‘Ryan Field Renovations’

Spruced-Up Ryan Field, Sponsorship & Season Tix Spikes

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The NU marketing team is at it again. Ryan Field is already looking different and the facilities plan hasn’t even been announced. Plus, a unique LTP sponsorship and great spike on season ticket sales.

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This post was supposed to be a recap of Saturday’s Camp Kenosha scrimmage. Well, I’m calling an audible.  Great things came out of today’s practice at Great Lakes Naval Station, but we’ll get to that first thing in the morning. Northwestern’s marketing team once again stepped up to steal the spotlight. Many of you pointed out the Sun-Times tidbit today announcing a 44-foot Pat Fitzgerald banner that is being placed on the south tower of Ryan Field facing the Central Street/Ashland intersection.  It’s presented by Discover and is surely a revenue generator as part of the new marketing/sponsorship outsourced team at Northwestern. You can see the article and the rendering, including the consistent “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” slogan here.

Additionally, the main photo you saw was sent to me by a friend which  also under the “this marketing team kicks butt” file. As you can see, the exterior less than desirable portions of the stadium exterior are being transformed in to branding opportunities for Northwestern football. Again, the “Chicago’s Big Ten Team” exteriors are reinforcing the marketing campaign, this time on site. You’ve got to be excited about all of the little things that add up to one big thing – gaining mind share of area college football fans.

Sponsorship of LTP & Sailgate

LTP has never offered a sponsorship before. Well, today is the day that it changes. We are looking for one generous sponsor to pledge $2500 to become the official sponsor for the LTP Army Sailgate. In addition to the following “day of” perks, I will give said business or individual, site on the site for the month of September (estimated 75,000-100,000 visits).  Plus, you get association with a very cool event that includes:

  • Sponsor logo on 600+ LTP Sailgate T-shirts to be worn by the diehard Wildcat fan base at the September 17, 2011 game at Army.
  • Ability to mingle with the same said fan base which is comprised of a ton of movers and shakers passionately tied together by NU football.
  • Two tickets for the full sailgate package.
  • Name/logo association with all correspondence in relation to Sailgate within posts on this site and emails to the recipients.

Interested? Contact me at laketheposts@gmail.com and let’s get a deal done!

Season Ticket Sales

Well, the day isn’t over yet and we’re on pace to break the single day spike in LTP Purple Pledge tickets. We’re at 15 and counting today as folks have really stepped it up. We’ll be publishing a new leaderboard tomorrow as soon as we tally all the sales. It seems like the +1 push AND the opening of single game ticket sales really moved the needle. Let’s keep it going. We can get to 200 this week at this pace, no problem.

Hoop Scoop

Got a newspaper link/tip today from Nick pointing out that two future ‘Cats hoops commits are now on the same team. It turns out Milos Kostic, a junior to be, has transferred from Bishop Knoll HS in Indiana to Traders Point Christian Academy near Indianapolis where he’ll join 2012 C recruit Alex Olah.  According to this article, Kostic is moving as his legal guardian got a new job in the Indy area.

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Four Years & Two Hundred Scores Ago…

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LakeThePosts turns four today and we celebrate with a look back at some of the most memorable moments. Plus, another update on Sailgate 2.0.

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June 27, 2007. It was four years ago today that I took the purple plunge and LTP was born.  What started out as a work exercise to really dig in and understand new media and in particular the power of blogging has turned in to a near daily obsession.  If the goal of the journey was to better understand the power of community triggered by the written word then we can fold up the tent now as that mission is accomplished. However, the true goal of this blog is to pack Ryan Field with 47,130 mostly purple on a game by home game basis. For this goal we’ve got a ton of work to do.

The impetus of Northwestern football as the subject matter of my work science experiment was two-fold. First, I wanted a subject matter that I felt I was a quasi-expert.  How many people obsessed over Northwestern football like I did? Well, the answer is a heck of a lot more than I thought. The second element was to really try and use new media to see if I could do anything to help shape public opinion.  Remember, when this blog started Fitz was entering season two, coming off the mind-numbing first season (4-8) after the shocking loss of Randy Walker (who died five years ago this Wednesday, June 29).  I was so sick of the Dark Ages treatment by general fans and realized that there was no daily blog dedicated to Northwestern football while every other team had some representation.  I took it upon myself to become our voice and thanks to you, we’ve never looked back.

Admittedly, this blog lacks the humor and snarky factor that seems like a prerequisite to being a blogger. I rarely swear on the blog and you’ll hardly see pop culture references as a) I’m out of touch with what’s cool and b)any references date a certain element of the readership (ie. What the heck is the Breakfast Club?).  I’ve been blown away by the amount of people who use this space a daily 10-minute diversion of purple happiness. It’s been incredible to see how many people have volunteered their precious time to help the cause.  Whether it is researching facts to help a post, sending links and suggestions for articles or even more intense work like Tim who overhauled the LTP N Flag Project or Scott Sloane who has tirelessly been hitting it out of the park on the Army sailgate, I ask for help and you step up every time. 

There are several areas of improvment on this site that will likely entail an expanded roster of help to take it to the next level. While I have access to Northwestern coaches and players thanks to a mutually respectful relationship with NU, I have limited time to act on the access and bring more interviews with players and coaches. It’s an extreme challenge to stay on top of breaking news as I have a “real” job that has me managing this blog before and after hours.   I sometimes fantasize about what I could do if this WAS my job, but that isn’t going to happen as my “real” job is even more fun than LTP. 

I often get asked by those who know me why I choose to stay anonymous.  It’s a great question. Simply put, my day job involves me interacting and working with the likes of the Big Ten Conference, BTN and even Northwestern in an official capacity.  I can’t and won’t put those clients in jeopardy and hence stay in disguise which admittedly is a tad silly since officials at all of the above know I’m behind the blog.  But this is not about me, it is about you.  So, let’s take a few moments and share some of the great moments we’ve shared together over the past four years and let’s take out the telescope and peer down the future for what’s ahead.

Favorite Purple Mafia Profile

This is a tough one. I’ve had more than 100 guests on LTP for this Friday feature which profiles those known and unknown folks whose tie is Northwestern athletics.  We’ve had a five part video series with Gary Barnett all the way to a Q&A with a regular season ticket holder.  We’ve failed to get Wilbon, Greenberg, Colbert, Matt Saracen and several others so the feature will for certain continue.  However, my favorite part of this feature is learning something new about a game or moment that you thought you knew so well.  Hence, my favorite purple mafia profile to date is Zak Kustok.  We’ve had Zak on multiple times and getting to learn that he showed up at Minnesota after leaving Notre Dame only to have the Gophers change their scholarship offer to a walk-on status leaving Zak to go to junior college and the journey of how he became Randy Walker’s first commitment is mind-blowing.  Also, getting to hear about how he handled Damien’s dropped TD against Michigan in 2000 still gets me giddy.  Do yourself a favor and go back and reread this post.

My second favorite PMP was BTN’s Dave Revsine and his description of Francis Peay grabbing the mic at Evanston’s BK and turning it in to an impromptu pep rally, which for those of us who know that BK, is just a picture of hilarity.

LTP-Related Thing I Most Look Forward To

A no-brainer. The Northwestern customized game highlights by YouTube guru NUBears. Candidly, it might be the best part of the site even though I don’t “own it”.  NUBears can cut a game like no other and gives you 8-10 minutes of purple bliss after every win. The fact he only posts wins makes it even that much more of an “I getcha”.  I’ve never met the guy, but man, do I appreciate you.

Favorite Win(s) In LTP Era

This is of course, a tough one.  I’ve got four that standout for very different reasons.  One is Mike Kafka’s epic rushing day at Minnesota in 2008 which set a then Big Ten record for 217 yards by a QB.  Kafka was filling in for the injured CJ Bacher and put on a clinic just one week after an eyesore finish to the Indiana debacle in which both CJ and Tyrell got hurt. The finish to that game, with Brendan Smith’s “pick 6″ is one for the ages.  Second is a 2007  OT win at Michigan State.  I’m partial to it as I was there in person and saw CJ’s NU passing record in a see-saw 48-41 OT win that was just remarkable and a ton of fun to be a part of firsthand. Third is the 2009 season finale upset of #14 Wisconsin.  This one just felt special as most of the game was under the lights and was reminiscent of the Dayne ’96 game as we pulled out another Cardiac ‘Cats moment in the 33-31 triumph to make our season and catapult us in to the Outback Bowl. It also goes down as the worst recorded attendance game I’ve been to as it felt like 40,000+ yet only 32,000 were accounted for on that electric atmosphere game. Finally, the 2009 win at Iowa (#4/#6) was satisfying.  They were ready for us and we were able to replicate the “w” at Kinnick for the second consecutive year and third straight visit to Iowa City to ruin the Hawkeyes national title aspirations. 

Toughest Loss(es) in LTP Era

Again, this is a tie. First, the 2007 Duke home loss might be at the top of the list.  The 20-14 “L” was heartbreaking in many fashions, but historically the Blue Devils were on a path to potentially take the dubious all-time losing streak title away from us, yet it was if history got in the way of wanting that to happen. That, plus the fact Fitz took points off the board which because of this game he’ll likely never do again.  Second, the 2008 Indiana game. The 21-19 loss was so painful to watch for so many reasons.  It was one of those games we were supposed to win, yet you just knew early on it was going to be a struggle and you thought “uh-oh”.  Then, to see CJ and Tyrell get hurt was a killer.  In the end, the loss cost us a 10-win season. Third, last year’s Purdue game under the lights. We simply blew a flat tire in a game that was so frustrating to watch in large part because of the timid play-calling. 

Game From These Four Years They’ll Be Talking About In 20 years…

No question here, right? The Outback Bowl. Despite the fact we lost the game, it was one of the most remarkable bowl games of all-time and still has a lingering impact on the minds of recruits who saw that game including several present Wildcats.   I still can’t believe we didn’t get the win on the “fastball” play with all of the made-for-Hollywood drama as it related to the call being an homage to Coach Walk. 

Favorite Player During LTP Era

He’s still playing. Dan Persa gets the nod here as he just makes you shake your head.  No one works harder and no one wants it more which makes it so darn easy to root for the guy.

Biggest Change At NU

The administration’s complete dedication to NU Athletics. Call it the Jim Phillips factor, call it what you want, these are unprecedented times at NU as we pour money in to marketing, ticket sales and most pressing, facilities.  Never has NU Athletics been so aggressive and so committed to getting to the next level on everything off the field.

Proudest Accomplishment

Sailgate.  The fact we as a communifty are about to sellout a second floating tailgate to the Army game speaks for itself in terms of the passion of the readers and the collegial site we’ve built together.  I was stunned when the event sold out in less than three hours WITHOUT any advance warning.  I’m told that NAA has about 800 slots for an event, and we could conceivably help sell 50% of those in a matter of hours.  This was the biggest sign of how powerful we can be when we all work together that I’ve experienced.  I’m also proud we were able to lobby NU to overturn what was a “L” in the history books against Chicago Dental and make it a “W” thanks to some great investigative journalism and thus giving us another 10-win season.

What’s Next?

There are so many things I’d love to do. Weekly and daily podcasts during the football season.  After Sailgate, we’d be foolish to not explore more events.  I envision the day when we do live hits from the NU Bar Network.  I want more x’s and o’s talk to help educate the fan base. And, I’d be remiss for not capitalizing on the site and getting some sponsorship dollars in the door. All of the above take manpower which is currently maxed out by this party of one.  We’ve tried unsuccessfully to get additional writers to join and stay. We’ve had some attempts, but they don’t seem to stick, and with a budget of $0, it is understandable. However, I’m in desperate need of more manpower, so be sure to write if you’re interested.  Thanks for all of your kind words and daily readership. Here is to four more great years ahead.

SAILGATE 2.0 UPDATE

More than 200 tickets are already spoken for theoretically based on the polls from this weekend. Our fearless Sailgate leader, Scott Sloane, is working hard to get a second boat with the goal of ours being to accommodate as many as possible.  This time around we’ll be giving you a specific time and date this week to sign-up so that everyone has fair warning.  Today, Scott is contacting the boat company(ies) and also the Northwestern Alumni Association to line everything up.  We should have pretty solid intel tonight and will be posting the next steps and action items tomorrow.

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Statute on Statues & Other Tidbits

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It’s a fine time to be a sculptor of sports heroes. Let’s apply it to Evanston and speculate on some statues.

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Before we dive in to the main post for the day, I promised some follow-ups from yesterday and I want to ensure that I get to them. So, let’s get through the housekeeping:

‘Cats Spring Game Big Ten Network Coverage

I know all of you that are in the area will be making it to the Spring Game on Saturday. But for those displaced ‘Cats fans, good news. The Big Ten Network is all over it.  The game will be streamed live on www.BigTenNetwork.com at 1 pm et/12pm ct.  That night the BTN crew of Revsine, Dinardo and Griffith will be hosting  Big Ten Spring Football Report at 8pm et/7pm ct on BTN. Additionally, the ‘Cats Spring Game will be telecast Monday April 18 on the BTN at 8pm et/7pm ct. Former ‘Cat QB Brett Basanez and Ted Albrecht will be assigned co-hosting duties. Baz has a gift at the mic and is fun to listen to while Ted, well, if you don’t have anything nice to say…

Jaeschke Update

Congratulations to Northwestern women’s hoopster, Amy Jaeschke, who became the first Wildcat to be drafted in the WNBA yesterday.  The honorable mention All-American was selected by the hometown Chicago Sky with the 27th overall pick (3rd round).  She was the fourth pick in the draft by the Chicago Sky.  For a full report click here and read the coverage at www.nusports.com.

Secondary Shape?

Fitz has said every spot is up for grabs on defense. Well, we know with relative certainty that DE Vince Browne (who racked-up another preseason award with a spot on the Go Daddy.com All-America list last week) and CB Jordan Mabin are locks.  But, I’ll be interested to key on the secondary on Saturday.  Jeravin Matthews seems to have earned a starting spot opposite Mabin and you’ve got to figure Brian Peters is in the driver’s seat at one safety spot.  The other safety spot s seems to be up for grabs still.  A host of guys like David Arnold, Jared Carpenter have game experience and are battling. Plus a guy like RS Fr Ibraheim Campbell has been making noise in the secondary.  I feel with LB Ben Johnson on crutches and several others dinged up the LB corps is still the most wide open unit.  You can bank on the fact that the defensive roster will not be resolved at the conclusion of spring practice.  It will be interesting to see who emerges as the starting lineup for BC, but knowing Fitz and Hank, the starter tag is just that, and you can bet we’ll be rotating quite a few guys in to game situations early. What are you honing in on for Saturday?

Marketing 101

This Sun-Times article by Tina Akouris certainly didn’t break any new news on NU marketing. However, it is a concise piece to encapsulate the impact of year one with a proactive campaign and a slightly above average on field product did.  It can also be a recruiting tool for us to send to our respective friends about the up arrow in buzz at NU.

Back to the main post…

Ahh, statues.  Is it me or is the trend du jour creating statues for sports figures? As a kid, I always associated statues in a Sixth Sense sort of way – I associated them with dead people.  Yet, in the past month, I’ve been bombarded with news articles and photo ops that include quite the opposite – tributes to recently retired players.  Scottie Pippen got his buzz-generating bronze replica at a Bulls game a couple weeks ago.  The Cubs will unveil a Ron Santo statue on August 10 and are quickly running out of real estate and/or corners to pay homage to greats.  Teddy Greenstein recently  had an entertaining Q&A with Nebraska AD, Tom Osborne, who admitted to being embarassed by walking by it every day and wished he had a way to make it pop in the ground when he walked by, but yet was accessible to fans when they wanted it.  Then, this weekend, the unveiling of three statues at Florida to honor Heisman trophy winners Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow caught my eye.  Turns out, it was Tebow’s eye that generated buzz as the detail of the sculpture included his famous ode to scripture with the “John 3:16″ in the eye black.  I did a double-take as the erection of statues in honor of a 20-something made me realize that we’re in a new age of tributes.  Doesn’t there need to be some adherence to an unwritten rule of a tad bit of time before we start putting up permanent tributes? I realize Tebow will likely go down as one of the greatest college football players ever, but c’mon.

Darren Everson of the WSJ went down this exact path last fall.  In this article he takes the same tone I’m taking (or I should say vice versa) as he incredulously inquired to how low the bar has become for statue-worthy subjects.  Jason White at Oklahoma has one and yet still looks as though he can’t grow a beard.  A Sam Bradford one is soon to be revealed. Nick Saban got one for winning a national title and I hope they have it with wheels, as the carpet-bagging coach will sure to be somewhere else soon, likely when NCAA sanctions come to town.

I’m old school in this regard.  If Dan Persa were to do something like win the Heisman in 2011 I’d advocate we wait at LEAST until he gets elected in to his own school’s HOF which has a minimum five year wait period from the completion of graduation.  However, the statute on statues did cause me to really think about the imminent stadium renovations I’m expecting.  You can bet that any plans for a facelift to Ryan Field include some type of grander entrance or approach.  I can’t think of a stadium in Big Ten country that doesn’t have a welcoming entrance/facade that is the go-to meeting spot. These areas are usually homages to the past and include a statue.  Northwestern’s only bronze bust in and around Ryan Field is the venerable Wildcat statue that is perched in the south end zone.  So, who should get the immortalization treatment when we do renovate?

I have two and only two to date.  The first would be Otto Graham.  He’s unquestionably the most decorated athlete in NU Athletics’ history and worthy of a stadium name.  His collegiate exploits were incredible as a multi-sport and musical star.  His post-collegiate career only enhanced the undergraduate feats as the man played 11 years at the professional level (one year of pro ball in which the Rochester Royals won the pro hoops title) and was in the championship every single season, winning eight titles. He was back-to-back pro football MVP (’47, ’48) and widely regarded as one of the best NFL QBs of all-time.  The man’s jersey isn’t even retired at Northwestern! I think it is time we package up the tribute to Otto around the new stadium renovation, build the Otto Graham plaza (heck, I’d name the stadium after him unless someone helps foot the bill for the potentially massive overhaul), put up a statue and retire his #48 and call it a day.  I wonder if junior LB Roderick Goodlow has any idea about the history of the number he is wearing this season?

The only other statue I would cast would be in honor of Gary Barnett. Let’s cut to the chase.  Barnett’s tarnished legacy at Colorado where alleged recruiting trip improprieties occurred by his staff on his watch and a dumb comment about a female placekicker have zero to do with Northwestern.  In Barnett’s time at Northwestern he proved to do what was said to be impossible.  Barnett is the Herb Brooks of college football in my mind.  Based on the constant influx of CFB scandals that are daily newswire material, I’m still stunned at the seemingly blackball treatment GB received.  I’m not condoning the ethics of his staff/players at Colorado, but something is a tad off in the ending to the whole story.  Barnett was everything you could’ve ever wanted at Northwestern. He turned an entire culture around, celebrated academic achievement and was a stellar representative for the school. 

Sure, Gary sniffed at several of the high profile jobs like Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas when they came knocking.  How is that any different than 99% of the current major DI coaches?  In my mind, none of this takes away what he did at Northwestern.  There would be no potential capital campaign for athletics today if not for Gary Barnett.  Just do yourself a favor and try finishing the following open ended sentences. “If not for Gary Barnett, Northwestern would not….” OK, I’ll see you in a couple of days.  It will take that long.  Barnett is STILL a factor at Northwestern as he is one of Fitz’s confidents.  I still connect with him about once a year and every correspondence comes with one major caveat from him – “I only want to be involved in things that benefit Northwestern and put the best light on the program”.   It is a no-brainer to me that Gary should have his due at Northwestern and is more than statue worthy.  The statute on statue time is due. 

As for Fitz, well, I think we’re likely all aligned on this one.  Wait.  Wait a long time.  No one is denying Fitz was a critical part of Barnett’s turnaround at Northwestern.  Also, there is no denying he is the face of our university and an incredible representative as he is the island of integrity in a sea of college football sharks.  The program is definitely in the right direction and hovering in above-average consistency territory. , However, to be statue worthy, I believe in time. Fitz is hopefully a lifer at NU, but bowl championships and Big Ten titles are what separate the statue worthy from the pack.  Granted, if Fitz is at the helm in 25 years, time plays a role as well. He might only win one or two Big Ten Championships in that tenure, but assuming we’re winning games and doing it the right way, I’ll be the torch bearer for cementing his legacy literally – in bronze. 

There are others that will be worthy down the road. Kelly Amonte-Hiller is a pioneer of a sport and upon retirement from NU she should have one. No doubt about it.  I’m sure you’ll offer some up that I’m not thinking of right now, but the recent barrage of bronze tributes led me to this topic and I net out with only two statues I’d unveil as part of a Ryan Field renovation.  Let’s hear what you have to say.

Landslide Poll

The poll results are in and it was one of our alltime landslides. Check it out…

LTP Poll Question:

How Do You Feel About Potential 12pm ct Start Times This Fall?

  • Love it! (80%, 205 Votes)
  • Indifferent! (15%, 37 Votes)
  • Hate it! (5%, 13 Votes)

    • Total Voters: 255

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    The Facilities Thing

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    Nothing gets the football off-season talk humming quite like facilities renovation speculation. Shall we?

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    As the ‘Cats conclude their fourth practice of the week, attention starts honing in on the Spring Game.  Daily wire reports continue to blast disheartening news in our conference ranging from Jim Tressel’s potential tenure ending to the laundry list of injuries and the like. However, in our circles, this off-season promises the most anticipated news in the program in some time; the revealation of a master facilities plan.

    Many of you received THIS SURVEY which walks you through a series of questions on potential preferences and discretionary price thresholds from everything including Ryan Field luxury suites to club seating to courtside seats at a basketball arena (if you want to see what it said without taking the survey you can browse Sippin’ On Purple’s recent post which did just that).  I’m guessing this survey will help measure the baseline of a financing plan for an earn back on what will be major investments in to revenue sport facilities.  Some of you have emailed me concluding that this survey implies band-aids to the existing facilities. I had the complete opposite reaction.  My initial reaction was that everything including a Welsh-Ryan teardown was on the table.  The bottom line is that only the NU administration knows. 

    I do want to point out a few things that are a given.  Dr. Phillips is certainly looking at this across EVERY sport.  The plan will certainly follow the main revenue sources with football and basketball receiving the most investment dollars. However, I’m confident every single sport is being considered. When you consider we have a perennial power wrestling program that has facilities shoehorned in the basement of Welsh-Ryan and a gorgeous Lakeside Field with no lockerrooms for the teams, you get the gist.  I expect our non-revenue sports to get a HUGE list.  This is going to be a gamechanger.

    Jim Phillips took our administration on a tour of other Big Ten facilities to show them the discrepancy in what “they” have versus what we have.  I think the field trips did a lot to persuade the school that we’re not on an even playing field, yet are still hanging in there in terms of competition. Imagine what we could do by sweeping out the argument of inferior facilities for recruits? I’ve been sniffing around Populous’ (the firm hired to do the facilities overhaul) website to try and get a feel for what we can expect, but it is tough to project what MIGHT be, but let’s face it, every situation is unique and at NU it might be with a capital “U”.

    There are some legitimate challenges.  The current athletics compound is relatively land locked.  Plus, one often overlooked element of NU Athletics is the fact that most of the facilities like Ryan Field, Welsh-Ryan and many of the practice areas and academic counseling are a trek from campus.  The enormous success of soccer and national championship caliber women’s lacrosse just steps from students’ dorms has to have opened eyes to the convenience of better utilizing the lakefront for practice facilities.  It will be interesting from a football standpoint as I don’t see a way around practices up on Central Street, especially this time of year. I can only imagine a freshman hauling up there at 5:30 am to make it for a 6 am practice. Definitely not something they put on the recruiting brochure.  However, this is why I’m so excited. Phillips and company are looking at the entire campus and every athletic program to try and create an optimal student athlete experience.  We’ve been playing football for 135 years and there will never have been a more ambitious facilities endeavor than this. 

    According to Mike Polisky we’re still a couple of months away from learning the gameplan. I cannot wait.  However, I get the sense the wait will be very much worth it.

    Lacrosse Promo

    NUSports.com’s home page is touting this weekend’s women’s lacrosse game against #3 Duke at noon ct at Lakeside Field.  There will be a free lacrosse clinic AFTER the game for girls in grades 1-8.   For more info go to www.NUSports.com .

    Carmody Calling

    Bill Carmody will be on BTN tonight and here is the official release cut and paste from BTN media relations:

    “Northwestern men’s basketball coach Bill Carmody is scheduled to be an in-studio guest analyst on the Big Ten Network at 8 PM ET on Thursday.  Carmody will appear on the show Big Ten Basketball & Beyond alongside Dave Revsine, Mike Hall and Jim Jackson.
    �
    Carmody will help review the Big Ten’s performance in the NCAA Tournament, preview this weekend’s Final Four and look back at the Wildcats’ 20-14 season that ended in the NIT quarterfinals. It was the second consecutive 20-win season for Northwestern.”

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    Don’t Turn Away!

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    Lesson learned. LTP goes off communication for half a day and BOOM! All kinds of HUGE news.

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    WOW. I told you yesterday I had inside info from Northwestern University sources regarding the 2011 schedule. I also mentioned the fact it was just a matter of time before the facilities announcement came. Little did I know it would be 24 hours later and both on the same day.

    I’m going to go much more in depth on this tomorrow and throughout next week, but we’ve got an Indiana game to focus on as you know. Click here for the announcement from Jim Phillips on the selection of Populus for the “historic master plan study” of NU’s entire athletic facilities. This is not lip service and obviously the first step in announcing major renovations to Ryan Field at a future date. It’s also about much more than just Ryan Field – coaching offices, non-revenue facilities – the whole gamut are very much part of this initiative. I’m very excited and unlike public institutions this will not be using taxpayer dollars. NU’s facility approach has been Band-Aided to date and is WAY behind the players in the Big Ten. This is FANTASTIC news and I’m so excited to see what Populus comes up with in terms of a plan. Populous’ brag board includes Yankee Stadium and the London Olympic venue, but of most relevance to ‘Cats fans is their work on Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium. MUCH MUCH more to come on this in the coming days/weeks/months.

    Separately, NU ALSO announced the 2011 and 2012 schedules conveniently on the same day that I did my deep dive on how you can help leverage the Iowa and Illinois sellouts in to putting some pressure on folks to cough-up for next year and truly helping make Ryan Field a home field advantage. Nothing shocking here as HailToPurple.com has been all over this for months. The 2011 schedule – still holds as was before the Big Ten expansion.  The ‘Cats venture to Army and BC while hosting FCS Eastern Illinois and surprisingly Rice stays on the schedule but is moved to November 12.  Here is the 2011 schedule:

    2011 NORTHWESTERN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
    Sept. 3 at Boston College
    Sept. 10 vs. Eastern Illinois
    Sept. 17 at Army
    Sept. 24 Open
    Oct. 1 at Illinois
    Oct. 8 vs. Michigan
    Oct. 15 at Iowa
    Oct. 22 vs. Penn State (Homecoming)
    Oct. 29 at Indiana
    Nov. 5 at Nebraska
    Nov. 12 vs. Rice (Family Weekend)
    Nov. 19 vs. Minnesota
    Nov. 26 vs. Michigan State

    In 2012, the ‘Cats are likely the only Big Ten team playing three separate BCS non-conference games and all of a sudden that Syracuse game is starting to take a different look based on their success. Vanderbilt at home and BC at home make for some quasi-”name” opponents. Interesting that we get Iowa as the homecoming date in 2012.

    2012 NORTHWESTERN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
    Sept. 1 at Syracuse
    Sept. 8 vs. Vanderbilt
    Sept. 15 vs. Boston College
    Sept. 22 vs. South Dakota
    Sept. 29 vs. Indiana
    Oct. 6 at Penn State
    Oct. 13 at Minnesota
    Oct. 20 vs. Nebraska (Family Weekend)
    Oct. 27 vs. Iowa (Homecoming)
    Nov. 3 Open
    Nov. 10 at Michigan
    Nov. 17 at Michigan State
    Nov. 24 Illinois

    NOTE: Times will be announced at a later date. All dates are tentative

    Coming up later Friday morning we’re going to get right back to the focus on Indiana with noted blogger John M. of Crimson Quarry. He’s got some great insights on the mindset of Hoosier Nation and some thoughts on key trends and match-ups. Stay tuned!!!

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    Road Warriors

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    The ‘Cats have amassed one of the best road records in the nation since the start of the 2008 season. The flip side is we’re not nearly as good at home. What gives and what can YOU do about it? Call to action – here.

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    The concept of Northwestern being a better road team than a home team among this readership hardly classifies as news.  It has been somewhat well-documented Northwestern is 10-3 on the road since the start of the 2008 season in all games. When you dig a little further you find we are 7-2 in the Big Ten (3-1 non-conference) during that same span.  On the flip side since 2008 at Ryan Field NU is just 4-6 in Big Ten play since the start of 2008.  You can dress the Ryan Field home record up rather nicely by adding the 8-0 non-conference mark since the start of the ’08 season which makes the overall home field record 12-6 during that span.  Of course, the overall 22-9 regular season mark since the start of 2008 season is the most impressive state-of-recent success program buiding stat out there.  Let’s peel it back, shall we?

    First, the Ryan Field home record.  As stated it is 12-6 since the start of ’08.  The non-conference 8-0 mark during that span is hardly the stuff to pound your chest about.  The ‘Cats wins – in order – are – (2008) Syracuse, Southern Illinois, Ohio (2009) Towson, Eastern Michigan, Miami (OH) 2010 Illinois State and Central Michigan.   ‘Nufff said.  The last ‘Cats non-conference loss was the (I can’t believe I’m mentioning it) Duke debacle on September 15, 2007 (20-14 heartbreaker).   For those of us in attendance during those games, we can attest the home field “advantage” played far less of a role than the quality of the opponent.  The good news is that has all changed as Northwestern formally announced last night on NUSports.com that both the Iowa and Illinois games are soldout.  Enter transition to how you can help – but first…

    The Big Ten home record of 4-6 since the start of the 2008 season.  Put another way, 2/3 of our 9 total regular season losses in the past 2.5 seasons have been Big Ten home games.  Let’s hit the painful reminder button on the six losses:

    • 2010 – #7 Michigan State 35-27, Purdue 20-17
    • 2009 – #12 Penn State 34-13, Minnesota 35-24
    • 2008 – #12 Ohio State 45-10, #23 Michigan State 37-20

    Obviously, four of the six losses during that span are ranked teams. We were ranked by one poll heading in to the Purdue game and I believe favored only in the Purdue game of the six (need to double-check that Minnesota opener in ’09).  If you’re a fan of historical trends, then you’ll love the fact we’re 2-2 in Big Ten home games in ’08 and ’09 which would mean winning our next two would be consistent with the trend (a stretch of epic proportions I know – not the wins – the trend having relevance).   The four Big Ten wins during that time?

    • 2009 – #17 Wisconsin 33-31, Indiana 30-28
    • 2008 -Illinois 27-10, Purdue 48-26

    OK, not exactly world beaters based on opponent, and of the above I’d give both the Wisconsin and Illinois games a slight home field advantage as the crowds were pretty jacked in those games and in particular the Wisconsin upset you could feel the team feeding off of the energy.  Again, these were both late afternoon games that went in to the night which helped contribute to the electricity (and directly contradicted by this year’s Purdue egg-laying). 

    Now, let’s get to the Wildcataganda of the 10-3 road record since the start of 2008.  In reverse order, here is every win and loss:

    2010 - W @Minnesota 29-28, W @Rice 30-13, W @ Vanderbilt 23-21
    2009 – W @ Illinois 21-16, W @ #4 Iowa 17-10, L @ Michigan State 24-14, W @Purdue 27-21, L @Syracuse 37-34
    2008 - W @ Michigan 21-14, W @ #25 Minnesota 24-17, L @ Indiana 21-19, W @ Iowa 22-17, W @ Duke 24-20

    If you want the definition of the ‘Cats playing to the level of the opponent, look no further than behind the 10-3 road record. Think about this. Northwestern over the course of 2 and a half seasons has only 3 losses inclusive of every Big Ten game.  Those three losses are to a bad 2008 Indiana team, a bad 2009 Syracuse train and an average Michigan State team.  While we certainly won our fair share of super tight games, you realize how in reach 12-1 on the road could be since the start of 2008.  The 10-3 overall road record is somewhat ridiculous when put in to national context. The company NU is in for total road wins since the start of the 2008 season reads like a BCS bowl bid party:

    1)Boise State 15-0
    2)TCU 12-2
    3)Utah 12-3
    4)USC 12-4
    5)Cincinnati 12-4
    6)Alabama 11-1
    7)TIEDNorthwestern 10-3, Texas 10-1, Oregon 10-4 and Georgia Tech 10-5

    Your cynical and calling Wildcataganda on me. I get it. My first instinct when unearthing this gem in the NU game notes (Kudos Mike Wolf and team!) was the fact it was slanted by NU playing more non-conference road games than other BCS schools. Again, remember that this includes opponents ALL road games. The ranking is nearly the same when you rank by win percentage. Check it out:

    1)Boise State 15-0 (100%)
    2)Alabama 11-1 (91.7%)
    3)Texas 10-1 (90.9%)
    4)Florida 9-1 (90%)
    5)TCU 12-2 (85.7%)
    6)Utah 12-3 (80%)
    7)Missouri 7-2 (77.8%) – note – remarkable Mizzou has had only 9 total road games since beginning of ’08!
    8)Northwestern 10-3 (76.9%)
    9)USC 12-4 (75%)
    10)Cincinnati 12-4 (75%)

    I don’t need to tell you the above is veritable cornucopia of Wildcataganda. Did you know since the start of the ’08 season Northwestern has only 1 less road win than Alabama? Go ahead – mix and match and reposition to your heart’s content. “We’re tied with Texas and Oregon for road wins (10) since the start of the ’08 season”.

    I can geek out all day on this stuff, but I’ve yet to provide a rationale explanation for the success. Could it be we feed off of packed houses, the underdog mentality and relish the “us against the world” approach? Are there too many distractions the week of home games? Is it simply the match-ups within the given year? Is it simply random? I’d love to go in-depth with Dan Persa, Fitz and other players as to their theories on this. The white elephant in the room is that Ryan Field hasn’t been much of a home field advantage.

    Yes, Saturday was electric at Ryan Field. However, the embarassment of 18,000 Spartan fans actually becoming a nuisance on third down situations in our own building is unacceptable. Big time recruit Miles Shuler gave the NU official visit rave reviews and cited the win would’ve been the icing on the cake and made the weekend a “10″ (he ranked it an 8.8). He walked away extremely impressed, loves Fitz, loves the coaches and loved the gameday experience (see my rationale on I’ll take a full house with 60/40 NU vs a 95% NU but 20,000 empty seats recruiting theory). I would argue while I can’t explain the road success, I can say that a packed Ryan Field could contribute to .5 – 1.5 wins per year. A series of key third downs that cause communication problems for opposing QBs. A timely delay of game or false start penalty (I believe we caused one on Saturday). The intangible of incredible momentum and energy feeding of the players off of the crowd. It matters. Big time.

    Finally, here is the call to action. Over-the-top kudos to Jim Phillips and Northwestern for getting the university to invest in his vision. As mentioned above, we sold out the Iowa game and the Wrigley game – no matter how you slice it – our last two home games of the year. Yes, I’m convinced it will be a true home game at Wrigley, but that’s not the point. It is October and Northwestern is formally pushing for season ticket reservations for 2011 NOW. I’m told the 2011 schedule is coming out extremely soon, but due to the Big Ten reorg, the trickle down effect of the Rice home game needing to move meant serious shuffling. Now that we are sold out the rest of the season at home (see how I did that?) NU obviously wants very much to flaunt the schedule for new season ticket holders. We know Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Minnesota and Eastern Illinois are set (and in terms of name power to new season ticket holders – likely in that order despite Michigan’s fall from grace). We need to work together NOW to ramp up ticket sales.

    Imagine Michigan State winning the Big Ten and going to the BCS. Now imagine they can only get 5,000 tickets for 2011. Imagine Saturday being nearly all purple because every reader here simply recruited 1 new season ticket holder to buy a pair. When I launched this blog in 2007, this was the dream. A program that went bowling every year and made runs at Big Ten titles. We’re still in the build, but we’re getting closer (I think?). It is extremely rare for us to have built up the momentum to a point we we can say “all home games the rest of the way are sold out” and if we can somehow beat Indiana and Penn State to return home 7-2, dear God is this a once in a generation opportunity to finally reclaim the magic of Ryan/Dyche from ’95-’98. Those home close games go our way, the program continues to rise and life is grand. I can taste it.

    I’m trying to work with NU to figure out a way how I can use LTP to make this happen and directly tie it to new sales. Stay tuned, but in the meantime, I need you to step up and become a salesperson to just one NEW buyer of 2 season tickets. Let’s do it…

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    Rumor Millage

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    Hmmm….a rumor being commented on at LTP? There is a first time for everything. Come inside and take a peak.

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    By now you know I’m pretty consistent about not getting caught up in the rumor mill.  However, I just scoured the end of day WildcatReport.com message board to get a feel to see if I “missed” anything that is being discussed.  I quickly honed in on a post by “NCRNU71″ entitled “Upgrades?”.  In the post, the anonymous poster posted this:

    Northwestern will announce in the near future that they have hired an architectural firm from Kansas City to do a feasability study on the sports facilities. I would assume that the study will focus on the football and basketball structures.

    For the record, I have no “official” confirmation from Northwestern about this or any type of timeline for the also rumored university capital campaign of which I was told, a portion would be earmarked for “athletic facilities”.  One of the reasons for my somewhat anonymous approach to the blog is for day job conflict of interest reasons.  I am fortunate enough to have the ear of the NU Athletic Department and enjoy a very friendly, cordial and mutually respectful relationship specifically around this very blog.  My recent daily statistics have revealed a relatively epic increase in daily unique users.  I recently told Jim Phillips and Mike Polisky in person that the unique daily users peaked around 3,000 – however (I rarely check stats) I am actually averaging more than 5,000 uniques per day right now.  That’s right – my “attendance”, if you will – is up similar to Northwestern’s attendance.  The point is this community has a voice and I know it is heard at the highest level at Northwestern.

    There are certain things I do NOT print here that I may know because I don’t think it is appropriate or it is not at the right time or I don’t want to jeopardize a credible source relationship.  I’ve danced around the specific “confirm or deny” of NU facilities upgrades, but I can tell you with 100% assurance that Dr. Phillips has a master plan and facilities are definitely a key component of that plan.  I am confident at the appropriate time I will know and be happy to share with you what I do know – on the record – but I don’t at this time have any more information than you do.  Consider this a long-winded caveat of saying that I like seeing this post and while I can’t corraborate it, I also can’t say it would surprise me to be true.  We all know it is the next frontier to conquer in terms of coaching retention/attraction, recruiting and gameday experience.  Mission one is fill the stadium and we are well on our way. 

    I “reported” here first that both the Illinois Wrigley game and the Iowa game were sold out.  I also reported here first that NU will indeed be selling standing room only tickets for Wrigley AND obstructed view seats for Iowa.  That info has not gone “official” that I know of to date.  I am not “reporting” here about the above post, just hoping – like you – that it is indeed true as we are all passionate about what could be done to make an already good Ryan Field so much better and an absolute home field advantage in years to come once we flush some more opponents out of the stands and purple-ify the place.

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