FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

I think if he makes it back next year it's the gold watch.  This year is just a pen and pencil set.

[New Tradition]

 

Is he eligible for a gold watch yet?

He's been at Wheaton longer than Bluto was at Faber.

HAHAHAH this one was a coffee spitter. 

[Augie6]

Augie roster has been posted.  46 Frosh, 45 Soph, 34 Junior and only 15 Seniors.  In scanning through the roster, it doesn't look like there are any 5th year seniors back, nor does it look like they have a tremendous amount of experience coming back.  Really have no idea what to expect, but with the very limited experience returning, it could be another long year in Rock Island. 

https://athletics.augustana.edu/sports/football/roster

[USee]

Augie roster has been posted.  46 Frosh, 45 Soph, 34 Junior and only 15 Seniors.  In scanning through the roster, it doesn't look like there are any 5th year seniors back, nor does it look like they have a tremendous amount of experience coming back.  Really have no idea what to expect, but with the very limited experience returning, it could be another long year in Rock Island. 

https://athletics.augustana.edu/sports/football/roster

140 total guys. I am really surprised that Alek Jacobs, QB isn't back. He took every rep but 1 in the 3 games in the spring. With 5 sophomores on the roster they must have thought he was coming back? From the 2019 team it looks like just 3 players (no starters) on offense from their 2 deep and on defense 1 starter and 7 backups from their 2 deep.

[Augie6]

Augie roster has been posted.  46 Frosh, 45 Soph, 34 Junior and only 15 Seniors.  In scanning through the roster, it doesn't look like there are any 5th year seniors back, nor does it look like they have a tremendous amount of experience coming back.  Really have no idea what to expect, but with the very limited experience returning, it could be another long year in Rock Island. 

https://athletics.augustana.edu/sports/football/roster

140 total guys. I am really surprised that Alek Jacobs, QB isn't back. He took every rep but 1 in the 3 games in the spring. With 5 sophomores on the roster they must have thought he was coming back? From the 2019 team it looks like just 3 players (no starters) on offense from their 2 deep and on defense 1 starter and 7 backups from their 2 deep.

I think Jacobs may have been on the fence about coming back and decided not to.  If you read the article in the QC newspaper, they initially make it sound like there are a lot of players coming back with experience.  It then explains that a lot of the "experience" was in the 3 Spring games played this year. I fully expect this to be a .500 club at the absolute best, but we'll see as the season progresses.  Coach Bell claims there is a "lot of talent on the team", but I've heard that before and the results of those seasons certainly didn't show that.   

[USee]

Well their QB from spring isn't back, 3 of their top 5 WR (in terms of production) aren't back, and 4 of their top 7 tacklers from spring are not back.

On the plus side, their leading RB was Jacob Brooks and he average 5.8 YPR and 91 yds a game. Casey Ericson had 6 receptions for 54 yds and 1 TD in 3 games and Tim Swaney (LB) had 42 tackles including 7 TFL and 2 sacks in 3 games. Those guys are all back.

[Augie6]

Well their QB from spring isn't back, 3 of their top 5 WR (in terms of production) aren't back, and 4 of their top 7 tacklers from spring are not back.

On the plus side, their leading RB was Jacob Brooks and he average 5.8 YPR and 91 yds a game. Casey Ericson had 6 receptions for 54 yds and 1 TD in 3 games and Tim Swaney (LB) had 42 tackles including 7 TFL and 2 sacks in 3 games. Those guys are all back.

According to Coach Bell, the RB group is a strength of the team.  Swaney seems to be a productive LB.  We'll soon see about the rest.  Something I found to be a little unusual is that 3 of the 4 captains elected by the team are Juniors.  That never happened back in my day and I would guess it's pretty uncommon, even today. 

[kenoshamark]

Well, the Carthage roster still isn't up (and the coaches link is not updated either), but they have a season preview available.  Looks like a very young team.

https://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2021/8/24/carthage-football-2021-season-preview.aspx

[kenoshamark]

Carthage roster is finally up.   https://athletics.carthage.edu/sports/football/roster

I count 133 total players

Freshmen - 64
Sophomore - 26
Junior - 22
Senior - 21

10 total quarterbacks, 2 of them sophomores and apparently hoarding freshmen quarterbacks with 8 of them.

Some big freshmen offensive linemen as well.

[CardinalAlum]

NCC usually is late putting a roster out but I can confirm 170 reported to camp.  Looking forward to seeing how the QB position plays itself out.   NCC scrimmaged Chicago tonight.  Sounds like it went well.

[Next Man Up]

If quantity automatically meant quality, the Cardinals would indeed fly high this year. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. However, the odds would at least seem to suggest the probability of finding a higher number of capable players is higher with a camp roster of 170 vs. one of, say, half that.
If nothing else, a football roster of 170 should result in positive numbers in both retention, new student population, and tuition income. All highly desired marks at any tuition driven institution.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage roster is finally up.   https://athletics.carthage.edu/sports/football/roster

I count 133 total players

Freshmen - 64
Sophomore - 26
Junior - 22
Senior - 21

10 total quarterbacks, 2 of them sophomores and apparently hoarding freshmen quarterbacks with 8 of them.

Some big freshmen offensive linemen as well.

A 133-man roster is pretty much a skeleton crew by Carthage football standards.

[Gregory Sager]

One North Park newcomer who has piqued my curiosity is junior Matt Little, a 6'5, 235 QB out of Evanston. And it has nothing -- well, not much, at least -- to do with the fact that he may be the physically biggest North Park quarterback on record, bigger even than T.D. Conway. All the way back in 2015-16, when Little was a senior at ETHS, he was rated by the scouting services as a three-star prospect, and he received scholarship offers from Western Michigan, Miami (OH), Eastern Michigan, Nevada, and Bowling Green. He signed with WMU, but handed back his uniform just before the 2016 season started. No reasons were officially given by WMU's sports information department, but the press speculation was that he was dissatisfied with where he ended up on the Broncos' QB depth chart.

He re-emerged at Jackson State in 2019, but saw a sparing amount of action for the Tigers that season and wasn't with the team this past spring.

A résumé like that, however cobwebbed with age, is not something you see everyday at NPU football. Unfortunately, an injury precluded him from taking part in the scrimmage against Rockford last Saturday (or so I am told, as I was out of town on vacation), so I really have nothing to report on his current status in terms of how sharp and/or in condition he looks. But his presence has certainly created a buzz around the NPU athletic department.

Fun fact: He is a grandson of Chicago White Sox legend Minnie Minoso.

[USee]

The Thunder scrimmage Olivet Nazarene yesterday in preparation for their Sept 4 opener vs Northwestern, MN. ONU is ranked #10 in the NAIA preseason poll so it was a good test. I heard the team played well and areas of strength were confirmed and areas of improvement identified.

The Thunder have 70 players returning from their 2019 quarterfinal team and 23 of those are 5th or 6th year players. On defense they have 7 returning starters and 14 of their 22 from the 2019 2 deep. They have 3 of their 4 DL returning including D3 DPOY Dallas McRae and AA Jake Holaday along with all CCIW DE River Shindledecker. 4 starting LB's return and Daniel Herber's return from ACL surgery will allow Luke Gammachia to return to safety. The DB's are an area of concern early since no starters return, but all 4 backups to the 2019 starters are back.

Offensively they have 5 starters back from 2019 and 11 of 22 from their 2 deep.  Luke Anthony and Jeremiah Tucker are back as QB1 and QB2. Spencer Peterson returns and will play TE along with 2 other starting TE's. On the OL Jake Hibben, Gabe McGill and Wyatt Southall are all returning starters. At WR Adam Terrini is the lone returning starter. At RB they have 3 players with experience in Sam Singleton, Kyle Carter and Jack Allen.

Overall, the defense will need to have the DB's come up to speed quickly but the defensive front will be top 1 or 2 in the country. On Offense they have experience in the OL, at TE, and at QB. need to develop 2 more WR and have an RB emerge.

It's tough to gauge how good any of these teams will be since we haven't really seen most of them in 2 years and it's hard to know how the younger players will mesh and who is ultimately returning (for those who haven't posted rosters).

[Thunder Vet]

At RB they have 3 players with experience in Sam Singleton, Kyle Carter and Jack Allen.

Looks like it's confirmed that TJ Williams, who was not mentioned in the Wheaton preview either, did not return.  It's disappointing to not have a bona fide (in my opinion) D1 talent , but I recall Singleton showed flashes in the playing time he received.  Curious as well to see the offense with Taylor Graham at coordinator.