Northwestern University Athletics
Randy Walker Weekly Press Conference
11/14/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 14, 2001
Coach Randy Walker's Weekly Press Conference
Nov. 12, 2001
OPENING STATEMENT AND THE KEVIN LAWRENCE INJURY
"Just when you think you've seen all the injuries you possibly can, we face another one. We lost Kevin Lawrence. It was discovered today (Monday) that the injury he suffered last Saturday was a little bit more extensive and significant than we thought initially. He has torn cartilage (lateral meniscus tear in his right knee) and will require surgery. That will probably be done in the next couple of days. It is especially devastating. I feel so sorry for him. I had a chance to talk to him today. Here is a guy who has been waiting in the wings. Now he has a chance to do the job, to be the man, to be our tailback. It's been taken away quickly. It is difficult and I'm so disappointed for him. He's worked very hard as I said last week. I think he has made tremendous strides as a football player and proved himself as running back. He's just disappointed he has lost his chance. But as I told him, as difficult as this is, it's just the end of the season and you will have another opportunity to play this game. Let us concentrate on getting you back and healthy and playing as well as you can as soon as possible. That will probably be next year. I don't know if we can have him for spring. As a result we are pretty lean at running back now. Torri Stuckey did a pretty good job when he came in (vs. Iowa). He is a guy who has battled through some injuries this season."
"We've lost virtually five potential runnning backs through the course of this season. If you count Gilles Lezi, who would probably have moved from fullback to running back had this occured and has played there before. And you can count Jeff Backes in that mix because he missed six weeks at the beginning of the season. I'm not going to play Jeff now even though he is healthy. It is not fair for him or his future to play him at this stage with two games left. So that's the situation we find ourselves in. We're very thin. I really think Torri Stuckey is another guy who we've always thought has a very great future and has suffered some injuries this year but has found himself healthy probably at the right time. It's a great opportunity for him. He's a tough kid. He runs hard, has excellent hands and catches the ball well. We threw to him five times which is probably the most we've caught at tailback this year. I think it is a great opporunity for Torri. He's one of the kids I really like in this program. He's worked hard and a kid who kind of waited for his opportunity. In a lot of cases with Damien around, you think, 'Well it's 2002 for a lot of these tailbacks.' But it has come a little sooner. I'm excited for Torri and his chance to play."
ON BOWLING GREEN
"We face a game that we were not planning on playing a couple months ago. We're playing a football team that's having a great year and has done a great job under Coach Meyer. Urban turned around a program that had suffered six consecutive losing seasons. Bowling Green has one of the stingiest defenses in the country. I think they are the top five against the rush and 11th or something in total defense. They play very effectively. They had a great season with quality wins against Missouri and Temple outside their league. They beat a Big East and a Big 12 team, and now they are trying to get a Big Ten school. We know they are coming here fired up and enthusiastic about playing. We've seen them on tape and know they are a very good football team. They've lost a couple of games to some very good MAC opponents -- Marshall, Miami and Western Michigan are among the top teams in that league but did not beat them by much. They were all very demanding and physical games which they could have easily won. Bowling Green will come here ready to play, and play well. I'm very familiar with the MAC schools and the mind-set when they face an out-of-conference team. We're going to catch a great game out of them even though both of us have traditional rivalries coming up next week. They finish their season with University of Toledo which is a big rivalry for them. Of course our rivalry game will come against Illinois. I know it is going to be a demanding test, it's going to be a test of our ability to bounce back after some difficult games and adversity in the program and some tough times but that's what confronts you often. We will bounce back. We will stay positive. We're going to have a great week of preparation."
MORE ON KEVIN LAWRENCE AND THE RUNNING BACK SPOT
"We're talking about some other options there (running back). We didn't find out until this morning (Monday) about Kevin. I worry about (moving) a freshman (Ashton Aikens). He's only a freshman and he has plenty on his plate anyway, playing wide receiver. We kind of limited him and the number of things he has to do at wide receiver. He's been playing confidently. That's the problem we face with so many freshmen playing for us right now. Too many options for them. They don't do very many of them well. Let's keep him at wide receiver and let him play that as well as he can. But there some other options. I'll know more about those tomorrow. I really think we only have two viable running backs. Torri will do an excellent job. I have a lot of confidence in him. Jason (Wright) can pick it up. We really moved Jason Thursday last week. He was a tailback when he first came in and there was little recall. We can get him back up to speed pretty quickly. It's not like he's never been a running back in his life."
WOULD YOU MOVE SAM SIMMONS TO RB?
"I wouldn't do that. It's possible, but he's too important for us outside. There are some things involved with that I'm not sure Sam is ready to deal with, especially with some of his physical setbacks. We may go with an H or Y in the backfield. We'll probably be more empty this week. There is a chance for that. There will be empty and go five receivers or five out
There is a chance we'll have a back in the backfield if it's nothing more than protection. Let's not forget Zak Kustok is a viable running back for us as well. It's never been a secret. We run the quarterback. But you need protection. More protection is accomplished with running back. It doesn't have to be a tailback. It could be an H or a Y type. There could be another tight end in the backfield. You can play two Y's or something."
ON JON SCHWEIGHARDT'S LIMITED AMOUNT OF PLAYING TIME VERSUS IOWA
"His ankle has been sore and we thought it was something he would play with but it was obvious he was not at full speed so we did not play him as much. I'm hoping that by not aggravating it further that he is farther along this week. It's just been an ongoing thing. He has not been able to perform. I'm hoping he's closer to full speed this week."
ON THE PLAY OF TONY STAUSS THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS
"I still like Tony. Obviously I wish I had looked at him the past two games. It's good for him. I have coached quarterbacks for a lot of years and I've always said one of the worst jobs in football was playing backup quarterback. Week-in and week-out you have to get prepared as a starter. You have to anticipate going in to win a game. You might get in or might never play. It happens. Every other position, if you're a backup, you'll play somewhere. If you are a linebacker, you'll play on special teams. (Dan) Pohlman and (John) Pickens play 15, 25, 30 snaps a game. If you are backup quarterback you might go 11 games and never play. The last two games have been on the line for him. He was playing with poise and maturity that I'm so glad to see. He has a great arm. He has great release. I love when he throws it. He can spin it as well as anybody out there. It's a matter of maturity and managing the football team and the more chances he gets to it, the better. I think we're on schedule in this development."
ON INJURIES OVERALL AND HOW HAS IT AFFECTED THIS TEAM
"Some years you're lucky, some years you're not. We've had our share of injuries. You get to a point of almost no return. And then you look at a survival alternative. Luis Castillo had a chance to play significantly in four games. He played 35 or 40 snaps this week. He'll play that much or more next. That was worth doing. I look at this with two games now with Jeff Backes. It's not worth it. You just want to make some judgement calls. We obviously made a commitment to Thomas Derricks early this season and that was not a bad decision. He still plays a lot of snaps and this will benefit him down the road. The same things with Herschel Henderson. We're about mid-season then we get a flurry of injuries at safety. Again that's a good decision at that point. They took some thought, but I'd play 35, 40 snaps. That wasn't a bad experience now."
ON THE FINAL 10 DAYS OF THE SEASON, AND HAVING TO PLAY ILLINOIS ON A FEW DAYS OF REST
"Obviously we have 10 days, starting tomrrow, the first significant work day. We're looking at a 10-day scenario of what's the right thing to do to play two games in 10 days. They're (Illinois) faced with the same situation. At the time we scheduled Bowling Green we were concerned about giving up our only open weekend of the year. But then, you only get 44 opportunities to play college football. The Sept. 11 incidents were devastating, and I agree that we shouldn't have played that following Saturday. But I think our players wanted to get another game so we decided to make a move to reschedule. We're not at the position where we thought we'd be, however. We're kind of banged up, some guys are out. But the extra week wouldn't have mattered. We're not going to get Kevin Lawrence back. We're not getting Damien Anderson back. We're not getting those guys back. You just deal with the cards you're dealt with. I have no doubt about Torri Stuckey. I think he's going to play real well. He's one of my absolute favorite kids in this program.He's getting an opportunity a little bit sooner than he thought he might. My first start in college came because somebody got hurt. I didn't want him to get hurt. I felt bad for him, but you know, hey, I wanted to run the ball, too. I ended up with 38 carries that game -- good deal!"
CAN WE EXPECT AN ALL-OUT PASSING GAME THIS WEEK, CONSIDERING BOWLING GREEN'S DEFENSE AND THE LACK OF RUNNING BACKS
"I would't anticipate that. I still like to rush the football and we're going to find a way to rush the football. Somebody has to run the football, and it might be our quarterback. We're down a little bit at tailback but Zak can run the football. He's proven that. He's had a couple of 100-yard games and he's a viable threat as a runner. We can't reinvent the wheel at this stage of the game but we're going to do what we can do. Maybe we'll be a little more five out, who knows. Torri is more than confident and ready to take this on. You saw him play. He's a tough kid. He plays hard. I have no doubt about his ability to make plays and help us."
ON THE OFFENSE'S INCONSISTENCIES OF LATE
"Our inability to move the ball to keep the defense off the field is a concern. I think we need more first downs. That's what we need to do. If the offenses produces early and makes first downs, we can be pretty good. Everybody was just star-struck and dazed by our offense last year. It's a good offense when you make first downs. We've seen how ugly it looks though when it doesn't. When you go three and out -- it's not what you want. It's not what we've wanted the last two weeks. We need to make first downs, make them early and get on a roll."
