NORTHWESTERN BEATS NOTRE DAME AGAIN

THE WINS JUST KEEP ON COMING FOR THE ‘CATS.

The News

Andrew David, formerly of TCU and formerly formerly of Michigan, has announced that he will transfer to Northwestern for his graduate season. As Northwestern doesn’t actually have any punters (don’t bother fact-checking me on that), he will likely start unless Pat Fitzgerald has given up on punting entirely and fourth downs will now consist entirely of relatively-successful conversion attempts.

David follows another graduate transfer punter, Jake Collins, who came to Evanston from Western Kentucky, punting 79 times for 3199 yards (40.5 ypp) and, my Big Ten Championship preview to the contrary, was a player I very much enjoyed watching in 2018.

The Analysis

Looking at the numbers, while David is an improvement over anything the ‘Cats would have put on the field just based on experience. But, as SBN’s TCU blog Frogs O’ War noted, Gary Patterson had brought in a highly-touted Australian punter, and David had only spelled regular punter Adam Nunez after Nunez fumbled a snap against Ohio State and Patterson rotated between the two the rest of the season.

You know the saying, Big Ten fans: If you have two punters, you have no punters.

David has shown potential to be a consistent punter, forcing fair catches and minimizing risk—something Pat Fitzgerald prefers to do when he does punt—though he doesn’t seem to have the field-flipping ability that Collins or Hunter Niswander could occasionally pull out of their back pockets. But if I were ranking him in the current lineup of Big Ten punters, I’d say David ranks—on stats alone—near the bottom of the conference, tied with the mess of a punting situation that is the wisconsin badgers. Oof.

But still, with Cody Gronewold and Trey Finison new to the bit in Evanston, experience > no experience.

Suck It, Notre Dame

Most importantly, though, is the Big Recruiting Win the Wildcats picked up over ACC contender and College Football Playoff participant (remember that Michigan State can claim that, too) Notre Dame.

Never mind that Notre Dame won the last game in the storied rivalry occasionally-contested regional pissing match. THIS MINOR GRAD TRANSFER RECRUITING WIN IS ON PAR WITH JACK MITCHELL BREAKING HEARTS.

LET’S GO TO THE TAPE.

Case closed. Go ‘Cats. Punting is winning. Stats are for losers.