Quote from: robertgoulet on January 07, 2025, 02:02:02 PM

Quote from: Thunderdome21 on January 07, 2025, 01:22:18 PMHe only played one game with Ferris this past fall, with no statistics. 5 of the other QBs on Ferris played at least 2 games and logged passing statistics including 3 other redshirt freshmen, so it appears he was 6th string on its depth chart. Interestingly, Ferris St.(this year's D-2 champion) defeated Roosevelt 55-13, whereas NCC beat them 41-7 the year before. 

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 07, 2025, 02:02:02 PM

Quote from: Thunderdome21 on January 07, 2025, 01:22:18 PMHe only played one game with Ferris this past fall, with no statistics. 5 of the other QBs on Ferris played at least 2 games and logged passing statistics including 3 other redshirt freshmen, so it appears he was 6th string on its depth chart. Interestingly, Ferris St.(this year's D-2 champion) defeated Roosevelt 55-13, whereas NCC beat them 41-7 the year before. 

Ferris's website appears to be....let's call it "unreliable". The website shows him with no stats for 2023 or 2024 but if you find the box score from Northern Michigan (their X account has a post from Sep 2023 saying he scored a TD in a route) it says he went 2-4 for 17 yds, 3 rushes for 2 yds, no TDs. I don't have it in me to look at other games. All this to say let's hope he's the next Lehnen!

Hav
Ferris's website appears to be....let's call it "unreliable". The website shows him with no stats for 2023 or 2024 but if you find the box score from Northern Michigan (their X account has a post from Sep 2023 saying he scored a TD in a route) it says he went 2-4 for 17 yds, 3 rushes for 2 yds, no TDs. I don't have it in me to look at other games. All this to say let's hope he's the next Lehnen!

I went back and checked with all the box scores, and the one you highlighted against Northern Michigan was the only one with stats. In that game, Ferris St. beat NM 78-3, and probably the last of 4 QBs that played that game since he was the last one listed in the box score. As I live only 45 minutes from Ferris St., I've followed them and their rise to become one of the D-2 Football Dynasties. From the eye test, they are similar to NCC, except Ferris St. has several more dynamic players at the skill positions, especially at WR. Still, the defenses don't seem as disciplined in the fundamentals you'll see among the top D-3 teams. There has even been a year or two where I believe a top CCIW team would've beaten them, such as 2022's NCC and Wheaton's 2019 team.

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 07, 2025, 10:18:51 AM

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 07, 2025, 09:56:33 AMExcited for Demir. I've seen him play a few times live, he is a local kid. Played high school 15 minutes down the road at Plainfield North. His younger brother is a currently a sophomore at North so I'm sure that played a role in the transfer. Former NCC DL Anthony Imbordino ('05-'07) is also the head coach at Plainfield North and I'm sure he nudged him towards NCC as well. 

Demir was first team All State in Class 8A (the largest class size in Illinois) his senior year at North during the '22-23 season while leading them to their only 9-0 regular season in school history. 

He redshirted at Ferris in '23-24 and then this past year was listed on the roster, although his post on X says he has 4 years of eligibility of left, which I thought would only be 3 as I assume next year he would be considered a redshirt sophomore.  Never really know with the eligibility these days

I didn't know anything about him I was just trying to wind USee up but looks like they may have actually gotten a good one!

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 07, 2025, 09:56:33 AM

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 06, 2025, 10:41:39 PM

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 10:37:47 PM2019 NCC won their first Stagg and Gagliardi QB Broc Rutter was done and Cardinal fans were crying about the next year, which was Luke Lehnens freshman year. Boo hoo.....

NCC just got a commit from Ferris St QB Demir Ashiru. Maybe he can continue the run I'm sure you'd love that USee 😂

Excited for Demir. I've seen him play a few times live, he is a local kid. Played high school 15 minutes down the road at Plainfield North. His younger brother is a currently a sophomore at North so I'm sure that played a role in the transfer. Former NCC DL Anthony Imbordino ('05-'07) is also the head coach at Plainfield North and I'm sure he nudged him towards NCC as well. 

Demir was first team All State in Class 8A (the largest class size in Illinois) his senior year at North during the '22-23 season while leading them to their only 9-0 regular season in school history. 

He redshirted at Ferris in '23-24 and then this past year was listed on the roster, although his post on X says he has 4 years of eligibility of left, which I thought would only be 3 as I assume next year he would be considered a redshirt sophomore.  Never really know with the eligibility these days

He only played one game with Ferris this past fall, with no statistics. 5 of the other QBs on Ferris played at least 2 games and logged passing statistics including 3 other redshirt freshmen, so it appears he was 6th string on its depth chart. Interestingly, Ferris St.(this year's D-2 champion) defeated Roosevelt 55-13, whereas NCC beat them 41-7 the year before. 

Quote from: blue_jays on January 06, 2025, 01:32:45 AMNCC win was preordained, there was no way they weren't winning a title this year, regardless of opponent. Maybe the best team seasons in D3 history right there.
Despite MU fans twisting themselves into pretzels thinking that they coulda won that game, it was never gonna happen. They'll blame coaching decisions till the cows come home, but NCC wins that game every day of the week. Tonight's version would be the closest they'd ever get.

To be honest, I felt the same more about NCC's 2022 championship team as it was their most dominant team with little or no weaknesses on both offense and defense. Whereas this year's team had vulnerabilities in the secondary (which MU's passing game exploited) and a less talented receiving corps (which MU didn't have the personnel to exploit). NCC's O-line protected Lehnen for the most part, and when there was pressure, he either wisely threw it away or made the play, taking advantage of a MU Freshman cornerback, who was covering Jacob Paradee most of the game. MU did better than any team this year against NCC's run game until Coleman's long run in the 4th Q due to the misread by MU's safety. NCC made some key adjustments at halftime to shut down MU's run game. MU had their chances to put alot of points on the board in the 1st half and blew it.

Quote from: CarollFan on December 21, 2024, 08:09:24 PM

Quote from: Thunderdome21 on December 21, 2024, 07:55:17 PM

Quote from: CuriousCCIWfan on December 21, 2024, 05:36:38 PMBeen watching North Central's game and they shared stats of the Susquehanna running back and how he is third in yardage in the nation...but  now against North Central he will be lucky to get 20 yards. It is frustrating to have to compare CCIW and WIAC stats with teams from other conferences. My son has had great stats for 4 years in the CCIW but he had to fight for all the yards -
his body carries the mileage and our hospital bills have too! I would love to see the stats that NCC and Wheaton teams would get playing in other conferences.

I and just venting because this game is a total beat down! Embarrassing!

Stats can definitely be misleading when you play in a below-average/average conference like the Landmark. I really only pay attention to the stats among those in the top 10 or so conferences in D3 because beyond them, their top teams and top players are mainly rolling against cupcake teams. 

Last week, when I saw Susquehanna would play NCC rather than Bethel, I suspected it would be a beatdown today. To beat NCC, you need to have a dominant D-Line...a D-Line that can make Lehnen uncomfortable. Statistically, Susquehanna was 3rd in the nation in total offense and 131st-best in total defense and 219th in passing Defense. Their defense is average at best and doesn't put much pressure on the quarterback. Today's game reminded me alot of the NCC-NPU game earlier this year and much of that had to do with how dominant NCC's D-line looked today and the physicality of their DBs made Susquehanna's WRs seem uncomfortable (Dropped passes and little to no separation). 

Bethel would've been a better match-up as they are a team that puts alot of pressure on the QB, although Lehnen and the RBs would've run wild against Bethel as their LBs don't have the speed needed to deal with NCC's running game once they hit the 2nd level. It still would've resulted in a win with at least a 3 TD differential for NCC but at least half the game would've been interesting to watch.

 

I know Mount Union D is better than  Susquehanna but Mount gave up 531 yards to a team known for their D, John Hopkins. Are they going to stop NCC? Like people mentioned earlier too NCC's D has been dominant last 2 games. We'll see how it plays out

Just finished watching the MU-JH game. Most of what MU gave up was in the passing game (393 yds). JH's receivers exploited matchups throughout the game as MU's corners are both 5-8. Also there were 2-3 big plays where the WILL linebacker couldn't cover JH's best receiver and got burned. Most of JH's running game was its QB scrambling, where he got multiple 1st downs to extend drives. Judging by this game, there is no way that MU will be able to slow down NCC's offense. But they won't be overwhelmed at the same level as Susquehanna either. They have too much speed, although I think Lehnen runs for at least 150 unless MU decides to spy him. You pick your poison against NCC's offense, especially in the run game.

On offense, MU basically was able to do whatever they wanted. JH couldn't stop their run game, which opened the passing game. Hardly any pressure. Even when there was some pressure, MU's QB seemed very poised. MU has much more speed in their skill positions than Susquehanna and possibly more speed than any team NCC has faced this year. I predict that NCC's defense will still make several stops against MU that JH couldn't make, especially against the run, and NCC wins by at least 17 pts.   

Quote from: CuriousCCIWfan on December 21, 2024, 05:36:38 PMBeen watching North Central's game and they shared stats of the Susquehanna running back and how he is third in yardage in the nation...but  now against North Central he will be lucky to get 20 yards. It is frustrating to have to compare CCIW and WIAC stats with teams from other conferences. My son has had great stats for 4 years in the CCIW but he had to fight for all the yards -
his body carries the mileage and our hospital bills have too! I would love to see the stats that NCC and Wheaton teams would get playing in other conferences.

I and just venting because this game is a total beat down! Embarrassing!

Stats can definitely be misleading when you play in a below-average/average conference like the Landmark. I really only pay attention to the stats among those in the top 10 or so conferences in D3 because beyond them, their top teams and top players are mainly rolling against cupcake teams. 

Last week, when I saw Susquehanna would play NCC rather than Bethel, I suspected it would be a beatdown today. To beat NCC, you need to have a dominant D-Line...a D-Line that can make Lehnen uncomfortable. Statistically, Susquehanna was 3rd in the nation in total offense and 131st-best in total defense and 219th in passing Defense. Their defense is average at best and doesn't put much pressure on the quarterback. Today's game reminded me alot of the NCC-NPU game earlier this year and much of that had to do with how dominant NCC's D-line looked today and the physicality of their DBs made Susquehanna's WRs seem uncomfortable (Dropped passes and little to no separation).   

Bethel would've been a better match-up as they are a team that puts alot of pressure on the QB, although Lehnen and the RBs would've run wild against Bethel as their LBs don't have the speed needed to deal with NCC's running game once they hit the 2nd level. It still would've resulted in a win with at least a 3 TD differential for NCC but at least half the game would've been interesting to watch.

 

Quote from: NCC2010 on November 26, 2024, 06:05:19 PM

Quote from: New Tradition on November 26, 2024, 04:21:46 PM

Quote from: SpartanHouse4 on November 26, 2024, 04:07:57 PMNCC fans. What's the deal with Trey Madsen? He been hurt all year?

Honestly was wondering this myself.  He's been like the 5th WR.  I expected him to have a huge impact when I heard he was coming.  He's seen the field, but sparingly.  Couple catches in the games vs. Aurora and Carthage, then  1-2 every other game except Wheaton and Wash U, where he had zero.

Madsen did get hurt early in the Millikin game and then sat the next 3 games before returning against Elmhurst.  He played with the 2nd team in his return game and then in next game against IWU he played more, but only because Jack Rummell sat out. His first and only catch of the IWU game he was stripped and fumbled, leading to a IWU TD right before the half. 

Even before the injury, he was routinely the 5th wide receiver to rotate in, after Skokna, Rummell, Paradee and Myles Walton. 

Interesting that he was hyped up as a pre-season D3 1st-team all-American this year, even though he wasn't even the top returning WR in 2023 in Region 5.

Regarding the Wheaton-NPU game, so far this year, the Vikings haven't proved they can beat teams on the road (except for Augustana). They are really good at home, but they play mediocrely away from the Holmgren complex, losing to Elmhurst and Carthage---teams the Vikings were clearly better than as well as getting destroyed at NCC. It didn't surprise me that they almost pulled the upset with WashU because it was a home game, and the NPU brought their A-game. For NPU to beat Wheaton, they need to bring the same mentality they bring to their home games at McCully Stadium for them to realistically have a chance.

Even if NPU does bring their A-game, so much depends on how Wheaton's squad plays because they haven't peaked yet this year. IMHO, the Thunder are a much better team than last year (except for the O-line) especially on defense and has more potential to do damage in the playoffs than the previous 2 years (if they make it). But Wheaton still hasn't played well for an entire 4 quarters of a game in all three phases of the game. Some of that is due to injuries earlier in the year and some of that is due to Wheaton relying on some very talented underclassmen in key positions that are experiencing some growing pains  In the past, Wheaton's had the luxury where they just reloaded with talented juniors and seniors at every position, especially defense. But last year and this year, that hasn't been the case. I expect the game to be close in the first half, and then Wheaton will dominate and pull away in the 2nd half. 

Quote from: USee on October 07, 2024, 07:46:55 PMIn my opinion Wheaton has the skill players to compete with NCC now. What they don't have, and haven't had in a few years, is the dawgs up front to compete. The last two years we have been dominated by NCC's offensive line. There are no Dallas McRae, Jake Holoday, River Shindledecker types on the DL or Ryan Schwartz, Eric Stevenson as LB's. Offensive linemen like Jake Hibben, Paul Fay, Trevor Gabriell, etc.

NCC has consistently put out dominant fronts and during the Thorne years, when Wheaton was the only team with a winning record against NCC, Wheaton had fronts that were just as dominant with guys to complement. We have some guys that can play and can even dominate, but not nearly as many as we used to. 

I completely agree. The dominating defensive lines of those years also made the LB's job easier for all-American talented LBs like Stevenson and Schwartz. Wheaton's O-line was also special during those years, including last year. It allowed a gifted all-American, Giovanni Weeks, to break all of those Wheaton RB records.

I don't know the long history of Wheaton football as you do, but didn't the fathers of several of the linemen you mentioned play for Coach Swider in the 1990s? Is Wheaton missing out on the second-generation players in the trenches since Swider's retirement?   

Quote from: CarollFan on October 06, 2024, 01:17:27 PMCheck out the OL and the holes on some of these runs. As long as their OL dominates they dominate.

https://x.com/Pritzkersgunt/status/1842741244490813951?t=UFdBNeGCKNCldmcssTAWyw&s=19

The two long TD runs by Lehnen didn't happen because of the OL and the holes; they happened because Wheaton made crucial mistakes. On his first long TD run, the DE didn't hold contain on the read option. On the second long TD run, he lost discipline and overplayed it, creating a huge hole. Although that DE is super talented, he's also really young (a sophomore). Past stellar defenses of Wheaton have been comprised of upperclassmen in its front seven. Don't get me wrong, NCC's O-line was dominant and did a great job neutralizing Wheaton's pass rush, which is one of Wheaton's primary strengths.

2022 was the only year that Wheaton's D held Lehnen in check. He only averaged 2.7 yards per carry with ten carries. But they had a middle linebacker back then who spied him most of the game and was just as fast and athletic as Lehnen. Of course, you were picking your poison because Greenfield ran crazy, especially in the second half, as Wheaton had lost their SAM linebacker (already its second string) to injury earlier in the game and wasn't playing at full strength as there was a noticeable dropoff.   

It is probably larger because the incoming 2020 class (most of whom graduated last year) only had 15 players (13 of whom stayed all four years).   

DeAngelo Hardy was waived by the Ravens two weeks after they signed him.

https://ravenswire.usatoday.com/2024/05/16/baltimore-ravens-waive-deangelo-hardy-roster-nfl-free-agency-undrafted/

Quote from: Stertorous Thunder on October 30, 2023, 03:47:27 PM

Quote from: mwunder on October 30, 2023, 09:36:12 AM
The average margin of victory over the weekend was 46 points, with only one game being competitive.

Wheaton 75 - Millikin 0
Wash U 66 - Elmhurst 0
NCC 56 - North Park 0
Augie 44 - IWU 14
Carthage 30 - Carroll 27

If the Wheaton, Wash U, and North Central scores were in high school games, I would likely suspect the winning coaches of poor sportsmanship (unless maybe the third- and fourth-stringers from the winning team were doing most of the second half damage).  But when there are so few postseason spots available for at-large teams, I understand why a team might keep its foot on the gas even when the point margin exceeds 30 or 40.  Does anyone have an insider perspective on how D3 teams view blowouts like this?  I'm sure that individual games have their own unique stories, but in general do coaches take offense to getting blown out by 50+ points?  Or do they understand the situation and accept that a team in contention for an at-large bid has an incentive to run up the score and earn style points for the end-of-season decisions that must be made by the selection committee?

In Wheaton's blowout against Milliken, their All-American RB, Gio Weeks was pulled in the 2nd Q after 10 carries for 155 yards and 4 TDs. Alot of the 3rd and 4th stringers had playing time in the 4th Quarter, but they still scored 75 pts. In their blowout win against Elmhurst, Gio only carried the ball 7 times for 84 yds and 2 TDs but was pulled in the 2nd Q. In these huge blowout wins, most of the 1st stringers only played a series or two in the 3rd Q. Both games allowed their 3rd string QB playing time in the 4th Q. You're actually doing the opposite of running up the score and earning style points when you're pulling your star players in the 2nd and early 3rd Q.

Quote from: robertgoulet on October 10, 2023, 02:35:29 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on October 10, 2023, 01:34:51 PM
The North Central fans can pull out their magnifying glasses and spend time to their heart's content looking for things about the Cardinals to complain about. None of the rest of us care. None of the rest of us root for a team that's gonna come within 18 points of NCC -- and that includes Wash U, which is a very good football team, eleven days from today -- and most of us root for teams that have lost or are going to lose to North Central by a whole lot more than the 19 Wheaton was short. So all of that hand-wringing from the Napervillains is unleashing a lot of eye-rolling in other precincts of this league.

So NCC fans are no longer able to post on here about our team then? Got it.

I think you are making a good point. NCC's defense is not as dominant as it was last year. Although they still have 1st team AA Dan Lester (who is by far the best D-Line player in the conference), teams with really good O-lines can run the ball to some extent against them because this year's D-line isn't as dominant.

However, NCC's offense is better than last year's, even when losing Greenfield. Not only do they have the best Offensive Line in all of D-3, but they've added more speed in their skill positions. They are scary dominant. 

NCC's 19-point beatdown of Wheaton led to some needed personnel changes in their linebacker and safety positions. One of the changes took place during the game itself. 6th year Sr and last year's Sam LB starter Virgil Cannon had been riding the bench all of this year until after NCC scored its first 28 pts against Wheaton in the first 18 minutes of the game. Cannon comes in and ends up leading the Wheaton defense with 8 tackles and a forced fumble. Virgil's younger brother started the Elmhurst game at Strong Safety and ended up with a Forced Fumble and an interception.   And starting Will LB Clayton Reeves is finally back from injury. Reeves had over 50 tackles last year. Hopefully, with these personnel changes, Wheaton will stop giving up so many big run plays as they did in their first 4 games.

I am curious when Wash U and Augustana play NCC because Wash U's offense is dangerous and Augustana has a really good defensive front 7.  They will present their own sets of challenges to NCC. While I expect the same outcome as what happened to Wheaton (or worse), I believe they have the potential to be competitive at some level because NCC's defense isn't last year's NCC defense, which really had no weakness.  Those games will be good preparation for their playoff run. 

Last week's game against Augustana exposed the inexperience of the Defensive Ends and Linebackers of Wheaton.  Last year's front 7 were all 4th and 5th-year Srs that didn't give up the big run plays (except a few against NCC in the 4th Q) all season like they already have this year. Even though 2022's front seven had 6 new starters compared to this year's breaking in 5 new starters in the front 7, their experience as 2nd string backups in 2021, 4 years of practice reps, and a freak athlete at MLB created a solid bend-but-don't-break defense that didn't make big mistakes in the run game. While I do think Wheaton will correct their mistakes from last week, I expect the NCC run game to find other chinks in the armor of the inexperienced Wheaton front 7. This is a year that I wish Wheaton was playing NCC towards the end of the season rather than this Saturday.

Wheaton's offense has the potential to be better than last year's, even though they don't have Galiardi semi-finalist Will Bowers back at QB.  Thorson is a top-tier QB in the conference along with a dominating O-Line, an all-American RB, and its best receiving corps they've had since I first started following Wheaton Football 6 years ago.

IMHO, Wheaton's best chance scenario is its offense sustaining long scoring drives to keep one of the top D-3 offenses in the country off the field and disrupt their rhythm. I had more faith in Wheaton's chances in previous years because Wheaton had top 10 D-3 defenses in 2019 and 2021 and a better offense in 2022 than in previous years. 

On paper, it doesn't look too good for Wheaton to pull off the upset. We'll see what happens this Saturday.

Quote from: BLynn on August 24, 2023, 05:36:26 PM
I heard Olivet Nazarene (NAIA) and Wheaton were scrimmaging today or tonight. Did anyone watch? Would like to know how ONU, as a mid-level NAIA team matched up with a Top 10'ish D3 program.

I heard through a football parent that Wheaton was ahead 20-6 when they pulled their starters in the first half. At halftime, Wheaton was ahead 20-13 and by the end of the 5 quarters that they played during the scrimmage, ONU finished on top, 29-22 scoring the majority of their pts against Wheaton's 3rd and 4th string players.

Also heard it was a sloppy game because of the extreme humidity.

One big question answered was the QB play. Ben Thorson had a decent outing.