the charity stripe. F/C Michael Hart also had 14 points and F/C Egan Grafel continues to stay hot scoring 10 and grabbing 8 boards.
Overall, this was a wild weekend for NIU sports! I have been leaning towards "basketball mode", but the win this weekend acutally has me excited for football again.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

HOLY CRAP! Football & Basketball on the same day!!!

Kent State Golden Flashes @ NIU Huskies at 3 PM

NIU @ UMass (In Cedar Rapids, IA) at 5:45

LETS GETS SOME W'S!!!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

BTI Tip-Off Tourney Preview - UNI

I was going to do an entire NIU team preview, but I think I'll post that sometime before conference play (or whenever I have time). But the season's underway and I really want to scout some of these opponents that we will be facing.

NIU @ Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA) Friday at 8:30 PM (aka UNI, aka what you should NEVER call NIU see: title description) Get yer scoreboards ready to get these names right.

Just looking at their roster...crap look at this guy:


#53 Jordan Eglseder SO
7'1" 265 C

First 7-footer to ever play for Northern Iowa!!!

That's not even who we should be worried about...


#2 Eric Coleman SR
6'6" 240 C

He averaged a team leading 13.1 ppg and a MVC-best 9.1 rpg last year. He will tear us up in the paint if we can't get enough presence down low. At 6'6" he's a little undersized, so that's good news for our 6'7" guys!

They also return a couple of starting guards in Jared Josten and Travis Brown who were good for around 8 ppg last year.


G Adam Viet has made his presence known behind the arc in the first couple exhibition games and is their biggest threat on the outside. He went 6 for 8 in the last exhibition game!

What UNI lost from last year were 2 seniors in Brooks McKowen & Grant Stout. McKowen was their main ball-handler and Stout was another guy with presence down low to go along with Eric Coleman, while also having a nice outside shot. When you lose your starting Senior leader @ PG in McKowen, it is going to be tough to find a good replacement for him.

Anyways, I guess UNI isn't supposed to even be that good this year in that they are being picked to finish 7th out of 10 teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. So if we lose to Northern Iowa, it means that we are worse than Illinois State which is unacceptable in my mind. I also looked up that CollegeHoops.net has UNI ranked #78 and 5th in the MVC. A couple guards in Carlton Reed and Kwadzo Ahelegbe went down due to injury, so they are lacking some depth.

Mike Hart eat your heart out (pun unintentionally intended), you are going to have a long day down low vs Coleman and the Soph 7-footer. Augie was only 2 for 17 from 3-point land and we have to keep that perimeter D up if we want to win.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Yay we win at something!!!

NIU Men's Basketball defeats Aurora 87-70

Starters for this game were:

#3 Jarvis Nichols - G
#10 Ryan Paradise - G
#22 Cody Yelder - G
#25 Shaun Logan - F
#44 Michael Hart - F/C

This is the first time we've put up 87+ points since the beginning of last year in our first game vs Dusquesne! (we played 'em twice for some reason)

Sure, Aurora is Division III, but they still were the 13th ranked D-3 team in the nation.

Player of the game would have to be #25 Shaun Logan, who finished 1 rebound shy of a double double with 9 rebounds, scoring 14 points as well. #3 Jarvis Nichols also scored 14 pts and had 5 rebounds. Nichols also went 3 for 3 behind the arc and should help mend the hole that Pancrantz left.

One thing we need to work on better would definitely be Free Throws. We hit at a 50% clip going 10 for 20, but they weren't pretty to watch. If we can get in to the 70% range we'll be fine. Last year we hit 71.2% of our Free Throws.

Newcomer JUCO transfer JR #12 Sean Smith was looking sick with his mid-range jumper.

Newbie SR #44 Michael Hart spends more time above the rim than under it. That man can dunk!!!

I think that something we can improve on is perimeter defense. The only thing that kept Aurora in the game was the 3-pointer. They hit 13 for 27 and 48%. We want that at less than 35%.

Also, it kind of sucked that wrestle-offs for the wrestling team were going on at the same time and there was a huge crowd for that. I know that this was just a basketball exhibition, but the scheduling was off.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Quote of the...let's just say month

One of the first things Ricardo Patton did as a head coach was hang up a banner.

The banner reads,

“Anything less than a national championship will always be short of our goal.”

BASKETBALL STARTS TOMORROW!!!

Preview coming...

Monday, October 29, 2007

Ultimate Defensive Depth Chart


Would you blame the injuries for how this season has turned out?


Sunday, October 28, 2007

LOL Toledo

First off, check out this...Huskie wearing a Toledo jersey? My head just exploded. He's obviously looking for our real Huskie mascot, Diesel.


Toledo's 812 total yards sets an all-time MAC record that was 53 yrs old and the most in FBS this year. Usually in dog racing, the Huskie leads the way.



#8 S Mark Reiter & #58 DT Mike Krause are just along for the Jalen Parmele train





Some have said that Toledo Tom may have run up the score on the Huskies. I just say we suck. He has been known for this trickery before though.


Photos taken by Jeremy Wadsworth of the Toledo Blade and Mark Myers of Rocket Report

Again inspired from LOL Jocks, one of my most favoritest sites ever

WHAT? 70-21?

There's only one picture to describe this game:


Yeah that's about it. We've given up. That's OK though. Basketball starts November 2nd...

Saturday, October 27, 2007

GAMEDAY!

TWO MAC POWERS CLASH TOGETHER FOR A SPOT IN THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Just kidding. What year is this?

But seriously, it would be awesome if we could beat Toledo today and finish in front of them in the MAC standings.

6PM Game time

We're not on normal TV, but we're on internet TV. If ya wanna burn $8, just click here for All-MACcess.

We're also on 105.9 FM http://www.wckg.com/

You can listen to the Toledo announcers online here: http://www.wspd.com/main.html

Monday, October 22, 2007

Toledo Hate Week

I apologize for lack of updates.

Which do I hate more...
The Toledo Rockets...or NIU Business School Midterms?
The answer is...


By a nosehair...I really don't think I did so well on that test...I feel like Dan Nicholson after the Wisconsin game. Ouch. Rather than reading articles on NIU, I've been studying and studying until my eyes bleed.

If there's one team that I despise in the Mid-American Conference, it's the pathetic team in Ohio called the Toledo Rockets.

Toledo is NIU's biggest rival in the Mid-American Conference. Do the Toledo Rockets see it as a rivalry? Not as much or not at all.

Joe Novak says it's a rivalry (Chronicle):

“Toledo, from at least our perspective, has turned into a big rival game,” Novak said. “The games have had such importance every year. When you are struggling, it's important to have a game like this.”


Transfer Chase Carter has also heard some stories:

"I've heard about Toledo and the rivalry but I don't personally know much about it. I do know that NIU and Toledo have a long history and we need to get this win. I could tell from our meetings this week that this is a big game and we need to get ready to play."


The Rockets are the opposite of the Huskies, ranking 4th in the conference scoring 30.4 ppg, whereas we are last with a PATHETIC 17.0 ppg. 114th nationally.

Toledo also has something we don't have which is tremendous depth at the quarterback position. Their top 2 QBs Aaron Opelt & Clint Cochran have gone down and have used Lenehan played 2 weeks ago. Opelt is back as their starter this week healed from his calf injury.

In the last game, UT forced 8 turnovers and RB Jalen Parmele ran the ball 38 times for 241 and garnered MAC player of the week.


Here's a little history of the rivalry (Game Notes)

ROCKETS 'N DOGS: The Huskies and Rockets meet for the 35th time and for the 19th time in Toledo. NIU is just 2-16 versus the Rockets in Toledo and has won only seven of the 34 meetings overall, but snapped an 11-game losing streak to UT the last time the teams played in the Glass Bowl with a 35-17 win in 2005 behind then back-up QB Dan Nichsolson. Toledo won the first four games between the teams (from 1967-71), and nine of the first 10 games, with Northern Illinois earning its first series win in 1972. Prior to the 2005 game, NIU's last win over the Rockets was in 1989.


Might we have a revenge factor? (
Weekly Quotes)


Joe hasn't forgotten the "fog game"

"Last year's loss was one of the tougher losses that I have had here. This is not a personal thing, it's a team thing, but personally it was one of the toughest that I have been through because of the way it ended. It is always so tight anyway and to lose like that was difficult."


THE LAST MEETING: Northern Illinois mis-fired on four tries from the Toledo two-yard line in the final moments of the game as the Huskies dropped a 17-13 decision to Toledo on a foggy Thursday night in DeKalb. The Rockets built a 17-10 halftime lead and made it stand as the two teams could manage just a field goal in the second half. Britt Davis caught nine passes for 163 yards and three NIU defenders registered double figures in tackles, led by Tim McCarthy with 16.

Oh great Britt Davis & Tim McCarthy aren't even playing right now. What are we gonna do?

We're SO bad at so many things. The Chronicle sums it up:

The 1-7 record is just one of a series of ghoulish numbers for Northern Illinois In this week's FBS team statistics, the Huskies rank:

117th in kickoff returns (17.39 ypr),
116th in third down (28.6 percent) and fourth down offense efficiency (22.2) and turnover margin (minus-1.50),
114th in scoring offense (17.0 ppg),
113th in turnovers lost (23),
108th in passes had intercepted (14),
107th in time of possession (27:56),
106th in punt return yardage defense (14.06 ypr),
105th in total offense (322.13 ypg),
103rd in passing efficiency (108.32),
98th in net punting (32.42 ypp),
94th in turnovers gained (11) and fumbles lost (9),
93rd in rushing defense (191.5 ypg) and
91st in passing offense (188.9 ypg).


Our offense will make Toledo's 118th ranked D look like the Chicago Bears D circa 1985!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

The real reason why we lost to Wisconsin


Poor Spencer. Lance Smith's Wisconsin cheese flatulence blew his helmet straight off!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

It's a time to look forward

Same old, same old NIU on Saturday. This is getting boring.

It's time to look to the future and ask some questions:

Will Joe Novak leave after this year?
Who will our new coach be?
Will our entire coaching staff be turned over?
How's our basketball team looking?

Dan Nicholson Highlight Video

Straight from my taping of the Wisconsin game to youtube:



Same old, same old NIU on Saturday. This is getting boring.

It's time to look to the future and ask some questions:

Will Joe Novak leave after this year?
Who will our new coach be?
Will our entire coaching staff be turned over?
How's our basketball team looking?

EDIT: For my log of the game, check out the comments section of the post below.

GAMEDAY!!!



OK we play Wisconsin 2day. Last time we played them in '02 we had like 8 sacks and should have won the game. One of the first NIU games I watched. Hopefully this can be the same kinda game.

F*ck Bucky, go Victor E Huskie!

I don't even know if I get the Big 10 network, I just wanna watch the game tomorrow no matter what? Nope I'm not in Madison, I'm too drunk to go there anytime in the near future.

We always have a fighting chance in these games. 23 point underdogs? Please. We're NIU!

LET'S SEE SOME OFFENSE WHEN I WAKE UP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Let's hire this guy!

I nominate this guy for our new Defensive Coordinator/HC:



We definitely could use the energy. Courtesy of The Wizard of Odds

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

INFIRMARY REPORT - Wisconsin Game

Nicholson could return against Badgers (Dekalb Chronicle)

QB Dan Nicholson - Probable (ankle)
“I assume Dan's going to start,” Novak said. “He practiced today. He did all the drills. He's not 100 percent, but Danny's our quarterback. I thought Ryan played well and did some positive things. He didn't make many mistakes or throw an interception.”
WR Britt Davis - Doubtful (Hammy)

WR Marcus Perez - Out (foot) Is this guy ever healthy (or productive)?

C Eddie Adamski - Questionable (shoulder)

TE Reed Cunningham - Doubtful again

CB Melvin Rice - Out 2 weeks (undisclosed suspension)

NG Mike Krause - Doubtful (not on depth chart)

NG DJ Pirkle - Questionable

RB David Bryant - Questionable


Notable Depth Chart Changes

Depending on whether Krause or Pirkle play, Ed Jackson could be our only NG left!

Jason Onyebuagu will probably start at C for Adamski, and Tim Mayerbock will fill in at his RG spot.

The secondary is a little shaken up with Rice gone, but Pruitt did a good job filling in last week and will start at CB again. Kube & Reiter @ the Safety spots.

Returning punts will be Matt Simon. Fielding kickoffs will most likely be Evans Adonis & Patrick George.