FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Thunderdome21]

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

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!

2019 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. 

[NCC2010]

Ya I'm not sure if injury was involved or not, a medical redshirt would make sense as to why he stated on X that he has 4 years left.

I'm rooting for him because I'm from Plainfield originally so always love to see Plainfield kids at NCC. He's also very talented or at least was when I saw him play in high school. 

[robertgoulet]

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. 

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!

[GusD]

Eligibility may not be a question as the NCAA is considering adding a fifth year of eligibility for all athletes.

[robertgoulet]

Eligibility may not be a question as the NCAA is considering adding a fifth year of eligibility for all athletes.

That means I have 4 yrs left. Time to figure out how to get that sweet sweet NIL.

[Gregory Sager]

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

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!

2019 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. 

And, just to tie this further into the CCIW, the losing coach in those two games is the new head coach at Illinois Wesleyan.

[GusD]

Getting a D2 transfer is nice, but don't be surprised if the transfer train drops a D1 guy off in Naperville during this recruiting cycle.

[Thunderdome21]

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. 

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. 

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.

[NCC2010]

Rewatched the last scoring drive for NCC last night and two things popped out. 

On the first 3rd down and 1 from the 17, Sam Pryor drove an All-American DT 7 yards off the line of scrimmage and almost to the sideline before the play ended.

And then on the crucial 4th and 1 from the 32, I noticed they moved Pryor from RG to LG so he was next to Maples, and they ran right behind both of them. 

Them moving Pryor for whatever reason reminded me how both Pryor and Maples played defensive line on the big stop against Wartburg last year in the semis, when Wartburg brought in Owen Grover to be a blocker on offense.

Not sure if either has the measurables to get a look from NFL but hope they get a chance, both Sam and Jeske were dominant all 4 years here.

[robertgoulet]

Rewatched the last scoring drive for NCC last night and two things popped out. 

On the first 3rd down and 1 from the 17, Sam Pryor drove an All-American DT 7 yards off the line of scrimmage and almost to the sideline before the play ended.

And then on the crucial 4th and 1 from the 32, I noticed they moved Pryor from RG to LG so he was next to Maples, and they ran right behind both of them. 

Them moving Pryor for whatever reason reminded me how both Pryor and Maples played defensive line on the big stop against Wartburg last year in the semis, when Wartburg brought in Owen Grover to be a blocker on offense.

Not sure if either has the measurables to get a look from NFL but hope they get a chance, both Sam and Jeske were dominant all 4 years here.

I had considered whether either of them would get a look, but they both seem far too light in the seat for it. Maples was the one I really wondered about, figuring he could move inside, but he's listed at only 263 (Pryor is 270). They've got to put on 30-40 lbs each. Thornton was listed at 298 and played a position that is tough to find good players at and he didn't get a sniff. Hard to see either of those guys getting one.

[Cardinal773]

It was kind of disappointing that Thornton didn't have any pro talk around him.  He was so, so good at center.  Mr. Automatic.

All the talk about D2 Ferris State has me wondering if D2 opponents should count for NPI in some way.  If anything, results against D2 ought to have a positive impact on your rating.  I wouldn't want D3 vs. NAIA, but D3 vs. a higher level of NCAA competition should count for something.  If that were the case, perhaps it would allow teams to fill in their schedules with some quality opponents.

A few points:

We have FBS teams playing FCS teams and winning, becoming bowl eligible because of it (I'm looking at you, NIU).

If you take an AP course, you're sometimes graded on a 5-point scale instead of a 4-point.  Why not have a win (or a close loss) vs. a higher division team count for something rather than not at all?  (Looking at you, UWLax)

The way the system is set up, no one will want to play a team just to be, for all practical purposes, disqualified from the tournament in week 1.  We've got plenty of creative people in this country.  Why can't this be a thing?

I know, I know, we've got NPI as it is for 5(?) years.  The dials as they are for another year.

[CarollFan]

Millikin announces new OC and DC.  I think DC was at IWU.

https://bvmsports.com/2025/01/10/riebock-names-new-coordinators-for-millikin-football/

[devildog29]

Mike Murray leaving Elmhurst to return to IWU as DC. 

[CardinalAlum]

Mike Murray leaving Elmhurst to return to IWU as DC. 

Now that's an interesting move....

[CarollFan]

Here's the story

https://www.iwusports.com/news/2025/1/13/football-mike-murray-returns-as-williamsons-defensive-coordinator.aspx