Parents pleased with Northwestern as players are back in pads
No, the Pac-12 did not successfully lobby for an eight-team playoff.
Good morning. It’s been a long week, but one long week closer to Big Ten football. In just three weeks it’ll be back.
A reminder that our NUsletter feedback form is still open for your responses!
Today, like always, we’ll highlight some of our articles from the past week, some of the craziness that took place in the college sports realm as well as some random enjoyable stuff we found on the internet.
If you’ve come to expect anything from Inside NU, it’s that we don’t like to take ourselves too seriously. If this is your first time reading, the Inside NUsletter should come off as informal but informative. Let’s get into it.
What we’ve been up to
In case we haven’t already made it incredibly clear, football is coming back! In three weeks!
Randy Wade, father of Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade, spearheaded a movement of Big Ten players’ parents demanding answers from the conference in August after the postponement. Parents of Wildcat student-athletes reacted to the news of the Big Ten’s return as well. The overall sentiment from Northwestern football parents pointed toward optimism about the health and safety of their children in a transparent manner.
The players are also ecstatic (not that that’s a surprise), especially now that they can focus just on football.
Of course, one notable change to this season will be various restrictions meant to lessen the spread of COVID-19 leaving college football bereft of the normal game day experience. How will Northwestern handle it? A lot of jokes have been made, but the ‘Cats’ first home game against against Maryland on October 24 will undoubtedly have a strange vibe to it without fans packed into the ancient bleachers of Ryan Field.
Junior cornerback Greg Newsome II said, “That’s what we’re going to miss the most, having that energy, having that edge.” That sentiment probably rings even more true for the likes of Ohio State, Penn State and Nebraska.
With the news of Big Ten football’s return, many a fan might be lost on which stars across the conference have opted in or out of the coming season. Don’t worry, we here at Inside NU have that covered for you. Some notable players who have opted back in include Purdue’s Rondale Moore, Minnesota’s Rashod Bateman and Ohio State’s Shaun Wade and Wyatt Davis. Unfortunately for Northwestern fans, offensive lineman and potential first round pick Rashawn Slater will not be returning. He joins a list including Penn State’s Micah Parsons and Michigan’s Ambry Thomas sitting out the season for health and/or draft reasons.
On Wednesday, Andrew Marty, Blake Gallagher, and Isaiah Bowser all spoke to the media via Zoom. The quote of the day came from Gallagher, once again speaking on the prospect of no fans:
“It’s gonna be a challenge that everybody is going to be going through. But, it’s something you gotta embrace the heck out of, right? BYOJ, it’s bring your own juice this year!”
Finally, some more somber news emerged yesterday when a team spokesperson confirmed to Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport that wide receiver Jace James and offensive lineman Sam Stovall medically retired from football. Stovall’s loss hurts in particular as Kurt Anderson and the #TrenchCats now must replace a would-be starter and a potential starter up front.
What happened this week
For readers lost with who’s playing and when they’re playing this college football season, The Athletic has created a comprehensive list of games on a weekly basis. Set the DVR on November 7 for South Alabama’s visit to Coastal Carolina. It should be a barnburner, folks.
On a similar note, Medill product and The Athletic editor-in-chief of college football Stewart Mandel proclaims the joy of nearly everyone playing college football in this piece, a product of player action and FOMO. Let us rejoice for some mid-week #MACtion and #Pac12AfterDark.
More from The Athletic. Twitter’s most notorious fake college football coach, Faux Pelini (sorry @FakeCoachFitz), penned a piece analyzing the odd, contentious relationship between the Big Ten and his beloved University of Nebraska.
Matt Brown of The Athletic gives his Top 25 in comparison to the AP Poll’s latest release, with every Big Ten and Pac-12 squad now eligible for inclusion. Four Big Ten squads were included in the latest edition of the Top 25, an omission of Minnesota and Iowa from the original preseason poll (as well as Indiana and Northwestern, who also received votes).
In other news, Big Ten defenses must still beware of Ohio State’s star quarterback Justin Fields, who has embraced the plant-based lifestyle, which has attributed to his enhanced fitness and energy. Luckily, the ‘Cats won’t see Fields this season until they inevitably meet in the conference championship game.
Despite the uneven schedules and chaos of this coming season, the College Football Playoff will not expand to eight teams this winter. The Pac-12’s Larry Scott pitched the proposal during a Wednesday meeting with other commissioners and the CFP management committee. Any change would need the approval from the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick. *whispers* But no one really cares about the Pac-12 anyway.
Per CFP executive director Bill Hancock:
“They decided that doing that now would be such a significant change, and come with so many challenges, especially given the timing with the season already underway, that they concluded that the best outcome would be to make no changes in the format.”
Finally, here’s a stark reminder that some of the most strict precautions for player health and safety can’t guarantee a virus-free environment, and that not following them certainly increases one’s risk of infection. One hopes that the robust daily testing system and safety protocols the Big Ten has set up will prevail in ensuring a smooth season without any major threats to all those involved.
Good Tweets
The presidential debate produced enough weird moments, and Big Ten football was not spared. Trump also said he brought back football, which as we know, is not true.
We’ve become the Big Ten science blog, so direct any questions this way.
It doesn’t matter where Mike Leach is, whether it’s in Pullman, Washington, or somewhere in the South, the man is a walking quote. How about an upset win over #6 LSU to start your tenure in the SEC?
Yup, remember to think thrice before sending that Tweet today.
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See you next week.
Written by Colin Kruse with help from Eli Karp.