Northwestern University Athletics
Walker and Company Hold Final Practice Thursday
4/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 22, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill - Northwestern's gridders held their last practice Thursday on NU's outdoor practice fields, two days before taking to Ryan Field for the annual Spring Game (click on the "Spring Game" link for a complete schedule of Saturday's event), which is presented by Yellow Book USA. Kickoff is slated for noon.
Head coach Randy Walker plans to run his players through 60 to 70 live plays Saturday, with many of those plays being of a situational type.
"We're going to play offense against defense," Walker said. "What we'll do is have different situations with different starting and ending points which will primarily focus on certain matchups."
With much of last Saturday's scrimmage devoted to special teams, Walker also will lessen the number plays committed to the kicking game.
"Last week we involved a lot of the kicking game, so I don't know how much special teams work we'll do on Saturday," Walker said. "The punt and field-goal teams will get a fair amount of work, but I'm not sure if we'll do anything more than that."
Walker also commented that the passing game will be the main focus for the 'Cats come Saturday.
"We're going to work on things we need to improve upon, which has been the passing game," Walker said. "Two areas that will benefit are our young receiving corps, with getting them some reps, and our pass protection, which was less than stellar last year."
Overall, Walker is pleased with the progress his team has made this spring.
"With the objectives we set out for ourselves in the areas of offense, defense and the kicking game, I see real progress," Walker said. "We need to keep the momentum going into the summer and through Kenosha to effectively prepare for TCU and the 2004 season. All in all, we've taken big steps toward what we're trying to do, which is all you can ask for."
