Cats Corner is back, and the Gameday team is sleepless before Seattle! After three nonconference matches and a change of quarterback, here’s what to look out for ahead of Northwestern’s Saturday showdown against Washington.

JAKE MOZARSKY: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Jake Mozarsky.

BLAKE McQUEARY: I’m Blake McQueary.

JAKE EPSTEIN: I’m Jake Epstein. This is Cats Corner, a podcast about all things sports and purple pride. Today, we’re going to talk about Northwestern football and its imminent conference opener against Washington this Saturday in Seattle.

The ’Cats have gone 2-1 the first three games this season, and a new quarterback — redshirt sophomore Jack Lausch — has stepped in the fold with a commanding debut and a phenomenal 11-of-11 performance in the second half last game. Now, what are we thinking have been the strengths of this Northwestern team in the first three weeks of the season?

JAKE MOZARSKY: Yeah, outside of Lausch, talking offensively, you got to look at the running game. Graduate back Cam Porter looks as good as he has in his entire Northwestern career, averaging over five yards a carry right now. And Northwestern has really been pounding the ball through their offensive line that’s really going through a rebuilding phase.

And speaking of the rushing attack, talk about how Northwestern defense is stifling other teams’ rushing attacks, sixth in the country, allowing under 58 yards per game. And that’s going to be big come Big Ten play. You’re playing good running backs, whether it’s Donovan Edwards, Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson. They’re facing more of a passing attack against Washington. But those have been some of the strengths that stood out to me.

BLAKE McQUEARY: What kind of stuck out to me was, they’ve held two teams through conference play to just 40 rushing yards. Eastern Illinois, they held to 40 rushing yards. Miami (Ohio), they’ve held to 40 rushing yards. Duke, they only allowed 93 rushing yards. So they haven’t given up over 100 rushing yards yet. That kind of just shows and points out to that, their ability to defend the run and how tough that defense is.

And I think another point to defending the run is the man in the middle, which is Xander Mueller. He’s been absolutely astounding for this ’Cats defense: 20 total tackles through three games. According to PFF (Pro Football Focus), Mueller’s the highest graded run defender in the Big Ten. So I think having him in the middle has been a key takeaway for that defense as well and especially defending that run.

JAKE EPSTEIN: Yeah, we definitely saw flashes of that last year from Mueller and his Third Team All-Big Ten season. Now, if you ask me, I think he probably should have been at least a Second Teamer, but he’s certainly the heart and soul of this Northwestern defense and probably this Northwestern team as a whole. But other than Mueller, who are some other guys you guys would point out as difference-makers, especially with Northwestern heading into a realigned Big Ten that has some daunting matchups on the horizon?

JAKE MOZARSKY: Starting Saturday, I’m going to go with Anto Saka, assuming he’s back. He missed the game against Eastern Illinois. His status for Saturday is still unheard of, I’m pretty sure. Someone fact-check me on that, though. But he’s this team’s best pass rusher. He was solely a third down guy last year, but really coming into his own against two decent passing attacks in Miami (Ohio), who won the MAC last year, and Duke, who’s a revamped offense with Maalik Murphy, who obviously was on Texas last year, made the College Football Playoff. Now, Murphy wasn’t the starter but still got some reps there.

Saka, got to get to the passer and stuff. Will Rogers is one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten, and Northwestern needs to cause some disruption back there, so that’s one on defense for me.

Offensively, A.J. Henning leads the team in receiving right now, got to get the ball in his hands, Michigan transfer, knows what Big Ten play is about, has won the Big Ten before. It was good for Northwestern last year. I expect him to be the team’s top receiver this year, if not Bryce Kirtz.

BLAKE McQUEARY: One guy that stood out to me is Devin Turner on the outside. He has been, you know, a lock down on the outside, and kind of pointed out to me was his size. He has size. He’s 6’1”, 212. You don’t see that that much with corners having that size. And I think, you know, that kind of speaks to him being second on the team in tackles with, with 17 total tackles, 12 solo tackles. He’s got an interception so far. He’s got two passes deflected. Just having that size at corner definitely helps locking down, you know, whoever it is in front of him as the No. 1 receiver.

I think on offense, especially looking at the second half of the Eastern Illinois game, is the new starting quarterback, Jack Lausch. The things that he did in that second half were nothing less than astounding. He completed all 11 of his passes thrown, 163 passing yards in that second half and two passing touchdowns.

I see that as kind of a confidence builder for this NU offense. It’s something that they can build on now heading into conference play. Now they have, you know, that edge and the ability to, to throw the football and utilize the playmakers like guys — like you just said, A.J. Henning, Bryce Kirtz, Thomas Gordon, Calvin Johnson II. I mean, that is a great confidence to have heading into Big Ten play. I think that they have finally cracked the code to successfully throw the ball.

JAKE EPSTEIN: First off, I need to shout out the offensive line. One sack allowed through the first three games, and that sack was really just — while Lausch was almost perfect in that second half — sort of just ran out of bounds. It wasn’t really a sack given up by the O-line, but they’ve been tremendous, and that was a unit that going into this season was a real question mark. A lot of new guys, especially with Josh Priebe transferring out to Michigan. It was like, what are we going to see from this unit? And it’s been spectacular in their first year with offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle.

But if there’s a player who I think will be a difference-maker, especially offensively going forward, I got to give it to Joseph Himon II. I mean, Week One, what we saw was Caleb Komolafe sort of taking Joe’s touches, and it was a little surprising to me because I thought he would be in line for a breakout-type season this year. He’s a smaller back, which is why you’re going to see Cam Porter get most of the touches down the road, but Himon is just so — he’s such a difference-maker with the ball in his hands. And you talk to any of the players in the offense — I mean, I spoke with A.J. Henning and Jack Lausch yesterday, and they both stressed the need to just get Joe the ball. You get him the ball and space, and good things tend to happen. They tend to happen often. I mean, you saw that big touchdown against Illinois last Saturday, but before that he had, I believe, five or six touches, and he took them for 30 yards, and he was having a great night, and the more that Zach Lujan calls his number, the more success that we’re going to see from this Northwestern offense.

Now on the defensive side of the ball, someone who hasn’t been able to get into a game thus far this season, because he’s been injured, is Carmine Bastone. I mean, you just look at the story alone from Carmine, a former walk-on who’s earned a scholarship, who last year got his first career sack and now he’s a captain in this team. I mean, you talk about the heart of this defense, you talk about Xander Mueller, but the heart that Carmine has shown in this program — it’s sort of a, like a microcosm of the success of this Northwestern defense in not only finding great players but developing players who are diamonds in the rough, because this is a team that does not recruit at the top of the Big Ten, and it never will with all the academic requirements and just the flashiness and the NIL (name, image and likeness) that some of these top programs have. But the ability of this staff to find diamonds in the rough-type recruits and develop them into stars — as you said earlier, Anto is a, is a star, he was a four-star recruit, but we have guys around him who were unheralded coming out of high school, and now they’re stepping into these super roles on this team. And I do think that Carmine — get him healthy. If he’s ready this week, give him a go, but if not, I mean, whenever he gets back, we’re going to see some great production from Carmine Bastone.

JAKE MOZARSKY: I love that point you brought up about this diamond in the rough, because not only football — for every Northwestern sport, you are fighting a losing battle in recruiting immediately. You’re the smallest school in the Big Ten by so much, but finding these guys that are able to come in and make impacts even if they’re not highly touted recruits — Ben Bryant last year, yeah, he was a transfer, but what was he, like a three-star recruit starting wherever he did? Somewhere in Michigan that I’m blanking out. And just being able to come in, win a bowl game — like, Bastone is one of those guys. And so you’re able to find these diamonds in the rough, and that’s what Northwestern football has to do when you’re playing a Michigan or an Ohio State, who they play in back-to-back weeks in November — that’ll be so much fun — who are just five-star factories. So that’s just what Northwestern is. I just wanted to piggyback on that for a second before we move on.

BLAKE McQUEARY: I just wanted to give a shout-out to Ben Bryant. That’s my Eastern Michigan undergrad …

JAKE MOZARSKY: He is Eastern Michigan! I knew that, I knew that.

BLAKE McQUEARY: That’s my undergrad institution, so I just need to give a shout-out real quick. Ben Bryant, Ypsilanti product — yeah, he was awesome.

And, you know, just really quick, I want to touch on the Joseph Himon aspect that you brought up. Having him and Cam Porter back there — I think that does a lot for when you talk about this NU run game. Looking, you know, just at football as a whole in both the NFL and especially college football — having that two-headed monster at running back is something that gives your team success. I mean, we’ve seen it at Michigan last season with Corum and Edwards. We’ve seen it in the past couple of years with Ohio State. We see it this year with Texas. I mean, those programs are miles, miles, you know, ahead. But just looking, you know, at offensive production and success and being able to run the ball successfully and effectively — having that two-headed monster at running back is something that you definitely value, especially in college football.

JAKE EPSTEIN: Real quick, I think we should transition into this game against Washington. Of course, they’ve got a star veteran quarterback in Will Rogers. They’ve got a first-year head coach in Jedd Fisch. But it’s a program that’s 2-and-1 on the season, lost in their most recent rivalry game to Washington State, but they are favored right now by 10.5 points. Now, Northwestern tends to play better when it’s the underdog — as we saw against Duke, some favored in that game, lost, but other two games, they were favored significantly. Covered one, didn’t cover in the other — that’s all right. Let’s just go ahead and, um, give our score predictions, if you will.

JAKE MOZARSKY: Blake, I’ll let you start us off as our new Wildcat.

BLAKE McQUEARY: All right, I’ll go first. This is — what is this, like, our early, Fearless Forecasters thing right here?

JAKE EPSTEIN: Yeah, a little taste of it, you know?

BLAKE McQUEARY: I think it’s definitely going to be a tough game. Just opening conference play in a hole — that’s obviously, you know, a tough thing, but I think Washington, 30. I think NU gets the offense rolling, especially after that second half that they closed out in conference play. I think NU puts up 21. I’m going to go 30-21. I think Washington takes it. I think NU holds on. I think they stay in the game. I don’t think they get blown out. But I think they’ll cover. I can see them covering. I’ll go Washington 30, NU 21.

JAKE MOZARSKY: Mine is pretty similar, but I don’t think Northwestern covers. I’m going 28-17. I think that Jack Lausch and the offense found their rhythm in the second half against Eastern Illinois, but they’re going to find out really fast that Washington isn’t that. And there might be some growing pains, especially — hostile environment, Husky Stadium, under the lights, team that just made the national championship last year yet again — they’re very different.

But I’d say 28 Washington — yeah, they’re a high-scoring team, but this Northwestern defense is a good defense. Will Rogers will throw the ball. But even last week, they scored 16 points against Washington State, and so maybe they could light it up against Northwestern, but this isn’t a defense that will be played around with. Have a good rushing defense. Like we said in the past, defense has been pretty good. Held Maalik Murphy to 13 points. Rogers is pretty similar in passing numbers, and I think the ’Cats get going, but it might be a bit too late. Lose by 11, so don’t cover, but very close depending on if the line shakes. So Huskies 28, ’Cats 17.

JAKE EPSTEIN: And you mentioned that hostile environment. I mean, when I went into player availability on Tuesday, you can hear — you can hear them pumping in artificial crowd noise at the practice field, basically from all the way back in by SPAC, which — Blake, you might not be familiar with it yet, but it’s the gym on, on North Campus …

JAKE MOZARSKY: You don’t want to be. You don’t want to be.

JAKE EPSTEIN: So they’ve been getting ready a little bit for this road environment, but there’s nothing like the real thing. I had a call with a writer from The Daily UW on Sunday, I believe the day after Lausch’s debut, and I think I told him — I told him Washington would take this game, but I think it’ll be 27-20. Huskies will take it, ’Cats cover and I could see it going either way, because this Northwestern team is one that tends to surprise us.

From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Jake Epstein. Thanks for listening to another episode of Cats Corner. This episode was reported by Jake Epstein, Jake Mozarsky and Blake McQueary.

The audio editor of The Daily Northwestern is Edward Simon Cruz, the digital managing editors are Carlotta Angiolillo and Sasha Draeger-Mazer, and the editor-in-chief is Jacob Wendler.

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