Northwestern University Athletics
Spring Football Update -- April 23
4/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 23, 2002
EVANSTON, Ill. - The sun held up in Evanston Tuesday afternoon, allowing the Northwestern football team to get another outdoor session in preparation for Saturday's Spring Game.
The Spring Game Presented by Yellow Book USA will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday on Ryan Field, weather permitting. For more information on the activities surrounding the game, click here.
With that in mind, we decided to pick head coach Randy Walker's brain and see what he had in mind for the game. What can fans expect to see?
"We'll probably run the event more like a scrimmage than an actual game," he said. "In some positions we're a little thin, due to graduation and injuries, so we don't have a true team of ones and twos -- it's more like one-and-a-half. But we'll run the offense vs. the defense and alternate series with the different units we have, adding some twos in with the ones and the ones in with twos.
"We'll likely do a lot of what I call three-plus-a-drive," he continued. "We'll spot the ball and give the offense a chance to put together a drive. If they go nowhere in three plays, we'll bring them back and let them go again. If they sustain a drive, we'll play it all the way out. We'll also do some kicking stuff, both punting and place-kicking."
With all the talk of the on-field personnel this spring, perhaps lost in the shuffle is the fact that personnel changes were made off the field, too. On Tuesday, Coach Walker surveyed what he has seen so far in that department -- and gave NU fans a sense of what to look for Saturday.
"There is a newness to some things on both sides of the ball," said Walker, acknowledging the new coordinators on both offense (Mike Dunbar) and defense (Greg Colby) and the positional changes of many assistant coaches. "On defense we're undergoing a lot of changes, whereas the offense is a little more subtle.
"Fortunately we're very young, with a lot of guys who aren't necessarily ingrained in a certain system or method," he continued. "We're not breaking these guys of old habits, so it is a good time for these changes."
And how does Coach Walker feel like the players have responded to the changes, especially on defense?
"Well, we're very young in some spots, but I see some good things out of some guys," he said. "I think we've got great coaches on the defensive side of the ball, coaches who know their positions very well and can teach the players. I think they're getting the players to the right place. But we'll have a chance Saturday to see if I'm right."
