The new ‘big name’ players

Garrett Wolfe, Doug Free, Kate McCullagh and Stephanie Raymond. Gone, gone, gone and soon to be gone.

With some of NIU’s biggest names graduating after this year, it’s time to look at who will be stealing headlines in 2007.

NIU students care about football, and with Wolfe and Free leaving, the team needs a new standout. Insert Larry English. With last season’s MAC leader in sacks (Ameer Ismail, Western Michigan University) graduating, English is next in line to be the dominant force in the MAC. Last season he accumulated 12 sacks en route to earning first-team All-MAC honors.

In a different kind of futbol, Marcus McCarty is a player to take notice. In his junior season, McCarty dominated the MAC to the tune of a conference-leading 11 goals. As a senior next season, look for McCarty to help NIU push for a repeat as MAC champions.

Then there is baseball’s Scott Simon. True, he is a senior and will be gone, but his season hasn’t started yet. Simon is looking to add to his NIU record hits total, carrying 245 into the 2007 season. He also earned MAC West Player of the Week awards twice in March, becoming the first Huskie to accomplish such a feat, while batting .329 on the season.

— Andy Pruski

Replacing Mr. Wolfe

Metaphorically speaking, former NIU running back Garrett Wolfe must wear size 50 shoes, because they are impossible to fill.

Accounting for nearly half of NIU’s total offense last season, Joe Novak and crew have to do something they have dreaded — find Wolfe’s replacement.

So who will it be?

Wolfe’s backup last year, sophomore-to-be Justin Anderson, ran for 123 yards on 25 attempts with one touchdown in 11 games.

Standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 203 pounds, Anderson is a little larger than Wolfe’s 5-7, 177-pound frame. But with a 4.51 40-yard dash, Anderson is still able to retain Wolfe-like speed.

Senior-to-be Cas Prime seems to be the most ideal of the candidates in terms of physical attributes. At 6-1 and 215 pounds, Prime is the largest of the crop of running backs and is a punishing runner, presenting a pronounced change from Wolfe.

But Prime’s career at NIU has been marked by injuries and last season Prime only rushed for 150 yards on 35 attempts in nine games.

Junior-to-be Montell Clanton is another candidate. Clanton had the highest yards-per-carry on the team with 8.5 and rushed for 107 yards on 12 carries with one touchdown in four games played.

Clanton’s size (5-9, 185) is the closest to Wolfe’s, plus he started last season’s spring game when Wolfe was injured.

Other running backs such as Ricky Crider, Issac Bobo, Dwight Morris and Matt Schiffler also cannot be ruled out.

— Andrew Hansen

Buildin’ on up

It’s all coming together for the newly constructed Yordon Center.

What once looked like a skeletal collection of steel beams on concrete slabs has been transformed into a sprawling facility.

No doubt aided by an unusually warm winter, the Yordon Center is set to be ready for fall 2007.

A live Webcam and a collection of photos on niuhuskies.com track the progress of the newest athletic facility, which will enclose the north end zone at Huskie Stadium.

Combined with the luxuriously modern accommodations of the Convocation Center, NIU has two state-of-the art facilities to offer potential recruits. Facilities that most universities would love to have on their campuses

But as NIU continues to grow in student population and national athletics stature, one must wonder: Does Athletic Director Jim Phillips have anything else on his wish list?

While many rumors have been flying, no one seems certain or eager to spill whether or not new facilities are in NIU’s future.

Stay tuned …

— James Nokes

Rising from the shadows

While the “bigger” sports like football and men’s basketball have sputtered, NIU’s secondary sports brought home titles in 2006 and should be something to look for in 2007.

The women’s basketball team has an overall record of 11-4, and is in serious contention for a MAC title. It doesn’t hurt that the team is 6-1 at home.

Women’s soccer will return all but two players from a team that reached the MAC championship in 2006. Its counterpart, the men’s soccer team, won the MAC championship this past season and looks to contend for the title again in 2007.

Baseball’s young team got much-needed experience last year and will return a number of talented players, including NIU’s career hits leader Scott Simon.

Despite the key position losses of record-holders Kate McCullagh and Gina Guide to graduation, the Huskies still return a talented team who will try to defend their MAC West regular-season title.

Also, don’t forget about wrestling and its four nationally ranked grapplers.

— Brandon Mangia

A warming seat?

February 26, 2006, marks the last time www.firerobjudson.com was updated.

But the site might see a resurgence in the new year, as the NIU men’s basketball team lost 11 of its 12 games since December — including nine in a row at one point.

NIU did challenge itself during the losing streak, as it played teams such as Michigan, Bucknell and Winthrop. And the overall record of the nine teams that the Huskies fell to during the streak is a healthy 91-61, a winning percentage of .599.

But NIU head coach Rob Judson is sitting on the last year of his six-year contract with NIU and is holding the second-worst overall record in the MAC.

In his six years at NIU, Judson has a 71-89 overall record and only led the Huskies to two winning seasons.

Not all is bleak, though. With a MAC record of 1-2, NIU is tied for third in the West with Western Michigan, and there are still 13 conference games left to play.

That leaves the Huskies still in contention to make a repeat as MAC West champions as Judson led the team to its first ever MAC title — regular season or championship.

But despite the regular season success, NIU was bounced from the MAC Tournament in the first round by Toledo. Under Judson, NIU has never made it to the MAC Championship game.

All this combined along with how the team finishes the season could either heat up or cool down the seat Judson sits on.

— Ben Gross

Monsters still roaring

True, they have little to do with NIU, but the Chicago Bears still deserve to be on the list.

For those of you who might have been in a coma the past few weeks and just awoke, the Bears are in the playoffs.

Actually, the NFC Championship game, to be exact.

Despite constant questioning over quarterback Rex Grossman’s abilities, the Bears beat the Seattle Seahawks 27-24 in overtime this past Sunday and will host the New Orleans Saints this upcoming Sunday. The game is set to kickoff at 2 p.m.

After a dismal loss to the Green Bay Packers put a damper on 2006, 2007 has the makings of a banner year for “Da Bears.”

Even if Chicago doesn’t make it past the championship game, the team has already won its first playoff game since 1995, and it should return most of its players for the start of next season.

But it sure would be nice if they made it past next Sunday.

P.S. 2007 might not be a bad year for a few other sports teams in Chicago, such as the Bulls, White Sox and Cubs.

Well, maybe not the Cubs.

— Sean Ostruszka