West Lot Pirates

It's a new era in Champaign as Bret Bielema takes over from Lovie Smith. He does have his work cut out for him as there was not a ton in the cupboard. Does Bret have the wherewithal to get the Illini back to respectability? Will our streak of LOLHat ownership continue?

While they have had flashes of excitement, generally Purdue has not lived up to expectations in the Jeff Brohm era. Now with another change at Defensive Coordinator and the graduation of Rondale Moore coupled with a brutal schedule, will the Boilers be able to show some improvement?

Fly the red pirate flag for an emergency podcast. When news broke that Cam Porter was done for the year and Hunter Johnson was named starting QB, we had to jump right on with our thoughts. Take a breath folks, this is not the end of the world.

Last year, Wisconsin was widely touted as the class of the Big Ten West. As we all know, that was not exactly what happened. This year, the Badgers look to have a stacked defense and it will be tough to put up points against them. Will their offense be able to put up the points they need to make it to Indy?

It seems like we know exactly what Iowa is going to be year after year. Solid D, stout running attack, great OL. After coming in 2nd in the west last year, will the 2021 Hawkeyes "more of the same" approach put them in position to go to Indy in December?

The 2020 Gophers were a trendy pick to follow up their great 2019 season and contend for the Big Ten West. However, that was not to be as their defense faltered and they struggled to keep points off the board. Will PJ Fleck be able to shore up the D and keep the offense a'rowing back into the western title picture?

Last season was an absolute train wreck for Michigan, especially defensively. Jim Harbaugh seems to be walking on thinner and thinner ice, but as of yet, he hasn't fallen through. Will the so-called "quarterback whisperer" finally have a QB shine in his system? Or will that atrocious D from last year continue to bite them in the butt?

Under Greg Schiano, Rutgers is looking to turn around what can only be described as an abysmal experience in the Big Ten. In 2020 Rutgers showed a few flashes of excitement, primarily on Offense. Their Defense, on the other hand, was brutal. With a palpable upswing in recruiting, will the Scarlet Knights make noise in 2021?

Nebraska has been a middle to bottom team in the Big Ten West not only in the entirety of Scott Frost's tenure as coach, but pretty much since the moment they joined the Big Ten. After another disappointing season, will 2021 be the year Nebraska turns the corner? Or will Frost be looking for work after the season?

Today, we revel in our latest recruiting commitment, recap the Big Ten Media Days and react to the opening salvo in the latest round of conference realignment as Texas and Oklahoma look to move to the SEC.

Northwestern rounds out its non-conference slate with a little MACtion. Ohio had a late coaching change as Frank Solich retired, but long time OC Tim Albin takes over. Since Ohio only played 3 games in 2020, what do we really know about the Bobcats?

In a 2-for-1 preview pod, we take a look at Indiana State and Duke, the 2nd and 3rd games on the Northwestern schedule. The Sycamores haven't played a game since 2019 as they opted out of the 2020 season, so there is not much hard information on them. So we speculate as to what they might look like. Then we turn our attention to Durham, NC as Duke tries to rebound from a dismal 2020 campaign....

We have an announcement to make! This year, by popular demand, we are releasing a T-Shirt to help raise money for the Evanston Community Foundation . T-Shirts will go on sale on Friday. July 17th. For more information, go to westlotpirates.com and check our Twitter feed. 

Tonight, we begin to preview the teams on Northwestern's schedule. The Wildcats will open up the season looking for revenge from last year's surprise loss to Michigan State. Sparty comes in to Evanston trying to fix a lot of holes in the roster and developing a culture under Mel Tucker. Will they start to put things together enough to make noise in opening week?

The 2020 Maryland Terrapins were the model of inconsistency. While their defense was awful at times last year, the offense showed some potential at times. Will a return to normalcy help the Terps move up in the loaded Big Ten East?

Tonight, we continue our 2021 Summer Previews with a look at Penn State. After a 0-5 start last year, they finished off with 4 consecutive wins. Nevertheless, everyone in Happy Valley looked at 2020 as a lost season. They bring back a lot statistically, but will it be enough to get them back into the mix at the top of the East Division?

With all the huge news on the national scene, we take a quick break from our summer previews to discuss the CFP expansion possibility, the SCOTUS 9-0 ruling against the NCAA and a flurry of recruits committing to Northwestern.

Indiana had a magical 2020 season as Tom Allen's plan took them to new heights. With many of the same pieces of the puzzle returning in 2021, will this be the season to get them to Indy?

It's the moment you've been waiting for, our 2021 Summer Previews! As per tradition, we kick off the series with a look at the Big Ten teams that Northwestern will not be playing this season. Ohio State is coming off another Big Ten Championship and a trip to the National Championship game. As you can imagine, they lose a lot of top talent off last year's squad, but with the sheer amou...

Northwestern finally has a new Athletic Director. Derrick Gragg had his welcoming press conference this week and we react to the hire. Then, we kick off our annual tradition with our Summer Previews. Before we start talking team by team, we try to get a handle on the over-arching storylines that we expect to see this season.

As we come to the verge of our 2021 Summer Football Previews, we need to put a bow on the spring sports. Lacrosse made a valiant run to the NCAA Final Four before falling to Syracuse. Softball made it into the NCAA Tournament as well before falling to Kentucky in their sectional. Also, June brings the end to the on-campus recruiting dead period, so we expect to see quite a bit of activity this mon...

To call the past 10 days in the world of Northwestern Athletics crazy would be an understatement of epic proportions. Today, the Mike Polisky era came to an abrupt end as he announced his resignation just 10 days after accepting the job. Tonight, we raised the emergency pod beacon so we can try to make sense of what all just happened and where we go from here.

Northwestern's hire of new Athletic Director Mike Polisky is, in a word, divisive. This is a very complicated situation and to help us process everything we welcome in former Daily Northwestern Sports Editor Ella Brockway and former InsideNU Editor-In-Chief Lia Assimakopoulos to discuss all the different facets of the hiring.

We join forces with our good friends at Winning Cures Everything to discuss the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft as it happens. It's wild, it's crazy and it's a whole lot of fun!

We continue our run-up to the NFL Draft as we sat down with Defector Media and Northwestern's own Kalyn Kahler. Tonight, we cover her journey from Sports Illustrated to Defector before we dive into the 2021 NFL Draft and some of the fun things she's hearing from behind the scenes.