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Only one name on the injury report for Western Michigan, and it's the big one: Venric Mark. (We assume Daniel Jones just won't be appearing on injury reports the rest of the way, since why bother rubbing it in, yanno?)
Mark is listed as questionable, like he was last week, when, of course, he didn't play. He didn't practice this week, so it wouldn't be surprising if he once again didn't play.
I'm not particularly worried for several reasons. First of all, Northwestern is playing Western Michigan. We've discussed this, right? Northwestern is significantly better than Western Michigan this week, and would probably win with a walk-on at starting RB due to the superior talent in the other 21 starts. Quite frankly, I'd like to see this happen. Your time to shine, Mike Panico. If Mark can sit and get his health back while NU breezes past the easy guys.
But more importantly, I've been so impressed with Treyvon Green between the tackles and occasionally busting out for big gains -- 195 yards on just 29 carries thus far! -- and we've seen Mike Trumpy perform well in past, and Malin Jones and Stephen Buckley are youngins in the mix. I'd love to see both of the get some carries Saturday so we can see what type of players they are.
I'm not too thrilled with this:
Looks like #Northwestern frosh RB Warren Long is about to see his redshirt come off... Was not expecting this.
— Nick Medline (@NMedlineFOX) September 11, 2013
I like dudes staying around for five years, and with youngsters Jones and Buckley in the mix, not to mention Mark, Trumpy, and Green, NU doesn't really need Long this year. Curious.
And the last reason I'm not so worried: I'm really buying Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian as being improved this year, even if it is through two games against less-than-stellar secondaries. I was so impressed with the way Siemian did against Cal and the downfield passes he made against Syracuse were some of the best I've ever seen from an NU quarterback. And Colter was even better at doing what he normally does than he normally has been. A lot to like there, and that should lessen our dependence on the run.
Anyway, so, yeah. Get healthy, Venric.