Northwestern University Athletics
Transcript of Coach Fitzgerald's Weekly News Conference
11/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 5, 2007
Northwestern Football Weekly News Conference
Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement . . .
"It is great to start senior week here this morning, we had a great workout, and this Saturday will be a great celebration of 17 players that have invested greatly into our program over the last four or five years, and for one guy that's come onto our football team since last winter, it'll be a very exciting day for our guys to go out onto Ryan field for one last time, to go out with our football team to play Northwestern football to enjoy the pageantry and the excitement that goes along with playing on Ryan Field, and also to have the opportunity to honor our significant others and family members as they are introduced before the game."
On any specific fourth quarter problems . . .
"We just need to keep playing the way that we have played through the previous three quarters, and it looked like that to me in the last couple of weeks, as I have gone back and taken a hard look at both games. I told the team the analogy today about playing grade school basketball. When you're a team that runs a good offense, and you execute it well, and you play a really good 2-3 zone, and then all of a sudden you decide at a certain point in the game, just out of the blue, to start pressing, and you're not a press team, you get yourself in trouble. That's what it has looked like the last couple weeks, looks like we've been going out there and pressing in the fourth quarter, and doing things that are uncharacteristic of our football team, and it's cost us dearly. We just need to continue to believe in who we are and what we do, and we'll be successful again."
On pressing and trying too hard . . .
"It looks to me like we're trying to make things happen that we don't need to, playing outside the framework of what we are trying to accomplish offensively and defensively, and the kicking game. That's on us, as coaches, to make sure that we continue to be consistent, throughout the course of practice, to get our guys to believe that's the way they need to play for four strong quarters, and for the most part all year, we've done that. Our guys have done a really good job of it. For some reason, I don't know if it's because we're too focused on winning and not focused on what winners have to do, and focused on the process of just playing within the framework of the call of the offense, the defense, or the special team play, but that's something we'll really focus on, just continuing to believe in what we're doing and not trying to do things that aren't characteristic."
On the focus of the team . . .
"I just think we are pressing. You worry about winning more than you worry about doing what winners do, and competing and making the plays that you need to make instead of worrying about winning, `We gotta win, I gotta win on this play' so on and so forth, and sometimes winning can be a distraction. Winning is a byproduct of what you do when you do things well, not just having it be your sole focus."
On the play of C.J. Bachér last Saturday . . .
"There were a couple plays I think that he would like to have back. One he needed to throw away, they had great coverage on the play, and he needed to throw one away on the flea flicker. That's sometimes the best throw of the day, when you just throw it away. A couple of the other plays, I think he'd like to have back, there were guys that were open, just trust your progression and take what the defense gives you. Great quarterbacks, that's what they do, take what the defense gives you in all situation, and I didn't get a chance to watch all of it, but I watched the way the [New England] Patriots just kind of kept coming back and coming back, just taking what the defense was giving them gave them an opportunity to win yesterday. That's what these kind of games are all about now in November, they are critical games for you to be successful, but you have just got to trust who you are, believe in it and just keep playing."
On the team's current situation in the season . . .
"You just have to trust in yourself and trust in what you're doing, and if you do that, it doesn't matter if it's the first game against Northeastern or the 11th game against Indiana. You go out working to continue to get better and improve, and as you do that throughout the game, as you learn what your opponent is doing to you, and you learn truly about your opponent, then you learn about yourself and what has been effective and what has been ineffective, then you can improve and play pretty well at the end of the game. If you focus on, `We've got to be better in the fourth quarter,', you're going to get exactly what you deserve. It goes back to what I was talking about earlier, you press, and then you play out of your comfort zone, and you try to do things that are uncharacteristic of who you are and the way that you've played, and then you end up making mistakes because of it."
On the frustration from pressing now and not earlier in the season . . .
"That's why I believe in what we are doing. When you trust in the plan, when you go out and execute it, stay within yourself, good things happen, and for us, great things happen. We've won five games because of that, and when I look at the Purdue game, the Iowa game, the Duke game and the Michigan game, we pressed in those games, and you can't do that. We need to do a better job as coaches of making sure that doesn't happen again, to give ourselves an opportunity to win the game."
On where the pressing is coming from . . .
"More than anything as I watched on Saturday, we've got guys doing some things that they haven't done for the rest of the game, so I'd say that [pressing] is more across the board, I can't just say it's one thing here or one thing there, it's a combination of things. You just need to be disciplined and focus in that situation."
On what players are doing that they haven't done before . . .
"Making poor decisions with the ball, having bad eyes, taking your eyes out of your progression, not fitting in the right gap, not running your feet on tackles, not finishing your blocks, little details that make a big difference."
On the big plays given up against Iowa . . .
"It was a breakdown of focus, and disciplining your fundamentals and technique. We got guys in position there, we just have to be disciplined. You get a little hitch route, hitch route, hitch route thrown in front of you, you've got to understand that they are setting that play up, we talked about it on the sideline, and when it happens, you need to be disciplined with your eyes, focused with your technique, and go up and make the play, and we didn't do that."
On simulating a fourth-quarter atmosphere in practice . . .
"You'd liked to think that, instead of worrying so much about the fourth quarter, you worry about being consistent, and playing the game in it's entirety in the same way. When you look at championship level teams, they are the same way each game, they are extremely consistent. They are not up too high for the opener or down too low for week five, they just stay the same emotionally, mentally and physically, and that's what we need to get to, throughout the whole game. We talk about the fourth quarter a lot, and we practice certain drills just like we do the same thing in the kicking game and offensively and defensively. More importantly, instead of pressing and worrying about winning, we need to execute and stay within ourselves to give ourselves an opportunity to win the game."
On whether the fourth quarter is overemphasized . . .
"You achieve what you emphasize, to be quite honest with you. If you emphasize being consistent, typically, then your guys are going to go out and attempt to do everything you ask them to do as a coach, and our guys try to do that to the best of their ability. I don't know if you can ever really overemphasize anything. You wish that there was more time. I would have liked a little more time on Saturday. That's not the way it works. I don't know if we overemphasize."
On Indiana . . .
"On offense, Kellen [Lewis] is playing at a really high level, he is making great decisions with the football. He is a tremendous athlete that plays within the framework of what they're doing, he doesn't try to force things, he's got 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions, which shows you he's making really good decisions, and he's getting the ball to James [Hardy], especially in positions to make big plays, and he's made big plays. I've watched the last couple games, and he's made some big plays. He's a big target; he runs well, their offense line is playing physical, giving them the opportunity to run the football, and they're doing a great job, as far as execution there. On defense, they are leading the Big Ten in sacks. Greg [Middleton] has been very productive on the edge, he's leading the Big Ten in sacks, and he's just been wreaking havoc in people's backfields. They play real hard and rotate a lot of guys up front. At the linebacking position, they're a 4-3 defense, those guys are downhill players, very aggressive, very physical, and then you watch Tracy Porter, not only in the secondary but also as a kick returner, especially on punts, he's a weapon back there, an All-Big Ten level corner. Then their safeties are physical and come downhill, and then I remember Leslie Majors, when he was coming out of Thornwood [high school], their other corner. They're playing at a very high level on special teams, they're a lot like Iowa, they play very fast, and they play very physical. It's going to be a great challenge. Our special teams on Saturday gave us an opportunity, especially our punt team. Iowa's number one in the Big Ten in punt returns, and not to have any yards, to have zero yards in punt return yardage against us gave us an opportunity, we were able to seize back some field position there throughout the course of the game. I thought Stefan Demos had his best game punting that he's had in his career yet."
On who will be kicking off for Northwestern . . .
"Right now were are [looking at Justin Pines] or Amado [Villarreal], one of the 96's. One of those two guys is going to handle kickoffs. I like what Justin did on Saturday. Would have liked to kicked the ball a little deeper, he got under a few, but his hang time was really good and gave us an opportunity to get down there and cover against Iowa. On the one pooch [kick], he kicked the ball up there with good hang time, we've got to cover with a little bit better dispatch and fit a little better, but I thought we had a better day on kickoff."
On the approach for kicking off against Indiana . . .
"We haven't met yet and game planned, as far as what we're going to do, but I wouldn't tell you anyways, because I don't want Indiana to know, but we're going to make sure that we put our guys in positions to make plays, they've got two guys back there that are returning kicks really, really well. The reason that they are doing that is that they're not really complicated with what they do, they execute extremely, extremely well. Leslie [Majors] got a little ankle [injury], so I'm not sure if he's going to be back there this week, but they've had Marcus [Thigpen] back there and James [Hardy], those two guys have been really good all year, so it's going to be a great challenge for our kickoff team."
On keeping IU quarterback Kellen Lewis in the pocket . . .
"He's made a lot of plays running the ball. You watch the Penn State game, he got them right back in the game with just a great scramble for a touchdown. You're not going to be able to keep him in the pocket all game. With that being said, you're going to need to be disciplined in your rush lanes, you're going to need to have great secondary contain when they do move the pocket, and then you're going to have to be extremely disciplined in the secondary and not come out of coverage until he crosses the line of scrimmage. Those things underneath you won't beat you, it's when you come up and become undisciplined and they throw the ball over your head is when you get in big trouble. So, yeah, it'll be a great point of emphasis, making sure that we know where he's at, and then, more importantly, being disciplined when he does scramble."
On the legacy of the current senior class . . .
"Ask me again in a couple weeks. We have football left to play. What I've been most pleased with is, when you look at a cross section of the guys, you start with Deante Battle, who's played a lot of football, and you work your way all the way down to guys like Justin Pines, who just came out for the team. We had Chris Malleo play his best game of the year on special teams on Saturday. David Ngene had a couple sacks, Dylan Thiry's played well all year, Adam Crum's played well all year, Trevor Reese has played well all year, Reggie McPherson's made plays. This senior class, I'm leaving a bunch of guys out. [Brandon Roberson] stepped up when Tyrell [Sutton] went down, and has done great things, You look at the wide receiver corps, with Kim [Thompson] and Tonjua [Jones], really probably playing their best football of their career at this point. I'm pleased with the way that this senior class has gone, and now they have some unfinished business, they've gotta go out and finish. Typically, everybody forgets what you do in September and remembers what you do in November, and we've got a great challenge here with Indiana coming in. It's going to be a great atmosphere for Senior Day, it's going to be an opportunity for those guys to continue to write the finishing chapters of their legacy."
On how to defend against IU receiver James Hardy . . .
"Well, you have to be multiple in your coverage concepts, so he doesn't get comfortable in seeing the same coverage. If you're rolling up on him sometimes and playing man, you need to be able to then press-bail and not let him get a read on what you are trying to do, and then you've got to be as disciplined as you can possibly be. He's going to catch the ball, you've just got to make sure you tackle him and you gotta make sure he doesn't make you pay over the top. When you make an offense execute 12 or 13 plays, you give yourself an opportunity as a defense to be successful."
On the status of Omar Conteh . . .
"He ran yesterday in the pool, and he's going to run this afternoon, so I'll know a little bit more probably after tomorrow's practice, but things are progressing very positively at this point."
On Rejaie Johnson's role on defense . . .
"Rajaie's just stayed the course. He's continued to get better each week. He was an extremely, extremely talented defensive end at La Marque high school when we recruited him. We've played him at a little bit outside linebacker, and we've played him in some nickel situations rushing the passer, we like the speed that he brings in on third down, and his knack and his ability to rush the passer, and I thought he was really disruptive in Iowa's backfield on Saturday. As he continues to work, I'm going to see his role continue to increase. He's been doing a nice job on the kickoff team for us, also, so it's great to see him here. He's been here now in the program for a couple of years, and now he's starting to play some pretty good football. I'm not surprised; he's been working hard.
On moving the pocket with C.J. Bachér against Indiana . . .
"I would just like being balanced. You just can't sit back there the whole game and expect to be able to pitch off the mound against Big Ten defensives. You got to move the pocket, run some boots, run some naked [boots], run some sprint out, some screens, quick game, to be able to be efficient in the spread offense. You don't see too many spread offensives throughout the country just sit back and drop back all day. I like the way that Garrick [McGee] calls the game to mix it up, keep defensive lineman guessing so they can't get a read, and when that happens, we have an opportunity to be successful as an offense."
On Bachér's opportunities to run against Iowa . . .
"I didn't see any of that. I thought that he made really good decisions when he decided to pull the ball down. The one [play], I would have liked to get him out of bounds in the two-minute situation, but he was really trapped and had no where else to go on that one play."
On throwing the ball away . . .
"You watch every game on Saturday, and you see every quarterback developing in that. Sometimes the best throw is the one that's in the fourth row. Sometimes you need to make a good decision and respect the football more than anything, and for the most part the entire season, C.J.'s done a tremendous job with doing that. He just needs to continue to trust that, and spread the ball out to our playmakers and let them make the plays. It's just kind of indicative of everybody on our team, you've just got to trust within the system, play within the system, play within ourselves and usually good things happen."
On the memory of Randy Walker and former IU head football coach Terry Hoeppner . . .
"It would have been a lot of fun, just knowing how much respect Randy had for Terry, and how close they were, and I know Tammy [Walker] and Jane [Hoeppner] are very close, it would have been a blast, and it's going to be a great game. There are two football teams that are fighting for a lot of their goals that are left on their goal boards. For us, the emotion that goes into senior day, it's going to be a great battle, and both teams will have a big smile on their face when they think about Randy and Terry. This was going to be their first opportunity for those guys to play each other head to head in Big Ten play. I don't want to speak for Bill [Lynch], but I know the honor that both of us have to continue on those coach's legacies is just a tremendous honor."
Closing Statement . . .
"To wrap things up, I'd just like to express our thoughts and condolences and prayers to Mike Wolf and his family. A very tough weekend for Mike, with the passing of his father, and our football family, our thoughts and prayers from all of our players, our staff, our support staff, go out to Mike as he's going through a very difficult time back home in Saint Louis with his family, and we lift his father up in our prayers. We look forward to the opportunity to get Mike back up here, put our arms around him and give him a big ol' hug. We'd like to express those thoughts to Mike and his family. Thank you guys very much."
