[NU Sports] An NU double-header

[Tom Maycock]

I was fortunate enough to take in both the Spring Game and the Women's
Lacrosse game vs. Johns Hopkins on Sunday, and had a great time at
both. 

The Lacrosse team totally dominated JH, with some young players doing a
lot of the damage. This team looks to be a contender for at least the
next couple of years. 

The fan turnout was a pleasant surprise, with both (small) grandstands
filled up by the time we arrived, and many more fans spread up and down
both sidelines. 

Couple more home games on the schedule, and a good possibility of
hosting the first two playoff rounds again. Highly recommended if you
are in the area and haven't taken in a game yet.


As for football, it was nice to see NU actually have a spring game for
a change, and on a beautiful day for football at that. 

For the most part, I was encouraged by what I saw. Testing out the QB's
was clearly a big focus, as most of the plays called were either passes
or designed QB runs. 

The good news is that to my eyes, all 3 QB's showed a lot of potential.
Brewer was downright spectacular at times running the ball, and
completed some nice passes. Bacher probably showed the best zip and
touch throwing the ball. Kafka was perhaps the most intriguing of the
three--he had some nice throws, and showed some surprising speed on one
long scramble. 

I don't envy the coaches having to pick one guy and run with him--it's
so hard to know what any of them might accomplish with a few starts
under their belt. I'm sure many mistakes will be made, and will
probably cost us some wins in '06. But I would say the future looks
bright at the QB position.

If I had to guess, I'd say Bacher would be the most likely starter to
open the season. But Brewer is going to get a lot of touches, one way
or another.

The injury to Roberson was scary, because we could see his knee/ankle
getting bent awkwardly as he was going down. Fortunately, it didn't
seem to end up being nearly as bad as I initially feared. And it was
very disappointing to hear that Jordan is having hamstring problems
again--I was really looking forward to a Sutton-Jordan 1-2 punch. We'll
see.

The #1 defense looked pretty solid. It appears they are still trying to
find the other CB opposite Cole, and Walker was lamenting the fact that
Kadella, Wooten, and a couple other guys had been injured and unable to
do much this spring. Obviously a lot will hinge on whether the D can
improve this eason.

Let's see, what else---Howells looked good on several short FG and PAT
kicks, but had one really woeful 45-yard attempt. There weren't a lot
of punts, but a young kid (Daly or Daley I think) had one monster punt
that drew a big round of applause. 

All in all, it was good to see the Cats back on the field, and the
energy level seemed good. Lots of question marks ahead, but I'm fairly
optimistic about '06, and especially about '07.

Tom