Filed under: Illinois, Northwestern, Big 10
Whatever happened to football players willing to run through a brick wall? Northwestern and Illinois players won't even run toward a padded one.
The idea in Chicago this weekend was to have a novelty. And they will have one for sure.
A major college football game played in a tiny, ancient baseball stadium like Wrigley Field?
Good.
But when Illinois and Northwestern play Saturday, they'll do something really unusual:
Use just one end zone.
That's right. After months -- years? -- of planning, it just occurred to the Big Ten on Friday that there isn't really enough room to play a football game at Wrigley. The back of the east end zone is basically walled off with the Cubs home run wall in front of the right field bleachers. At Wrigley Field, that's a brick wall.
Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said he would have to alter his play selection. You know, you don't exactly throw a lob pass to the back of the end zone when it means your receiver will smash face first into a brick wall.
So the Big Ten announced Friday that all offensive plays will go toward the west end zone by home plate. All kickoffs, then, will go toward the east end zone. After every change of possession, the ball will be repositioned so the offense can go west. If the defense gets the ball and runs down to the one-yard line, then, they will pick the ball up and take it 98 yards to the other one-yard line.
Also, because there is no room along one side of the field, both benches will be together on the other side. At halftime, the teams will trade benches.
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