So now the amount of days here makes sense. I'm currently watching Premier League soccer and pretending I'll care about it two weeks from now. That's a good feeling, because football is imminent, y'all. Two guys today, including QB2.
No. 13, C.J. Bryant, sophomore, cornerback
Who he be: C.J. - not to be confused with P.J. Carollo, who was a backup QB at No. 15, or Christian Jones, the WR who probably goes by "CJ" at 14 - hails from Gahanna, Ohio, where he had three stars outta high school and had recruits to Indiana, Air Force, and about half o' the MAC. He redshirted in 2010, and in 2011 was a special teamer for the Cats as an RS freshman. In case you're wondering, he's "Charles Eugene", but he's a junior, so that's presumably why he's C.J.
From the YouTube annals: Some guy named "CJ Bryant" performing stand-up that you sort of can't understand because of the video:
It's no DJ Rashad, but what gives.
Looking forward: With two cornerback spots open, certainly anybody can play their way into a starting role. I said not two days ago I expected the starters to be Daniel Jones and Nick VanHoose with Demetrius Dugar and Quinn Evans in reserve roles - I expect Bryant to be another reserve guy with the potential for a spot start if he's needed. I remember seeing his number a bit in spring ball, but that was without Evans there.
No. 13, Trevor Siemian, sophomore, quarterback
Who he be: Trev is the high school battery mate of Rashad Lawrence, who we discussed a few days ago, from Windermere in the Orlando area. He, too, had three stars, and a bevy of offers from Syracuse, Rutgers, and a veritable host of schools Northwestern would like to think it is better than in football, such as FIU, Middle Tennessee, Tulane, Colorado State, and of course, Duke. Here's him wrecking nonsense as a sophomore in high school!
Siemian redshirted in 2009 - just like Bryant! - and was the backup QB coming into last season with Dan Persa hurt. All things told, he played very, very well in his spot time: with the offense sputtering against Army, Siemian came in to relieve Kain Colter and was 5-for-7 with 105 yards and a great throw on a 62-yard TD for Jeremy Ebert on his first drive. He also came in with the team down several touchdowns against Iowa and lofted a pretty throw over the top to Lawrence for a 32-yard TD, plus had 67 yards passing in Northwestern's huge win at Nebraska. Altogether, three of his 26 passes were for touchdowns - in his first three appearances, no less - only one pass a pick, and three for 30 yards or more. Late in the season, he was used somewhat inefficiently - he mainly came in with only one goal, passing to Kain Colter - but still managed to reach Colter a decent amount of the time despite defenses keying in on him.
The most recent tweet from the ill-fated, much-less-popular-than-Evan-Watkins @FakeTrevSiemian account:
man, dis whack
— Trevor Siemian (@FakeTrevSiemian) November 20, 2010
Looking forward: As I mentioned up above, Trevor is QB2. He's got a strong arm, but he's not talented enough yet to displace Kain Colter - he looked good in games, but isn't there in practice - but is well ahead of Zack Oliver for the second spot. I don't think he'll push Colter for the starting role this year, nor do I foresee Colter playing major amounts of wide receiver as he did with Dan Persa under center. However, I expect NU to pull that cat out of the bag every once in a while - maybe five times over the course of the season - to keep teams honest. Siemian will play then. While Siemian provided a spark for moments against Army and Iowa, I don't think he'll be consistently better than Colter this year, and don't think it will be in the coaches' best interests to shake Colter's confidence by pulling him when the offense looks stall-y. Siemian looks to be the starter in three years after Colter graduates, provided Oliver hasn't gotten much better and Matt Alviti isn't a demigod of a redshirt freshman.