Just a little more than two weeks until the kickoff of the 2014 season, Northwestern announced that it has lost two of its most important starters. Venric Mark, already suspended for the first two games, and Christian Jones, who led the team in receiving yards and touchdowns last year, will not see the field.

Mark, it was revealed on Wednesday, had actually been suspended in the spring, but had appealed the suspension. Mark apparently lost the appeal recently, and his two-game suspension was announced earlier in the week. Just one day before Mark announced that he is leaving NU, he talked to Teddy Greenstein and told him that "I fully expect us to be 2-0 by the time I get back" from the suspension. Coach Fitzgerald, according to Greenstein, said that Mark "challenged the team to make great choices and look after another. He said he'd be the best scout running back in the country. He was excellent. He owned it."

It appears that Mark "owned it" for about 18 hours.

On his Twitter feed, the BTN's Dave Resvine noted that "Pat Fitzgerald didn't seem all that interested in discussing [the departure of] Venric Mark: 'He's not here anymore. Good kid. We wish him well.'"

At nearly the same time as the announcement of Mark's exit, NU issued a statement that Jones was lost for 2014 to a knee injury. Jones is likely to redshirt and return in 2015.

The swift removal of two of Northwestern's key offensive players from the top of the depth chart is the last sour note in an offseason that was a discordant mess for the program. Beginning with the media chaos of the union issue and the resulting player vote on unionization, and continuing through a spate of injuries to the team's underclassmen, the offseason has been a trying period, and it has left a slew of questions about the team. Have the union distractions and the lingering issues about player satisfaction left the team divided? Are the team's leaders able to lead the team effectively? Is the team focused on the goals of the season? And are the remaining players ready and able to fill in the spots left from the disappointing 2013 team and from this offseason?

It's Next Man Up: running backs Stephen Buckley, Treyvon Green, and Warren Long have an opportunity to show what they have. Wide receiver Kyle Prater has a golden opportunity to step up and make Siemian-to-Prater the new Myers-to-Flatley. And the entire special teams unit will be under the gun to show its talent.

One hopes that the dim outlook of the 2014 'Cats before the season will be just as inaccurate a portent of the season as the elated and optimistic preseason outlook was before last year's campaign.