By Woodrow Carroll The visiting Purdue University football team played Illinois in Champaign Saturday, which figured to be interesting with the unsettling and hovering nature of COVID-19 hovering. The nasty virus played its unfriendly and unsettling part. The game, the Illini home opener, proved to be better than expected. Illinois
By Woodrow Carroll The Big Ten Conference made this season’s football debut Friday evening in Madison, Wis. with the University of Illinois at Wisconsin. The season opener was not pretty for Illinois. Wisconsin had things pretty much under control from start in a 45-7 victory. Illinois will seek to get
By Woodrow Carroll The Mid-American Conference (MAC) was the first conference among the 10 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) conferences to postpone football prior to this season because of COVID-19. The MAC will be the last to get back into the fray. Unless things change dramatically, it will be a bare-bones
By Bobby Narang The Northern Illinois University football team returned to the practice field Monday morning. In another twist to the football season, and sports world in general, the Huskies restarted their season after the Mid-American Conference officials reversed course and elected to have a shortened season. Northern Illinois head
By Woodrow Carroll The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) football team Saturday defeated Louisiana-Monroe, 31-6. Only those close to the UTEP Miners football program paid attention, however, the UTEP program merits a close look. We are aware of college football’s shaky and uncertain future with a nasty virus
By Woodrow Carroll The college football season takes on a stronger pulse with each passing, or running, day. How do we know? For starters, take note of the top 25 poll rankings seen in media outlets. The multi-page spreads in newspapers around the Midwest discuss the Big Ten Conference’s return
By Woodrow Carroll Two collegiate football games were played Thursday, Sept. 3. The games received little attention away from where their home sites. Given the present state of the sports world, they probably merited extra attention. UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) beat Central Arkansas, 45-35, and South Alabama edged
By Woodrow Carroll There is a strong likelihood that the collegiate football season will be a lost cause. The Fall schedule is in real danger of being a non-starter across the board. If by chance, what would have been the Fall schedule ends up being played next Spring, we have
By Bobby Narang The Northern Illinois University (NIU) football team took a pair of losses before the season even reached August. The Huskies suffered a heavy financial loss and had two of their non-conference games dropped last week when the Big Ten Conference announced it was limiting all Fall sports
By Bobby Narang Luke Juriga is not afraid of long odds. He was a two-star prospect coming out of Marmion Academy in Aurora, despite a solid build and National Football League (NFL) lineage. Juriga was named the 2014 Chicago Catholic League co-Offensive Player of the Year, then made redshirt his
By Bobby Narang Northern Illinois University head football coach Thomas Hammock is accustomed to handling tough challenges. The former Northern Illinois star running back had his stellar career cut short by a heart condition just one game into his senior season. He finished with 2,432 yards and just one of
The city government of Naperville and the North Central College campus community will celebrate North Central’s recent National Championship football championship with a rally Friday, Jan. 31. The Naperville Police and Fire Departments will lead players and coaches in a 3:30 p.m. processional from Fire Station 7, 1380 Aurora Avenue,
By Woodrow CarrollTucson, Ariz. The 2019 University of Illinois football season was difficult to understand. On the upside, among the 14 teams in the Big Ten Conference, Illinois and Rutgers each was predicted as the least likely to make it to a bowl game in media preseason forecasts. In a
North Central College in Naperville celebrates Saturday at the school the national D-III playoff championship won Friday evening.
By Woodrow CarrollTucson, Ariz. Maybe it’s Tucson, Ariz. premature to give the Mid-American Conference (MAC) a pat on the back for the way the Conference started this season’s bowl games. Still, it was a nice surprise. Two bowl games Friday kicked off the 2019-2020 run of 40 games for the
Scoring early and often against the last remaining undefeated Division III team, the North Central College football won an historic 45-14 victory over the Muhlenberg College Mules Saturday to clinch North Central’s first trip to the Stagg Bowl. The Mules boasted the Nation’s third-ranked scoring defense entering Saturday’s game at
By Woodrow Carroll My having had the good fortune and good health to cover 41 college football bowl games through last season, it is enjoyable to look back on how it all started for me. It was the 1991 Copper Bowl in Tucson, Ariz. that this writer covered his first
By Craig Lynch Quarterback Broc Rutter has started all four years for North Central College. The graduate of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville has led the Cardinals’ run through the Division III playoffs this season to Saturday’s semifinal game at 11 a.m. at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.. Rutter
By Woodrow Carroll For a football team that finished 6-6 overall and 4-5 in the Big Ten , the University of Illinois fared pretty well when the bowl assignments were passed out Sunday. The Fighting Illini, who were accorded little chance of winning the six games needed to make it
By Woodrow Carroll The Northwestern Wildcats, eased the pain of a 3-9 season. Cast in the role of a decided underdog, Northwestern, 3-9 and 1-8 in the Big Ten Conference, defeated host Illinois, 29-10, in Champaign Saturday. The conquest of the Illini not only gave the Wildcats their lone conference
