Northwestern Rocks my Socks

Fear the purple. Failing that, fear the mascot. And failing that, fear...the Olive Garden?

It's very rare that anyone is allowed total access to the mind of Beauford Bixel, but it's not for the cliche reasons you may think. Unlike Gary Larson, who I assume has chickens on roller skates delivering singing telegrams to various parts of his brain, I have a depressingly large space with very little in way of decorum. A glimpse into my mind is rather like being put into the Total Perspective Vortex of Frogstar World B. For those uninitiated into the brilliance of Douglas Adams, this Vortex essentially shows you the vastness of space in all it's infinite bigness, and then shows you where you are in relation to it with a tiny marker exclaiming "you are here." My mind is depressingly large, and depressingly void of chickens on roller skates.

So my thought process was...shall we say...a bit disconnected when I decided to write a college football blog, and even more disconnected when I said to myself "We'll just cover the whole big-ten, there are just too many team specific blogs out there."

The disconnect lies in the fact that I know virtually nothing about Northwestern, a shameful admission to be sure, but one that I think can be understood by the vast majority of college football fans. Honestly, I know they wear purple, and that they are the wildcats. This is the extent of my knowledge. One nice thing about having to post about all 11 Big 10 teams is the fact that I get to learn about teams I don't know. The not so nice thing is that more often than not, I end up sounding like the ass end of a tuba. So, here is the preview to the preview, which is admittedly sparse.

As penance for my sin of being a Big Ten elitist bastard, I am officially declaring Northwestern as my honorary favorite team, and will be following their season with great interest. So be prepared, reader, to stumble through a complete outsider's attempts the gain intimate knowledge of a team about which previously nothing was known.

2007 in one word: Streaky. The Wildcats started well enough, handling Northeastern (Northeaster vs. Northwestern? Awesome) and Nevada easily. Then the wheels were forcibly removed by a Duke team that hadn't won a game in 22 tries. While the win had to come against somebody for Duke, it was embarrassing for the Big Ten none the less. Kinda like that pitcher who gives up the record setting home run. It was inevitable, but maaaaan does it suck to be that guy. In a cruel twist of fate, the scheduling Gods then punished the Wildcats by a brutal run of @ OSU and Michigan, both of which were, as expected, losses. Then came the rebound: wins against Michigan State, Minnesota, and Eastern Michigan, followed immediately by 2 losses, a win, and a loss. It seems, at first glance, that the Wildcats were just a streaky bunch capable of hanging with bowl teams (see: Michigan State) but mostly skating by teams they should beat, and losing to teams they shouldn't. The scheduling Gods had a lot to do with that streaky-ness, but the Wildcats were, I'm sure, hoping for more last season.

2008 Tangibles:

Schedule
8/30 Syracuse
9/06 @ Duke
9/13 Southern Illinois
9/20 Ohio
9/27 @ Iowa
10/11 Michigan State
10/18 Purdue
10/25 @ Indiana
11/01 @ Minnesota
11/08 Ohio State
11/15 @ Michigan
11/22 Illinois

This schedule is an exact parody of this news story in which a couple of scuba divers were stranded for 48 hours. They made it through the night, and right as the helicopter's rescue basket dangled but a few yards away, a giant venomous sea snake reared its head between the swimmers and safety. Fortunately, the divers made it. I'm not sure Northwestern will survive the venom of Ohio State, @ Michigan, Illinois...

Coach


Pat Fitzgerald enters his third season as head coach. At the time of his appointment he was 31, making him the youngest coach in Division 1 football by nearly 5 years.

Returning Playmakers
Again - I am no expert. I would imagine that C.J. Bacher would fall under this catagory. Last season saw him break a record at NU, passing for 520 yards in a single game, impressive for anybody's standards. You can see nearly all 520 yards in this clip:

What I see is a QB with a pretty strong arm and a pretty good head on his shoulders. 19 TD's in a season is impressive, but his 19 INT's temper that impressiveness a bit. If he can cut down on his turn overs, he should be solid.

Sherrick McManis returns kicks, plays cornerback, and toys with Lex Luther during the off season. He's very good.

We'll see what I can do in getting a more...informative...preview up soon. I'm sure Champ will do his best, and I'm trying to line up a guest poster who has a better grasp of this situation than I do.

Have a great weekend.