LB Pat Schiller has agreed to terms w/ the Atlanta Falcons. Schiller has always been an extremely productive part of the defense and made a huge comeback after injuring his knee in 2010.

WR Nathan Palmer has agreed to a free agent deal with the San Francisco 49ers. He was Harnish's #1 target his entire career and had an extremely good pro day running in the 4.3s.

C Scott Wedige has agreed to a deal w/ the Arizona Cardinals. The 6'4" 300 lb Wedige has been regarded as one of the best pro prospects on the Huskies for years.

Congrats to these Huskies! All of them have a very good chance at having successful careers at the next level. Especially NaPalm (did you see the 49ers offense last year?)

I felt it in the air just looking at the picks winding down. Hmm, what team would take Chandler Harnish. Wouldn't it be great if he was picked last? To garner the title of Mr. Irrelevant?

And that's exactly what happened.

The four year starter for Northern Illinois was known as a Tebow-lite quarterback in the offense-heavy Mid-American Conference. He is a winner and has tremendous presence both in the pocket and when scrambling for a first down with his feet.

It may take him some time to get used to the NFL, but playing behind another rookie in Andrew Luck should get him solid reps. Other QBs for Indianapolis: Drew Stanton and Trevor Vittatoe.

Congrats, Chandler.

UPDATE: Here is some video of the pretty awkward announcement (via @sbnation)

And here is some of the fun stuff he gets to do in Newport Beach, CA.

• Spring game Analysis: Only one spot on the offensive line is safe, the RBs need to step up, Jordan Lynch is good, the LBs are good and Tommylee Lewis is a beast.
• Bill Connelly does arguably the best offseason preview of the Huskies you'll see from anybody. He's on the MAC right now. Check it out.
• Vote for GameDay to come to NIU has a broke, so wait till they're up again to vote.
• Alex Kube invited to Vikings minicamp and Xavier Silas signs with the Philadelphia 76ers in preparation for the playoffs. Always good to see Huskies with pro aspirations. Should be interesting to see where players end up this weekend in the draft and through free agency. Harnish expects to be drafted in the 5th or 6th round of the draft.
• After reading over 4,000 books, the reward for these kids is TO BE READ TO MORE by NIU football players Chandler Harnish and Adam Kiel.

SPRING GAME SUMMARY

• QB Jordan Lynch takes over in NIU spring football game - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
• Northern Illinois football: QB Jordan Lynch stars in spring game - Chicago Tribune
• QB Jordan Lynch, NIU offense gives little preview of what's to come - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star
• Huskie Wire | The Natural: Lynch shines at scrimmage
• Red Defeats White 31-6 with Lynch in Charge - Northern Illinois Official Athletic Site
• Photos: Northern Illinois spring football game | Daily Chronicle
• Huskie Wire | Spring game notes: Lynch takes over at QB

VIDEO

• NIU spring football game: Dave Doeren
• NIU spring football game: Jordan Lynch

Continue reading this post »

SpringFest is April 21st and will be the best day of your life up to this point. Be there.

Here is the most recent news for your consumption:

Santa was a beast towards the end of the season last year, but where will he fit in next season?

Monday's news and notes: Everybody was "really good", especially Martel Moore (duh) & every running back. Everything has been installed that they wanted to have installed on offense and defense.

The official site says "MOMENTUM SHIFTS" about the scrimmage, which means that the offense finally got it together against the defense.

Offense does good things! Lynch being a leader! A bunch of skill players but no standouts at RB! Questionable offensive line!

McIntosh improving as Lynch's backup.

LYNCH WILL COOK OFFENSIVE LINEMEN MEAT IF THEY DO GOOD ON FOOTBALL FIELD.

Offense revving up, minor injuries around.

With Tyler Loos & Jared Volk out, the OL still making progress.

Expect to see TommyLee Lewis all over the field next season.

Ryan Brown & Tyler Pitt splitting time @ LT and Michael Gegner w/ Andrew Ness close behind at C.

OC Mike Dunbar making progress, Jhony Faustin out for the spring w/ a broken ankle.

[O/T] CRAZY BASKETBALL DRAMAS

Been a little behind lately, so here it goes. Doeren says that around 50% of what he wanted to accomplish this spring has been installed. Let's take a look at the progress, shall we? Two more weeks till the Spring Game.

• How does Jamison Wells juggle both his football and baseball careers at the same time? Should he just focus on one sport if he wants to be successful?
• NIU's second spring scrimmage was sloppy with penalties and turnovers. Is Leighton Settle "settling" himself in at the RB position?
• An official article in which Dave Doeren says that QB Jordan Lynch "has swag"
• Senior DT Nabal Jefferson is out for the spring with a foot fracture. More on Settle and Lynch performing well. Yet another media platform where I can see the "swag" quote.
• Seeing reps at TE are Luke Eakes, Tim Semisch and DeVonte Majors. Jason Schepler will be back from his ACL injury in the fall. Will this group of athletic TEs finally make that impact NIU fans have been hoping for for years from the positon?

Continue reading this post »

We have releases from the official site and HUSKIE WIRE. We knew the non-conference slate, but with the reduction of Temple from the MAC conference they had to switch a lot of things around.

In terms of non-conference, Army is a huge trap game before getting Kansas at home, the biggest game in Huskie Stadium in years. Army has one of the best teams they've had in a long, long time.

For the conference schedule, it's fairly tame.

2012-2013 SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent / Event	Location	Time
09/01/12	vs. Iowa	Chicago, Ill. (Soldier Field)	TBA
09/08/12	vs. Tennessee-Martin	DeKalb, Ill.	TBA
09/15/12	at Army	West Point, N.Y.	TBA
09/22/12	vs. Kansas	DeKalb, Ill.	TBA
09/29/12	vs. Central Michigan *	DeKalb, Ill.	TBA
10/06/12	at Ball State *	Muncie, Ind.	TBA
10/13/12	vs. Buffalo *	DeKalb, Ill.	TBA
10/20/12	at Akron *	Akron, Ohio	TBA
10/27/12	at Western Michigan *	Kalamazoo, Mich.	TBA
11/03/12	vs. Massachusetts *	DeKalb, Ill.	TBA
11/14/12	vs. Toledo *	DeKalb, Ill.	8:00 p.m. CT
11/23/12	at Eastern Michigan *	Ypsilanti, Mich.	TBA

It The homeslate looks entirely beatable, with CMU probably being the toughest test. We'll be motivated to beat them after last year's fiasco but it does take place after the KU game.

The road is where NIU might struggle with a much less experienced offense. Ball State will be tricky always with Lembo in charge, WMU's Cubit will be fighting for his job and a potential letdown in the season ender @ EMU with Ron English still in charge.

I especially like the break right before the Toledo game, which happens to land on a Wednesday. The final game of the season will take place on the Friday before Thanksgiving. No one will be in Ypsilanti for that one.

What are your thoughts on the schedule next season?

Here is today's report per HUSKIE WIRE/Blade as usual.

It was a pretty standard day for the most part. Bass moseyed on down to Lucas County, which makes for an already miserable Thursday. Plead not guilty, yada, yada. But then there's this:

According to a report from Toledo Blade staff writer Erica Blake, judge Ruth Ann Franks "ordered a monitored recognizance bond, which includes regular phone contacts, as well as drug and alcohol testing." Before ordering the bond, the judge asked what a drug test today would show.

Bass then acknowledged that marijuana would be found in his system.

"I didn't know that football players at university could smoke dope," Franks said, according to The Blade. The judge was standing in for Judge James Jensen, who was assigned the case.

UH OH. More trouble for Bass.

A few thoughts about this:

• Cool it with the weed guys. I know I did it my college days, but we didn't have two guys last season for that same reason. This is a stupid pedestal that I'm on and it's the offseason, but if I were on the team I wouldn't touch the stuff. Again, Bass is a redshirt freshman.
• How could he not have known about this drug test that was happening? Is Bass' lawyer that dumb? Did he just not inform Bass that this would happen? If he knew beforehand, then he could have taken some super-cleanser and at least got the level down to being negligible. Shocking that this came as a surprise. Or maybe it didn't. Too quick of a turnaround time possible, charges as a surprise.
  
• What is the lawyer doing not advising Bass to just keep quiet about what the test might result? He shouldn't have said anything to discriminate against himself in this situation in the first place.
• Why are we even talking about this? This is completely irrelevant to the original case. Might add to his lack of character? OR WAS HE HIGH WHEN HE KNOCKED THE BAND MEMBER DOWN? HAHAHAHAHA NO.

More from HW:

"Northern Illinois Athletics has in place a Drug Testing Policy which applies to all student-athletes," the statement read. "That policy dictates a specific course of action which NIU will now begin with football’s Jamaal Bass based on his statement today in Toledo."

Hear that? That's Bass being suspended for even more games. It's a good thing Tyrone Clark is back at OLB after losing a year of eligibility for doing the exact same thing. Somebody please keep any more of our defensive players from smoking the ganja PRONTO!

Even after two days of letting it sink in, I'm still upset with the whole situation. This is an embarrassing situation for the band, Toledo and society as a whole.

HUSKIE WIRE rang in with an article yesterday summarizing the report:

Jamal is still in school and on the football team, which is a reasonable situation to be in. No need to overreact in this sort of situation.

Then we learn a little more about the details surrounding the situation:

NIU originally suspended Bass for one game, but the punishment was extended to three games after
learning two of the band members received concussions in the incident. Toledo officials initially told Compher the band members were fine, which led to the one-game suspension.

TWO CONCUSSIONS??? THE MAC BETTER WATCH OUT FOR BASS IN 2012.

Ok, if you look at it you see Bass' shoulder pad hitting one guy. And that guy barely brazes another guy, you can see grabbing his nose or something goofy. REALLY? This caused two concussions folks. Not just mild headaches. Where was the other guy that fell down and went concussion boom?

AND THEY WERE FINE INITIALLY.

I've had concussions before and I was DEFINITELY NOT fine initially when they happened. This is a typical Adam/Craig James over-embellishment and over-pursuit of bringing somebody down with a lawsuit.

There's also this other article that throws a bunch of lawyer jargon in there and doesn't solve much. No he didn't purposely hit the guy to harm him.

Also, this never would have happened if it weren't for ESPN's cameras and the fact that @bubbaprog put the gif out there to be played and replayed over and over again.

Oh the perils of having nationally televised games on Tuesdays...