Wasn't able to go, but here is a brief list of points that my dad told me from practice...
Nicholson didn't take many reps
Several blocked punts
Season ticket holders received a Coach Kill pin
Sounds like they will be getting new turf soon
Lots of hand shaking and face time from coaches in stands?
Possible Jeff Compher sighting? They thought it was an Admin person...
Nicholson didn't take any reps and hasn't taken any since Tuesday's practice. Coach Kill did tell us afterwards that he expects that Dan will take reps on Monday.
I posted stats. on today's practice on the HuskiePride board...
Link
Nicholson took no reps, the game.. was brutal. Chandler Harnisch was a real disappointment for me, he can run OK, but question decision making, doesn't seem to see the field, and his arm isn't much to talk about either.
The kid from Tulsa threw an interception on like 2 of his first four throws.
Running backs will be fine as always.
No clue on the WR's as the QB's we have can't throw.
HuskieFan84 Wrote:Nicholson took no reps, the game.. was brutal. Chandler Harnisch was a real disappointment for me, he can run OK, but question decision making, doesn't seem to see the field, and his arm isn't much to talk about either.
The kid from Tulsa threw an interception on like 2 of his first four throws.
Running backs will be fine as always.
No clue on the WR's as the QB's we have can't throw.
Sounds like the Bears. Why do all the teams I am a fan of have this common issue? Are we QB and WR retarded here in Illinois?
Is Nicholson still in some pain or is there another reason for not taking reps for almost a week?
I continue to get more worried about our QB situation.
All we need is a manager that can take care of the ball and let our running game and defense win games.
It also looks like we might have a few more naked bootlegs and QB draws this year to throw off the defense.
Remember that we had 2 winning seasons with Horvath under center. It helped a lot that G-Wolfe was running the ball.
The stats look ugly for the QBs. This team has to find a QB or it's in for a long year.
Quote:DeKALB - Over 500 members of the Huskie family attended the inaugural Northern Illinois Football Fan Day, Saturday. The NIU faithful were treated to a two-and-half hour scrimmage, followed by an autograph session with the Huskies.
On the field, the team showed the fans a little bit of everything, starting with punts, followed two-minute drills, and a variety of other scenarios.
"We went to overtime, we went to getting the field goal team out with no timeouts left," Head Coach Jerry Kill said. "We went through about every situation that could possibly happen today in football."
While Kill's team went through nearly every imaginable scenario, he was hesitant to grade the squad's performance.
"You never can evaluate practice until you go in and watch the film," he said. "There will be a lot of things that I like and there will be a lot of things we need to improve on."
One thing Kill will examine closely are the seven turnovers created by the defense. The group recovered three fumbles, and Huskie linebackers picked-off four passes. On one of the interceptions, Cory Hanson (Minneapolis, Minn./De La Salle) caught a pass intended for wideout Britt Davis (Broadview, Ill./Riverside-Brookfield), but the receiver stripped Hanson and the offense regained possession.
Despite the turnovers, the offense scored four touchdowns. True freshman Me'co Brown (Moss Point, Miss./Moss Point) found the endzone on a three-yard burst, and quarterback Ryan Morris (Carol Steam, Ill./West Chicago) scored one a one-yard run set-up by a 28-yard dash from junior Justin Anderson (Chicago, Ill./Steinmetz).
Redshirt freshman Chandler Harnish (Bluffton, Ind./Norwell) added to the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Reed Cunningham (Cambria, Wis./Pardeeville), who totaled two receptions for 22 yards. Harnish, who took the majority of snaps, completed 11-of-24 passes with two interceptions.
Sophomore Chad Spann (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) impressed the crowd by staying on his feet after a hit and continuing 65-yards to the end zone for the day's longest play. Spann finished the day with seven rushes for 80 yards. Evansville, Ind. native Ricky Crider (Reitz) led the team in rushing with 83 yards on 14 tries, including runs for 27 and 15 yards.
Latecomers missed an early surprise. On the opening play of the day, redshirt sophomore Tyler Clasey (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) burst through the offensive line to block an Andy Ditbenner (Bloomington, Ill./Normal University) punt, exemplifying Kill's "hard hat, lunch pail" philosophy.
Kill said he has seen a great deal of progress from his team over the first two weeks of fall camp, but reserved judgement on just how far the team has come.
"We're a lot farther along than we were in the spring," he said. "But are we far enough, where we'd like to be (at this point)? I think I can answer that after I've watched the film."
The Huskies open the 2008 campaign on Saturday, Aug. 30 at Minnesota with the home opener set for Sept. 20 versus Indiana State.
Statistics
Individual
Passing
Harnish 11-24-2 89 (TD), Rogers 6-11-2 39, Grady 2-7-0 10, Morris 2-5-0 29
Rushing
Crider 14-83, Spann 7-80 (TD), Smith 9-61, Anderson 8-41, Harnish 13-28 (TD), Brown 7-23 (TD), Grady 8-38, Clanton 3-18, Rogers 7-9
Receiving
Clark 4-29, Cox 3-27, Cunningham 2-22 (TD), Davis 2-22, Turner 1-4, Clanton 1-6, Skarb 1-3, Crider 1-13, Palmer 1-11, Clasey 1-7, Schepler 1-7, Jacques 1-4
Scoring Summary
Brown 3 run
Morris 1 run
Cunningham 14 pass from Harnish
Spann 65 run
Defensive
Interceptions
Allen, McCarthy, Hanson, Tranchitella
Sacks
Schiller, Lawson, Kritikos (2), Rice
http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/m-foot...08aab.html
Maybe our defense is just REALLY good
rabidawg900 Wrote:Maybe our defense is just REALLY good
It probably was a combo of both. Harnish/Rogers/Grady are all freshman, so they will go through some growing pains. Harnish looked really good last week, and not so good this week. If he plays this year he will be inconsistent, so get used to it.
I was discouraged with today's QB play. Harnish and Rogers look like they will be terrific QBs somewhere down the road but they have a long and difficult learning curve to traverse in the mean time. If we were starting the season with three or four straight nonconference games I would say go ahead and take our lumps with Harnish but unfortunately the second game of the season is against Western Michigan. It's a shame because this year's defense looks like it will be real good, like championship caliber good, and I would hate to waste it. Aside from the interceptions I saw lots of good things in every phase of the game, and I should point out that the QBs did some really good things too.
If Harnish plays in week 1 we will lose by 40 minimum. He was that bad. I'd much rather have Morris or Nicholson in. I'm sure Harnish will be decent if not very good eventually.. but wow, was he awful (although not nearly as bad as Rogers). I realize they are freshmen, and they shouldn't be expected to be great, but they are terrible right now.
HuskieFan84 Wrote:If Harnish plays in week 1 we will lose by 40 minimum. He was that bad. I'd much rather have Morris or Nicholson in. I'm sure Harnish will be decent if not very good eventually.. but wow, was he awful (although not nearly as bad as Rogers). I realize they are freshmen, and they shouldn't be expected to be great, but they are terrible right now.
Hyperbole.
The defensive pressure today was great. All the QB'S had very little time to throw or do much thinking. Harnish threw some bad balls along with all the QB's but I was impressed with his mobility and presence to get the heck out of the pocket.
What scares me is our WR and returners...their ability to actually catch the ball is questionable. Meco and M Perez both looked shaky catching the kickoffs also.
Reading all of these posts I feel like that I should be super excited about seeing what our Defense can do, and nervous about the O.
Although it looks like we can still run the ball.
I hope Dan N. can get healthy and play, but I also hope that Harnish is having a slump and can break out of it. He is learning out there taking his first meaningful snaps in pratice.
I'm not too worried about any of this until we see how they do in game situations. I don't know how Kill and his staff is at getting guys ready, but I want to get them the benefit of the doubt and think that they can at least eliminate the mental errors that killed us last year.
the offense looked brutal, besides the running game. otherwise it was a beautiful day in dekalb. the new track is really coming along.
who said something about new turf and when will this be happening? before the first game? our pink turf is ugly
Its probably a good thing we have WMU as an early road game. Even if this game was later in the season, it would be extremely tough to beat the Broncos @ their place. It throws our QB in to an extreme situation facing the best defense that we play in conference and hopefully they can learn from the experience. Hopefully we can garner up enough confidence against the (still soft?) Minnesota D.
It is a common misconception that offensive linemen need to be big hulking masses that overpower other teams .........
I would say that statement is wrong. There were too many sacks today, etc & when our offense goes up against the defense of another team, they're gonna get tossed. Sure, they've worked hard but they have got to work harder and become much bigger & stronger to protect the young QB because he probably get nervous when it comes down to real game time (just like in the Spring).
Observations: both General & Specific
Difficult to assess the team in total as very few plays were run with first unit O vs first unit D.
( I doubt English or Anderson or Davis played more than a dozen downs). Everbody got alot of looks and reps other than first string.
Players were shuttled in often and quickly including QBs. None really distinguished themselves making great plays.
With the manner of the scrimmage prescripted and controlled, it's difficult to imagine whether or not the team can sustain drives. Team was put into alot of different situations but the down and distance was sorta disregarded and plays were occasionally repeated.
The few plays J Anderson ran he made a big difference most occasions .
The first 60 minutes after punting drills were most all passing plays - therefore the D could cheat and knew runs were not likely. That changed somewhat the last 30 minutes when runs and passes were somewhat equally mixed.
Receivers dropped at least 8 catchable balls maybe more.
Several bad snaps & exchanges. The first 20 minutes were devoted to punting from inside the 20. The first was blocked and the snap was high. Four punts were plus 35 -45 yards with decent hang time. Another was shanked and another frosh punter was blocked.
Huskies made most all FG attempts within the 25 yard line . Longer attempts were weak and off target. Most all XPTS were converted but one FG snap was bobbled.
If there were any general observations to add, these are mine.
1) The practice & scrimmage ( if you can call it that for it was nothing like a game), it was quite spirited & Kill was on the field the entire 2.5 hours and in players' faces with both encouraging raps on the butt and then asking entire team to drop and do pushups for either not getting back into the huddle quickly or for failing to hustle & get to the line and set quickly. The tempo of the O in practices is a very noticeable difference when compared to prior years.
2) If the TO stat margin is the difference between winning or losing alot of games, what transpired today was troubling. ALOT of muffed Punts and Kickoffs. SEVERAL Ints. - especially the first 90 minutes. Chandler H has quick feet and will need to be very durable if he runs on designed plays or scrambles an avg of 6 times a game. He could get "killed" @ MN or TN. if he continues his habits - altho he became better at throwing away plays rather than forcing passes as the scrimmage lapsed.
If anyone one player stood above the others, I would vote for Cryder then Clark.
Me'co showed much promise but scares me on KO returns.
I did NOT pay as much attention as I should have to the play of the FB.
"Cruickshank" (sp?) was the only injury of note and was escorted under own power to Yordon last 30 minutes favoring shoulder or ribs.
ALOT of improvements required IMO in only 14 days before Aug 30 if we are to be competitive and stay in the game @ MN.
If the adage about the greatest one week improvement comes between games 1 and 2, there will likely be alot of room to grow after Aug 30 before winning in Kzoo is realistic.
There were - in summary - several reasons to leave with both optimism and concerns not really knowing what the product on the field will perform like early in the season based on what was demonstrated in today's session. DanN remains an "X" factor.