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Perhaps the overall highlight of this year’s edition of Big Ten Media Days was were the children reporters who got in on the act. Working with Junior Journalist, Ethan Kihiu was one of the kids who is getting a really fast start on his potential future career.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald left his podium in order to hear Kihiu properly, and answer his question. Watch the video below of the tweet and reigning Big Ten West champion coach interacting:
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Sport is good for our health. It allows us to stay fit and healthy, remaining active and vigorous until the late stages of our lives. However, the college period may become a tough challenge for students in terms of combining sports activities and adequate studies. Things get even harder for college athletes whose task is to show superior performance at the competitions while still not losing the essential credits on the course. Here is a brief survival guide for those who can’t refuse college sports and still want to study well.
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The NBA Draft is July 29, with the Draft Lottery set to be held on June 22. The Draft Combine will take place June 21-27. Welcome to our first 2021 NBA mock draft, team needs have not been taken into account at this time. Some player descriptions have been filled out, but the others will be completed at a later date.
You can find out which way BetQL’s model is picking for tonight’s NBA games by checking out their site. They have the latest in in-depth NBA prediction model analysis, and what is a mock draft, but predictive analytics.
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Today saw Dr. Derrick Gragg formally unveiled as the 23rd Athletic Director at Northwestern University, succeeding the ultra short tenure of the scandal-plagued Mike Poliskey. But in the greater sense Gragg is following in the foot steps of Dr. Jim Philipps, who is now ACC Commissioner.
Gragg is a lot like Phillips in that he’s an innovator, bringing big and important events to life. One such example is the Tulsa Legacy Game, started with the intention of bringing greater awareness to the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921.
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Northwestern announced their new Athletic Director yesterday, Dr. Derrick Gragg, the NCAA’s senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement. The former Eastern Michigan and Tulsa AD assumes his new position on July 1.
Gragg has a long list of achievements, and his hire is very timely for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps of particular relevance and poignance is the fact that he helped conceptualize the Tulsa Legacy Game, designed to pay tribute to the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, widely recognized as one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history. The first Tulsa Legacy Game took place last year, and as May turned to June, the centennial of the Tulsa massacre was observed.
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When it comes to the Northwestern Athletic Director position, post Dr. Jim Phillips, indeed what a long, strange trip it’s been. After Philips left to become ACC Commissioner, the A.D. search received only a minimal amount of media coverage, and the school did a great job of keeping information from leaking out.
And despite the search dragging on for multiple months, NU decided to just go in house, and promote Mike Polisky, Northwestern’s deputy athletic director for external affairs since June 2010. Phillips, having been passed over for the Big Ten Commissioner job that he had strongly desired, took the ACC gig in December, and completed his term at NU in February.
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In his media opps with the Notre Dame media heading into the NFL Draft, quarterback Ian Book often spoke of his height, and how that was holding his draft stock down.
“Not many people thought he’d get picked in the fourth round,” said Book’s college coach, Brian Kelly, on media Zoom this morning. “Now he’s got a chance to compete for a starting position.” Book was drafted by the New Orleans Saints with the 28th pick of the fourth round (133rd overall).
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On night one of the NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Chargers selected Rashawn Slater, OT, Northwestern with the 13th pick. He now joins DE Joe Gaziano and RB Justin Jackson as former Wildcats who are now Chargers.
Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald knows Chargers GM Tom Tellesco and LAC head coach Brandon Staley well, and Cody Cejda, a former Northwestern director of football operations and strategy, left to serve in a special assistant to the head coach role in L.A. Analytics are part of the role that Cedja has with the organization.
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The Chicago Bears did exactly what they had to this NFL Draft weekend- they went out and got a real quarterback. Andy Dalton and Nick Foles simply won’t cut it. Bears GM Ryan Pace and Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy know that, just as they know that this draft and this season is their final chance to get it right.
The draft board fall of Justin Fields is just like the purpose/advantage of cryptocurrency- there is no discernible explanation or reason. The reasons given for why Fields slid down the draft don’t come close to making any sense, but when he did, the Bears made their move to get him.
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Welcome to our very first 2022 NFL mock draft! For our latest 2021 NFL mock go here. Team needs were sometimes, but mostly not taken into account here. Our projections for the 2021 Draft were rarely, but most often not taken into account. The order is of course based on how we feel the NFL will play itself out in 2021.
Here is the link to a list of 70 of the worst NFL Draft cliches, buzzwords and other pointless word salad.
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What new Northwestern Wildcats quarterback Ryan Hilinski is involved with off the field truly transcends football. The South Carolina transfer lost his brother, former Washington State QB Tyler Hilinski, to suicide in early 2018.
Ryan and the rest of the Hilinski family honors his memory by running and promoting Hilinski’s Hope, a non-profit foundation focused on awareness for mental health issues. Ryan Hilinski met the Northwestern media corps for a spring ball Zoom call, and when asked to talk about himself, Hilinski’s Hope was the main topic of conversation.
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Pat Fitzgerald has never seen one of his players get taken in the first two days of the NFL Draft, but this year he should see not one, but two players go on opening night. The last time Northwestern had a player selected in the first round was 2005, when Luis Castillo when to the San Diego Chargers with the 28th overall pick.
They have only had eight first round selections in the history of the school, with Chris Hinton (1983) and Otto Graham (1944) tied for the highest selection ever, at #4. In the Fitzgerald era, the highest ever selection has been Corey Wootton, who went with the 11th overall selection in the 4th round.
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