NCC held their final spring practice this past Saturday and it was open to fans, families, etc. 

Only helmets so I did not focus much on the trenches, lot of 1on1 and 7on7 work.

Demir Ashiru took all the 1st team reps at QB, Calvin Lavery took the 2nd team reps. 

Lot of ups and downs with Ashiru's performance, made some really great throws but also had a quite a few throw aways or sacks taken. Seemed to hold the ball for a long time frequently, which could mean he is still learning the offense or the defense was just playing well.  I think one of the incoming freshman have a chance to win the starting job in the fall, but hard to tell only seeing 1 practice. Ashiru was clearly the most talented QB out there on Saturday, for what its worth.

The best player on the field by far was Thomas Skokna.  Made some really tough catches and was unguardable in man coverage.  I think he has an All-American level season as long as the QB can get it to him.

Offensive line is beginning to take shape, and my guess of the starting 5 will be Jerred Durian (started last year at center), John Golden (started a handful of games at G/C when guys sat with injuries), Tyson Cramer (was the swing tackle the past 2 seasons), and then Cortez Jones and transfer from Ohio University Maverick Ohle. 

Ohle was a 2-time all state defensive end in high school at Naperville Central before redshirting at Ohio last year. The coaches want his athleticism on the offensive line though.

Heading into the fall, settling on the QB will obviously be the biggest question to answer and ultimately determine how far this team can go.  All the other pieces appear to be there.

Spring practice has started for NCC and the 1 notable thing to report is that Cortez Jones, the 2nd team all region 5 defensive tackle last season as a sophomore has been moved to the offensive line. 

Time will tell if he sticks on offense in the fall but definitely shows the commitment the coaching staff has to the offensive line being the strength of the team. 

Cortez initially was the backup RT as a freshman but was moved to the defensive line during the 2023 playoffs due to all the injuries to that unit.  From what I have heard, he is now playing guard and they think he has Sam Pryor type potential there.

Quote from: pradierguy on March 09, 2025, 10:14:10 PMNice article about Echeverry's draft preparation. If he gets to 4.3 at the pro day, he might get a look

https://t.co/ulMJHzrjkq

Article also points out that he is preparing/working out at Per4orm, which is owned and operated by former NCC football alum Nick Hicks.  Nice D3 connection there.  Rooting for him to get a chance!

Ok finally had some time to put together the commit list for NCC.

Up to 35 commitments from what I have found, mainly from players posting on X.

5 QBs have committed, 2 transfers and 3 coming out of high school

For the accolades column, tried my best to just go off what each player had in their X profile, not sure how accurate it is.

NCC 2025 Commits

EDIT: I'll continue to add players as I see their commitments announced, another 3 committed yesterday to bring the total to 38 players.  36 from Illinois, 1 from Colorado, and 1 from Florida (Wittenberg transfer)

Quote from: HansenRatings on February 13, 2025, 10:20:01 AM

Quote from: DriftlessDuhawk on January 29, 2025, 03:54:02 PMA few schedules have started being released.

UD: https://udspartans.com/sports/football/schedule

NWU: https://nwusports.com/sports/football/schedule

UD stepping up to the plate with some heavy hitters out of the WIAC. NWU going the NAIA route and I don't know much about either team.

Both schools are ok. UWL played a couple games against Dakota State recently, and UWL won pretty handily. Mayville State has played NWU recently, too, and won a close one. Mayville also played BVU a few years ago, and split a home & home. Dakota State's usually a little above 0.500 in a pretty solid conference, and Mayville State usually a bit below 0.500. I would say the expectation for NWU-Mayville St. would be a close, competitive game, with Mayville St. slightly favored. If NWU beats Dakota St., that would be a sign that they've improved quite a bit over the offseason.

Looks like UW Stout will also be hosting Wartburg in 2025, that's a great matchup

Glad the rumor I saw ended up being true. Also nice that they released the schedule this early this year, last year it was not released by the NCC website until way closer to the season.  As RG noted, my assumption is this is a home/home agreement with UWO especially when you consider NCC needing 2 OOC games starting in 2026 with the departure of WashU.

It also appears they already updated the roster partially for 2025.  couple of things to note, Demir Ashiru is already listed on the roster and is the only "freshman" listed.  Brandon Bell a redshirt sophomore transfer from Winona State is also listed.  They appear to be the only 2 transfers that have been added.

And Danny Nuccio and Isaac Banker are both listed as Graduates.  I thought both were done playing so very exciting to see they are both going to be back for 1 more season.

No idea if true or not but I saw on X that NCC will be playing Oshkosh for their out of conference game next season.

https://x.com/dshot1992/status/1880390257717440675?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

https://x.com/dshot1992/status/1880680732122911047?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

Quote from: GusD on January 17, 2025, 06:46:41 PM

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 06, 2025, 10:41:39 PM

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 10:37:47 PM2019 NCC won their first Stagg and Gagliardi QB Broc Rutter was done and Cardinal fans were crying about the next year, which was Luke Lehnens freshman year. Boo hoo.....

NCC just got a commit from Ferris St QB Demir Ashiru. Maybe he can continue the run I'm sure you'd love that USee 😂

A second QB is also now in the fold. NCC has received a commitment from 6'1 190 pound All-State QB Lane Wheelwright of  Farmington, IL. This season he completed 60% of his passes (128 of 214) for 2,097 yards and 15 touchdowns while rushing for an additional 10 touchdowns. He missed the final two regular season games due to injury, but returned for the playoffs.

I don't have any additional details at this time, but I've heard that two more QBs have committed, or will likely soon commit to NCC.

The other 2 QBs that I am aware of are Alex Graham, transferring in as a redshirt freshman from D2 McKendree and Kellen Davis, an incoming freshman out of Champaign Centennial high school.

I am keeping a running list of recruits who have "committed" via social media and was going to post later in the offseason if other NCC fans are interested. 

Quote from: D3fanboy on January 17, 2025, 03:04:51 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 17, 2025, 02:50:13 PMPeak competitiveness among two top teams, anyway.

I'm sure that you'll use Logan's stats and and PR type of answer, but you really think that today's national champs would stand a chance against those UWW/Mount teams from the decade plus of dominance?

Imagine the UFL signings from those teams if it was a thing.... you'd be tweeting non-stop

This is completely anecdotal evidence on my part but I played against UWW in 2010 quarters when they won the title, we ended up losing 20-10 after entering the 4th qtr with a 10-7 lead.  Same amount Mount lost by in the Stagg a few weeks later, granted we were at home and not neutral field like Mount. I also played @ UWW in 2007 but that game was not as competitive. 

IMO, the NCC teams of the past few years would've crushed the teams I was on, in part due to the fact they had a bunch of 22-24 year olds.  Not saying they would beat those Mount or UWW teams but I at least think it would've been competitive given that these teams since 2020 have had a bunch of 5th/6th year players and it was pretty rare back then.

Fully agree both Mount and UWW were amazingly talented during that era, just offering my personal experience for comparison. 

It appears Luke Lehnen has signed with the Arlington Renegades of the UFL.

https://x.com/ufl_pr/status/1880027276911489060?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

https://x.com/byanthonymiller/status/1880030299259850993?s=46&t=2LpDHlmLWW7A7c0oIFbv5Q

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 15, 2025, 10:52:13 AM

Quote from: NCC2010 on January 14, 2025, 04:18:14 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 14, 2025, 11:42:05 AMIf he played in four or fewer regular season games, all of them in the first half of the season, and ended the season injured and unable to play or practice, then he would generally be able to get a medical hardship season of eligibility.

FWIW, NCC's best defensive player in 2023, Dan Lester, was unable to get a medical redshirt for 2024 because he played in games 1, 2, and 4 of the 2023 season.  I believe if you play in any game after the 3rd game you are unable to get a medical redshirt. At least that is what Coach Spencer told Pat/Greg in the podcast interview leading up to the 2023 Stagg Bowl.

For what it's worth, I believe it is any game after four. It's one-third of the season, but rounded up, so the fourth game.

from a quick internet search, the NCAA rules state "must not have participated in more than 30% of games", so with a 10 game season I would assume you could not play after the third game?  Otherwise, not sure how Lester did not get it considering he only played in 3 games, one of them being a game against an NAIA team, and all games played were by the 4th game of the season. If you remove the NAIA game, then he only played in 2/9 games which is still lower than 30%. 

Since he was a great player I am assuming the staff looked into this pretty thoroughly.  Could be wrong though, the eligibility rules these days are very difficult to track.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 14, 2025, 11:42:05 AMIf he played in four or fewer regular season games, all of them in the first half of the season, and ended the season injured and unable to play or practice, then he would generally be able to get a medical hardship season of eligibility.

FWIW, NCC's best defensive player in 2023, Dan Lester, was unable to get a medical redshirt for 2024 because he played in games 1, 2, and 4 of the 2023 season.  I believe if you play in any game after the 3rd game you are unable to get a medical redshirt. At least that is what Coach Spencer told Pat/Greg in the podcast interview leading up to the 2023 Stagg Bowl.

Rewatched the last scoring drive for NCC last night and two things popped out. 

On the first 3rd down and 1 from the 17, Sam Pryor drove an All-American DT 7 yards off the line of scrimmage and almost to the sideline before the play ended.

And then on the crucial 4th and 1 from the 32, I noticed they moved Pryor from RG to LG so he was next to Maples, and they ran right behind both of them. 

Them moving Pryor for whatever reason reminded me how both Pryor and Maples played defensive line on the big stop against Wartburg last year in the semis, when Wartburg brought in Owen Grover to be a blocker on offense.

Not sure if either has the measurables to get a look from NFL but hope they get a chance, both Sam and Jeske were dominant all 4 years here.

Ya I'm not sure if injury was involved or not, a medical redshirt would make sense as to why he stated on X that he has 4 years left.

I'm rooting for him because I'm from Plainfield originally so always love to see Plainfield kids at NCC. He's also very talented or at least was when I saw him play in high school. 

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 06, 2025, 10:41:39 PM

Quote from: USee on January 06, 2025, 10:37:47 PM2019 NCC won their first Stagg and Gagliardi QB Broc Rutter was done and Cardinal fans were crying about the next year, which was Luke Lehnens freshman year. Boo hoo.....

NCC just got a commit from Ferris St QB Demir Ashiru. Maybe he can continue the run I'm sure you'd love that USee 😂

Excited for Demir. I've seen him play a few times live, he is a local kid. Played high school 15 minutes down the road at Plainfield North. His younger brother is a currently a sophomore at North so I'm sure that played a role in the transfer. Former NCC DL Anthony Imbordino ('05-'07) is also the head coach at Plainfield North and I'm sure he nudged him towards NCC as well. 

Demir was first team All State in Class 8A (the largest class size in Illinois) his senior year at North during the '22-23 season while leading them to their only 9-0 regular season in school history. 

He redshirted at Ferris in '23-24 and then this past year was listed on the roster, although his post on X says he has 4 years of eligibility of left, which I thought would only be 3 as I assume next year he would be considered a redshirt sophomore.  Never really know with the eligibility these days