Practice Begins; News and Notes; RBs; Army and Illinois

Wow, when you list all of today’s topics next to each other, it seems like a lot to cover in just one post – and it is.  But with less than four weeks until Boston College, EVR has a lot of previewing to do.  So you are going to have to bear with me here.

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First off, practice began today for the 2011 Northwestern Wildcats.  EVR will do its best to keep everyone apprised of news from Evanston and Kenosha as it comes.  Although, generally, news in summer practice means injuries – so hopefully there will be no news.  But certainly, if there are any updates to the depth chart, EVR will let you know.  Skip Myslenski does a nice piece featuring Mike Trumpy and Brian Peters and the family atmosphere as the team gets back to work in Evanston.  Otherwise, there was nothing to report from day one. 

The biggest news for the past week is the Big Ten’s announcement that it will expand to a nine-game conference schedule in 2017.  The schedule will allow three teams from each division to have five home conference games in 2017, and the others (including Northwestern) in 2018.  There is no question that this will make the competition in the league better by providing more matchups and more accurately defined division winners.  Considering division winners will be determined by overall conference record and not a team’s divisional mark, this is a positive move.  The big ten also announced that there will not be two protected rivalries, as was speculated by some.  To do so would have significantly increased the lag between playing the other four teams – e.g., NU would only play Ohio State at home every eight years.  Kudos for not going down that road.

This will, as many have noted, make it more difficult for mid-level teams to become bowl eligible.  If the NCAA maintains its 12-game schedule limit, a team will have to win, at minimum, three conference games to be bowl-eligible – currently, a 4-0 non-conference team can be bowl eligible at 2-6 (we’re talking to you Minnesota).  This is obviously a good thing as some awful 6-6 teams have made Bowl games over the years – but it is a fact that it will be more difficult. 

Also, schools like OSU, Michigan, and (this year) Illinois can say goodbye to eight-game home schedules.  With most of the big schools playing at least one away non-conference game every two years – for instance, Michigan’s Notre Dame series – they are faced with the option of moving down to seven games home schedules each year or alternative between eight and six home games.  Let’s hope that the temptation to get an eight game schedule more often does not result in a continual dumbing down of their schedules.

The USA Today Coaches Poll was released last week.  EVR has two issues with this poll.  First, is USA Today’s insistence on referring to it as the Coaches Poll, rather than the grammatically correct Coaches’ Poll.  Second is the utter ridiculousness of ranking teams any time before week four of the regular season.  A great deal of the disparity of college football could be alleviated with this simple fix.

But, for what it is worth, NU received 30 votes and is ranked “31^st”.  Other NU opponents receiving pre-season rankings include: Nebraska (11^th), Michigan State (17), Penn State (25), Iowa (30), and Michigan (34).

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NU made a major move forward in its master plan last week by re-signing Athletic Director Jim Phillips through 2020.  The fact that his contract now matches coach Fitz’s is no coincidence as the school has now placed its officially stamp of approval on this marriage.  Prior ADs at Northwestern firmly established the school’s reputation in non-revenue sports such as Women’s Lacrosse, Swimming, Men’s Soccer, and Women’s Tennis.  With Phillips’ arrival, the school has seen an increased emphasis on bringing football as well as men’s and women’s basketball up to an appropriate level.  Having Philips on board demonstrates that the school wants this era to be more than a blip on the radar, but instead a trend into the future.

There was a little bit of recruiting news last week.  First off, four-star defensive end Faith Ekakitie has placed NU in his top five, according to Rivals.  Ekakitie is a Rivals100 ranked player.  Additionally, offensive tackle and class of 2013 offensive tackle Evan Lisle has named NU as part of his top-six, which also includes BC, Michigan, Notre Dame, OSU and UCLA.

Finally, Sun Times reporter Tina Akouris has been the busiest NU beat writer so far, with nice stories about Jordan Mabin – and the drive of the NU seniors for a memorable season – and Nebraska’s respect for the Persa-Ebert connection.  Great to see that the seniors on defense expressed so much anger for how they played down the stretch last season (now they know how the fans felt).  Also, interesting to see Nebraska’s feelings about the NU offensive threat.

Running Back Preview

Maybe the most maligned group from the 2010 Wildcats, along with the linebackers, was the running backs.  Beginning with Arby Fields’ failed attempt as the starter and finishing with Mike Trumpy’s wrist injury in the Illinois game, there was generally no good news from the running backs.  And they will be the focus of attention again in 2011 as the team will need more production from the RBs in order to take the next step offensively.

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Mike Trumpy has emerged as the starter and deservedly so.  Even though he led the team with a meager 530 yards, he did so with only 116 carries.  With a normal healthy workload of 20 carries per game, his yards per carry should put him well over 1,000 yards.  Mike shows a great ability to mix power with modest speed.  He won the job from Arby Fields primarily because of his willingness to hit the hole rather than trying to break outside.  But he also broke an 80 yard run against a pretty solid Illinois defense.  Trumpy is also one of four returning players with more than 20 receptions, so he is very versatile.  If Mike plays 12 full games at the rate he played in 2010, he should have a breakout year.  But he will need help.

The running back position is a stressful position in the spread offense.  Not only does he touch the ball more than the rest of the team, but the pace of the offense takes its toll on the guy who is forced to run the ball, run a route, or block on every play.  Thus the importance of Adonis Smith.  Adonis lost his red-shirt midway through 2010, and immediately demonstrated his talent.  Adonis actually had a higher yards per carry than Trumpy with 4.8.  His tall skinny frame is deceptive as he is much stronger than he appears, yet is a touch slower than we would expect.  Big Ten defenders who are lazy and try to tackle him high will not be rewarded.  Look for Adonis to play a major role as a compliment to Trumpy.

Finally, Cat fans will again see a lot of work from Senior Jacob Schmidt.  Jacob missed some time last year due to an ankle injury.  We should see Jacob quite a bit on long yardage situations as his biggest asset is as a blocker and a receiver in the flat.

The transfer of Arby Fields will be felt the most in the lack of depth at this position.  Trumpy, Smith, and Schmidt are the only Wildcats on the roster with a carry in college.  Given the amount that the Cats plan to use all three, this poses a problem in the event of injury.  Look to see redshirters Tyris Jones and Tim Hanrahan if the Cats get into mop-up time (either giving or receiving) in order to protect the red-shirts of Jordan Perkins and Treyvon Green.  But if someone gets injured, one of the two freshmen will probably need to step up.

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Army – September 17, 2011 – West Point, NY.  In the 2012 edition of Webster’s dictionary, next to “Trap Game”, is the box score from this game.  Service Academy – check; road game – check; quirky offense – check; before a bye week leading up to a rivalry/revenge game – check and check.  By all rights, NU should manhandle this team.  The offensive line averages a meager 270 and the depth chart currently has one (that’s “1”) defensive lineman.  But everyone knows that this game will be far more difficult on the field.

The Black Knights run their own version of the triple option.  This will be a mighty test for a linebacker corps that was consistently out of position last season.  The NU LBs will need to have their heads on straight for Army because RBs Malcolm Brown and Raymond Maples will certainly be ready.   Army QB Trent Steelman is a true double threat with 721 rushing yards in 2010.  While they do not pass much, Steelman threw just over 11 passes per game last season, his completion percentage was over 50% and he threw seven TDs to only 3 picks.  The Army offense is efficient and chock full of precision.  The Cats will need to be on their game.

The Navy defense is far less impressive and is not at all deep.  NU should be able to get its running game going early.  Army lost both of its starting DEs to injury, which will really hurt their pass rushing ability as well.  The Army defense held only three teams to under 20 points in 2010 (North Texas, VMI, and SMU).

Army is coming off a nice bowl win against SMU.  But their six-win season was not against the toughest schedule as their best win was probably at Tulane.  Army will warm up for the Cats with games against Northern Illinois and San Diego State – two teams coming off great season, but returning with new coaches.  NU will be the most put together team that Army will face.

Illinois – October 1, 2011 – Champaign, IL.  NU gets two weeks to prepare to make up for the embarrassing loss to the Illini at Wrigley Field.  Illinois will play its fifth home game to start the season against the Cats, a streak which will include a very tough visitor in Arizona State.  If either NU or Illinois comes into this game with a loss, it will be critical to win this conference opener.

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The Illinois offense will once again be led by Nathan Scheelhaase, who impressed everyone last year and will only continue to improve.  Jason Ford will step into some big shoes at running back, although the senior already has over 1,000 yards on fewer than 200 carries over the last two seasons.  The Offensive line is stocked with two seniors and three juniors and averages a stout 308 across the board.

The defense will return some good talent from a squad that held five teams to under 14 points – of course, the defense also gave up 67 points to Michigan and 38 to lowly Minnesota.  There will be two holes in the defense that sophomores Akeem Spence and Jonathan Brown will attempt to fill.  Their ability to mesh with the defense will be key for the Illini, especially in defending the run.  The secondary should be the strength of this unit, with experience at all four spots.

Illinois has managed to disappoint throughout most of the Ron Zook era, but they started to turn the corner in 2010.  This will be a make-or-break year for a program searching for an identity.  This will probably be NU’s second toughest road game (sorry Iowa), and a huge opportunity to steal a win from a team that may have equal talent.

Go Cats!