Wisconsin-Northern Illinois/Mr. Belding thoughts

Love the Big Ten Network. Last night after watching Friday Night Lights on DVD, I turned on the BTN's Friday Night Tailgate to find the fat guy with glasses interviewing Dennis Haskins - Mr. Belding from Saved By the Bell - at Purdue. And let me tell you, Beldo is fat! I'll be he's put on 50 pounds since the SBTB salad days; the picture at right is from 2004, and he's even heavier now. Apparently Haskins tours college campuses encouraging students to pursue their dreams. Inspirational.

At the end of the interview, Haskins delivered a great line: "Jordan! My office, now!" Mike Hall, the host, follows up with "Now that is great journalism! I feel like listening to Kasey Kasem and dancing The Sprain." Made my night.

I also love the Big Ten Network because yesterday they showed the UW-Northern Illinois game, which I missed last Saturday. Northern is obviously in bad shape, so not too much to comment on, certainly nothing negative. Some thoughts:

-Glad to see Pressley getting some carries. No reason not to use the fullback to mix things up a bit, especially when he was a successful tailback in high school. Fullback dive was always a great play in old school Madden, a quick hitter for 3-4 yards.

-Another touchdown for Garrett Graham, who I predict will be an all-Big Ten tight end in two years.

-Loved PJ’s long TD run, and my favorite part: Kyle Jefferson maintaining a block on NIU’s safety that let PJ get beyond that last level, which he needs help to do. PJ went over 1,000 yards in the game, good to be back on that track, third year in a row with a 1,000-yard rusher.

-I think UW is really going to miss Jae McFadden against Indiana.

-Glad to see Mike Newkirk get a sack and three hurries. Seems like he’s really been struggling, and not because he’s not working hard, so to see him rewarded like that was nice.

-UW’s time of possession edge: 39:37 to 20:23. Wow.

-Nice game for DeAndre Levy with 2.5 tackles for loss. It’s easy to forget he led the team in sacks last year, but he’s an important part of the team’s pass rush. The Badgers had 10 TFL overall, very encouraging.

-Shane Carter obviously needs work tackling and angles, but he’s got great ball skills. I see him being a big part of trying to contain Hardy.

-Another penalty on Langford. Didn’t expect him to regress this season.

-Good line by Larrivee when they brought Alvarez in to the box in the third quarter: “And now someone who’s popular not only here but in Nebraska.” Barry chuckled and brushed it off, but that’s a legitimate issue. Let’s discuss next week.