With its 38-0 rout of Northwestern, the Michigan defense has gone an incredible three weeks and three games without yielding a point. The Wolverines’ current stretch matches the program’s best since Nov. 1-15. 1980, when it blanked Indiana, Wisconsin and Purdue in succession. The No. 1 song when Michigan completed that three-game spell was Kenny […]
Tag: Northwestern Wildcats
Week 6 Saturday Six-Pack: Approaching The Airport
Week 6 is college football’s last on the incline of the curve. After this Saturday, it’s all downhill on the race to the postseason. The legendary Beano Cook once quipped on the ESPN college football podcast that each season felt like Casablanca: You start it, and next thing you know, you’re at the airport. In […]
MLB Playoffs vs. The Bowl System
The MLB Playoffs technically begin tonight with the New York Yankees hosting the Houston Astros. I say technically because the one-game Wild Card matchup doesn’t yet feel to me like a real part of baseball’s October tradition. It functions to the MLB Playoffs as the First Four does to the NCAA Tournament — only the […]
2015 or 1995? Northwestern As B1G Title Material
Two decades ago, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald helped the Wildcats to an improbable Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl run. Recent past goes further into Northwestern’s rear-view mirror… Final: Northwestern shuts out Minnesota 27-0. The Wildcats match their win total from each of the past two seasons — SI College Football (@si_ncaafb) October 3, […]
Week 5 Saturday Six-Pack: Conference Play Heats Up
Conference season kicking into full gear across the nation means nothing but loaded Saturdays for the next nine weeks; well, at least until the week before Thanksgiving. Thanks, SEC. Week 5 ushers in October, the meat of the college football season, with some tasty offerings from early conference play. Four of the Power Five conferences […]
September Superlatives: Leonard Fournette, Jeremy Cash Shine
A month of the 2015 campaign is complete, and it went by faster than a Leonard Fournette touchdown run. College football’s season is the shortest of any major sport’s, and September’s end is a harsh reminder. We’re now a third through the season, when it seems just yesterday Montana and North Dakota State were just […]
Week 3 Saturday Six-Pack: Ole Miss-Alabama Headlines
College football’s Week 3 slate is much sexier on paper than last Saturday’s offerings. Then again, Week 2 gave us Toledo upsetting Arkansas; FCS Jacksonville State taking Auburn to overtime; and another BYU Hail Mary finish. Hmm…maybe the moral of the story is don’t complain about a college football Saturday. Oh, who am I kidding? […]
A Contender Emerges? Northwestern Impressive vs. Stanford
Heading into Saturday’s Stanford-Northwestern clash in Evanston, media buzzed with chatter of a team on the upswing after finishing 2014 strong. Turns out, the buzz was misplaced — and that includes from yours truly. Northwestern’s 16-6 win Saturday over Stanford didn’t just grant NU’s 2016 graduating class bragging rights (and possibly control over the Illuminati […]
Aug. 18 News: Reaction to Denied Northwestern Union Bid
The Northwestern union efforts launched in the spring of 2014 reached an impasse Monday when the National Labor Relations Board’s dismissed NU’s petition. The key statement from the NLRB’s decision explains its interpretation of the player-university relationship: Even if scholarship players were regarded as analogous to players for professional sports teams who are considered employees […]
Big Ten West Shrouded in Uncertainty
Ohio State’s 59-0 drubbing of Wisconsin in December’s conference championship game summarized the current dynamic between the Big Ten East and Big Ten West. The Big Ten East returns the first College Football Playoff champion in Ohio State, a viable title contender in Michigan State, the most talked-about new head coach in Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, […]
David Letterman Repped MACtion Before MACtion Existed
Tonight, David Letterman will take the stage as host of The Late Show on CBS for the final time. Tributes flooded the internet in the days and weeks leading up to Letterman’s retirement, and it’s well deserved: David Letterman was a comedy pioneer. Letterman was also a pioneer for one of the college football blogosphere’s […]
Northern Illinois Calling Out Big Ten Opponents
An ad in Friday’s edition of The Chicago Tribune of Northern Illinois calling out Big Ten counterparts Illinois and Northwestern is #MACtion taken to the extreme. This #NIU ad in tmrw's Tribune … "Chicago's Big Time College Football Team!' Ohhhhhhhhh snap. pic.twitter.com/yujJ2ulBTK — Amanda Kaschube (@amandakaschube) September 12, 2014 Northern Illinois extended its win streak […]
Former Northwestern Star Venric Mark is Headed to D-2 West Texas A&M
ESPN.com’s Joe Schad first reported Saturday that former Northwestern running back Venric Mark is headed to Div. II West Texas A&M.
Writer Roundtable: 2014-15 Bowl Outlooks for Tennessee, Utah and More
Welcome to the first College Football Huddle Writer Roundtable. Every Friday, college football writers sound off on the topic of the week. This week’s discussion: 2014-15 bowl outlooks for five teams that had their postseason bubbles burst in 2013. Is it buy or sell on bowl bids for the Tennessee Volunteers, West Virginia Mountaineers, Indiana […]
Historic Context of the Eric Cantor Primary Loss: The 1899 College Football Season
Eric Cantor (R-Va.) became the first and only sitting House Majority Leader to lose in his party’s primary since 1899. Since this is a college football blog and not political (thankfully), here’s some context on just how monumental Cantor’s defeat is, through a gridiron lens: