West Lot Pirates

With Indiana's historic win over Miami in the National Championship Game, that brings us to the end of the 2025 College Football Season. In tonight's episode, we discuss the Hoosiers and their season and how that could completely change the way we think about College Football.

Transfer portal season is here and boy, it's busy. In addition to continuing building out the offensive coaching staff under Chip Kelly, we have a flurry of faces transferring in and heading out. Tonight, we go through some of the early highlights of transfer season including our new QB, Aidan Chiles.

Well now! Happy Holidays indeed! The Cats went out to Detroit in the GameAbove Sports Bowl and laid it on Central Michigan with a dominant performance from the Defense. But we weren't done with the holiday surprises. Northwestern did something that we never thought would happen. They took a big swing and brought in Chip Kelly as the new OC!

For our podcast's 15th birthday, we do what we did in our very first episode, preview the Northwestern Bowl Game. On paper, CMU looks like a middle of the road MAC team, but as we all know, the game is not played on paper. We look forward to our Boxing Day matchup with CMU and look back at the first round of CFP games.

As we enter the back half of December, we find ourselves in the midst of Bowl Season. Tonight, we look ahead to the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit where the Cats will be taking on Central Michigan. We also catch up on the rest of the Big Ten's bowl/playoff matchups and take stock of the Basketball team as we get our final tune-up games before conference play starts in earnest.

It would be easy to chalk this game up to just being a rivalry game in the snow, but there was a lot more going on than just that in Northwestern's 7 point loss to Illinois. Now with the regular season finished, we look ahead to our upcoming Bowl Game as we begin to think about a crucial 2026 campaign as we cut the ribbon on the new Ryan Field. Oh yeah, there's some coaching carousel news...

What a weekend! Field Hockey finished their journey to repeat as National Champions with 2 incredible wins in both the Final 4 game against North Carolina and the title game against Princeton. Football finally broke the curse of Wrigley Field, getting their first ever win at the Friendly Confines while also clinching a bowl berth for the 2nd time in 3 years under David Braun. Let's not forget...

The Wrigley Curse continued for the Cats as they lost to Michigan in an absolute gut-punch of a game. Northwestern made a valiant comeback and took the lead only to see Michigan drive down the field with time running out to kick the game winner. Now we look ahead to the final game at Wrigley for the foreseeable future as the Cats look to pick up win #6 and go Bowling.

It was a tale of two halves this past Friday in LA. The first half saw two teams trading punches back and forth. But one freak play turned the game on its head and USC pulled away in the second half. We look back at this game while also celebrating a hot start to the Men's Basketball season and wishing the best of luck to both Women's Soccer and Field Hockey as they enter their respective...

The Northwestern Men's Basketball season tipped off this week with a huge win over Mercyhurst. With so many new faces on the squad, we take a look at the who's who on the team. Also, with Friday's trip to LA looming, what will the football team do to slow down the high octane offense of USC.

It was a game much like most of the other Nebraska/Northwestern tilts in that it went back and forth and came down to the last possession. While it always stings to lose to the Huskers, the Cats still find themselves at 5-3 going into their second bye week.

It could have easily been a big letdown spot coming off the huge win at Penn State last week, but the Cats came out on a mission, shutting out Purdue in front of the 1995 Rose Bowl team in the final game at Martin Stadium. Now, sitting at 5-2 on the season, the Cats make their way to Lincoln to try and keep the momentum rolling into November.

There are moments that define a program. The Rose Bowl season at Notre Dame, 54-51 vs Michigan, Victory Right against Minnesota, Noah Herron walk-off win against Ohio St. and so many more. It would not be hyperbole to look back at this weekend's win at Penn St. and include it in this list. The Cats put on as gutsy a performance as we've seen in quite some time to come away from Happy Valle...

Now this is what we're talking about! Northwestern finally put together an offensive performance that we have been looking for as they trounced ULM. Now, the Cats now find themselves not only at 3-2, but also looking ahead to a game against Penn State this weekend that all of a sudden looks a whole lot more interesting.

We have been saying for some time that this game against the Bruins would be very telling in what to expect from this Northwestern squad this year. While the Cats did play a clean game and many players looked great, there were some major concerns in the strategy and game plan philosophy that we had to get into.

With the Cats off this week preparing for a dreadful UCLA squad with their interim coach, we took this opportunity to take stock of the rest of the conference through the lens of our preseason thoughts. Who is looking better than we thought at the start of the season? Who is worse?

Northwestern enters their first Bye Week with many questions still unanswered. On one hand, the Cats looked pretty decent against a monster Oregon team. On the other hand, the Offense still remains maddeningly inconsistent and mistake-prone. Today we take stock as we look ahead a week and a half to a dreadful UCLA team who just fired their coach.

It was a lovely night for some Friday Night Lights and Northwestern did what they needed to do: lay down the wood on their FCS foe. Unfortunately, they also lost Cam Porter for the season with a leg injury. Now, with #4 Oregon looming Saturday morning, what will the Cats need to do and what should we expect to see?

As Northwestern's Field Hockey squad embarks on their journey to defend their National Championship, John sat down with InsideNU's Editor-in-Chief Yanyan Li to break down the 2025 team.

That was certainly not the start to the 2025 season that anyone had anticipated. The Cats gave up 5 turnovers and the offense looked listless throughout the game. Tonight, we take a look back and try to figure out what NU will need to do to right the ship.

You've heard us talk about the rest, now join us as we talk about the best! That's right, this is the moment you've all been waiting for: our in-depth preview of the 2025 Northwestern Wildcats. We'll dive deep into the defense, the offense, the special teams and much, much more.

We wrap up our Summer Preview slate just as we do every year, with the battle for the Top Hat and Illinois. The Illini are coming off their best season in a while as they continue to embody the Bret Bielema system. But last year they seemed to come out on the right side of almost every close game they played. Will that luck continue into the 2025 campaign?

Northwestern wraps up the 2025 home (Wrigley) schedule as we welcome in the Gophers. In what may be the last game in Wrigley for the foreseeable future, PJ Fleck and the Flecktones come in looking to build on recent success. Will they have enough to make some noise at the top of the conference?

Two years removed from their National Championship, Michigan looks to ride their stellar D and hope that their revamped offense can propel them back to the top of the conference.

USC starts their second season in the Big Ten in a fascinating place. There is always the sense that the Trojans could/should be in the picture for the top of the conference, but for the past several years, the reality of the situation is not what the USC faithful expect. How hot is Lincoln Riley's seat? Will a rough schedule keep them from achieving where they believe they should be?