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...