Northwestern practice notes: October 14

Here's what happened today at practice in Evanston.

- The players were wearing their black helmets with the arch on the back today. The decals aren't on yet, but they should look good when they are.

- It was raining pretty hard today, but following his theme from earlier this year, Fitz had practice outside. That's a change from previous years.

- Chance Carter and Max Chapman started on the defensive line today in place of CJ Robbins and Deonte Gibson/Ifeadi Odenigbo, respectively. Chapman's inclusion is particularly curious, since he was injured and didn't play last game and has not started all year. Perhaps Fitz expects to see a run-heavy Nebraska team and thinks Chapman can defend that better?

- That said, Odenigbo and Xavier Washington absolutely dominated on passing downs.

- The offense, in general, had a really rough day. There were a couple of bright spots. Trevor Siemian did have one beautiful throw to Cameron Dickerson downfield, and Miles Shuler and Jayme Taylor both made nice catches. But overall, there were a lot of incompletions and interceptions.

- I talked to Mike Hankwitz after practice and I'll have more later, but he acknowledged the talented increase on defense and how that's helped the unit get better and attract better players