All Posts By Lake The Posts

Horn Tooting

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LTP plays Julie McCoy, aka (Internet) cruise director to bring you some links and video that point to all things NU football.

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Happy Wednesday everyone! We’ve got a few things that will likely bring a smile to your face today.  Let’s start with this video highlight package of Matt Alviti at the recent Elite 11 Columbus workout. Some pretty impressive video to get you psyched for the future of NU at the QB slot, don’t you think? OK, now on with the show.

Navel Gazing

As we mentioned yesterday, B1G blog OffTackleEmpire is featuring Northwestern all week long. Today, they include LTP angles along with SippinOnPurple and others as part of a stereotyped themed approach to Fitz, Kain Colter and big picture forecasting. After you read my take, which is more content than this post by a wide margin, let me know how you differ on your perspective. Take a look here.

Gameday Time

The ESPN Gameday voting contest is back-up after some impropriety (go figure). So, if you’d like to help get the Gameday crew back to Evanston for the second time in school history (third when you include the Wrigley game) then be sure to cast your vote by clicking here and following through the easy-to-vote option for Northwestern. We are currently in 63rd place, but have jumped nearly 20 spots in the past two days. Our “friends” at Iowa are in 11th place. Get a move on.  And, the Fitz video that PRR displayed yesterday is below just in case you missed it.

 

 More Media Love for WLAX

Just a heads up that tomorrow night on WTTW11 Wildcat Alum Ann Kreiter is producing a feature profiling the Northwestern women’s lacrosse team. I’ll share the video when I get it, but be on the lookout for it!

Fitz The Diplomat

PRR mentioned this yesterday, but Fitz threw out the first pitch at Wrigley on Tuesday and also sang the seventh inning stretch. You can click here to see his appearance. He also graced the inside front cover of the sports section of the Sun-Times which profiles the first pitcher every day. Sox fans are gritting their teeth, especially those that know Fitz.

PreSnap Time

Ahh, you know we’re getting ready for CFB season when the incomparable PreSnap Read countdown of all 124 DI teams is underway. Kansas checks in at #105 today and only one NU 2012 opponent – Indiana (#109) – has been profiled to date. From here on out, it is part of my bookmarking process. Any guess at where Paul has NU this year? I’ll put the over/under at 60.

Dream Report

Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport.com offered up a recruiting profile that invokes instant smiles recently. Eric Joraskie, a DE from Mt. Carmel, PA with a 4.0 GPA recently received an offer from Northwestern which he claimed was one of his “dream schools” growing up as he values the education/big time football balance. And while you might expect those words from someone who has the Ivy League on his doorstep, Joraskie has offers from Pitt and Syracuse with others on his tail. In all fairness, his quote included Stanford, but when a recruit says “”When I was in about eighth grade, I said that if I’m going to go big-time in football, if I ever get an opportunity, I want to play for a school like Stanford or Northwestern,” it is still something that makes you feel good.

Purple Mafia Time

I’m putting the call out to you, the LTP community, to help recruit and connect me with some new fan favorite subjects as part of semi-regular Purple Mafia Profile series. I’ve got former walk-on turned scholarship two time Big Ten champ Matt Stewart in the cue as I’m just about done with his new book, but I’m looking for you to help bring in some new participants. We’ve done more than 50 in LTP history (more like 100), but you know who you are interested in so help me out. Of course, we’ve been on the quest for Mike Greenberg (has said “no” multiple times through his reps), Wilbon, Colbert, but there is a complete laundry list of new ones I’d love to tackle (like biz leadership guru Daniel Pink).  Send me your thoughts and connects at laketheposts@gmail.com .

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Seven For Seven

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LTP contributor Tom Maycock offers seven things to watch for as the Wildcat women’s lacrosse team begins its drive
for a seventh national championship.

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Before we dive in with some lacrosse national championship fodder thanks to LTP contributor Tom Maycock, there are a couple of hits worth mentioning. First off, Fitz made a cameo in the Cubs booth last night to spread some Wildcat cheer. I’m hoping some of your friends can be converted from Cubs nation to Wildcat Nation via NEW season tickets (especially since the Cubs will be out of it well in advance of our home season opener).  Second, hats off to NU alum Mike Greenberg for his #greenydance today on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike show. Greenberg had to do his own version of Dancing With the Stars as a payback to Golic for losing their March Madness friendly wager. Click here to view what turned out great in what could’ve been an ugly situation for both Greeny and his NU-ness. 

And finally, be sure to bookmark OffTackleEmpire this week as they are hosting Northwestern Cocktail Hour all week long as part of their continuing 12-week series profiling each B1G team for 2012. LTP will be part of the Wednesday lineup, but the content there seems to be spot on so far.

Seven Things To Watch As NU Goes For Its Seventh National Lacrosse Championship

1) Kelly Amonte-Hiller at Work
OK, we know Amonte-Hiller is a great coach—the championships, awards, and statistics speak for themselves. But what makes her so good? The answers to that could fill a book (and probably will fill more than one someday), but a couple of things stand out to me come playoff time. First, her teams thrive in clutch situations. Sure, it helps to
have some of the best players in the country, but Amonte-Hilller seems to instill that special something that allows both stars and role-players to perform at their best in the most high-pressure situations. Shannon Smith is the perfect example—always great, but never more dangerous than when everyone in the arena knows the Cats need her
to deliver a late goal. Second, watch for the ability to adapt styles and strategies from game to game, and even within a game. The now-famous, pulled out of nowhere, “have rookie Harrington face-guard Maryland’s top scorer” tactic from last year’s game is the most obvious example, but watch closely and you’ll probably see more subtle cases of
adapting personnel and style as needed.

2) Alex Frank and the Defense
This team is playing better defense than what we’ve seen the past couple of years, as evidenced by the goals-against average dropping by more than a goal from last year (7.28/game versus 8.57/game, heading into the ALC tournament). Everyone seems to be playing better D this year—moving faster, with better stick-checking, cleaner ground-ball pick-ups, and so on. But a huge key has been senior Alex Frank’s switch to defense, having been primarily a midfielder/attacker most of her career. Sacrificing the glory that comes with scoring goals and delivering assists, she now leads the team in caused turnovers, is second in ground ball pickups, and probably leads the “frustrated opponent” category as well.

3)The Offense
The offense is better this year too. Shannon Smith (#3) is scoring fewer goals, but team scoring is up about half a goal per game from last year. Newcomer Casey Bocklet (#5) leads the team in assists, helping provide some of the precision passing and offensive flow that’s been missing a bit the last couple of years. The Cats still have plenty of
players who can score one-on-one, but look for the Cats to be better at setting up easy looks.

4)Taylor Thornton
An eye-popping talent her freshman year, one of the best defenders in the country as a sophomore, Taylor may be the best all-around lacrosse player in the country as a junior. Her contributions are captured pretty accurately in the stat sheets, but the boxscore doesn’t measure emotional impact. Watch for Thornton to pull off one of her patented “create a turnover, grab the loose ball, outrun the defense the length of the field, and finish with a spectacular goal” plays—then watch for the rest of the team to feed off the resulting energy and excitement. See Phillip Rossman-Reich’s excellent story for more on Thornton and the defense.

5) Rising Star: Gabriella Flibotte
The junior midfielder has been key contributor since her freshman year, but has really stepped up her game in the second half of the 2012 season. She’s a key part of the draw-control team, may be the most fluid Wildcat at picking up ground balls on the run, and puts her near Thornton-esque speed to good use clearing the ball out of dangerous
situations. Lately, she’s shown a flair for intercepting passes on defense and delivering key goals in transition.

6) Smith and Fitzgerald
For the Cats to win it all, offensive superstars Shannon Smith and Erin Fitzgerald need to play well. There’s not much doubt that they will, the question is how good a job opponents do of slowing them down, and how the Cats react to those efforts. If defenses go all-out to prevent Smith from scoring, she needs to walk a fine line of feeding her teammates when appropriate, but still looking to score when opportunities arise.
Similarly, keep an eye on Fitzgerald’s ability to penetrate the D from the top of the arc. If defenses can keep her closed out without breaking down elsewhere, the ‘Cats may struggle to score. But if Erin has room to maneuver, look out. Finally, keep an eye out for attempts to double-team Shannon Smith—Shannon seems to have a knack for turning
double-teams into spectacular goals.

7) Enjoy It While You Can
I expect the Cats to be a dominant power in women’s lacrosse as long as Kelly Amonte Hiller is at the helm, and probably even after she leaves. But the path to a national championship is going to become more difficult with each passing year. We’ve already seen traditional athletic powerhouse Florida field a top-tier team in just a few years and overtake NU twice already this year. Now an  increasing number of potential attractive lacrosse schools like USC, Colorado, and Michigan are likely to emulate that success as they begin fielding Division I teams (with ex-NU players and coaches heading up some of those programs). We’re in a golden age of Northwestern lacrosse, so be sure to enjoy the ride.

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‘Cats WLAX Loses ALC Title, But Begins Title Quest As 2-Seed;Plus B1G Rumblings

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Northwestern looks to rebound from an ALC Tourney game loss to Florida with another national title run that will begin at home against Notre Dame. Plus, there have been a tough few days in a couple of B1G schools’ PR departments.

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You might be wondering why LTP went dark most of the weekend. Well, a travel karma day and a half from hell put this writer at an airport in Fargo trying to get to Chicago. After various cancellations my wife and father-in-law decided the 11 hour drive with a rental car was worth it. Have no fear though, 11 hours of cartime lends to a lot of good ideas and we’re back at it today.

Northwestern women’s lacrosse is in somewhat new territory – entering the NCAA Tournament off a loss, which happened at the hands of Florida on Saturday in Gainesville at the ALC Tournament.  Florida jumped out on NU early and never looked back serving up the second loss of the season for the ‘Cats, both thanks to the Gators. The loss dropped NU to a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but you’ve got to figure motivation will not be an issue. The ‘Cats draw Notre Dame on Saturday at 3pm ct at Lakeside Field in Evanston. Northwestern downed the Irish 17-7 earlier this season and will be facing the program for the fourth time in NCAA Tournament play (NU is 3-0 in those games). The quest for national championship number seven in the last eight years is set to take flight.

Persa Not Signed By Tampa Bay

A heartache for fan fav QB Dan Persa who was not one of the 11 free agent signings by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers( as reader CatInTheHat linked to below).  As you can read here, LSU QB Jordan Jefferson did make the cut and was chosen over Persa who now must try and find a spot with another team. We’ll keep you posted.

B1G Rumblings

The ESPN.com  NCAA CFB ticker headlines this morning are overloaded with Big Ten schools – not one of them is making any B1G fan happy.

First off, Nebraska assistant head coach Ron Brown is getting all kinds of national coverage for his stance condemning homosexuality and citing relgious beliefs as his main support. As you can imagine this has created quite a stir, yet Nebraska is not taking action citing freedom of speech and religious belief. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out both in the public eye and also behind closed doors as I’ve got to believe opposing coaches will use this as ammunition. While Nebraska may be within its rights to offer freedom of speech as support grounds, you’d like to think that fans would take a stand and a flood of season ticketholders could create movement by speaking with their wallets.

Meanwhile, Ohio State is grabbing headlines for the decommitment of 4-star LB Alex Anzalone who withdrew his pledge to the Buckeyes on Friday after a photo of a known sex offender was made public from his recent recruiting trip. Anzalone had no idea that this fan was a known sex offender and despite what the university has said has been best efforts to make Buckeyes aware of this supporter, Anzalone’s father questioned the leadership of Ohio State football for not being able to protect his son from such an occurence happening. You can read about the story here.

The hits keep on coming this morning as news broke this weekend of Heisman finalist RB Montee Ball getting a $429 ticket for tresspassing in what seems like a joke of an incident. The annual Mifflin Street Block Party, a Wisconsin Dillo Day-like event, was going on and stricter laws were put in place for neighbors this year. Ball was not welcome at the house he was on the porch of a host who did not want him there. He was cooperative with police and there was no alcohol involved.

And finally, the Sandusky trial which is slated for June, will continue to increase its share of headlines like this one that states as many as 17 accusers might be involved based on recent paperwork filings, much more than the earlier reported ten known victims.

Happy Thoughts

Well, let’s get that icky news out of the way and give some love to several fans who have stepped up to get us over the 30 NEW season ticket mark on the LTP Ticket Challenge – a quest to get to 200 NEW season tickets for the 2012 season. Joseph C. stepped up with a pair of season tickets that he donated back to the school. Meanwhile, Aaron F. stepped up and added one to his existing base. Great job! Send me your tales of new season tickets at laketheposts@gmail.com . 

 

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WLAX ALC Title Game vs Gators;Alviti Continues To Shine

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Northwestern seeks redemption against Florida today in the ALC Tourney Championship in Gainesville. Meanwhile, Matt Alviti is one of the standouts at

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The ‘Cats WLAX team has advanced to today’s ALC championship game after defeating Johns Hopkins 13-9 yesterday. The #1-ranked ‘Cats have one loss on the season and can redeem said loss against Florida today in the conference title game today at 11:30 am at host Florida. You can get all the details here from NUSports.com and instructions on how to follow the game which is just about underway at the time of this post.

Meanwhile, WildcatReport.com had good news on Matt Alviti’s showing at the Elite 11 QB camp in Columbus, Ohio. Alviti was ranked one of the top ten performers at the camp and the Rivals.com reporters commented on his gritty winning ways, albeit not mechanically perfect. They were surprised he didn’t get to do a final “2-minute drill” reserved for the elite of the elite as they reported he deserved it.

More to come tomorrow with an extended post. Back in a bit…

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Friday ‘Cat Nips

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There is quite a bit of info to serve up on this Friday ranging from the 2012 kickoff times to new season ticket members plus the next steps on the 2012 LTP Road Trip.

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Happy Friday everyone! There is quite a bit of bullet point bingo to get through today on all things ‘Cat-related. The most relevant football news includes the announcement of three October kickoff times for Northwestern games and surprise, surprise, all three of them are 11 am ct starts and include two road games and Homecoming.

Northwestern will open October play at Minnesota on the 6th at 11 am at TCF Bank Stadium. The following week the ‘Cats head to the House of Horrors II (The Shoe is #1) – Happy Valley for another 11 am ct kickoff. Then, two weeks later, Northwestern will host the increasingly grudge match-ish tilt with Iowa at 11 am ct. The Hawkeyes are our Homecoming guest this season which will further make that game a tough ticket as it is sure to sellout (as will the previous week against Nebraska).  I’m fine with the 11 am road games but man do I loathe the early home games. Truth be told, last year’s night Homecoming game against Penn State caused quite a bit of planning havoc for class reunions and this seems like a very proactive approach to make Homecoming fall in line with plans for the weekend.

WLAX Playoff Time!

PRR offerred up a primer this morning for the ‘Cats women’s lacrosse conference tournament (ALC), but know that the NCAA Tournament selection will be this Sunday at 8pm when the seeds and matchups are announced. It should be mentioned that Kelly Amonte Hiller was named the ALC Coach of the Year – again – her seventh coach of the year crown.  It’s a foregone conclusion at some point lacrosse coach of the year honors will bear her name on the trophy.

 

WALK-ON Part I

Jack Mitchell has committed to Northwestern as a walk-on for potentially multiple roles. The San Diego area native is a 6-3 kicker and punter who played WR and CB in high school.  Tim Pickwell of the Del Mar Times offered this rather in-depth background story on Mitchell and his connection to the ‘Cats. It offers a broader perspective of the current state of walk-ons in general and the fact Pat Fitzgerald said that this is the highest demand for walk-ons in his time at NU.   Mitchell has kicked FGs up to 48 yards in high school and averaged 40 yards per punt in high school.  If you’re looking for the consistent thread in all of this, look no further than Fitz’s mastery of selling parents. At the end of the article you could feel Jack’s mother, Sarah, gushing as she said “I am so thrilled this man is going to be guiding my son.”

Walk-On Part II

Perhaps Jack Mitchell should connect with Wildcat alum Matt Stewart. Stewart will be an upcoming Purple Mafia Profilee and we’ll be talking about his soon to be released book – Walk-On – and you’re going to love it. Stewart, a Medill grad, walked on as a freshman in Gary Barnett’s second year. The story chronicles his struggles to try and earn respect from his teammates and a scholarship (which he did), but the best part about this is the inside view of the program, warts and all, through the magical transformation that happened. We’ll go much more in depth on this once I finish the book and get Matt on the horn.

ESPN GAMEDAY CONTEST

A week ago I promoted the ESPN College Gameday contest. Fans are asked to vote for their team and the Gameday team will then come to the winning campus for one date. However, within hours a few programs had gamed the system and ESPN shut down the contest as some rampant cheating was going on.  Hence, I haven’t been pushing it since. More to come.

Road Trip Rally Update

Earlier this week, you shared your feedback on my rundown and thoughts about the 2012 road trip that we should earmark. The response has been pretty strong for Minnesota and what several have deemed “Railgate” – a roundtrip train ride to and from the Twin Cities. I’m officially looking in to this possibility and will coordinate with my friends at NU to see what the possibilities could be. Stay tuned for more! 

This is NOT a commitment but more an FYI that I’m in exploratory mode.

Ebert Love

I had a few folks pass along a link to this Daily Northwestern column by freshman Rohan Nadkari who took a humorous approach to the departure of Jeremy Ebert to his archenemy New England Patriots. It’s worth a read and also it felt appropriate to counterbalance my LOVE of the fact Ebert is going to my team.

LTP Ticket Counter Finally Moving

Here we go. After a week of stalemate on the LTP Ticket Counter on our quest to get 200 NEW season ticket holders, we’ve had a couple of loyal readers step up to put four more on the board and get us to 29. I’d like to give up an ovation for Jonathan S. who added two to his already existing base with hopes of using the tickets as samplers for recruits for next season.  This is likely the single best way to do it and I’ve personally done it to convert a few families in to season ticket holders. Benjamin G from close to my hometown got a friend to get a pair. Well done gents, who is going to get us over 30? Email me at laketheposts@gmail.com and we’ll put it on the board. Yes!

 

BC Bash Week

It’s a tough PR week for 2012 opponent Boston College. First the news of star RB Montel Harris getting booted off the team. Now, EDSBS contributor, Graham Watson, is waxing on about the Eagles teetering on the edge of irrelevancy. For what it is worth, the 200 fans that showed up for the BC spring game is not much less than the 1,000 or so reported for the Illini game. Finally, we’re beating some teams in attendance on the Spring Game race.

Other College Football News & Notes:

  • Good news out of Spartyville. William Gholston and Lawrence Thomas suffered only minor injuries after they rolled their car near Brighton, Michigan. The pair of Spartans were collided in to by another car who was cut off during the middle of the day and fortunately were wearing seat belts and walked way with minor scratches and bruises.
  • The big scandal news of the day yesterday involved Notre Dame QB Tommy Rees, who was one of the favorite sons of the town/district I live in.  Rees was arrested along with an Irish teammate for public intoxication which got worse when he resisted arrest. Rees was charged with four misdemeanors and is very fortunate he didn’t have a felony charge according to reports like this one from ESPN.com. Teammate Carlo Calabrese was also arrested for disorderly conduct. The challenges just seem to continue for Brian Kelly.
  • Michigan athletics clarified that the buzz generated by an apparent Devin Gardner Facebook post was indeed NOT Devin Gardner’s account. Gardner, Denard Robison’s back-up at QB  has experimented at WR this spring, but this Facebook fanned the flame he was moving to WR.  Shows the microscope Wolverine Nation is under. I’m still hoping more buzz gets going about Venric Mark moving to RB at NU, one of the most underplayed storylines of 2012 to me.  
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Junior Seau & How Northwestern Figures In To Equation

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As soon as I heard the commentators emotionally detail how they never saw the alleged Junior Seau suicide coming, I knew there was a Northwestern tie that might be in order to help.

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Not many people like to talk about suicide stories. The news yesterday of Junior Seau allegedly shooting himself in the chest in a apparent suicide instantly triggered a series of thoughts for me. First, having seen the HBO Real Sports continued coverage on concussions and the long term effects it has, including depression, dimentia and a disproportionate amount of suicides came to mind. In Chicago, Chicago Bear Dave Duerson’s suicide last year brought the NFL concussion issue to light locally. However, the level and stature of Junior Seau, may very well be the tipping point in the sport of football.

In Februrary the concussion issue seemed to spike as this ESPN.com article alluded to with class action suits being filed by former players against the league and equipment manufacturers. Seeing as football as a sport takes its lead from the top, the ripple effect on this at the collegiate level is rather more like a tidal wave potential. It’s really tough for someone like me who loves the sport and promotes it vigorously to look past what continues to seem like mounting evidence of concussions and long term tragic consequences. However, I’m getting ahead of myself here as it relates to connecting the dots on Junior Seau’s tragedy.

This morning as I drove in to work I heard Mike & Mike discussing the Junior Seau story with those that knew him well and how they were shocked as they saw no signs that he wasn’t doing well. The lightbulb went off and I instantly thought of Northwestern’s very own John Trautwein. Trautwein was a baseball player at NU and a teammate of Joe Girardi in the 1980s.  For me, he was a Boston Red Sox alum as he pitched for the Sox for one season during the prime of my fandom in the late 80s. Like many NU alums, he chased his dream of continuing on in sports despite having a career path in engineering and financial security knock on his door. Instead he worked his tail off in the minor leagues until he was on the verge of getting a “real job”  by age 25.   Trautwein, however, got his call to The Show and that is where our lives interconnected, albeit in a one way sort of connection. I knew of him, he didn’t know me.

My day job entails working at media, marketing and PR company in Chicago.  We’re storytellers and have the pleasure of producing BTN’s Live Big series hosted by Dhani Jones. The premise of the show is shining a spotlight on B1G alums who are making a difference in the world and engage viewers to “Act.Serve.Inspire.” As I mentioned a year ago, I stumbled upon a USA Today article in 2011 that talked about John Trautwein and the tragic loss of his son – to suicide.

John was just like the voices I heard on ESPN today.  He never saw it coming. So as part of the healing he decided to create the Will To Live foundation to attack this very issue. Take a look and help spread the word of the great work one of our very own is doing:

 

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‘Cats Land 2013 Commit #2, Plus 2012 Opponent News of Note

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Blake King is the newest Wildcat commitment, plus bad news for BC fans is good news for ‘Cats fans. Plus, other 2012 news of note and the momentum for the LTP road trip to Minnesota.

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For those of you in the Wildcat recruiting circles, raise your hand if you saw commit number two coming. Didn’t think so. Northwestern landed a surprise 2013 commitment with Blake King, a 6-5, 260 pound OL from Minooka, IL who responded to an offer from Northwestern with a “yes” less than 24 hours later, according to Louie Vaccher of WildcatReport.com. I’d love to join the community in welcoming Blake to Wildcat Nation.

Truth be told, I don’t know much about Blake. I can’t tell if he had any other offers and much to Pat Fitzgerald’s likely pleasure, there are no recruiting service rankings to reference. Blake joins Maine South QB Matt Alviti as the pair of Northwestern’s 2013 commitments to date. We’ll share more when we know more.

BC Bad Break = ‘Cat Advantage

Last year right before the season opener at Boston College, Northwestern sufferred a tough break when we learned Dan Persa would be a no go (while we assumed it, we didn’t learn about it for certain until gameday). The pain was somewhat offset when we learned that ACC preseason offensive player of the year, Montel Harris, would miss the opener with a knee issue. Said issue would limit BC’s alltime leading rusher (3,735 yards) to only two games last season and he was cleared for a medical hardship opening up this season for a match-up with the Northwestern team he missed a year ago. Well, not anymore. Harris was dismissed from the team by head coach Frank Spaziani for a “repeated violation of team rules” that the Eagles head coach would not further elaborate upon. ESPN.com Boston has more on the bigtime news here.

Penn State Primer

ESPN.com is starting the deep dive on the Bill O’Brien era at Penn State and the seemingly awkward and odd transition that comes in the shadows of a legend whose program has a long dark shadow to emerge out of. The year one post Joe Pa storyline will be one of the weekly reocurring themes throughout the national 2012 campaign. On a lighter note, there is that ‘Cat killer Matt McGloin in full interview splendor with Ivan Maisel. Ugh. Meanwhile, this feature on Bill O’Brien’s caravan ways to build rapport in Nittany Lion hotbeds makes you realize in some ways, trying to connect with his fans and retain the fan base has a newness factor to the program that Wildcat fans can relate to as we try to build our base. There was one eyebrow raising quote from O’Brien’s tour however, when he said:

I’m not going to beat Ohio State with 100 valedictorians

 

Grandson Tribute

Jon S. forwarded me a neat feature written by Matt Kallman on his grandfather – a three sport Northwestern Wildcat from the Otto Graham era – Ben Schadler. Hopefully, regardless of your angle, this story resonates with you like it did with me.

Vanderbilt Training

If the ‘Cats need any motivation for the home opener against Vanderbilt (Sept 8 night game) then all Fitz needs to do is show the team this slicked-up video promoting how hard the Commodore team is training.

Momentum for Minny

After yesterday’s feature on Road Trip Rally where I dissected the various potential LTP road trips for 2012, you spoke pretty loudly about lobbying for Minnesota. Several of you emailed me about a Sailgate part deux, entitled “Railgate” and even went so far as to research the train schedules. Consider it under advisement as I’ll connect with NU to explore the possibilities of a charter train trip to the Minnesota game. I’m not committing quite yet, just formally exploring. Stay tuned for more.

LTP Ticket Challenge

If you really want to motivate me to put on Sailgate II, aka Railgate, then you better help me move the needle on the LTP Ticket Challenge and recruit NEW season ticket holders for the 2012 season. Fire up the friends, colleagues or neighbors and send us your conversion stories and we’ll post them here. Now is the time - it is May and you need to lock in their fall schedule! Email me at laketheposts@gmail.com .

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