http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/m-foot...07aaa.html
Quote:On the NIU injury situation
"We have been hit real hard at the tight end spot and the defensive tackle spot. We have lost five of our top six defensive tackles. We moved Dan Keller from offensive guard to defensive tackle, so that is one of the big switches we have made. He played defensive line a little bit as a freshman, but then we asked him to move back to guard, where he played in high school. The big problem with losing all of these tackles is four out of the five are out for the year. Adam Schroeder is done, Rusch is done, Antonacci is done, and Holycross is barely hanging in there. I don't know if he will play Saturday. He could be done because of some shoulder issues. It seems like we have had more injuries in 12 years than ever. Many of these knee injuries were non-contact and it's a freak of nature. I guess the football gods have not been our side. Perez has a sprain in his shoulder and should be back in another week."
Quote:Ten NIU players have made their first career starts this season, including six on offense and four defenders. Offensively, tight ends Reed Cunningham and Bryan Beckner, left guard Tim Mayerbock, wide receiver Greg Turner and running backs Montell Clanton and Justin Anderson each
received their first starts. On defense, end Brandon Bice, linebacker John Tranchitella, safety Alex Kube and cornerback Chase Carter have started for the first time in 2007.
Quote:HARD HIT: Two position groups have been especially hard-hit by injuries as five of the Huskies’ top eight defensive linemen at the start of the season have gone down (Rusch, Antonacci, Schroeder, Mike Krause, Zach Holycross) and each of NIU’s top three tight ends (Brandon Davis, David Koronkiewicz, Reid Cunningham) has been out for at least one game. The injuries have forced Huskie coaches to make several line-up adjustments, including the move this week of Dan Keller from offensive to defensive line. As many as four freshmen could see action on the NIU defensive line this week.
In our 2-deeps we have:
* 6 true freshmen
* 5 redshirt freshmen
* 16 sophomores
* 14 juniors
* 3 seniors
27 freshman/sophmores
17 juniors/seniors
Not hard to see why we are struggling.
Linemen are thew glue to a football team. If you can't block your gonna lose reguardless of the QB or tailback. You also have to have D-linemen to stop the run and have a pass rush.
Ohio's starting DE Hodge is done for the year with a suspension for his 3rd alcohol arrest before his sophmore year.
Ohio has some O-line injuries as well. One missing atleast 3 weeks.
7 Wrote:27 freshman/sophmores
17 juniors/seniors
Not hard to see why we are struggling.
That will definitely do it with all of those young guys. Toledo is in a similar boat. We already lost starting OL Jan Gewont for the season and now SR starting DE Sean Williamson has been lost for the season as well. All-MAC players FS Tyrrell Herbert and CB Nigel Morris are going to miss their 3rd consecutive game this Saturday because of injury. We also have a couple of other DB's and the other starting DE out this weekend. Here is our current 2-deep breakdown:
10 seniors
6 juniors
15 sophomores
13 freshman
8 of the freshman are true freshman, and three are walk-ons with one of those walk-ons starting. Two of our #2's in the secondary were wide receivers until about 2 weeks ago and got moved to the secondary because of injuries to five different players in the secondary. One player in the secondary has missed all three games, and two others (FS Tyrrell Herbert and CB Nigel Morris) got hurt in the opener against Purdue and have played since.
This Saturday against Iowa State our starting free safety, one starting cornerback, and both starting defensive ends will be out with injury. Three backups on defense are also out.
FlashFan Wrote:Is it November 10 yet?
I was going to say 2008 but you know what? I feel like a Kent fan here. I am looking forward to b-ball season. It should be interesting in DeKalb this year. Quite frankly, I think we will suprise a few people.
The sheer number of freak injuries that Toledo has seen in the past two years is staggering and I believe is the key reason for its poor record.
Parity in the NCAA means that depth is now the biggest difference between mid-majors and BCS teams. (well, depth and money) We will always have to suffer through occasional inconsistency due to injury.
-Dan
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/...-headlines
Quote:Novak will wait until later this week to determine the status of defensive ends Brandon Bice, Jake Coffman and Matt Simon, who have leg injuries. Same for guard Jason Onyebuagu, who has an arm injury, and tailback Justin Anderson, suffering from general wear and tear. ... Anderson registered his second straight 100-yard game with 167 at Idaho but needed 35 carries. "We've got to share the load and take some of it off him," Novak said.
That now makes it 8 injuries on our defensive line (five DT's and 3 DE's), one starting offensive guard, one starting WR, one backup WR, two of our three top TE's, #1 RB, one starting safety, and #1 LB.
Bobcats hit very hard at guard and saftey this year. Unlike last year, were really banged up heading to the MAC portion of the schedule. The good news is the young players who didn't expect to see playing time until 2008 are starting and that gives them game experience and reps in practice.
Injury list still growing
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/...orts02.txt
Oct 09, 2007
Quote:DeKALB - Northern Illinois University football coach Joe Novak would prefer not looking at the numbers. Not Justin Anderson's rushing total, or Dan Nicholson's completion rate. But rather, the rapidly expanding injury list.
The Northern Illinois Media Relations Department, usually, is crunching the numbers at the midseason point to determine any trends or noteworthy statistics.
Not this year.
Keeping track of the injury report has become a full-time job. Heading into this Saturday's home game against Western Michigan, 21 players have been injured this season, 11 starters have missed at least one complete game, and 19 players who have been listed on the two-deep this year have missed games. To date, 13 players have missed or will miss three or more games, and five surgeries have been performed. Seven players are out for the season with two more lost for an extended period.
The defensive line and tight end areas have taken the biggest lumps. Seven defensive linemen have missed games, with four players - Craig Rusch, Anthony Antonacci, Jake Coffman and Adam Schroeder - out for the season.
The current two-deep depth chart is filled with underclassmen. Thirty-two freshmen and sophomores dominate the 49-player offense and defense two-deeps. All four tailbacks are underclassmen and the three noseguards are freshmen.
All three tight ends - Brandon Davis, Reed Cunningham and David Koronkiewicz - have missed games. Wide receivers Greg Turner (right shoulder sprain) is probable for the Western Michigan game. Junior wide receiver Britt Davis is highly doubtful for the Homecoming tilt with a strained right hamstring.
“I'm 99 percent sure Britt's not going to play this week,” Novak said. “It will be a miracle. He got it in the Central (Michigan) game running a deep cut and pulled it. Hopefully, one more week, but I doubt this week. I would be amazed.”
Quarterback Dan Nicholson didn't participate in Tuesday's practice. Nicholson will be a game-time decision after injuring his right ankle last Saturday.
“It's day-to-day right now,” Nicholson said.
Novak said Nicholson's status will be re-evaluated before Saturday's game.
“Dan didn't do a thing today,” Novak said. “He won't be 100 percent if he plays, we will have to decide at whatever percentage he is, is that more effective than Ryan Morris. That's something we probably won't know until game time.”
Photodan Wrote:Parity in the NCAA means that depth is now the biggest difference between mid-majors and BCS teams. (well, depth and money)
Those are intertwined, too!
If Ryan Morris starts for us then WMU will have no problem beating us. This kid is bad. He was a walk-on who somehow got a scholarship (Novak is too nice). He has a very weak arm, think weaker than Phil Horvath's. He looks completely lost out there despite having been in our system for his 2nd year now. He threw 2 INT's vs. CMU in 8 pass attempts.
This was my only time seeing Morris play but overall I thought he played better than Nicholson in the Temple game. I also thought that Morris seemed to be a more vocal guy, i.e. - yelling and instructing the WR & RB on most plays and really showing emotion on positive plays. I have to admit that even before he got hurt I was completely unimpressed with Nicholson. His play really had me convinced that Temple was going to win that game.
Hey, you folks don't have it so bad. CMU had 21 freshmen play sat against BSU, 3 true freshmen started on offense and 6 offensive starters never started a game before this season. Now quit complaining and go beat the crap out of Western!!! Thank you!
epasnoopy Wrote:In our 2-deeps we have:
* 6 true freshmen
* 5 redshirt freshmen
* 16 sophomores
* 14 juniors
* 3 seniors
Sounds like Kent State, besides the 2 starting kickers both being sophomores, in their 2 deep they have:
* 7 true freshmen
* 6 redshirt freshmen
* 11 sophomores
* 11 juniors
* 9 seniors
PhillyPhlash Wrote:This was my only time seeing Morris play but overall I thought he played better than Nicholson in the Temple game. I also thought that Morris seemed to be a more vocal guy, i.e. - yelling and instructing the WR & RB on most plays and really showing emotion on positive plays. I have to admit that even before he got hurt I was completely unimpressed with Nicholson. His play really had me convinced that Temple was going to win that game.
I can't believe you thought he was better. He was the same guy who on the last play before our last punt went right with the ball while everyone else was running left when the play call was a handoff to Anderson going left. He messed up that play and took a sack. He looked completely confused out there. He takes way too long to make decisions and throw the ball. He ended up taking two or three sacks in the little time he played. Only reason we scored a TD is because Justin Anderson is a stud and ran off a big 39-yard TD. Dan Nicholson didn't make any mistakes like that because he knows the offense and isn't scarred. His fumble was because one of our linemen missed their block and your DE ran up untouched and hit him right when he was turning around from a rollout.
This is what Coack Novak had to say about our QB situation earlier this week:
Quote:Novak, despite a 1-5 record and Nicholson's injury, isn't ready to start auditioning quarterbacks for next year.
“I think Dan's our guy,” he said. “We would have a big drop-off between Dan and the next guy. If Dan can play, he's our guy.
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/...orts01.txt
In regards to Morris, I'm not trying to make excuses for the kid but he did come off of the bench. I wouldn't expect Temple's backup to come in and give any better of a performance.
As for his botched handoff to Anderson; one play does not tell the entire story. Don't forget that it was Nicholson who made a bonehead of a play when he fumbled the ball and let Knighton run it back for 6. Morris only threw 3 passes so there really isn't much to analyze here but overall I don't think you guys were any worse off with him in the game. Maybe "better" was too strong a word, "equal" is probably more accurate.
PhillyPhlash Wrote:In regards to Morris, I'm not trying to make excuses for the kid but he did come off of the bench. I wouldn't expect Temple's backup to come in and give any better of a performance.
As for his botched handoff to Anderson; one play does not tell the entire story. Don't forget that it was Nicholson who made a bonehead of a play when he fumbled the ball and let Knighton run in back for 6. Morris only threw 3 passes so there really isn't much to analyze here but overall I don't think you guys were any worse off with him in the game. Maybe "better" was too strong a word, "equal" is probably more accurate.
Fair enough, but i think Novak's response to the situation is the most telling. He's seen both Nicholson and Morris way more than i have (in practice, during the spring, etc.) and he states clearly that there would be a big drop-off from Nicholson to Morris. Morris had to play for around half of a quarter vs. Temple, if he had to play an extensive amount of time (a whole game) like against WMU i think you would see why i am not comfortable with him at QB. Our offense will become very limited because of his arm strength. I would expect to see NIU throw a lot of passes 10 yards or shorter, lots of dump offs to the RB, and mostly running plays.
nicholson completed one pass that was of any value .... it was a complete duck that should have been picked... If nicholson is the best you are in trouble... he was horrible... I think NIU would have won by 3 touchdowns with an average QB in the first quarter there were at least 5 guys wide open that nicholson saw but didn;t get the ball within 5 yards of. I remeber after the third or fourth time saying aloud... we can;t leave guys open like this all day.... WE did and got lucky
victory engineer Wrote:If nicholson is the best you are in trouble... he was horrible...
He is the best we have right now that is available to play. Behind Morris is Chandler Harnish and DeMarcus Grady. Both of them are true freshmen and are not ready to see the field yet. When Billy Lowe left NIU this past spring and transferred to Georgia Southern it hurt our QB depth a lot. Next year NIU will have tons of depth at QB with Paul Blalock (3-star dual-threat QB who transferred from Illinois), Dan Nicholson, Chandler Harnish, and DeMarcus Grady.