9/17/2002 - Football
Let The Brain Games Begin By Bob Socci
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Even before the Midshipmen confronted nationally-ranked North Carolina State in their home opener, it figured the next two dates on the schedule would be important barometers of a young season in the making.
Unlike the Wolfpack, which left Annapolis with a 65-19 victory seemingly bound for a fourth bowl game in five years, both Northwestern and Duke are positioned very close to Navy on the college football landscape.
All three have elite academic profiles, in which the marriage of "student" and "athlete" isn't considered an oxymoron.
And each is a program trying to set aside struggles of the recent past in search of a successful future on the field.
Strangely enough - and yet fittingly - the respective schedule makers have conspired to form a very interesting round-robin of sorts involving the Wildcats, Blue Devils and Midshipmen.
Between last Saturday, this weekend and the one that follows, Northwestern, Duke and Navy meet one another. For the Mids both games opposite the Cats and Devils unfold in Annapolis.
Granted, neither of these upcoming encounters is likely to attract much, if any, national attention. The final scores will probably be slotted among those scrolling across the bottom of your TV screen, with nary a mention from Bristol or New York.
But, all things considered, each is the kind of matchup that should appear every fall - a pairing of like-minded institutions whose athletes are expected to both attend class and play with class.
While Northwestern and Duke hail from two high-profile athletic conferences, the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast, respectively, their combined undergraduate enrollment is fewer than 14,000. Though an average of 7,000 students is nearly twice the number of Midshipmen, it is less than half of NC State's.
And in July 2001, when USA Today presented its inaugural NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Awards, Northwestern and Duke tied for the top overall graduation rate among Division I-A student athletes.
Ninety percent of the so-called Wildcats and Blue Devils earned degrees, joining those alumni who've long distinguished themselves from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Concerning their football fortunes, Northwestern and Duke met on Saturday in Evanston, Ill., where the Wildcats pulled off a 26-21, come-from-behind win. Rallying from an eight-point deficit in the final quarter, NU halted an eight-game losing streak, while the Blue Devils incurred their 25th loss in 26 games.
Now, the Mids (1-1) - idle a week ago - await the arrival of Northwestern (1-2), having lost 21 of their last 23 contests. And hosting a Big Ten opponent for the first time since 1950 - when the Wildcats beat the Midshipmen in Baltimore - Navy seeks to end its 10-game home losing streak.
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WILDCATS BY THE WEEK:
* In its defeat of Duke on Saturday, Northwestern was penalized a school-record 16 times. Duke fullback Alex Wade rushed for 134 yards, but the Blue Devils committed three turnovers in the final 20 minutes and were unable to expand or maintain an eight-point lead.
* Meanwhile, red-shirt freshman Brett Basanez may have resolved what had been a three-week quarterback quandary for the Wildcats. After NU used three quarterbacks - making five changes at the position - a week earlier vs. TCU, Basanez completed 21-of-34 passes for 245 yards and rushed for two touchdowns against the Blue Devils.
* One such score occurred as Basenez capped the game-winning drive.
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GANG(S) GREEN:
* The former may emerge in Purple and White, the latter to be known as Blue Devils. But inside the attire of Navy's next two opponents are two very green teams. Combined, the Northwestern and Duke rosters feature just 10 seniors. Two teams! Ten seniors!
* More than 20 freshman - many of whom red-shirted in 2001 - appeared for Northwestern in its first three games. In fact, the Wildcats started five freshman and eight sophomores each of their first two encounters - a 52-3 defeat at Air Force and 48-24 loss to TCU.
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THE CENTURY MARK:
* The Wildcats allowed 100 points in their first two games, the aforementioned losses to Air Force and TCU.
* In falling to the Falcons, 52-3, in the season opener, Northwestern allowed 523 total yards, including 476 rushing. Air Force scored on five of its first six possessions en route to a 45-0 lead.
* A week later, the Wildcats had a 7-0 lead and were situated first-and-goal at TCU's one-yard line, only to settle for a field goal. The 10-0 advantage soon evaporated as the Horned Frogs capitalized on seven turnovers and, at one stage, produced 41 unanswered points in a 48-24 win.
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FOURTEEN EQUALS TWELVE:
* Following the cancellation of last year's scheduled meeting of the Mids and Northwestern in mid-September, Navy finished the 2001 season with an abbreviated 10-game schedule.
* This year, like teams throughout the nation, Navy is taking advantage of a NCAA rule that allows Division I-A schools to schedule 12 regular-season games in years that feature 14 Saturdays between the final weekend of August and the end of November.
* During the next two decades, the NCAA will permit 12 regular-season games in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2019.
* This year's calendar enabled the Mids to host five games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in addition to their annual pairings with Notre Dame (in Baltimore) and Army (at The Meadowlands).
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TELLING TIME BY SEMESTERS OR QUARTERS:
* Regarding another time-related matter, many Division I-A schools - including Northwestern - operate on a quarter system, which differs dramatically from academic calendars split into semesters.
* For example, by the time they take the field this Saturday, the Midshipmen will complete nearly a full month's worth of classes. Meanwhile, Northwestern's players will compete in their fourth game without attending a single class this fall.
* Schools with the quarter system - featuring the likes of Ohio State, Washington and Oregon - don't begin classes until late September.
* In July, Northwestern head coach Randy Walker told Tom Dienhart of The Sporting News: "I think (the quarter system) is a great advantage. When I was at Miami (Ohio) - a semester school - within a 10-day period, you would have started classes and also started practice. I though it was very demanding and unsettling."
* Walker specifically cited the challenge facing freshman, who must begin their college athletic and academic careers at the same time they are trying to get acclimated to a campus culture.
* Of course, at the Naval Academy, first-year students must make the transition from Plebe Summer to football practice to the start of the academic year within a couple of weeks.
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