Good Morning. Welcome to another edition of the Inside NUsletter. We're only eight days away from Northwestern’s 2020 season opener against Maryland, under the lights at Ryan Field for a 6:30 p.m. Central kickoff.
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.
Here’s an announcement for next week: As we head into football season, the Inside NUsletter will serve as your go-to for all things NUFB. For next week we are quite literally assembling the NU season preview bible with all of our preseason content compiled in one place, as well as some exciting stories and a fun guest picker. It’s going to be overwhelmingly beautiful and will probably drop Thursday. You’re not going to want to miss it. With so much going on, we know it’s tough to keep updated on everything we’re publishing, so we’ll take care of that for you throughout the season. Just hit subscribe.
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 this week
We have a kick off time, folks! As previously mentioned, the ‘Cats will take on the Maryland Terrapins starting at 6:30 p.m. CT on the Big Ten Network’s primetime slot.
In preparation for the new season, each of our staffers justified their winnability rankings from last week. Writers differed on how they perceive the challenge of Iowa versus that of Wisconsin, but the overall consensus saw Maryland and Illinois (HAT) land in the bottom two slots.
Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan State are the next to feature in our series of “Know Your Opponent” articles. Minnesota and Illinois round out these eight pieces, and, hopefully, the ninth one will be one focusing on the Buckeyes of the Ohio State University for the Big Ten Championship Game on December 19.
Could the ‘Cats get to back Indy on December 19? With a stronger quarterback room, an experienced defense, and a generous schedule, editor-in-chief Eli Karp has a pretty optimistic outlook. Check back later today for our three reasons to be pessimistic about Northwestern’s chances. Maybe Colin will also throw in a “Three Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Care About Northwestern Football: Part 2” because that went over well last time.
One of the best traditions within NU’s football program has been the bestowing of the #1 jersey to one player, voted on by the team, who demonstrates the greatest work ethic, attitude and team-first mentality. This year senior running back Jesse Brown earned the preseason award.
Brown has appeared in 17 games throughout his career in Evanston despite a few injuries which have taken him out of action for chunks of the last two seasons. He has recorded 30 carries for 191 rushing yards, 23 receiving yards, two touchdowns and five tackles in his career.
The All-Academic Big Ten winner told his teammates, “I will fight as hard as I can to represent this and to represent y’all today and throughout this whole season.”
On the professional side of things, Justin Jackson had a huge game for the San Diego Chargers in their brutal OT loss to the Saints. JJTBC stepped up in the absence of Austin Ekeler and rushed for 71 yards on 15 carries.
Joe Gaziano and Austin Carr both received call ups to the active roster of their respective squads, but neither joined Jackson on the field in Monday night’s thriller.
Minnesota’s Ifeadi Odenigbo recorded his first sack of the season in the Vikings’ loss to the Seahawks, while Anthony Walker, Jr. picked off Baker Mayfield in his squad’s loss to Cleveland.
Speaking of other well-regarded Wildcats, managing editor Colin Kruse caught up with Vic Law, who spoke about his experience in the NBA Bubble, where the Orlando Magic forward played a bit of golf, guarded Bol Bol and scored 10 points in a regular season finale win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
On Wednesday, Northwestern’s two coordinators, Mike Bajakian and Mike Hankwitz, both spoke to the media via Zoom. Here’s what newcomer Bajakian had to say when asked about getting prepared for next Saturday’s opener against Maryland:
“We had quite a bit of time and really not a need for the schematic install, so we focused on the physical and really dove into the depths and technique, and I walked away from those conversations thinking that they were extremely valuable, not only to our players, but to myself. I made it a two-way conversation to hear the things that they’ve been taught in the past or they’ve learned elsewhere, and focused on each individual guy and specifically what maybe he needed to improve upon. And that was very valuable.”
Dan Olinger’s new weekly column, “Things I’ve Noticed,” analyzed WBB, which is back practicing in preparation for a late November start to its season. Inside NU’s in-house film guru examines the women’s basketball team and its offensive and defensive schemes with some great insight. If you haven’t noticed before, Dan is a big Veronica Burton fan.
What happened this week
We touched on Northwestern’s season opener game time before, but we have yet to discuss the other dates and times for Week One and other marquee matchups. While NU takes on Maryland, Michigan and Minnesota will simultaneously face off in the conference’s ranked matchup.
The state of Indiana will be glued to its TVs at 2:30 CT, as both IU and Purdue will be in action in a pair of intriguing games then. What’s really of note is Minnesota plays thrice on Fridays. Scott Dochterman of The Athletic has more on how this schedule came together and what changes may occur as the season goes along.
There was plenty of news out of the SEC(OVID-19) this week, and it began with Florida head coach Dan Mullen calling for 90,000 fans to pack The Swamp for the Gators’ contest against LSU this Saturday. Well,,, at least 21 UF players then tested positive earlier this week, and that game has been postponed. It joins Vanderbilt, whose game against Missouri was postponed since the Commodores did not have enough scholarship players available after positive tests and others in quarantine.
But wait, there’s more. Nick Saban — yes, that Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide — tested positive for the novel coronavirus along with his athletic director Greg Byrne. Saban has been asymptomatic thus far, but the larger point is that the virus has rocked the SEC this week. Saban and his program had/have been a model for how to handle this pandemic, testing everyone daily and always appearing masked up and distanced, sometimes in contrast to other SEC head coaches. So what’s it like to prepare a team for its biggest game of the season against No. 3 Georgia from isolation?
“I can do absolutely everything here that I can do in the office,” he said. “I’ll have the same exact routine. The first thing I do on Thursday morning is watch the defense practice with the defense. Then, we do two-minute and two-point plays. Then, I watch what we did against each other with the offense. Then, I watch the offensive practice. Then, I watch special teams. Then, I usually do a little write-up for two-minute and the two-point plays for the team. I’ll do all of those things exactly like I always do it.
“I’d watched practice today. I had a manager who had a phone if I wanted a play repeated. I said, repeat that play, so-and-so messed up. I didn’t leave the country or anything. I’m just right down the street. We have this technology. We’re gonna do the best we can to keep everything as normal as possible.” - Nick Saban
The SEC has vowed to trudge on since the beginning, and after a few relatively smooth weeks, the conference’s resolve will be put to the test in the coming days and weeks. It opted for a later start to the season to buy more time to hammer down its protocols and watch other leagues begin, but in doing so left itself fewer by weeks. It’s anyone’s guess how the next 2-3 months shake out.
Now for a couple NCAA-related updates. The Division I Council introduced a one-time transfer exception for the 2021-22 year. Athletes, both undergrad and grad students, will now be allowed to transfer one time during their college careers, without sitting out a season. Currently, non-grad transfers must sit out a year unless they’re granted a waiver by the NCAA, which is typically a process marked by inconsistent decisions. What it means is basically a college free agency next summer, especially as many rosters will be bloated with everyone receiving an extra year of eligibility.
The Council also opted to give the same extra year of eligibility to winter-sport athletes. While these decisions are likely the right ones from the NCAA, it doesn’t everyone will be back for another year as individual schools can choose whether or not they want to honor scholarships again.
Finally, all you Wildcat fans will like this piece. Kevin Fishbain assembled an oral history of Northwestern’s historic 54-51 victory over Michigan in 2000 with an all-star cast of interviews. He dubbed it “The game that changed college football” and for good reason: the revolutionary Randy Walker/Kevin Wilson spread offense took the CFB world by storm. Grab a snack and take a seat on the couch, because this one’s worth setting aside some time for.
Good tweets
Scott Frost has not named the Huskers’ starting QB yet.
Northwestern. is. back.
Texas. Still not back.
Meanwhile, in Gainesville after the Gators’ virus outbreak, which they suspect happened on the road in College Station.
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See you next week.
Written by Colin Kruse and Eli Karp.