Persa-nalysis, Trump Card & Other ‘Cat Nip

The 2-deep is out and as most of us hoped Mike Trumpy gets the nod as the starter, kind of.  Jacob Schmidt is listed alongside Trumpy as the “Or”.  I’m taking this as a sign of respect for Schmidt, but let’s not kid ourselves Trumpy’s second half effort was the best we’ve seen of the ground game to date and I expect him to get the chance to get the bulk of the carries.  Trumpy net 53 yards on 12 carries on Saturday.   

Northwestern is currently ranked 10th in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game and 64th in the nation at a pedestrian 149.75 ypg.  Only Indiana at 113 ypg (96th in the nation) is worse.  Penn State is slightly ahead of us with 159 ypg and a ranking of 61. 

Per(sa)-plexed

Thanks to James for pointing out what appears to be a mistake on someone’s part.  The official NCAA CFB stats site lists Dan Persa as tied for second in QB Passer Rating (with OSU’s Brandon Weeden).  The leader? Utah’s Terrance Cain, with a 192.5 rating is the nation’s leader as you can see by clicking here.   Granted, Cain has one less game under his belt than Persa (as does Weeden), so we’ll see how long that lofty number stays up there.  Check out the NCAA official stats here.

Da Da Da…

Northwestern gets its first ESPN appearance of the season as NU gets the “mothership” treatment and of course, an opportunity to clean-up the slop and formally introduce the nation to Dan Persa.  Kickoff is set for 12 pm et as you know. 

Recap The Recap

I failed to list Skip Myslenski’s recap of Saturday. Here it is.

Did (N)U Know?

With Saturday’s win, Pat Fitzgerald now has 31 putting him 4 behind Gary Barnett (35) and 5 behind Ara Parseghian (36).  Amazing.  For what it’s worth, I used to cringe even in 1996 when Barnett’s career record was shown. Despite winning all those games we were always seemingly way below .500 on the lower-third.  I love getting some distance between wins and losses now with Fitz as it says something about the program with this many games under his belt to be 8 games over .500 – and counting.

Did (N)U Know? Part Deux

Kudos to Mike Wolf at NU for his stellar game notes.  Check this out. Looks like “since start of 2008″ is the new “since 1995″ as I’ll be posting Big Ten records since 2008 tomorrow.  In the meantime, check out how our road success matches up nationally since the start of 2008:

Best FBS Road Records Since 2008                                       Most Road Wins by FBS Schools Since 2008
Boise State …………………………….. 13-0 1.00                      Boise State ………………………………………..13-0 1.00
Alabama ………………………………..10-0 1.00                       USC………………………………………………..12-3 .800
Florida …………………………………….9-0 1.00                      TCU……………………………………………….11-2 .846
Texas ……………………………………….9-1 .900                        Cincinnati ………………………………………..11-4 .733
TCU ………………………………………11-2 .846                         Alabama …………………………………………..10-0 1.00
USC ……………………………………….12-3 .800                        Utah …………………………………………….10-3 .769
Ohio State ……………………………….. 7-2 .778                       Fresno State ……………………………………..10-6 .625
Utah ………………………………………10-3 .769                        Central Michigan …………………………………10-7 .588
Northwestern ……………………………9-3 .750                        Florida …………………………………………….9-0 1.00
Missouri ………………………………….6-2 .750                          Texas ……………………………………………..9-1 .900
                                                                                                                    Northwestern …………………………………… 9-3 .750
                                                                                                                    Georgia Tech ……………………………………..9-4 .692
                                                                                                                     Brigham Young ………………………………….9-4 .692

Any time you’re in the same chart with the likes of Alabama, Florida, Texas, Ohio State and Boise State it is usually a good thing!