Northwestern University Athletics
Transcript of Coach Fitzgerald's Weekly News Conference
9/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 11, 2007
Northwestern Football Monday News Conference
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"It's great to be here 2-0 and to win a football game the way we did on Saturday. I'm very excited about the direction we're headed here into a very important week for us to improve on what we're doing and get one week better in our preparation. I thought last week we learned a valuable lesson as a football team to go into a game week with the sense of urgency to play a new opponent and I thought we learned some valuable lessons. I thought we played very well in the second half. I saw the football team I believe we aspire to be on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game. It wasn't perfect, but we really started to play with some emotions, physicality and some obvious passion. I liked our execution our last drive of the game. To have C.J. (Bachèr) make five big plays during that drive and have the offensive line protect the way it did and to have Ross (Lane) make the catch that he did, it's very encouraging for the future. We're going to take the lessons we learned from Saturday and move forward into practice today and play an opponent that we haven't seen in a few years, but know each other very well as we recruit the same type of players. From an injury standpoint, Eddie Simpson will not play in the game. He'll be out this week and we'll reevaluate in the future. Tyrell Sutton will be a game-time decision. We'll work through it one game at a time this week."
On setting the tone and adjusting...
"I think first and foremost you need to come out and play as one heartbeat on defense and we really started to do that in the second half. I thought Reggie McPherson and Deante Battle did a great job setting the tone emotionally from a defensive standpoint and to watch the way they went out in the second half I thought they played pretty well. We really haven't played to our potential as a defense in six quarters this year. Against Northeastern I thought we played well, but not to our potential and I felt the same way in the first half last game. I thought we played to our potential in the second half, though. There are a couple of plays that we'd like to have back. A couple of plays we need to adjust on, but I thought our staff did a good job there. On offense, we can't get down and get frustrated and I thought I saw that at times on Saturday. I like the way that C.J. kept battling and our wide receivers. I'm really proud of Omar (Conteh) and Brandon (Roberson). Their opportunity presented itself Saturday and I couldn't be more proud of them."
On the difference between the first two games...
"I think as you mature as a football team, we played in two totally different ball games in the first two weeks. We've been at two totally different extremes. In the game against Northeastern, it went pretty much as smooth as it can go. Against Nevada, we faced about as much adversity as you possibly can with having Tyrell go down, not fitting as well as we could have on a few plays on defense and having to adjust, same thing on offense. Some little changes to the way they played our offense to a year ago and we adjusted really well and that credit goes to our players. They took the adjustments they needed to take and went out and made it happen in the second half. I think every team at this point in the season is growing and maturing and creating a new identity. Each team, each year has its own identity."
On the offense...
"You want to have as much balance as you possibly can to keep the defense honest, but you're going to take advantage of what defenses do. The great thing about our offense is that when we're in the spread and make people adjust to our formation, they're either going to cheat the box or cheat our receivers. When teams are going to saddle up and put more people in the box than we can block, we're going to take advantage of their weaknesses and when they start to adjust, we'll make changes accordingly. I really like the way we moved forward in our game plan. Some plays aren't just called passes, you have to check into the right play and I thought C.J. did a great job to get us in the right play. I thought he got us into the right play more times than not."
On the gameplan...
"It means as we go through the game, we're going to adjust accordingly to what's working and what we've seen on tape and what we don't like based on what we've called to this point and where we might have some weaknesses or where they might have some weaknesses and we can take advantage of it. The game is always evolving. What you see on tape is something totally different than on the field, but more importantly, when you do have an advantage, you want to take it and we saw some things in the passing game that we liked and obviously when we had the opportunity to run the ball, we ran the ball and I thought Brandon had a great game running the football."
On the Hail Mary at the end of the first half...
"We lost contain on the quarterback. You had a guy running out in space. We lost discipline and didn't have great discipline in the secondary or from our linebackers, so we had a breakdown on defense. It's inexcusable, it cannot happen, but back in 1994 when I was playing, we had some experiences on defense that we went through that made us a lot better as a football team. To have some of our young guys on defense go through and to experience losing contain or dropping coverage, when you win a game, it's a great lesson learned. There were a couple plays there where we gave Nevada an opportunity to score and that was one of them. You can't do that and win football games and it's going to be a great lesson learned."
On the locker room at halftime...
"Our guys at halftime had a great feeling at halftime and a sense we were going to win the football game. Our guys are realistic, they knew we didn't play very well on both sides of the ball and when we got in the locker room there was a lot of great talk amongst the players as we were talking as a staff and I thought Garrick did a great job talking to the offense of what we needed to do in the second half and same thing with Greg, we needed to make some more changes and our players went out and executed. I thought we played at a higher level with more passion in the second half and I thought it really showed."
On Tyrell Sutton's injury...
"I think he's feeling better than he did Saturday. I think he was pretty sore yesterday, but we'll work through rehab and take it one day at a time and get ready for a game-time decision Saturday."
On what went wrong in the first game...
"The two big plays that I saw were the ones when we dropped coverage in the first half and the one in the second half when we just didn't fit right on the pressure we ran so it's a combination of both. That's 14 points right there that if we didn't give up, it's a whole different football game. We cannot do that and have a chance to win games in the future."
On C.J.'s running ability...
"C.J.'s always been able to run. When we recruited him, we thought he was really mobile and could run our offense to the degree that we want to run it and we're going to take what the defense gives us. Not all the time are they going to key in and squeeze the run on the tailback, they're going to keep a guy back for the quarterback and that's what's great about our offensive scheme, we can do multiple things. C.J.'s ability to run adds a big part. You look at those plays in the two-minute drill, he made as many plays with his legs as he did with his arm."
On coming back for the victory...
"I don't know if I was curious as I was excited. There was a belief on our sideline that we had seized momentum back and we really had it on our sideline for the majority of the second half. We left three turnovers on the field that we could've had. The ball was on the ground three plays in special teams and there was just a lot of missed opportunities that we had that we could have taken advantage of the momentum that we had and when we got ready to go out there for the two-minute drive, there was a lot of excitement and belief that we were going to win that football game. Our defense believed they were going to get it done on their last stand and our offense believed they were going to go out and make it happen, so they did."
On creating turnovers...
"There was a big sense of urgency throughout the spring and summer to take the ball away from our opponents and I thought we went after the ball a lot better on Saturday, but we're still not where we need to be. We need to still continue to practice it, but turnovers are an attitude. You need to go out there and attack the ball and I thought we did a great job of that on Saturday."
On team discipline...
"Our discipline's been good. That's the kind of character that we recruit into our program, so that's no surprise that we're playing disciplined football. I'd like to see us have a little more disciplined execution along with our disciplined football. Those two combined will be a great asset to us as we move forward in our football season."
On Duke...
"They changed coaches and when you go through your off-season study in the summer and from the first two games this year, there's an obvious change as to what they're trying to do philosophically on offense and defense. In the kicking game, there are some slight changes, so we'll have to adjust to those. Each week, a new scheme presents new challenges, but we need to focus on ourselves, we need to get better. We need to improve on the little things that we made mistakes on like keeping quarterback contain, discipline and making the shot that we missed on Saturday, and catching the balls that we dropped on Saturday. We need to make those plays. When that ball is on the ground, we need to get that ball for our offense and we didn't do that on Saturday. When you look at it, we caused two turnovers on Saturday and we could've had five. That's usually what happens. When you get sacks, they come in bunches and when you get turnovers they come in bunches. We had our opportunities and we need to take advantage of them for an opponent who we believe has improved each week. You watch the way they played last year, they were playing there best football and this year against UConn and Virginia, they were right there in it and it just didn't happen for them. It's going to be a big game. Obviously if you look at our season, this is the last game of the first quarter for us. It's going to be critical that we improve and learn from what we've gone through in the first few weeks."
Do you look at your start thus far as the glass half-empty or half-full...
"It's always going to be half-full. There's a lot of things you can draw strength and confidence from and more than anything, you can draw strength from the fact that we kept on battling and kept on fighting and there was no doubt we were going to win that football game. When you've got that kind of belief, you're in every football game that you play. Now we need to take advantage of some of those opportunities that we had in the first half and put a full football game together against a team that like Nevada is going to be a bowl team before the season's done. They've got a lot of weapons; they're very physical on defense and the kicking game. We had a chance to make a few plays and they made them. Our team had the right attitude after the game. There was a totally different feeling in the locker room from the game Saturday than after Northeastern. We played a game that went down to the wire both physically and emotionally and mentally and we need to take and draw strength upon this and move forward."
On starting 3-0...
"It would mean we just finished the first quarter 3-0. The past is the past. The first two games are over, the wins are great, it's great to be sitting here 2-0, but we need to play at a higher level, execute better and draw strength upon the second half to finish the first quarter the right way. This is a big week. We're getting closer and closer to school starting. The advantage of not being in school is dwindling and its critical that we start the season fast and so far, so good and now we need to finish the first quarter."
On playing a night game...
"We practiced a couple times at night in camp. Most of our guys played high school football under the lights, so I don't put big stock on game time changes. I like to get in routines, and we put slight changes in routine to not get monotonous. A few changes in periods and once schools starts, go in the mornings, but we're not going to practice at night. The lights will be on Friday night when we go for our walk-through, but we've practiced enough and will be prepared when it comes time for kickoff."
On the offensive line...
"Offensively, I want to see us continue the trend that we're on. I really saw Trevor Rees step up and he obviously draws our offense together not only from an experience standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint. I really like the way Adam Crum played, first game at guard this year. Desmond Taylor played for a number of plays and I thought Dylan Thiry played his best game of the year. I want to continue to see us turn in a positive light. Duke's very aggressive up front, so we'll have our hands full. On defense we need to play the way that we did in the second half. We had some guys in the second half start to have production and that's the expectation this group has. They're very hungry and not satisfied about how they've performed to this point. It's time to get some things fixed up and play the way they did in the second half."
On the defensive line...
"We're playing a lot of guys right now, not just four on the line, but about eight and as we continue to move forward, we going to play the guys that are productive. We've got great competition there that's going to make our team better. I don't care if they're freshmen or seniors; the best guys are going to play."
On Kevin Mims...
"Kevin Mims has always been a high-motor player. He's very solid fundamentally and technically. He had some injuries last year and he didn't let them get him down. The expectations he had going into last year were very high and he's gone into this year and battled. On Saturday, he executed the last call perfectly and flushed the quarterback and was right there for secondary contain and caused the fumble on the play before. I'm not surprised, he's been a very productive player for us and he's taken advantage of his opportunities."
On getting Ross Lane the ball...
"We're going to try and find ways to get him the football and we do it multiple ways. I thought Ross finished the game extremely well. He might've gotten frustrated early, but he kept on battling and getting better. We asked him to make a play at the end of the game and he stepped up like he always has. That's par for the course for Ross. When it comes to game day, Ross Lane makes plays and it's been fun to watch. He continues to grow and mature in our offense and we'll continue to find ways to get him the ball.
On Brendan Smith playing this week...
"That was great for Brendan Smith. He's such a competitive player and to go through an injury and go through rehab, his attitude was tremendous. He had an opportunity for a few tackles and showed up perfectly. He took an angle on one play that he'd probably like to have back and showed a little bit of rust, but that's a play he'll make in the future. For his first game, I was very pleased at the way he played. We got Brad (Phillips) out there quite a bit, too, and he's one of our best special teams players, so I think having both of them out there gives us some much needed depth in the secondary.
On Brendan Smith returning punts this week...
"We'll see how the week goes. I really like what Rasheed's (Ward) doing, he's only had a few catchable balls. I thought Nevada's punter was as talented a punter as we've seen in a few years, but had a bad day. Rasheed's had a good year making decisions when to fair catch, when to go after balls and when to take advantage of opportunities. Smitty's (Brendan Smith) got a knack back there and had a great year back there for us last year. I like both of them."
On Tyrell Sutton returning to the starting role...
"You don't lose your job because of injury. You play your best 11 players and it comes down to formations -- plays we like and ways we can take advantage of their weaknesses and play to our strengths. I'm not surprised, those are the players we expect them to be (Omar Conteh and Brandon Roberson) and I was very pleased with their performance on Saturday."
On Duke's progress...
"They are a growing and maturing team, and what I see from them is a team that plays extremely hard. Ted Roof's a very aggressive personality and is very involved with the defense. It's going to be a great challenge for us. Different schemes from what we've had in the first few weeks, so with that, we'll need to accelerate our focus and prepare for what we're going to see."
Can you imagine what it would be like to have a perfect September?
"We're taking each game one at a time. We've got to worry about ourselves and we're not playing our best football yet. The benchmark for a team is how you come out of camp. I was very encouraged at the first game how we came out of camp and saw some strides and improvements this week, so I know our players are listening. We need to do the same thing this week. Right now the phase of our game I'm most proud of is our kicking game. We're getting good executions. It'll be a challenge this week. Duke comes after every kick and has a really outstanding returner, so our third and most critical phase will be challenged this week."
On Amado Villarreal and how he ended up at Northwestern...
"He contacted us and was interested in walking on. He's been improving each year and has taken advantage of his opportunities to go out there and be our starting kicker. His operation times are great and the height and the way the ball comes off the foot are tremendous. We've got great confidence in him. There were times in spring, when it was 4 or 5 degrees out, he was kicking it from 40-45 yards when the ball was probably half-frozen. It was a lot of fun to watch. His attitude has always been the same. Just takes it one kick at a time. He's in a good place right now. Our execution is really good on the team right now, but we're going to play in hostile environments and with wind that will present some challenges and I think we'll be ready for it."
On the mental aspects of kicking...
"You need to take each kick the same way. Mentally it's the challenge of not being out there every play but going out there and going through your same routine and taking it one kick at a time. You just need to go through your routine and draw confidence and strength from that. "
On playing as a team...
"Momentum is dangerous. Maybe your defense needs to go out there and get a stop and get the ball back and your offense needs to pick up the kicker and that's football. You need to pick each other up. That's football. If you drop coverage in the first half, you need to go back out there in the second half and pick it up. If our offense goes three-and-out, our defense needs to go out there and make a stop and that's team football and I think our team is playing team football right now. "
On the team's preparation for the Big Ten schedule...
"I think that the difference in the games we've played prepares us for the Big Ten schedule. Football is not a game of perfect. (Coach) Walk used to say it, Gary Barnett used to say it and I say it now --- it's just not a game of perfect. You need to go out there and adjust and stay in the moment and I thought we did a really good job of that. We didn't go in at halftime and say the game's over. We went in and the most impressive thing was our players' belief and confidence that we would win the football game. We hung around enough and finished in the fourth quarter."
On Chris Malleo...
"Chris provides great leadership from the standpoint that he's a great energy player. His love for the game of football is obvious. He's extremely unselfish; he's changed positions multiple times. He's arguably our best recruiter; he always volunteers first to host recruits and is always trying to attract guys to our football program. He volunteers all the time to give back to the Northwestern, Evanston and Chicago community. He's just a very unselfish player. Obviously his role is evolving. He's playing a ton on special teams, he's our special teams player of the week this week. He's our linebacker on nickel situations. Chris is growing as a linebacker. Its tough to switch positions at the end of his career like he has and he's playing the best football of his career right now."
