FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

What's happening at North Park these days?

I am sure when there is something to report from NPU we will hear it from Sager. For now it's just practices 

[USee]

North Central has updated their roster and added the freshmen. Their WR position, which had just 5 returning players, is now 17 deep with the addition of 12  freshmen WR's. Cardinal fans will hope a couple of those are Broc Rutter type freshmen. They do have one Freshman transfer from Univ of Wyoming.

It's critical for NCC to get production from that group.

[AndOne]

Catching footballs won't be a problem for the Cardinals. The coaches have borrowed the baseball team's pitching machine, and are using it to fire fastballs to the Cardinal receivers during practice.

[CardinalAlum]

North Central has updated their roster and added the freshmen. Their WR position, which had just 5 returning players, is now 17 deep with the addition of 12  freshmen WR's. Cardinal fans will hope a couple of those are Broc Rutter type freshmen. They do have one Freshman transfer from Univ of Wyoming.

It's critical for NCC to get production from that group.

I have been slow to comment as you always have to see who actually shows up on day one, but this is an exciting and athletic group of first year receivers for the Cardinals.   There will be a few that will open some eyes I believe.

[matblake]

Somebody posted this over on the Northwest Conference page.  Looks like the CCIW has 4 of the top 5 in Illinois. 
http://www.reviews.org/college-football-wins/

[kenoshamark]

The Kenosha News had a brief article and a couple pictures from a Carthage practice.  Noted there were 152 players that reported to practice last Friday.  The roster isn't up yet on the website, but if you do go there, they completely redid the athletic website with some major rebranding.

[matblake]

Wheaton roster and geographic breakdown posted
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2017/8/17/25-states-are-represented-on-the-2017-thunder-football-roster.aspx

[USee]

Thunder will host Monmouth in a live scrimmage this coming Saturday in Wheaton.

[USee]

article on IWU, their preparations for UWW and the latest on the QB battle.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/early-schedule-mandates-sense-of-urgency-from-iwu-football-team/article_755a6da2-4106-55e9-92bb-5998dd993679.html

[matblake]

Thunder will host Monmouth in a live scrimmage this coming Saturday in Wheaton.

Here's hoping for safety on both sides.  I know in recent years they've done a good job with the "controlled scrimmage" with Wabash.  I wonder if they will use the same format.  If Monmouth is to be the new scrimmage partner, it's at least a more comfortable distance for both schools to travel. 

[matblake]

article on IWU, their preparations for UWW and the latest on the QB battle.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/early-schedule-mandates-sense-of-urgency-from-iwu-football-team/article_755a6da2-4106-55e9-92bb-5998dd993679.html

Yikes! I knew they were playing Whitewater, but that early schedule is trial by fire.  Also, if they're already talking about not overlooking NWU and NP, the coaches must really be emphasizing that.  Wonder if that is just "Coachspeak."  Only they know for sure. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park scrimmaged Rockford last night at the newly-returfed Hedstrand Field. (I don't know if the definition of "controlled scrimmage" refers to kickoff and punt returns being strictly limited to the kicking and catching aspects of the plays, but, if so, then this was a controlled scrimmage.) The Vikings won, 14-0, but the margin should've been bigger than that. NPU drove 70 yards at one point down to the RU five and ended up going four-and-out because the O-line couldn't get sufficient push against a valiant Regents goal-line stand. And the Vikings also missed a field goal.

But their dominance was pretty thorough, as they held the Regents to under a hundred yards of offense. RU averaged only 2.7 yards per play to North Park's 4.3. The Vikings defense completely shut down Rockford's two best returning weapons, thousand-yard rusher Chance Manning (three carries for four yards and one catch for two yards) and ten-touchdown-catches WR Mar Sean Vercher (zero catches), who was thoroughly blanketed by Vikings CB David Simmons. On offense, Enrique Moises Menendez looked like he's picking up right where he left off last season as NPU's warhorse, rushing for 57 yards on eight carries, while speedy sophomore Jeremiah Wright looked he's going to be a great change-of-pace back in the running game and as a receiver in the Bronco set, gaining 58 yards on 15 carries and catching three passes for 18 yards.

The big question of the night was how the Vikings would look at the most important position on the field in their first outing of the post-T.D. Conway era. With Conway graduated and the only other QB in the program with varsity experience, Jace Bankord, having transferred to Beloit, the NPU coaching staff is left with a large but inexperienced pool of signal-callers. The North Park JV team used five QBs last season, with Ian Starkey and Anthony DiNardo basically being 3A and 3B on the depth chart behind Conway and Bankord. Starkey didn't come back this year, and one of the other QBs was moved to wide receiver, so there's basically three returnees and two freshmen battling for the position. DiNardo was last night's starter, but one of the two freshmen, 6'4, 205 Frank Mauigoa, played with the first team as well. Mauigoa, who owns all of the passing records in Samoa's high-school league, is a player that the NPU coaching staff has actively pursued for a couple of years, and he looks like he has some serious talent. Both DiNardo and Mauigoa looked good, and I think that the Park might have a genuine quarterback controversy on its hands.

All in all, the Vikings didn't look bad for what is still a pretty young team that's slotting in several new faces in the two-deep. But last night needs to be taken with, not a grain, but an entire barrel of salt. Rockford went 1-9 last season in an inferior league, and, while the NACC has yet to release a preseason poll, my guess is that the league's coaches will slot the Regents to bring up the rear in the standings again. Had this been a regular-season game, NPU would've been rightly disappointed to only win 14-0.

My optimism regarding the Vikings is limited. There were a half-dozen key players from last year who were expected to be standouts on this year's team who didn't come back this year, and I'm not including Devin Childress (who only played in three games in 2016) among them. That's the kind of attrition that has always strangled this program in the cradle from year to year. My offhand guess is that the CCIW coaches have made a more accurate forecast for North Park than USee has, although, of course, I would dearly love to be proven wrong about that.

[matblake]

(I don't know if the definition of "controlled scrimmage" refers to kickoff and punt returns being strictly limited to the kicking and catching aspects of the plays, but, if so, then this was a controlled scrimmage.)

That's how I've always heard of it, with sometimes the added caveat of unofficially protecting the quarterback, which all defenses claim they do anyway.

I've always heard it as scrimmage: regular game conditions throughout, controlled scrimmage: regular game conditions minus special teams outside of the actual kicking and receiving (and sometimes quarterback protection), and defined scrimmage:  where certain game situations are prescribed to each team (ie 3 and 15 at your own 20, goal line, 2 minute drill starting at the 30, etc.)

[USee]

Greg,

My projection assumed everyone was back, including Childress, so I may have been too optimistic as I didn't have any information on who was leaving.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton roster and geographic breakdown posted
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2017/8/17/25-states-are-represented-on-the-2017-thunder-football-roster.aspx

Wheaton's got North Park beat, 25 states to 10, but NPU also has two unincorporated territories (American Samoa and Guam) and two foreign countries (Germany and Sweden) represented on the roster, while WC has none in either category.

(I don't know if the definition of "controlled scrimmage" refers to kickoff and punt returns being strictly limited to the kicking and catching aspects of the plays, but, if so, then this was a controlled scrimmage.)

That's how I've always heard of it, with sometimes the added caveat of unofficially protecting the quarterback, which all defenses claim they do anyway.

Yes, I forgot to mention that they did that, too. QBs wore scrimmage vests, and the refs blew the whistle if any defender got within arm's reach of the QB when he had the ball.

I've always heard it as scrimmage: regular game conditions throughout, controlled scrimmage: regular game conditions minus special teams outside of the actual kicking and receiving (and sometimes quarterback protection), and defined scrimmage:  where certain game situations are prescribed to each team (ie 3 and 15 at your own 20, goal line, 2 minute drill starting at the 30, etc.)

In that case, NPU and Rockford played a controlled scrimmage this year, and a defined scrimmage last year.

Greg,

My projection assumed everyone was back, including Childress, so I may have been too optimistic as I didn't have any information on who was leaving.

I know that. I wasn't casting any aspersions upon your expertise, O Obi-Wan, just saying that (alas) I think that NPU's more likely to end up closer to 1-9 than to 4-6.