More Info on the Northwestern Wrigley Field Game

This post by ESPN's big ten Blogger Adam Rittenberg lays out a bunch of good and quick information about the upcoming Wrigley Field game.

A couple of highlights

Ticket Allotment: The Cubs receive 5,000 tickets, Illinois receives 3,000 and Northwestern gets the rest (30,000 plus). Looks like tickets might be hard to come by. There will be no additional seating on the field

Northwestern wants to put it's student section and Band in the right field bleachers

Beer will be sold at the game!

The Cubs say the clock on the famous Wrigley Field scoreboard still works for football and will be used Nov. 20. (score board can kind of be seen in picture)






Coach Fitzgerald is said to want his team to take the "EL" from Evanston to Wrigley field. (Roughly 20 min ride).

Illinois vs Northwestern at Wrigley

ESPN Chicago is reporting that the Illinois vs Northwestern game will take place at Wrigley Field on November 20th, 2010.

2010 NIT Bracket Breakdown: Why I Love the Little Dance

The National Invitation Tournament is the red-headed stepchild of the college basketball postseason. While 65 programs get to experience the glory and the headlines that come with an invitation to the Big Dance, the snubbed squads of the nation let out a collective sigh and get ready for a possible trip to Madison Square Garden.

But the NIT isn't that bad of a consolation prize. Winning this tourney can redeem a lost season, prove that pesky selection committee wrong, or lay the groundwork for a better 2011.

Granted, Penn State followed their 2009 title with a disastrous 2010, but at least Talor Battle got to cut down somebody's nets during his time at State College.

Here are eight great reasons to watch this season's National Invitation Tournament, which kicks off Tuesday and Wednesday with first-round action around the country:

Burst Bubbles

These are the schools whose video feeds we didn't get to see on CBS Selection Sunday. Which is probably for the best, because coaches Seth Greenberg (Hokies) and Bruce Weber (Illini) may have needed a three-second audio delay in lieu of serious self-control.

Illinois (No. 52 in the Pomeroy Ratings), Virginia Tech (No. 31, the highest rated team in the field), and Memphis (No. 51) all have legitimate beefs with the committee this year.

Tech's Malcolm Delaney is a bonafide star, making the all-ACC first team this year on his way to a lucrative NBA career. He averaged over twenty points a game for the Hokies, along with 4.3 assists and 3.6 boards, while hitting the 30 point mark five times. Four came against NCAA Tournament teams including Clemson, Temple, and Georgia Tech.

Memphis, in its first year without John Calipari, is just two years removed from a trip to the NCAA Championship game. The Tigers lost to Houston in the C-USA tournament by a single point, sending the Cougars on their way to an improbable dance invite while costing themselves a bid.

Sophomore guard Elliot Williams, a Duke transfer, leads the team in scoring (18.3 ppg). But he needs to get his mojo back if Memphis wants to make a run - he has shot just 17-53 over the Tigers' last five.

Illinois thought their win over Wisconsin, coupled with taking Ohio State to double overtime in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, might be enough to earn them a dance card. But a 19-14 record and bad losses to teams like Utah and Bradley were enough to sway the committee the other way.

Juniors Demetri McCamey and Mike Tisdale give the Fighting Illini a solid inside-outside game. As a one-seed, they draw Stony Brook in the first round, and I look for Illinois to play with a chip on their shoulder while making a deep run in the NIT.

Goliath


Ah, North Carolina. The perennial powerhouse is one of those schools that you expect to see in your bracket each and every year, but they barely qualified for even the NIT in 2010 at 16-16.

I guess losing Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson would be enough to make anybody take a step back, but Carolina's preseason ranking has proven even more inaccurate than the most optimistic Duke fan could have hoped.

Ken Pomeroy projects a comfortable Tar Heels win in the first round, but will fans show up for the NIT? Roy Williams is probably the best coach in this tournament, but he has struggled to deal with this .500 season. Carolina ended the season losing 9 of their last 12, including Georgia Tech in the early rounds of the ACC tourney.

That first round prediction looks safe, except that UNC happens to have drawn a particularly interesting opponent...

David

William and Mary has enjoyed serious hype all year, much more than their unassuming profile (No. 113 Pomeroy, No. 58 RPI) would dictate.

Their reputation as a giant killer precedes them, and was earned by beating Richmond (home), Maryland (road), and Wake Forest (road) during a brutal nonconference schedule. All three are in the Big Dance. Sophomore swingman Quinn McDowell (6'5", 212) might be one of the best players in the NIT this year - he is capable of offensive explosions and is joined by steady senior guard David Schneider in a duo that can give opposing guards fits.

Is Carolina's defensive ace Marcus Ginyard up to the challenge, or can William and Mary add another scalp to their wall and atone for losing to Old Dominion in the Colonial conference finals?

SEC Snubs

Mississippi State (No. 54 Pomeroy) and Mississippi (No. 41) enjoy a classic intra-state rivalry, and one that State has gotten the better of twice this year.

The powers that be at the NIT placed the Rebels (or should I make it the Ackbars?) and the Bulldogs on opposite sides of the bracket, setting up a potentially epic clash in the finals if both schools can survive.

Bulldog forward Jarvis Varnado might be the biggest name in this year's tourney. Averaging a double-double and almost five blocks a game, the senior gives opposing players fits in the paint.

Mississippi junior guard Chris Warren paces the Ackbars, shooting .415 from downtown to average over seventeen points a game. But his team has struggled in big games, with their only two big wins coming in early season action against Kansas State and UTEP.

Cardiac Cats Go East

Northwestern (No. 77) just had its best season in school history, notching twenty wins after losing its best player before the season even began. Pomeroy rates their matchup with Rhode Island as Wednesday's game to watch.

Rhode Island skidded into the postseason with painful losses to also-rans St. Bonaventure and Massachusetts, as well as a 57-44 pasting at the hands of NCAA 5-seed Temple, but they are 13-2 at home this year. Northwestern is 2-8 on the road.

Guard Michael "Juice" Thompson plays over 90% of minutes for the Wildcats and was one of the Big Ten's best point guards all season. Sophomore John Shurna was one of the best players in the Big Ten, period, averaging just over 18 and 6 from the forward spot.

URI's best win came over Oklahoma State in the early going. Northwestern's best wins include Purdue, Notre Dame, fellow NIT teams NC State and Illinois. As a Wildcat partisan, I'm hoping that the road will be kind to Northwestern. Either way, it should be an exciting game.

Gang of Five

According to pundits around the country, the Big East is the nation's best conference. Eight Big East teams got into the NCAAs. Five more are in the NIT. That's a whole lot of postseason love.

South Florida (#78 Pomeroy), Connecticut (#55), Seton Hall (#62), Cincinnati (#69), and St. Johns (#72) ought to give Madison Square Garden a distinctive Big East flavor in the coming weeks.

Four-seed Seton Hall welcomes Texas Tech before a probable second rounder against Arizona State, both major conference opponents who could feel the wrath of the East.

UConn (another 4 seed) draws 20-12 Northeastern, a talented squad, and could play Va. Tech in second round. Behind Carolina's Williams, UConn's Jim Calhoun is the second best coach in the NIT, although his health problems have certainly played a role in the Huskies' struggles this year.

USF (a 3-seed) will play NC State in the first round, yet another major conference matchup. Their star guard Dominique Jones averages 21.3 points per game and gives the NIT yet another superstar to watch.

Cincinnati (2-seed) gets Weber State (20-10, #109) from Big Sky in first round, a team that has a lot of postseason experience getting knocked out in the first round.

St. Johns is the only Big East school denied home court advantage in the first round, and drew Memphis. If they can survive the Tigers, they get to come home to the Garden and a probable game against Ole Miss.

The Big East has to be the favorite to cut down the nets in Madison Square, on numbers alone.

The Mid-Major Superstar

Illinois State's Osiris Eldridge (6'3", 215, senior guard) has been starting in Bloomington-Normal since he was a freshman. This year, he leads a deep, experienced Redbirds squad that will play Dayton on the road in Round One. The Flyers are arguably the best team State has faced all year outside of Northern Iowa, and Eldridge and Co. couldn't handle UNI.

The Missouri Valley is well-represented this year, with Wichita State joining ISU in the NIT bracket, and Northern Iowa getting hard-earned hype in the Big Dance.

A Blessing In Disguise

Coastal Carolina had a great year. Yet at 28-6, they're out, while Winthrop dances. That's gotta hurt.


The Chanticleers drew Mike Davis' UAB Blazers in the first round, creating an exciting medieval matchup - the Blazers' mascot is a dragon, while a Chanticleer, by all appearances, is some kind of mythical rooster.

Junior Chad Grey (6'7", 205) and senior Joseph Harris (6'5", 180) lead the scoring for Coastal, and both shoot good percentages at well over 50%. The Chanticleers got beat down by Duke on Nov. 16, 74-49, in their only game against a true major opponent.

UAB may be favored to win on their home floor in Birmingham, but Coastal Carolina is honestly lucky to have choked against Winthrop. Those poor saps get to go to the play-in game for the honor of battling Duke in the first round of the other tourney.

Who do you think has a better chance to make a run? I'll take the Chanticleers for all the marbles, please.

Signing Day 2010 - Northwestern, Notre Dame, Illinois

From our friend abroad, Alec Kinczewski, who loves prep-to-college like I love the NFL Draft :

To cover Northwestern's recruiting class I'm very encouraged. While it doesn't have the 5-star and 4 -star players of other programs, there's one tell tale sign that our program has its act together: there were only 17 scholarships.

Why so few when other schools often sign 25-30? Because no one transfers or drops out of NUs program. While some don't bloom, being able to send out seniors on special teams gives NU a special advantage: for the old timers, that's their big event and they care about it.

Additionally it shows that we don't have the same discontents as other programs, and as I've learned in the Army an office cancer must be given the Moses treatment (banished and forgotten... of course that didn't work out too well for Ramses).

Additionally, the NU class has 13 guys who were team Captains and a collective GPA of 3.5, so as Fitzgerald says in the link these are the guys our program needs.

I still reminisce to how excited I was when Brett Basanez signed with NU (after an epic career at St. Viator including one of the all time great IL HS football games against Joliet Catholic in the playoffs). Who is NU's QB in waiting right now?

Now those three star players take me into my evaluation of Notre Dame's class: it isn't about who you recruit but what you do with them. Kelly made a reputation for developing talent at Cincinnati. I don't think he ever had a top 50 recruiting class there.

Now he has a top 20 (much lower than any of Charlie's) and a couple years of stocked up talent. I'm very curious to see what he does with Charlie's leftovers. While Charlie wasn't known for talent development, he did show how guys like Golden Tate can grown into studs, too bad he couldn't do it with more players.

As for Illinois, they're now in the crapper for all aspects of their football program, lets run up the score against them at Wrigley this fall!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-0204-northwestern-main-football--20100203,0,1895805.story

Indiana 70, Illinois 72

FIRST HALF:
Despite the best efforts of the refs to make this game suck in accordance with the Big Ten Game Stylesheet, the Hoosiers and Illini are having one heck of a battle in Champaign. And I almost went to this game. Damn!

The Jordan alley-oop (to Paul?), Verdell Jones getting on a roll, Demetri McCamey looking like the best point guard in the conference, Jordan Hulls nailing treys, and that Devan Dumes steal and halfcourt make as time expires? Awesome.

It's 36-36 at the half as we return to The Other Assembly Hall. God, I hate having that much ugly orange on my TV, but if this game keeps up, it's worth it.

Orange, pink, and Crimson = TV overload. My eyes are on fire.

SECOND HALF:
Well, at least it was a good game. Indiana lost on a last-second runner by McCamey that cancelled out Hoosier heroics.

Somebody in the Big Ten studio suggested that Watford should have slid over on the last play and tried to take a charge. I say that's nuts. No way you put yourself in that position, knowing that if the Illini guard goes to the line, he's going to hit at least one and end the game for sure. No, the Hoosiers did their best and were foiled.

That McCamey shot, by the way, was eerily reminiscent of the one he hit last year against Northwestern which spoiled a monster effort by the Wildcats. Same freakin' heartbreak.

Anyway, Indiana's now 9-11 (3-5). It's a good time to try and remember that this team is still better, by leaps and bounds, than last year's.

Wrigley Field Still Big Enough to Play Football

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Wrigley Field is still big enough to safely play football in.Seats have been added since the 1970s when the Bears have last played there. There was concern that these additional seats would not allow football to be safely played at Wrigley anymore. The Safety issue being resolved is good news for Northwestern who has been considering playing a game there. ACSS commented on this when it was first reported. As a resident of Wrigleyville, I would love to see a football game there and would welcome any Northwestern and Illinois (most likely opponent) to come and enjoy the day. I hope I can get tickets.

College Football Scheduling does it again.

One of the topics that has been discussed around Big Ten media days is the possibility of U of Illinois playing Northwestern U at Wrigley Field. As of right now, it does not appear like this will happen. Why is this? Because Northwestern doesn’t want to lose a home game! As I’ve discussed previously here I am a big fan of neutral site games and not a big fan of college scheduling with schools getting 8 home games.

Now this isn’t all Northwesten’s fault. If I understand correctly if this game occurs it would be a home game for Northwestern and they would take the majority of the gate from the game so they would rake in a larger gate at Wrigley then they would at Ryan Field (If you know the logistics better then me, let me know). I do understand though that they don’t want to loose their home crowd. I understand Northwestern is just an “EL” ride away from Wrigley, but are all the NU students going to make that trip? Also, as a proud Sox fan living on the wrong side of town in Wrigleyville, I can tell you there are way more U of I grads around then Northwestern grads and I’m sure they would grab as many tickets as possible. So Northwestern could lose their home field crowd, but I honestly don’t see how this is much different then when Ohio State comes to town and plays in front of a de facto home crowd. Heck, Indiana had a pretty sizeable crowd during the game I went to 2 years ago.

The other thing I don’t get about this game deals with Illinois. Now if I understand this right, Illinois’ coach Ron Zook is the one who is really pushing for this event to happen. But he is also pushing for it to happen as a Northwestern home game so Illinois will not have to give up one of their home games. This, is complete BS. This is why if I’m Northwestern I say no game. Why should Northwestern have to suffer a loss of a home game while U of I sacrifices nothing for something they want to do. Why shouldn’t Wrigley be considered and U of I home game. I know it’s a 2 hour drive away, but Illini basketball has home games in the United Center, just like Michigan State has played in the Palace of Auburn hills in Detroit, and Indiana and Purdue have played in Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Ok, so what about football? Indiana and Purdue have had home games in the now departed RCA Dome. Iowa and Northwestern have played at Soldier Field. So there is precedent for this to happen.

What I don’t get is why they can’t sign a two year deal. Play in Wrigley back to back seasons with each team losing a home game each year. They can split the gate anyway they want. How does this not make sense.

I for one would really love to see this game played at Wrigley and would try to get tickets if they were affordable. I see no reason why this game should not happen. It’s just frustrating to see teams try to get 8 home games as a reason fun games like this can’t happen.

Retro Diary: Classic College Football on BTN Illinois at Indiana 1999

It was Indiana day on the Big Ten Network so I recorded a bunch of stuff. One of the things I recorded was a classic college football game from 1999. Illinois at Indiana to celebrate the awesomness that was Randel El. So I’m stealing from Bill Simmons and doing a retro running diary.

Hello All. We are live from La Casa de Steve in Chicago. We are joined by the legendary Hester and Halas while Jamie is giving me dirty looks for watching this.
Interesting note from the pre-game hype from the Big Ten Network, they were showing IU playing PSU in the Hoosier Dome (RCA dome, I don’t know when the name changed). Did IU play there a lot? Did they really anticipate that many PSU fans? If they were trying to get more money, then why don’t they go up there for Ohio State or Michigan? Anybody know?
On to the game
1st Qtr.
11:47: Have to say the first thing I notice is Indiana’s fantastic Jersey’s that Cam Cameron decided to use because they are sooooooo frigging cool. If you don’t remember, just google “Randle El Indiana” and it will come up (the links haven’t been working otherwise I would link it) They are fire engine red, with lots of black all over, Black helmets with a red oval with IU separated inside it. Kind of 49er esk. Just fantastic, why’d we ever change?

11:33: Also noticing the field at IU’s Memorial Stadium. It’s grass! In Anthony Thompson’s day it was Astroturf and in 2003 it was Astroplay or field turf. Just found it a little odd to look at.

11:02: For a game featuring two traditionally sub standard football teams there are a lot of NFL personnel, especially Chicago connections. Lets see who we’ve seen/heard so far.
• IU coach Cam Cameron. Head Coach 1 year in Miami and is currently O-Coordinator in Baltimore
• U of I coach Ron Turner: Current Bears O-Coordinator
• U of I QB Kurt Kittner: Bounced around the league awhile, I believe he spent a season or two third stringing for the Bears
• I believe U of I’s center is Dick Butkus’ kid, Luke or Lucas Butkus. I didn’t get a starting line-up so can’t confirm, I will keep my eye out for this.
• U of I WR Brendan Lloyd: Former Bears WR no in Denver
• IU DE Adewale Ogunleye: Current Bears starting DE and Defensive Captain
• IU QB Antwaan Randle El: Superbowl winner in Pittsburgh current Washington WR. From Thorton in Chicagoland.

10:30 : Adewale Just got his 31st career sack and here’s what the announcer just said about him. “Pre-Season All-American, already graduated from college, coming back and working on his graduate degree.” He’s awesome, but you all knew I am already overly obsessed with him
9:56: Another NFL sighting, Neil Rackers!!!! But, he just missed a 27 yard field goal so we are tied at 0-0 with the man of the show coming on RANDLE EL!

9:56: Randle El, first play, runs the option for 10 yards.

9:40: What I love about watching this replay it the cut all the boring commentary between plays between the two announcers, and leave in all the good conversations, speeds the game along.

7:43: FUMBLE! Illinois recovers, IU ran I think 6 plays all the option, Love it!

6:28: Just saw the old Chief Illinwik image next to Illinois’ stats, as much as I make fun of the school, I still really like that logo.

4:32: Illinois, a heavy passing team with Kittner, is just killing Indiana with running the ball, just slowly methodically marching down the field

3:50. Micheal DEAN! Wow U of I scores first on an amazing TD pass. Dean went around the IU player and grabbed the ball with just 1 hand. Wow. 7-0 U of I

2nd Qtr:

15:00 No idea what happened to the last 3 minutes of the 1st qtr, just started the 2nd quarter with Havard from Illinois going 20+ yards on a rush.

13:05: After more of Ron Turner playing smash mouth (wasn’t he supposed to be a pass happy coordinator in college?) Neil Rackers hits a field goal 10-0 U of I

13:05 Randle El Option again!

12:37: Randle El completes his first pass, a beautiful fake run and then released a bullet.

11:27: 100% of IU’s offense is Randle El. I don’t think I’ve seen a run the wasn’t an option.

10:30: 1 first down, followed by a 3 and out. So Randle El hasn’t rushed for more then 10 yards since the opening play, completed his first pass in the second quarter, wasn’t this supposed to be a highlight game for IU?

9:25: “A lot of people said Adawale would have been a 1st round draft pick in the NFL had he come out last year, he would have been, he was rated very high, very stable. He said he came to IU for an education not for the NFL so he decided to stay.” HOW DID HE GO UNDRAFTED THEN?


9:00 CHRIS DIELMAN!!!! PRO BOWL GUARD for the Chargers just caught a 30 yard wide open pass playing TE for the Hoosiers! Man I completely forgot he was on this team. This leads to Jamie (still giving evil looks) asking if Dave Diehl (NYG OT) is playing for Illinois at this point. I think he is, I will keep looking.

7:00 4th and 1. Everyone knows its going to Randle El and he gets it.

6:13: Coolest stat of the night so far, ESPN is showing stats about how awesome this Sophomore QB is, here’s what it shows:
• TD Accountability*: 92.9% (Leads I-A)
• Rush TD: 6 (T-1st)
• Rush Yards: 362 (2nd)
o *13 of 14 IU touchdowns.

Talk about a 1 man show. 92.9% of IU’s touchdowns came from Randle El!

5:22: Facemask saves IU and gives them a second life on the goal line going in. U of I’s linebacker Clark gets called for it. Apparently he is a Butkus Award candidate. Just showed the replay, a Gift for IU. It was 4th and 5, now 1st and 3. First play, Randle El 3 yard run for a TD on a 3rd effort. Touchdown Accountability is now 93.3%. 10-7 U of I leading

3:46: Randle El comes in on defense! No, they just announced it was Curtis Randle El, Antwaan’s brother. Dang, WHY DIDN’T THE YOUNGER ONE COME TO IU! I’m bitter. I know he didn’t do much, but I’m still bitter.

3:16: Jamie on Google, Dave Diehl is in the game, only for Field Goal unit.

1:45: 3rd and long, 39% on 3rd down, not promising. They don’t get it

1:00: 4th and 3 they go for it and get it, U of I getting a personal foul facemask, IU was all over the U of I player to protect Mr. EL

0:31: IU is in field goal range, IU tries to do a double pass, but the first 1 is incomplete but behind line of scrimmage so fumble, picked it up and runs backwards, then fumbles again and IU is out of Football range.

0:00: Pretty dull first half for a classic game. I have faith. Just found out IU FB Jeremy Johnson (I’ve never heard of him either) goes on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals

Indianapolis Star Reporter commenting on IU Football Fans: “If you can’t get 40,000 fans to come see this guy play, what’s it going to take?” I want to argue, but it’s kind of true.

14:17: IU ran a few promising plays during the first drive, but Randle El and Jeremy Johnson exchange on the option is botched and fumbled. Good to know they both made the NFL.

13:15: The commentator just said “There have been a couple of questionable calls made by Ron Turner.” Does that not summarize his career? Glad to see the Bears brought him back. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m not a Turner fan, and I still blame him more then Sexy Rexy for the Super Bowl.

12:42: Randle El has not had an explosive play yet, kind of bummed, lots of small chunks

12:14: “They really are the Fighting Illini this year; they weren’t fighting the past two years, no fighting in them. They went 0-11 two years ago and only won 3 last year.” That made me smile.

11:25: 30 yard pass completed. Somehow IU is still not passed mid-field.

11:09: Randle El just got sacked which leads to us finding out Randle El had only been sacked two times coming into this ball game. Please tell me how we went to 0 Bowl games with someone this good on our team. I’m now going to pour boiling water down my throat. (Yes I am taking more then just the running diary from Simmons now: I LOVE YOU SPORTS GUY! Please don’t sue. I’m not making any money off this)


10:40: Randle El sacked back to back plays. Even better, HE FUMBLES! If this game was live, remotes would be flying around the room.

9:15: Kittner just scrambled for 10, so what does Turner do on 3rd and 4 from the 4? QB draw! Let me guess what he was thinking. “Their QB could do it, just cause he’s athletic and fast, and mine is slow and white, doesn’t mean that he can’t do the same thing.

8:23: U of I goes for it on 4th and 1 and punches it in, then goes for 2 and gets it. 21-7 U of I over IU

8:23: Jamie chimes in, “If we were watching this game live, we would have turned it off by now.” Yes she said this less the 2 minutes after I would have thrown my remote.

EVEN BETTER the preview guy goes. Down 21-7 things go from bad to worse for Coach Cameron and the Hoosiers!” What is going on? This is IU’s day, make me feel better!

6:10: IU goes 3 and out, or so I guess, IU had then ball then we just skipped to 6:10 and U of I has the ball

6:06: For the betting public, IU was favored in this game. That’s good at least.

5:32: Kurt Kittner has just completed 3 fantastic passes. He has had all day, not even my love for Adawale can blind me from the fact that IU’s D-line looks like garbage.

4:58: Harris scores on a 10 yard run. Announcer: “Illinois is starting to blow IU out!” Jamie “How do we come Back!” Steve just started taking shots to make himself feel better. 28-7 U of I

4:49: Randle El completes a pass to an IU WR who promptly falls down, don’t worry it’s negated from an illegal formation penalty.

4:16: Jamie starts singing the IU fight song with the band, she thinks it’s attractive. I can’t disagree.

3:43: Randle EL just ran 28 yards inside the 30, FINALLY making a play on a broken play.

2::59: The game gets even better, just inside the red zone, IU gets called for Offensive Pass interference! 15 yard penalty.

2:30: Next play Randle El throws a beautiful pass to Dorsey at the 3 yard line. He rolled right, stopped, and threw the ball across his body and across the field and could not have placed it better. Pretty play.
2:09: IU runs the option, Randle El keeps it and punches it in. 28-14 U of I. Randle El’s TD Accountability is now 93.75%.

:56 3 and out for U of I. Announcers start debating which conference is better, SEC, ACC or Big Ten. Announcers decided the ACC has best team, (FSU) but doesn’t mean they are best conference, SEC is top heavy, and Big Ten, top to bottom can give anybody a run for their money. Glad to see a decade later we are still debating this.

0:00 End of 3rd Qtr. 28-14.

8:46: No I did not get lazy, this is the time we rejoin the game. I assume nothing happened cause the scores the same. I think I’m going to give BTN the benefit of the doubt on this one.

8:15: U of I Fumbles! IU BALL! Adawale forces the fumble! I’m sorry Wale, I’ll never doubt you again. IU ball on the 40 going in!

7:27: Randle El breaks a 30 yard run on 2nd and 2 gets tackled at the 10. Just heard the first down music! I did not know the played it back then. I thought it was started around the 2005 2006 season. I don’t remember hearing it my freshmen or sophomore year (03 and 04). Am I crazy? Please help me out. Also, if Shark was here, he’d be bitter and complaining about the music, “What is this, this is a train? Whatever it is I’m not doing it.”

6:44: Willams scores on a 3 yard run on the option pitch! Here comes the Hoosiers! 28-21 U of I leading. This destroys Randle El’s TD Accountability dropping it all the way to 88.24%.

6:08: Just showed a view of the stadium. There is no one there. I am thinking that A. It never was that full, and B. When we started losing, people headed for the tailgates.

5:35: After 3 and out. IU gets the ball back. Also for all my complaining about Randle El not doing that well, just saw passing stats

• Kittner 156 Yards
• Randle El 226 Yards.


2:58: 4th and 9 at the 30 going in. IU goes for it! But not before getting this close to a delay of game, and calls a timeout

Just found out Cam Cameron played for Lee Corso! And he played basketball for IU, I don’t believe that second 1. Still love Coach Corso.

Randle El splits 3 U of I defenders for a fantastic pass and an Indiana first down.

2:26: Randle El makes half the Illini defense miss, gets 10 yards for the 1st down and gets out of bounds. He just went over 151 yards on the ground. Apparently I’m missing all his great plays while typing. He is having a fantastic game.

2:21: RANDLE EL!!! High snap over his head, he tips it to himself, turns around, and runs 9 yards untouched on a broken play for the game tying Touchdown! 28-28. tie game. TD accountability 88.88%

1:50: I know I haven’t talked too much about IU’s defense, but my boy, Wale, is everywhere, he is taking over this 4th qtr.

1:30: 90 seconds left U of I gets a first down, but is only at the 30.

1:15: GUESS WHO! Ogunleye with another sack! Announcer 1 “Remember the name Adawale Ogunleye, you’ll see it in the first round of the NFL draft next year.” Announcer 2 “You can contain Ogunleye for awhile, but you can’t stop him for 4 quarters.” Again, he went undrafted, why? Did his knee explode? Did the King get sick and he had to do some Prince duties back home? Anyone?

0:00 IU just kneels and we are going to OVERTIME! BTW I would like to thank Neil Rackers for missing a FG on the first drive to allow this game to OT. Still not my favorite Neil Rackers miss, see 2005 Bears vs Cardinals on Monday Night.

IU Captains for the game, Place-kicker, Offensive tackle, Wale and Randle El. IU wins the toss and goes on D. U of I is going to the North Endzone. It takes the Ref 2 tries to explain what happened after the coin flip.

OT Pos 1: U of I Runs the ball for a first down. Kittner avoids a sack, and almost gets a grounding from 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

OT Pos 1: Wide open Screen pass, DROPPED! He catches that, he walks in for the score.

OT Pos 1: Guess Who! Another sack from Wale. Jamie “How did he not get drafted?” EXACTLY!

OT Pos 1: Neil Rackers makes the FG 31-28

OT Pos 2: IU time to respond, FG to tie and extend, TD to win.

OT Pos 2: First play TD! Play Action fake to Williams, Randle El drops back, lofts a fade to the corner to ....Williams! Amazing!

Wale yelling at the camera the IU’s got Heart, he still looks the same. This makes me smile.

Fun Stuff I learned about Randle El while watching: Finished 6th in Heisman Voting, 2001 Big Ten Player of the year, and was the first player ever to pass for and rush for 40 TDs. During this game he is only a sophomore, so after this football season, he’s walking across the parking lot to Assembly Hall to play basketball for Bobby Knight. He is just awesome.


So what have we learned today? Randle El is awesome! I have no idea how Wale didn’t get drafted! And doing a running diary is hard, but it was fun. GO HOOSIERS