WildcatReport attended Friday's practice and files these notes and observations.

After some brief drills in the morning, Northwestern scrimmaged for more than two hours on Saturday, pitting the first-team offense against the first-team defense, and the second-team offense against the second-team defense. Half of the scrimmage took place on the practice field north of the stadium, and half at Ryan Field.

Last week, WildcatReport reported on the following Wildcats out with injuries: Jonathan Fields, Nick Roach, Scott Brownley, Kim Thompson, Terrell Jordan, Jeff Yarbrough, Tim McGarigle, Herschel Henderson and Loren Howard. This week, the number of guys wearing orange or sitting out grew with the addition of Jeff Backes, Ryan Black, Gerard Hamlett, Matt Clark, Vince Clarke and Adam Kadela.

It's a good thing the Cats are deep at linebacker because the corps resembles a M*A*S*H* unit. Last week, McGarigle and Roach were out, so Kadela, Demetrius Eaton and Eddie Simpson were the staring trio on the first-team defense. On Saturday, Kadela was wearing orange, and to make matters worse, Simpson went down with an injury and had to be carted from the field. He emerged from the locker room later with crutches and an ankle boot.

The number of injuries makes it difficult to assess these practices. Fans will also have to take the Cats' performance in next week's Spring Game with a grain of salt due to the number of players sidelined.

The injury bug even seems to be affecting future players: incoming offensive line recruit Ramon Diaz attended practice in crutches and a knee brace.

At the beginning of the scrimmage, the starting offensive line was made up of Zach Strief and Dylan Thiry at the tackle spots, Ryan Keenan and Austin Matthews at guard, and Trevor Rees at center. Brett Basanez was the quarterback, of course, and Brandon Roberson started at tailback. The first team receivers were Shaun Herbert, Brandon Horn and Ross Lane. Erryn Cobb was at tight end, and Sam Cheatham was the extra wideout when the Cats went without a tight end. Chris Malleo also got reps at tight end with the first-team offense.

On defense, the line was made up of Kevin Mims, Barry Cofield, Trevor Schultz and David Ngene. The starting linebackers were Campbell Black, Demetrius Eaton and Eddie Simpson. In the secondary, Marquice Cole and Cory Dious were on the corners, with Reggie McPherson at free and Bryan Heinz at strong safety. The defense played a lot of downs in a 3-3-5 alignment, with Frederic Tarver coming in as the extra defensive back.

With all the injuries the Cats have endured, it's difficult to tell how much a starting assignment means. There were also a lot of substitutions, particularly on defense.

- The first-team defense started the scrimmage by stopping the Cats' offense on their first two "drives" but by the end of the day, the starting offense had gotten the better of the starting D.

- Basanez was solid but not spectacular, completing 13 of his 21 throws and throwing for a touchdown. He also continually kept the defense off-balance with well-timed quarterback draws.

- Roberson was one of the best performers, and he seemed to get better as the day wore on. He finished with 18 carries for 141 yards and a touchdown. He ripped off a few long runs and showed good acceleration at the second level, though Dious did catch him from behind on a long run. He also juked Black one-on-one in the flats, drawing "oohs" from the sideline.

- Nathan Shanks was another standout. Shanks was hitting the holes hard and accumulated 69 yards on 15 carries. Shanks ran over second-team safety Ben Rothrauff on one memorable play, and was getting a lot of reps with the first-team offense in the second half of the scrimmage.

- Among the receivers, Lane caught a touchdown pass, and Herbert finished with a team-high six catches.

- The biggest star of the scrimmage was backup quarterback C.J. Bacher. He was putting the ball on the money all day, hitting on 13-of-19 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown. (Keep in mind, however, that he was playing against a second-team defense that was playing a lot of third stringers because of injuries.) Bacher was also the victim of several drops, as Cheatham dropped what looked to be a touchdown pass, and T.J. Jones dropped two would-be scoring strikes. Bacher hit on long, intermediate and short throws to backs. He also hit on a long pass to Jones down the left sideline, as Jones beat Battle in one-on-one coverage.

- Both the first- and second-team offenses were utilizing the tight end extensively and Sean Mansfield caught a long pass from Bacher.

- With three-man fronts and blitzing linebackers, the defense was able to mount a pretty good pass rush and recorded quite a few sacks. (Sacks are whistled whenever a defender gets close to a quarterback, so it was difficult to tell who got them).

- The defense wasn't able to cause any turnovers, but Cole and Deante Battle knocked balls down, and Black made an impressive athletic play by laying out and tipping away a pass to a back in the flat.

- Cofield really showed his speed by flushing Basanez out of the pocket and then staying with him as the quarterback sprinted toward the sideline. It's always impressive to see a 305-pounder moving that fast.

- Battle had a big hit on Shanks, and David Oredugba had a great stick on Akeem Hunter near the goal line. Both of those plays drew raves from both sidelines.

The shaky kicking game seemed to be picking up right where it left off last season – and that's not a good thing when you finish last in the conference in field-goal accuracy. The Cats suffered a blocked field goal (Cole blocked Joel Howells' kick) and a blocked PAT on Saturday. Backup kicker Kyle Daly clanged a short field goal attempt off the upright but he did redeem himself by hitting about a 38-yarder near the end of the scrimmage. Slade Larscheid was not on the field on Saturday, but rumor has it that he will be competing for the punting job only next season.

There were a number of Northwestern football celebrities from the past and future on hand for the scrimmage Saturday. Representing the past were two offensive linemen from the 1995 Rose Bowl team: Rob Johnson and Dr. Ryan Padgett. Both guys have slimmed down considerably and one would never guess that they were "big fellas" in their playing days. There were also quite a few members of next year's freshman class on hand, including Diaz, and linebackers Chris Jeske, Mike Dinard and Prince Kwateng. Other notables in attendance were WGN color analyst Ted Albrecht and Noah Herron.

While putting his troops through blocking drills, tight end coach Jack Glowik uttered this gem: "The good lord put numbers on jerseys as a target for your hands. If you don't use them, it's a sin."