A Sound of Sheer Silence

Northwestern (6-3) finds itself in a very unexpected place with regard to its opponent Saturday, No. 20 Ohio State (6-3)--the two teams are basically in the same place.  Both teams have lost the last two games, including bad losses at home last week.  Both teams have questions at quarterback--Ohio State's Julian Sayan is definitely out, Aidan Chiles is as of this writing questionable.  Both teams are likely completely out of the playoff competition if they lose this game.  The difference, of course, is that Northwestern fans, while bummed about a bad performance (especially on offense with the back-up quarterback) in a 24-10 loss to Iowa, are pretty happy with the team; Ohio State fans, by contrast, are in crisis after a 41-28 loss to Oregon that, truthfully, was not that close.   So, really interesting game this week.  It is the "Big Noon Kickoff" game on FOX, which as the name suggests is on FOX and starts at noon Eastern.  Because the game is i...

Northwestern (6-2) takes on No. 21 ranked Iowa (6-2) in a 7:30 p.m. night game at The Library on Fox. Last week, Northwestern raced out to a great start in Eugene, leading 20-6 with 2 minutes left in the 1st half.  And then the bottom fell out, losing 34-26.  It was disappointing, but I am still very positive on this team, with another change to get a win over a ranked team in Iowa.   Iowa is a total enigma to me, as is often the case with Iowa.  They crushed Wisconsin last week and looked dangerous on offense, but the week before against Minnesota they looked like the bad Iowa offenses of the past.  So, which Iowa are we going to get?   Northwestern has four games left--Iowa at home, at Ohio State, at Minnesota, Illinois.  I think Northwestern will be favored against Illinois, but the other three games (I think even Ohio State given their QB situation, though that is the biggest stretch) are both winnable and losable.  I would be thrill...

No. 20 ranked Northwestern (6-1) goes on the road to Eugene, Oregon to play the University of Oregon (4-3).  The game is once again on Peacock, and it is a 3:30 Eastern/12:30 Pacific kickoff.  Oregon is coming off a shocking and frankly pretty bad loss to Illinois in Champaign and this week fired their offensive coordinator.  Injuries have been an issue--quarterback Dante Moore got a concussion from a horrendous cheap shot in the USC game--but they have just been kinda disappointing.  If you told me going into this season that Northwestern would be only a 3 1/2 point underdog for this game (and 3 points is generally considered the home field bonus, so the odds makers thinks the two teams are basically even), I would have told you that you were crazy.  But I think Northwestern has a real shot to win this game, and if they do we are now seriously talking about big things this season. The fact that Northwestern is traveling to Oregon for a conference game is still ...

This week, Northwestern (5-1) plays Rutgers (2-4) at The Library in Evanston at noon.  The game is once again on Peacock.  This is a big game, because Northwestern goes into the real meat of the schedule starting next week--at Oregon, Iowa, at Ohio State, at Minnesota, and The Hat game against Illinois.  Some of these teams have been struggling, but all of them have been ranked at some point this year and are potentially difficult games.  If we can go into that stretch 6-1 with a win against a, frankly, weaker Rutgers team, the season is basically a success and everything that comes after is gravy.  Last week was pretty rough, with the Wildcats surviving a 24-21 game against Michigan State.  But honestly, finding a way to win that game is really encouraging.  In a weekend where five of the Top 10 teams lost (and Miami coming within two questionable calls of being #6), you are going to have weeks where you play poorly.  If you look at every team th...

Northwestern (4-1) faces off this week against Michigan State (2-4) in East Lansing.  The game starts at noon Eastern and can be seen on Peacock, which is the NBC streaming service.   The subplot of this game is that the new coach of Michigan State is Pat Fitzgerald.  Pat Fitzgerald played for Northwestern from 1993-1996, which coincided with the renaissance of the Northwestern program and the trip to the Rose Bowl in January 1996.  Certainly in the modern era of Northwestern football, he is the most decorated player in the history of the program.  In 2001, he became an assistant coach at Northwestern.  In June 2006, Northwestern head coach Randy Walker passed away suddenly and Fitzgerald became the head coach.  He was Northwestern's head coach from the 2006 through 2022 seasons, amassing a record of 110-101.   His 110 wins are the most in school history.  At the time, it was widely believed that the only reason Northwestern was at ...

On Saturday, Northwestern (3-1) plays Ball State (1-4) at the new Ryan Field in Evanston at 12:30 pm on the BigTen Network.  Ball State is located in Muncie, Indiana, which I happened to visit a couple of weeks ago with my wife and daughter.  Ball State is a member of the Mid-American Conference (the "MAC"), which is considered to be at least a level down from the BigTen conference.  For this reason, Northwestern has scheduled Homecoming for this game.   I want to talk about Homecoming for the majority of this post, but before we get to that we need to discuss last week's game against Penn State.  If you didn't see, Northwestern won 34-13, and it was not nearly that close.  The eye-catching number here is 413 yards rushing for NU, versus 48 for Penn State.  Part of that is that Penn State was behind the whole game and had to pass, but 413 yards rushing is still a crazy number. Northwestern has won a number of games in my time watching the team, in...

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. --"Ozymandias", by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1876) Tonight, Northwestern (2-1) opens its new football stadium against Penn State (3-1).  For the second week in a row, it is the Friday night FOX game that starts at 8 pm Eastern.  Last week, Northwestern gave defending champion Indiana a big time scare, losing 29-23.  This is especially noteworthy given that t...