Northwestern University Athletics
Transcript of Coach Fitzgerald's Weekly News Conference
10/2/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 2, 2007
Northwestern Football Weekly News Conference
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening statement...
"It's time to get back to work. We played 51 minutes of very good football on Saturday. It was probably our most consistent football of the year. We need to find a way to finish to win Big Ten football games and we obviously didn't do that. Watching the tape, down the stretch to see what our opponent did, I just give them credit just like I did after the game. We need to make those plays at the end of the game. We pride ourselves in this program on finishing and we obviously didn't get the job done on Saturday. We'll go right back to work; we're a hungry football team. We've got men that are focused on exactly what we need to do to get going in the right direction. It's going to be a stiff test this week. Mark Dantonio has done a phenomenal job since he's taken over at Michigan State. I'm not surprised. Both of us have defensive backgrounds. I've got the utmost respect for the football that they're playing right now. It's going to be a great challenge and a great environment and we'll be excited to go on the road."
On reviewing Mike Hart's one play...
"When you look at the play, what I think is irrelevant. When you see the play that I saw from the sideline, I saw no beanbags thrown. If there are no beanbags down, the player's down. If the player's down or the ball goes out of bounds, it's not a reviewable play. That's why I didn't challenge the play. There's a sheet that I study every Friday night before I go to bed, it's about what plays are reviewable and what plays aren't. Our guys were adamant upstairs that they thought it was a certain way, but there was something from my preparation of the game that if I don't challenge it, they will if it's a bang-bang play. The review officials do a great job with it in the Big Ten. Obviously the play was ruled down, so it was a play you couldn't review."
On C.J. Bachér's health...
"He was out there today working out. Five weeks of playing quarterback you take some shots and get a little banged up, but he's doing well."
On the health of Jeff Yarbrough and Desmond Taylor...
"They've been out for a couple weeks. I don't talk about injuries unless there are issues that we need to discuss, we've got some guys throughout the course of the year that are going to get banged up, but those guys will hopefully be back this week."
On Eddie Simpson...
"He didn't work out today, so he's week-by-week."
On your psyche at this stage of the season...
"I'm doing great. I'm seeing our football team take the right steps. We played 51 minutes of probably our most consistent football of the year. You need to make plays that winners make and when we do that, we'll win and we'll win a lot. We've got a very good football team that needs to continue to be coached to be consistent. We had a very good plan going into the Michigan game and our guys did a great job of executing it, coming out with the focus and intensity and physical nature that we need to win football games. Down the stretch, we need to play 60 minutes and we didn't do that Saturday. It's obvious when you watch the tape. If we do that, we'll win. Typically when you do that consistently, you win a lot of football games. I don't think there's any magic solution to being successful. Our guys believe in themselves, they believe in each other and believe in the plan. They just have to go out there and make it happen."
On Northwestern's defensive effort...
"I thought out guys had great focus. We had great intensity and making some plays early in the game helped on both sides of the ball. We got off the field and we did some good things. We got a penalty that we need to be smarter with but we still had an opportunity to get off the field in the first series, but then defensively we shored up the run to hold Michigan to 3.2 yards per carry, which shows me we're headed in the right direction. Over the last two weeks, we're a top five defense in the Big Ten after our games against Ohio State and Michigan. Obviously we'd like to give up less points, but I see things trending in the right direction. As long as we continue to improve and play our best game of the year against Illinois (NU's last opponent), and put ourselves in a position to be successful and play our best game at the end of the year, I'll be happy with the way our season goes. We've got a lot of football left to play. If we play with the kind of intensity we played with Saturday, I like our team. I like the way we play when we play that way and it gives us an opportunity to win."
On staying focused...
"There are no guarantees in life, so no. We just need to take it one game at a time, prepare the way that we prepared last week. I thought we had great focus and intensity. I thought that they were physical throughout the week and that our leadership did a great job Friday and Saturday to get us in the right place. We just didn't make the plays down the stretch. We're driving the ball still in the second half. It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback, but we just need to make the plays in crunch time. We have. We did it against Nevada and against Duke we had our chances and we just didn't do it, but our offense believes they can do it and our defense believes they can make the stops. We just have to make it happen."
On C.J. Bachér's health...
"I didn't hear him scream and I know that he wasn't hurt when he came off the sideline. He's probably mad at himself for not making something happen. He's a very competitive person. Not anything other than your typical bangs and bruises."
On Tyrell Sutton's health...
"I'm going to fully expect him to be out this week based on the injury report I heard yesterday, but we'll see where that's at later. I like where Omar (Conteh) and Brandon (Roberson) are at from a competitive standpoint and Stephen (Simmons) and Nathan (Shanks), so I'm really excited about those four guys. I said it all last week; one man's injury is another man's opportunity. Our guys are taking advantage of that and playing pretty good football. Brandon's been a 100-yard rusher for us, now Omar's a 100-yard rusher for us. Stephen had a big kickoff return again. One of 29 yards and one of 52 yards, so I like the way those guys are playing right now."
On redshirting Tyrell Sutton...
"It's really out of my hands. When it comes to redshirting, it's under my control and the player's control, but when you start talking about medical issues, you have to look to the medical staff. We're going to go through it week-by-week, but I'll wait to hear their direction before I make my input. We'll cross those bridges when we come to them."
On scoring touchdowns when reaching the 20-yard line...
"You look at the first half of the season and I think we're 7-for-7, we just have to make those plays down there. We practice down there quite a bit. I talked about it earlier in the season and we were down there probably 25 times in two-a-days and probably about 20 plays down there the week in practice, so we're down there quite a bit from the red zone in. We just have to make the plays when we're there. A couple of them, you have to give Michigan credit, but some of the other plays, we need to make it happen. What I'm excited about is that even though we haven't made it happen on some plays, Amado's been going down there and has been automatic and that gives me great confidence in his ability and the way that our PAT/field goal team has been operating. Phil Brunner has been snapping the ball all year and in Kyle Daley's first year holding, those guys have been doing a great job."
On awarding scholarships to walk-ons...
"I have to do it before class starts, those are the NCAA rules so there was a handful of guys that we awarded scholarships to. There's a great walk-on tradition here. Counting the four guys we put on scholarship this year gives us 25 walk-ons who've been awarded scholarships in the past eight years. All men are deserving and have invested greatly in the program. The way we look at things, if you have a great attitude and you work hard and are a productive member of the football team, you'll be rewarded for that. We've got a great tradition of that. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a starter, but I really like where Amado's at right now. Kyle Daley the same way. He come to Northwestern to be a holder, but he's taken over that job and handled being our backup punter really well. Tim Downing's been a four-year player for us. He's a young man that's invested greatly into the program and done great things to help our football team get ready. Keegan Grant, who we've all seen play a lot of football for us is a redshirt freshman is out there as our sixth offensive lineman right now, so there are four guys that are really deserving. We've got another group of guys that are right there on the cusp and if they just keep working hard and keep their attitude in the right place, good things will happen for them. That's one of the great things about coming to Northwestern."
On Michigan State...
"They're very aggressive. I see lots of similarities to Ohio State with zone pressure. Attack style defense. They're very physical and have got a lot of guys coming back from last year; I think six starters coming back from a year ago. They're guys that are very aggressive and are well coached. You see great swarm to the ball, so it'll be a great challenge for to our offense."
On stopping the run...
"The recipe for success in the Big Ten is that you need to stop the run. How you do that schematically, first you have to put your guys in the right place to make plays, but you need to get off blocks and get great population to the football. I thought we had great swarm on Saturday and I thought it was our best tackling game of the year, but we actually missed more tackles than we did all year. Because we had the great pursuit and swarm, one guy misses at the line of scrimmage and two or three guys were there to make the play and it really goes unseen, but I really like the way that we ran to the football and the effort that we played with on Saturday."
On protection...
"It comes down to little details and angles. Each week you see little wrinkles that some defensive lines play and those are little things each week and is why Bret Ingalls and Adam Cushing spend so much time with our offensive lineman and superbacks as they do to get the guys to take the right angles. You do what you do, it's week six of the season, you just need to make your slight tweaks each week."
On protecting the quarterback...
"I've liked the way our guys are protecting. Brandon and Omar have done a great job, Nathan Shanks is a guy that we feel really confident in there with pass protections and Stephen Simmons is a really aggressive player. I like where all four of those guys are at and I think we've protected quite well and mixed things up well. As you watch tape and study your opponent you need to make sure that you've got good balance in your protection and what you ask your guys to do and we just need to make sure that we keep mixing it up."
On cutting down on sacks allowed...
"They made a couple plays and we were right there, but it just comes down to executing your fundamentals and technique and trusting the call. There were a couple of the plays where we didn't and a couple of plays where we could've gotten the ball out a little quicker. It's 11 guys. When sacks happen, it usually doesn't just come from one guy blowing an assignment -- that's pretty rare. I didn't see blown assignments, I just saw little breakdowns in fundamentals and our techniques, but all things can be corrected."
On Sherrick McManis' health...
"He came out of the game 100 percent, no issues post-game. He took a pretty good hit against the Buckeyes and came back and practiced last week. He played very physical and made some good hits. If he's good to go, he's going to go out there. With him and Stephen back there, it's a great combination. I felt for the first time watching Sidney Stewart out there, he did some good things with the football and a nice job as an returner, so I like where we're at there. We're playing pretty fast and playing pretty physical and the guys up front are the guys that are creating it."
On last year's game...
"I think our guys that are returning understand what happened in last year's football game. When you have a lead you have to keep the pedal down, finish the football game and make the plays that you need to make. When I look back to last year's game, we lost some momentum and had some chances to get it back, but we did not do that. In any football game, that's why you play for 60 minutes. Just like on Saturday, we had an opportunity with nine minutes left, we get a couple of first downs, we could've kept the field position and maybe you have a different outcome. That's why it's such a great game. There's a lot to learn from that, but our guys just need to understand that it's a 60-minute football game."
On field position...
"Those are the hidden yards in the field position game. We've had a couple of good returns and been pretty successful. Saturday was probably our most successful game and then we muffed a ball and it really kills field position. I thought their punter had a really good game too. Earlier in the year, we've had a lot of uncatchable balls that were kicked about 30 yards and then rolled and that'll happen from time to time. I thought our punt return team did a great job getting Rasheed (Ward) started on Saturday. We did a nice job of that. He's got an opportunity to make big plays and he reminds me a lot of Kunle (Patrick). Rasheed just needs to trust his technique and catch the ball in front of him and square his shoulders up to the football."
Will Quentin Davie start this week?
"If we had to play today he would, we'll see how the week goes along. As a redshirt freshman and only playing five games of football, I'm very excited about Quentin Davie and his future. I feel really good about our outside linebacker position. We got Rejaie Johnson out there for the first time. Those two guys are guys that are really getting their first experience out there. Talking about Prince (Kwateng) also is battling through a little bit of an injury right now, but his attitude's been great and he's been getting better each day."
On keeping the balance between running and passing...
"I would say that we had pretty good balance throughout the game, but when you're down a few scores, you've got to start throwing the ball. We did that when we were down, but until then, I thought we had good balance and were running the ball with success. I thought we mixed it up quite well."
On protecting the football...
"When you move around in the pocket, you need to have two hands on the football. When you just have to tuck it and run, you need to have the ball protected properly. We spend an inordinate amount of time on doing that and we just need to reinforce that in practice. But you need to create the good habit or bad habit, there's no three ways about it. He needs to do a better job of protecting the ball, putting two hands on it and when he feels that pressure being able to secure it."
On playing other quarterbacks...
"No, C.J.'s been playing extremely well. He's been playing at an extremely high level. He made 13 big plays on Saturday giving us a chance to win. I like where he's going, when you deal with adversity on the football team, it's like being the coach. When you win, you get all the credit and when you lose, you get all the blame. It's part of the deal when you play that position, but he's doing a great job handling it as a player. The highs and the lows that you face, you take what you did well and learn from it and grow and the adversity you make sure it doesn't happen in the future."
On improving third-down success rate...
"We had more negative plays than we had in the first four weeks. You need to give yourself a manageable third down. If you get to third down and it's third-and-five or less, as an offense, your percentage goes up dramatically. I thought we had pretty good efficiency when we did get into that situation. Obviously, the longer it is the more difficult it is."
On John Gill's play...
"He played more on third down on Saturday because he's in great shape and shown that in practice. We try to get our four best pass rushers that we've seen throughout time to work pass rush drills every day. John has been right there and basically been our fifth guy, so he's just going to increase his role as he continues to play and produce that way."
Was Saturday's game a moral victory...
"Somebody asked me after the game if there's such thing as moral victory and my answer to that is no. Either you win or you lose. Your job as a coach or a player in college football is to win and that's your only goal. When you look back at the game, we gave ourselves an opportunity to be in the game in the fourth quarter because of the focus that we had and what we invested last week and how we went about our business for 51 minutes. Now we need to finish. The goal here is to win and to win championships and anything less than that is inexcusable and is not the destination that we expect."
