Game 1: NW vs ECU

Opening Thoughts:
Hot diggity its good to be a football fan. I don’t know about you, but this off-season was rough for me. I guess that there wasn’t really that much that happened in the world of D2 football – so there really hasn’t been much to talk about for the past 9 months. But after last years off-season, I think we could all use an uneventful time. Speaking of that, I went and saw the premier of Dream Season – a documentary about the 2011 Bearcat football team, and how they coped with the passing of Scott Bostwick. I thought it was extremely well done. If you haven’t seen it already, I recommend that you do. It is a must see for any Bearcat fan but also any football fan in general. Yours truly made a cameo or two in it too B^)

Last Weeks Recap: 
This one is going to be rather short and sweet, since there hasn’t been a game in quite some time – and like I mentioned the off-season was rather uneventful. I will talk about some of the transactions that took place since last season – at least the ones that I think will make an impact right away. The biggest addition I would have to say is the addition of the Dixon brothers to the secondary. Brandon came in at semester and was able to play spring ball. From what I understand – he dominated. His twin brother (Brian) came in this fall. Brandon has been quoted as saying that Brian is an even better CB than he is. Brian was apparently supposed to go to Kansas at one time – but I guess there was something wrong with his transcript or something, and he ended up following his brother – which is good for us. At the same time that Brandon Dixon transferred in, NW picked up David Tooley – a WR who played for Wyoming before sustaining a nasty knee injury. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, Tooley decided to hang up his cleats a few weeks ago. I guess his nagging knee injury left him frustrated that he was unable to perform at the high level that he once had. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors – as long as he never chooses to play for one of NW’s rivals that is! Last years MIAA Freshman of the Year – Bryce Enyard is not academically eligible to play this year – but from what I’ve heard, the Bearcat coaches would gladly accept him returning when he does become academically eligible. A couple of other transfers that may not make an immediate impact – but could later on would be the likes of DE Sony Theodate. Sony is a big human being – he came to NW via Cerritos CC where he was a two sport athlete – track and football. Theodate is rather new to football – I think that this will only be his 4th year playing, so he doesn’t have a lot of the mental aspects of the game down yet. But that is something that Rich Wright can teach him. I saw a big improvement in him in one week between the scrimmages. Jordan Chrisman (DE) transferred in last year from Central Arkansas and redshirted. I think that he has the potential to be a game changer for NW.  The other transfer that caught my eye was Robert Burton III out of San Francisco JC. During the scrimmage last week he made some really good moves and showed some flare. Those are the ones that have caught my eye, I’m sure that there are more and I just didn’t notice them. It will be fun to see how this year’s team comes together.

This Week’s Match up: 
NW faces the East Central Oklahoma Tigers. The Tigers had a pretty good 2011 and ended the season 8-3. They won’t be as good offensively this year as they were last, but on defense they should be able to stand their ground. Pro Scout – Josh Buchanan actually has 2 Tigers in his Top 15 from small schools – his niche scouting report. Offensively NW should be okay. They lost QB Blake Christopher – but Trevor Adams actually ended up seeing more playing time than Christopher did I believe last year anyway. As well as losing Kyle Kilgore @ TE – who really came around his senior year and had a stand out year. And of course losing Jake Soy. Although Jake was hurt a lot last year and his production numbers were obviously not the same as they had been – he was still a leader out there and will be sorely missed. The trenches is going to be a warzone this week. NW returns a very good and experienced OL, anchored by Rod Williams. But they will be going up against a very good Dline in East Central – in fact both of the Pro Hopefuls come from the Dline.  The Tigers weakness appears to be at CB. NW returns a very large and capable receiving corps. Shaw has put on a lot of muscle in the offseason and hasn’t lost a step – in fact in speaking with him, he thinks he’s might actually be faster this year than he was last. I am really hoping to see some of the other WR’s have a break out year – whether that be Hinchey, Utter, or Young, or maybe there is another guy on the team that we don’t know about that will have a great year – I will tell you in 16 weeks! Coach Dorrel has stated that he wants to shift the offense to more of a power run game than it has been recently – more to what it was like with XO and Council on the team. I think that we will see a FB play a lot more than we have recently. Simmons has put on some muscle in the off-season so he may be more of a power runner than we’ve seen out of him in the past – I really don’t know. In the first scrimmage that I watched both Simmons and Franklin didn’t play, and in the final scrimmage, it was basically the 1s & 2s against the 3s & 4s. So it’s really difficult to tell how good the NW run game is going to be.

Last year the NW Defense is not exactly what we as fans have come to expect out of the Bearcats. The D allowed over 143 yards of rushing per game. The coaches are not happy with that, and definitely do not want that to repeat itself this year. It appears that at least at this point and time the Dline will be made up of Travis Chappelear, Ryan Meyer, Matt Longacre, and Matt Meinert. I don’t know how long that will remain. I know that the Dline usually subs a lot, so the 2 deep end up getting as many snaps as the starters. I would not be surprised to see Brandon Yost move up throughout the season as well as possibly one of the transfers at DE. The Tigers strength on offense will be their run game – they have two good RB’s returning, that totaled over 1100 yards of rushing last year. NW’s strength has been their amazing LB’s the past few years. And I don’t think that that is going to change any time soon – but there are currently some health issues. DJ Gnader really came around last year – and he will definitely be the leader of the LB corps. But he was in street clothes during the last scrimmage. I suspect that he will still play. I’ve heard that Matthewson is currently hurt as well, and some others as well. It will be interesting to see exactly who plays for the Bearcats this first game. NW’s secondary last year was not the best either. In my personal opinion, the secondary has always been NW’s Achilles Heal – at least the CB’s. It will be interesting to see what Ken Gordon does to improve this area. Right now the starting CB’s are Brandon Dixon and Tyshaan Alleyne – but I would be shocked if Brian Dixon doesn’t replace Alleyne at some point this season. It looks like the starting safeties will be DeJong and Manning. I think that both of them will do excellent at that position. I would be surprised if the East Central Tigers really challenge them all that much.
As far as special teams go – I think NW will be fine. In the scrimmage a few weeks ago Todd Adolf hit a 50 yard FG. Kyle Goodburn looked good punting the other day – but kind of inconsistent. I think he punted 5 times, and 4 were great – but one looked like something that I would do – and I’m not a kicker in the slightest.

Overall, I think that NW is going to win this one – but I don’t think that it is going to be the cake walk that some think that it will be. East Central sought out NW for this game – that tells me that they are a program on the rise, and they know that if they want to be the best – they have to play the best. My prediction is NW wins this one in the 3rd quarter. NW 45 – ECU 17.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @Bearcat_Dude for all of my ramblings - sometimes they are even coherent!