CPR's scouting report of NIU

**ChrisMWilliams** · 08-30-2010, 02:32 PM

Here's a quote from CPR regarding Northern Illinois from today's press conference.

I have defended a lot of football teams, but I don’t know that I have ever seen an offensive football team that can fun what we refer to as the ‘power O,’ a physical offensive run play that is led by the fullback and a guard. I don’t know if I have ever seen anybody who runs it more ways than they do. They are very effective at running the football. They are very physical at running the football. They don’t hide the fact that they like to run the ball and they are going to establish that. Their running back (Chad Spann) is a good player. He can make you miss. He did it against Purdue. He did it against Wisconsin and so forth. They have a quarterback who is similar to ours as he can run and pass. Anytime that you do that, it forces you to defend and extra gap when there is a quarterback who can run the football. Defensively, they run extremely well. They run from sideline-to-sideline. You are not going to get any cheap plays. They are very disciplined. Overall, they are a very well-coached football team. They are a year ahead of us in their development as a program. Jerry is in his third year as the head football coach and it shows in the way that they respond. There are no weak spots. This is a very, very sound football program. We are going to have to play exceptionally well to have an opportunity to win the ball game.

**flander1649** · 08-30-2010, 03:57 PM

Let's just hope that ISU's DTs can stand their line up at the point of attack and not get pushed back by their o-line. If ISU can do well here they should win the game. It will be a good warm up for the Iowa game. It could be a good thing to prepare for an offense similar to iowa's for two weeks.

**Cyhart** · 08-30-2010, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by flander1649

Let's just hope that ISU's DTs can stand their line up at the point of attack and not get pushed back by their o-line. If ISU can do well here they should win the game. It will be a good warm up for the Iowa game. It could be a good thing to prepare for an offense similar to iowa's for two weeks.

Last I knew their weakness is their O-line. Which, Im not sure how that translates into them being good at the run, but at any rate, supposedly their D-line is their strength and their O-line is their weakness.

**CycloneGB** · 08-30-2010, 04:01 PM

By what CPR says its probably a pretty safe bet that we are not overlooking NIU like many people are suggesting lately. He knows what we are up against and is not taking it lightly. Exactly what I was hoping.

**Cyched** · 08-30-2010, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by CycloneGB

By what CPR says its probably a pretty safe bet that we are not overlooking NIU like many people are suggesting lately. He knows what we are up against and is not taking it lightly. Exactly what I was hoping.

This. I'm feeling much better about Thursday. I think it will be a good game, but if we come out firing on all cylinders we could be looking at a 2+ TD victory. Good to see CPR has the team ready.