Joe Sports

This is my 21st fall covering football at the Daily Herald. Perhaps the scariest thing I’ve seen – other than some gruesome injuries – happened in Sept. 1996.

The year after Northwestern went to the Rose Bowl, I covered the nationally ranked Wildcats’ 1996 opener at Wake Forest. As I recall, Wake Forest’s stadium was being remodeled, so Northwestern had some makeshift tents in the middle of the parking lot that served as the locker room.

Hey O&B gang,

Illinois has played 109 games in the 2000s. Here’s where Saturday’s 30-0 loss at Ohio State ranks in various categories according to my handy-dandy spreadsheet:

Zero points:
--First time in 39 games (Rutgers in 2006), which also means it’s the first time in Juice Williams’ 37 consecutive starts. It’s Illinois’ third shutout this decade.

Fewest points in back-to-back games against FBS teams:
--5 against Purdue/Ohio State in Nov. 2005
--9 vs. Missouri/Ohio State in Sept. 2009.
--13 vs. Minnesota/Iowa in Oct. 2004.

Fewest total yards this decade:
--126 at Rutgers on 9/9/06.
--160 at No. 12 Ohio State on 11/5/05.
--170 at No. 13 Ohio State on 9/26/09.
--191 at No. 22 Purdue on 10/4/03.
--206 at No. 20 Wisconsin on 10/2/04.

When I cover a football game, I use a spreadsheet-style chart and try to keep copious notes. In addition to tracking the play and the yardage, I’ll note if somebody missed a tackle, made a great block, etc.

As an example, I made sure to jot down that fullback Mark Woodsum shoved Minnesota CB Marcus Sherels all the way from the 3-yard line into the end zone on Arby Fields' touchdown run in the second quarter on Saturday.

Hi all,

So I write this column about Northwestern running back Jacob Schmidt in Saturday's Daily Herald. Among the facts I include in the piece? Schmidt is one of just three Caucasian tailbacks on scholarship in the Big Ten.

It's an interesting fact...but it's an incorrect fact. This is what happens when you count on your brain to carry you through.

To determine the members of Schmidt's exclusive club, I scoured the roster of every Big Ten team and made a list of every white running back (walk-on and scholarship). Alas, I decided not to check Northwestern's roster because I know its depth chart pretty much by heart.

Three things for the weekend and beyond:

1) Port Washington, Wis., point guard Josh Gasser chose Wisconsin over Northwestern and Northern Iowa.

The upshot: The Wildcats hoped to team the 6-foot-4 Gasser with new four-star recruit Jershon Cobb, a 6-4 wing player from Decatur, Ga. Instead, Gasser gets the scholarship that Bolingbrook's Diamond Taylor wasted when he was caught burglarizing a UW dorm.

2) UIC suspends senior point guard Spencer Stewart indefinitely for a violation of team rules.

The good news for Northwestern? Senior cornerback Sherrick McManis and junior middle linebacker Nate Williams aren't on Northwestern's injury report that was released this afternoon.

That suggests both are good to go for Saturday's Big Ten opener against Minnesota -- and that's big news because both were missed during last week's loss at Syracuse. Backup running back Jeravin Matthews also can't be found on the injury list. The sophomore speedster has been out since early in the Towson opener.

Though he was one of just four wide receivers dressed for the Bears’ first two games, Rashied Davis had next to nothing to do with the passing game. In his handful of offensive snaps, he didn't have any passes thrown his way. That’s a steep drop from last year’s pace, when the 30-year-old made 27 of his 35 catches in the first half of the season.

Since his former role doesn’t seem to be returning any time soon, this means Davis’ primary contributions must come on special teams. To be specific, as a gunner on the punt coverage team. Whether there are one or two opponents lined up across from him when Brad Maynard punts the ball, Davis is expected to be downfield to make the tackle.

Approximately five months after DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright revamped his staff -- bringing in Tracy Webster, David Booth and Billy Garrett to replace Gary DeCesare, Ramon Williams and Scott Wainwright -- the Blue Demons have received their first two commitments and they look like excellent fits.

Brandon Young, a 6-foot-3 point guard from the Friends School of Baltimore, and Moses Morgan, a 6-5 swingman from Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, saw a ton of minutes available in the Blue Demons' backcourt and decided to seize them.

Let’s start with this tease: While sitting in Welsh-Ryan Arena on Monday afternoon, somebody affiliated with the Northwestern basketball team declared, “We’re going to average five dunks a game this year.”

Now that I have your attention, who knew there could be so much going on with Northwestern basketball on the first day of fall?

For starters, four-star swingman Jershon Cobb (a senior at Columbia High School in Decatur, Ga.) committed to the Wildcats on Sunday night. Rivals.com ranks Cobb as the nation’s No. 90 player in the Class of 2010, but Scout.com doesn’t go quite that crazy. Scout calls him a three-star recruit who’s the 50th-best shooting guard in the class.

Hunter Hillenmeyer could have picked a better opponent than Pittsburgh for his first start at middle linebacker since 2004.

In fact, due to his new job description as the Bears’ primary defensive communicator, the seventh-year veteran could have picked about 30 better opponents.

“I’m definitely glad to have that one done with, especially against a team like Pittsburgh,” Hillenmeyer said after the Bears rallied for a 17-14 victory at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon. “They do a lot of stuff that really tests all your keys (by) moving guys around. Lots of misdirection stuff. And for linebackers, that sometimes can have you spinning like a top out there. I’m glad we settled down.”