It’s that time again!! After 8 months of wandering through the cold, dark, empty world that is the offseason, college football has returned. With the exception of the Lou Holtz lisp, it’s all sweet music to our ears.
Now, you may be wondering “Hey, we had a breakdown of the offense recently…where’s the defense?” Well my friends, my manager is a football fan, but not quite enough to let me blog during work – so we’ll get to it when we get to it. But the season is finally upon us, so lets roll. Hide the women and children, its about to get wild.
Then grab a couple beers, pull the emergency slide and take the plunge baby – ITS WILDCAT FOOTBALL TIME!!
When we last left our faithful warriors, they were trudging off the Raymond James gridiron following yet another overtime bowl game loss. 78 pass attempts, 4 TDs, 5 INTS, 3 missed field goals and a whole lot of WTF football, ‘Cats fans were forced to end the season knowing the bowl win drought would be extended to at least 61 years.
The 2010 road to the Rose Bowl begins this Saturday, and air is buzzing like a stadium of vuvulzelas. Someone grab Michael J Fox, because Northwestern fans are practically shaking with excitement. Unfortunately, this year’s early season schedule is full of more potential landmines than trying to walk across the DMZ.
What time is it?? Preview time…
Who we playin? Vanderbilt. The shining beacon of hope in the cesspool that is the SEC. They are the Northwestern of the SEC, minus a few small details like football competitiveness and ability to rock the color purple.
Whats their mascot? The Commodores. A fantastic choice, not only for its uniqueness, but for being the name of team that plays in an entirely landlocked state. Want to get in your opponent’s head? Tell ‘em you’re a Navy Admiral 700 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. That’s thinking outside the box, fool.
The line: Northwestern -4.5
Why the Cats will win: We’re better on offense, better on defense, and our special teams can only hurt us so much. Vanderbilt had a woeful run defense last season, which may be exactly what NU needs to get their ground game going in 2010.
Vanderbilt is coached by Robbie Caldwell, a man who took over the team just 6 weeks ago following the abrupt retirement of former coach Bobby Johnson. With so little time to adjust to the head coaching role and prepare, advantage has to go to the ‘Cats.
Another possible break for Northwestern is that the heart of Vandy’s offense, RB Warren Norman, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Wednesday and is questionable for Saturday’s game. How one can be QUESTIONABLE 4 days after knee surgery is a testament to either modern medicine, or to scientists who have created robots capable of fully integrating into society.
Why the ‘Cats will lose: Night game in the south…see Duke, 2008. Fortunately the weather looks to be less unbearable than that fateful night, but season openers are nothing if not unpredictable. The ‘Cats have played well on the road the last two seasons, though they have struggled in out of conference road contests.
Coach Caldwell has generated some excitement around the team, and the squad is looking to bounce back after a rough campaign last season. If the Cats get off to a slow start on the road, Persa may try to do too much to carry the team, which never ends well.
The Prediction: The Cats start the season off right with a 24-14 victory over Vandy. Persa looks like the QB we’re expecting, and the Cats ground game has a respectable – but not confidence inspiring – showing. The first of the landmines is avoided, and the Cats head back to Evanston for their home opener 1-0.
The preview was short and tame this week on account of me needing to leave early tomorrow for a par-tay weekend in Cincinatti. Hoping to be back to the old antics next week. Till then, get excited and GO CATS!
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