West Lot Pirates

The Northwestern Men's Basketball team came back from their Covid-related break to get things rolling again. After the drawn-out slug fest against Wisconsin, the Cats hit the road to take on Nebraska. We break down these games and look ahead to the next few games as we look to go into February as hot as we can.

It looks like we have finished out the hunt for our new coaching staff with the addition of SDSU DL Coach Christian Smith. Just like new DC David Braun, Smith comes with a pedigree of championship experience in FCS coming off the Jackrabbits' title this year. On the hardcourt, Men's basketball had to postpone two games this week due to Covid related illness. Will this break be what the tea...

It's taken quite some time for Northwestern to hire a new Defensive Coordinator, but now we know why. David Braun is coming over from North Dakota State which had still been playing up through the FCS National Championship game. Today, we break down what we know about Braun and some of the things we can expect from his D going into the 2023 campaign.

As we flip the calendar to 2023 it's time for us to take a good long look at the Men's Basketball team and their fantastic start to the season. After a big win against Illinois in front of a sold-out Welsh-Ryan Arena, the team is 11-3 and playing incredible defense. It's definitely time to pay close attention as we get into the heart of Big Ten action.

As Signing Day approaches we had the great pleasure of talking with Bradley Locker of InsideNU to talk about the search for Northwestern's new DC, the recruiting class and to take the temperature of how people are feeling on campus about the football team.

With conference championships over, all that's left to football season are the Bowls. Along with that, the transfer portal has officially opened and already we have seen movement. We continue to await word of any new coaching hires which will hopefully put a plug in the exodus and make NU more of a destination. Also, we find ourselves mostly through the non-conference slate of basketball and t...

With the 2022 NU Football season finished off by a 41-3 drubbing by Illinois, we all knew that something had to change. That change began with the firing of Jim O'Neil, Marty Long and Dennis Springer. We discuss these changes and debate if this is enough.

It's the week of Thanksgiving and while we don't have a lot to be thankful about regarding the play of the football team, we can definitely be thankful for the amazing runs the Field Hockey, Women's Soccer and Cross Country teams went on in their respective NCAA Championships. As far as football goes, it's Hat Week, but all our eyes are firmly pointed to after the Illinois game as...

Another game, another big loss. This time in the frigid cold of Minnesota. With only 2 games left and injuries mounting, Northwestern will try to salvage something as we head into the offseason. Is there a glimmer of light ahead? Could be...

We've got the whole gang back together tonight to go over the windstorm of a game last Saturday. Buckle up folks, this will get spicy.

When your defense makes the 131st ranked offense look like a real offense for the first time this season, there's really not much need to go too deep into the game recap. Suffice to say, Iowa cleaned Northwestern's clock last Saturday. With #2 Ohio State set to come into Ryan Field this week, we decided to change things up a bit and welcome in columnist and podcaster Doug Lesmerises to she...

While we definitely saw sparks of life out of the offense this week, continued self-inflicted wounds and a lack of imagination in scheme led Northwestern to yet another loss. With this weekend's game against the incredible D and putrid O of Iowa looming, will the Cats be able to salvage anything out of the 2022 season?

With a week off to hopefully get their minds right, get healthy and get ready to play the back half of this disappointing 2022, Northwestern will head out to the east coast to take on Maryland. The Terps have their own question marks, primarily the health of their QB Taulia Tagovailoa.

It was a gorgeous day for the 2022 NU Homecoming. Friends came back to town for the first time in a long time, the weather was spectacular, the tailgate in the East lot was rocking, and then the game started. As this season continues to spiral downhill, we start to wonder not if, but when staffing changes will come.

It was a sloppy, rainy, turnover filled game, but at the end of the day, Penn State was able to run the football and Northwestern was not. After the Cats' 4th straight loss, they return to Ryan Field for a homecoming tilt against a Wisconsin team who just fired their Head Coach. Also, there's some big news about the future of Ryan Field and it sure looks shiny.

Well... We close out another disappointing September with another non-conference loss. With Penn State looming ahead this weekend, what takeaways can be gleaned from the latest 0 for non-con run by the Cats?

Ugh... Northwestern's latest September FCS defeat not only hurts the Cats' chances to go bowling in 2022, but really makes us take a deep look at the root of this systemic September issue. Join us as we re-hash last week's game with a critical eye at the coaching staff and then look ahead to the final non-conference matchup against Miami, OH.

Northwestern's September woes reared their ugly heads once again as the Cats dug themselves a big hole that was just a little too big to clamber out of. Evan Hull and Ryan Hilinski had incredible games, but a few bounces the wrong way, fumbles an inch too soon and Duke being in the right place at the right time combined with a potent Blue Devil rushing attack was too much to overcome.

What better way to celebrate our 500th episode than to have on Joe Spivak, one of the greatest personalities to come through the NU locker room in quite some time and currently in training to become one of the next WWE Superstars. We'll also talk about this weekend's revenge spot against Duke.

If you can think of a better way to start off the 2022 season, we'd sure like to hear it. Northwestern looked fantastic throughout the game and was outright dominant down the stretch as they knocked off Nebraska in Dublin Ireland. We're going to walk you through all the highlights of this game that we will all remember for quite some time.

All the previews have been done, all the books have been read, all the predictions have been made and now it's time to kick off the 2022 season with a trip to Dublin, Ireland as the Cats take on Nebraska. We'll get you ready for gameday as Northwestern looks to exact some revenge from last year's drubbing.

For our final preview of the offseason we turn our attention to the much-maligned Northwestern Offense. We know so much about some of the position groups, RB, OL to name a few. With another potential first round LT anchoring the line and Cam Porter coming back healthy, we can hope to see some improvement. But, like every other year, so much depends on who we have under center. Will we see the nece...

At last we have come to the start of the 2022 football season. With Northwestern about to fly to Ireland, we take a deep dive into the Wildcat Defense. So much went wrong last year, so we try to interrogate what happened and how we think they will address the issues for this season.

We wrap up our Summer previews with a look at our instate rivals, the Illinois Illini. Bret Bielema only needed one year to get Illinois frisky. Will they be able to take the next step and get bowl eligible? Will we be able to get the LOLHat back to its rightful place?

2021 was a really good season for Purdue, but they are entering 2022 having lost some MAJOR pieces of that squad. Do they have the ponies to replace guys like George Karlaftis and David Bell among others? Or will Jeff Brohm have a bigger rebuilding job ahead of him?