This week's forgotten Illini-defensive tackle Chris Norwell......nicknamed 'C-Note'....signed in Ron Turner’s Illini recruiting class of 2003...damn almost 20 years ago.....3-star tight end recruit out of Cincinnati Anderson High School.…..picked Illinois over Purdue, Cincinnati....played tight end/defensive end in high school but Turner's staff recruited Norwell with offensive tackle in mind....Part of that hyped 'future' great Illini offensive line class of 03 with 'five star' Martin O'Donnell, James Ryan, Jim LaBonte, Ben Amundsen, and Kevin Gage.....Winter 2004 with a shortage of talent on defense, Turner moved Norwell to defensive tackle, then wide receiver Kelvin Hayden to cornerback,,,,Norwell started 46 games at defensive tackle for Illinois (2004-2007)....2007 played all fall with a sports hernia....that season had 32 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and 0.5 sacks earning honorable mention All Big Ten.......Unsung hero of that 07 defensive line, showed up daily and fought.....did what was best for the team moving to defensive tackle (staying there) when he had NFL potential at offensive tackle, so if you ever meet Norwell, suggest as an Illini fan you thank him for that sacrifice....just a tough kid.....Norwell beat Burkitt's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 2009....now assistant head coach/defensive coordinator Thomas More (KY.) University.
Big Ten football team of week 7-Purdue goes into Iowa City, beats the then 2nd-ranked Hawkeyes 24-7....but in reality Team of the week should be the player(s) of the week....'Purdue wide receiver David Bell and defensive end George Karlaftis both showed out in the win. Bell had 11 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown, and while Karlaftis only had one sack and two quarterback hurries on the stat sheet, he was a problem for Iowa's offensive line all afternoon’. (recap courtesy AP)....normally well schemed Iowa defense had no answer for Bell....Greek Freak 2 Karlaftis exposed the weak spot on the Iowa oline (tackles) all day.
Big Ten football week 8
Northwestern (+23) at Michigan (6-0) 11 a.m. CT Fox
Wolverines defense the main reason why Michigan undefeated....Northwestern bad on offense....Michigan lay the points.
Wisconsin (3-3) at Purdue (+2.5) 2 p.m. CT BTN
Purdue's win last week vs. Iowa a fluke....Hawkeyes had no juice, left it all on the field the week before beating Penn State.....Badgers defense will stuff Boilers offense all day…..Wisconsin lay the points.
Maryland (+5) at Minnesota (4-2) 2:30 p.m. CT ESPN2
'Row the freakin' boat' said last week's win over Nebraska was because of 'culture over skill'..….Saturday Gophers get a banged up Terps team that is coming off a bye week at home...Bye week won’t matter…Maryland will continue to play like an un-made bed....Minnesota lay the points.
Ohio State (5-1) at Indiana (+21) 6:30 p.m. CT ABC
Hoosiers came into the season with such high hopes....Ohio State can name the score vs. an Indiana team that continues to make costly mistakes on the field, sidelines from their coaching staff....Buckeyes lay the points.
Illinois (+24) at Penn State (5-1) 11 a.m. CT ABC
James Franklin being 'cagey' about whether banged up Nittany Lions QB Clifford will play....doesn't matter who plays QB for Penn State, they beat Illinois at home but that 24 point spread?….Franklin will slow the game down, a lot of running plays, bleed the clock as he tries to get this one over quickly/avoid injuries…....doubt that Penn State will score enough to cover....Illini and the 24.
When thinking of Illinois vs. Penn State football...think of Lou Tepper's idea 1993 to put his team on a train out of Pittsburgh riding up to State College...those days Illini head coaches appeared on the SCORE in Chicago with SCORE 'personalities'....then SCORE co host Mike North had quite the time making fun of the Tepper train trip idea with the then head coach....1994 Penn State win over Illinois in CU (that one still hurts).....visiting teams in the 'old days' would stay at the Park Inn in Urbana when they would play at Illinois...2007 Penn State support people go to pick up JoePa from his room for the Friday night team meal.....knock, no answer, knock and knock, finally get the door open, no JoePa 'lost'....staff finally finds JoePa in the lobby of the hotel asleep in a chair...JoePa couldn't get his swipe key to work so he just went to the lobby and took a nap.
Fall 2009 Champaign…..that fall every home game Friday would go to the Famous Dave's in the Red Barn (I know that restaurant now closed) to do the 5-till-6 WDWS Sports line radio with Tate/Kelly....would go for the food, say some stuff on the radio, commercial break, stuff my face with free Famous Dave's ribs (always tipped our server well after).....October Penn State in town to play Illinois....Tate has David Jones long time columnist/Penn State guy from the Harrisburg (PA.) Patriot News on the show at the Red Barn....we do the hour...after going off the air (while continuing to eat)...Tate is quizzing Jones about when JoePa is leaving Penn State?...Jones is hemming, hawing, 'well I don't know, just never know'...Tate kept going, 'well won't the president and AD just go to him and tell him it's time to go?'...and never forget Jones said, 'well Paterno has some things over those people that...well they won't force him to do anything'...listening thinking, 'WTF could that be?’....smart ass me asks, 'what did someone kill someone there?' laughing....Jones looks at me, says, 'not that bad but if what has gone on ever got out, a lot of people's lives, careers would be ruined'...that shuts me up.
2011 week of the Illini at Penn State game the Jerry Sandusky story breaks......light bulb goes off over my head, 'well that's what Jones was talking about' in regard to JoePa/Penn State....10 years later, Penn State ranked in the top ten of college football while the Illini are on their fifth head coach since (Zook, Beckman, Cubit, Smith, Bielema) as they continue trying to figure out how to win in Champaign.