Welcome to the latest edition of the HuskieWire.com Q&A.
Every Thursday, I'll answer your NIU and MAC-related questions right here. Do you have a question about NIU or the MAC? E-mail your questions to me at jsahly@daily-chronicle.com and I'll answer them next Thursday.
Here are this week's questions and answers:
Tim R. asked: Do you think we were outplayed and outcoached on Saturday?
John Sahly: Outplayed? Yes. Outcoached? Not as much as you probably think.
The players themselves admitted they were outplayed by Idaho. They gave the Vandals credit and the Vandals deserve plenty of it for how they played. I'm still trying to figure out how Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle converted some of those passes, especially that back-shoulder fade route on that third-and-3 in the fourth quarter. That was a remarkable pass. I think if a coach loses a game he'll naturally say he was outcoached, but I don't think there was anything egregious about the gameplan or an in-game decision.
C Cmfp asked: Is John Hopkins a tight end now? He's been listed that way in recent game notes. If so, what caused his move from the defensive line?
JS: It appears he has been moved. He hasn't appeared on the participation chart yet this season, so you can imagine how many questions have been brought up about this move. The NIU coaches really aren't afraid to move anyone for any sort of reason and this might be a move to get a little depth at tight end with the elbow injury to Jason Schepler and Reed Cunningham coming down with the flu last week.
C Cmfp: There's been a big shuffling of bowl alliances lately as each conference is examining their bowl options. How has this affected the MAC? Will there be more bowl opportunities for MAC teams?
JS: I spoke with MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher about bowl opportunities at MAC media day in Detroit and he said the MAC's focus was on securing the three bowl partnerships with Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (I feel weird just typing that), the GMAC Bowl and the International Bowl and basically, the MAC wasn't going to pursue securing a primary tie-in because that was the focus. The MAC has, of course, secured those partnerships and Steinbrecher said they would try get an additional secondary tie-in, so we'll see what comes of that.
I think Steinbrecher might also be focused on fixing the reputation of MAC basketball, which definitely needs his help.
C Cmfp: Why is there so little news on the recruiting front this year? Are there commits we don't know about?
JS: I really don't go into a whole lot of recruiting coverage. If there is a local product that we know about, i.e. DeKalb's Jordan Threloff in basketball, then the Daily Chronicle is all over it. My perspective on it is that if you're going to cover recruiting and do it right, you either have to jump into the deep end and ask the same questions every week to 50 high school kids or you sit back and enjoy the ridiculousness over the shock (shock! I tell you) of how 17-year-olds changing their mind becomes front-page news.
As a side note, though, who had better coverage of National Signing Day at NIU than us? (Feature story the day before, blog updated multiple times in the morning, a news story, column and capsules on each recruit, a Google map showing NIU's recruiting areas, a live, interactive chat that afternoon, plus video from Jerry Kill's news conference. I'm exhausted just thinking about it again and looking forward to doing it all again next time as well.) So we do have some recruiting coverage here.
Everyone knows the two commits NIU has at this point. That number will jump and then really go up as the season concludes. As I've written before, NIU takes its time and that's its style and to answer your question, I haven't heard anything more about any new commits.
