On the heels of a heartbreaking double overtime defeat last Saturday, Northwestern football returns to Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium this weekend with a new signal-caller under center.
Coach David Braun has tabbed redshirt sophomore Jack Lausch as the starting quarterback when the Wildcats (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) host Eastern Illinois Saturday night.
The Panthers (1-1, 0-0 OVC) opened the season with a 45-0 defeat to Illinois and bounced back last week against fellow FCS opponent Indiana State, defeating the Sycamores 27-0. Indiana State had opened its season with a 49-0 loss to Purdue a week prior.
NU enters Saturday’s contest with a win and a loss, winning the season opener 13-6 against Miami (Ohio) before falling 26-20 to Duke last Saturday.
The game will be held in Evanston with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff time. It will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and on WGN 720 AM.
Here are three things to keep an eye on when the ’Cats take the field under the lights on Saturday night.
1. Jack Lausch steps to the plate
NU’s newest starting quarterback was recruited by Power Four programs Texas, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame in high school –– as an outfielder.
Lausch was a top 250 MLB prospect, playing football in the fall and baseball in the spring for Brother Rice High School, a Catholic school in Chicago’s South Side. He earned Chicago Sun-Times High School Football Player of the Year honors his senior year, throwing for 2,447 yards and rushing for 1,084 yards. He led his Brother Rice team to an Illinois 7A state semifinal in 2021.
“The growth we’ve seen out of Jack Lausch throughout last fall, specifically from January on, has been something that leads us to have a lot of optimism for not only this week but for the future,” Braun said.
Through two seasons with NU, Lausch has completed six of 11 passes for 78 yards, while rushing for 77 yards and a touchdown.
It’s a pivot by Braun from graduate student Mike Wright, who completed 57.6% of his passes for 336 yards. He averaged 5.1 yards per attempt, threw one interception and lost two fumbles. On the ground, Wright ran 18 times for 84 yards and a touchdown. His numbers drag along the bottom of the Big Ten.
2. Cam Porter looks as elite as ever
Through the season’s opening two games, graduate student running back Cam Porter is showing why he began the season on the Doak Walker preseason watch list, among college football’s premier running backs.
With yet another full offseason to improve after his ACL injury that kept him out for the 2021 season, Porter looks more explosive than ever. It’s what has helped him rack up 157 yards on just 29 carries so far this season.
Porter’s playing some of his best football to start the 2024 campaign. The first two games mark the first time in his career that he has averaged at least 5.4 yards per carry over a two-game stretch.
“We got a room full of talented guys,” Porter said. “Whenever our name is called, we’re gonna step up to the plate and play our best.”
With 96 rushing yards against Duke, Porter fell just four yards shy of his second career game with over 100 rushing yards. He notched 39 scrimmage yards and one touchdown over the course of the two overtimes, closing the game with a late surge despite the ’Cats falling short.
Illinois totaled 246 yards on the ground against Eastern Illinois in the season’s opening week, so Porter could be in for one of his career-best games on Saturday.
3. Expect the defense to feast on the run game
The NU front seven has established itself as a dominant force through the season’s first two weeks, demonstrating the ability to stuff the run. Against Miami (Ohio), the ’Cats held RedHawk running back Jordan Brunson to just 33 yards on eight carries. Duke running back Star Thomas ran for 58 yards against NU, but it took him 17 carries to do so (3.4 YPC).
According to CollegeFootballData, an advanced analytics site, the ’Cats defense only allows 0.1 open field yards per rush attempt. To put that into context, Missouri, which allows the fewest yards per game in the NCAA, allows 0.4 open field yards per rush. It’s a game of inches.
Senior linebacker Xander Mueller leads the ’Cats in total tackles with 16. Junior safety Devin Turner follows Mueller with 15 but leads NU in solo tackles with 11. And redshirt sophomore defensive end Anto Saka leads the Big Ten with 10 quarterback pressures.
“It sounds super cliche, but (we need to) continue to play with great fundamentals and great technique,” Braun said. “I think our D-line is doing a great job at constricting gaps and getting off blocks … the linebackers have a really sound understanding of what we’re doing in terms of asking our run fits. We need to continue to tackle well.”
Defensive line coach Christian Smith’s unit may receive additional reinforcements this weekend, with Braun hinting that redshirt junior defensive lineman Carmine Bastone is trending in a positive direction to return to action.
The ’Cats opponents in Week 1 and Week 2 both participated in a bowl game last year. This week, NU will take on an FCS opponent for the first time since last year, when they defeated Howard.
So far this season, Big Ten teams have only allowed 4.4 points per game when playing against FCS opponents and are giving up, on average, less than 200 yards per game.
Against EIU, the defense has the potential to wreak havoc.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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— Football: Northwestern’s Jack Lausch embraces new responsibility as starting quarterback
— Football: Northwestern withers in 26-20 double overtime defeat to Duke
