Northwestern University Athletics
In Search Of "It"
10/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 1, 2009
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
They have missed tackles and opportunities, committed errors and been battered by explosion plays, but, still, on each of the last two Saturdays, the 'Cats came close enough to triumph that they could fill their nostrils with that sweet nectar of success. Does that, we ask of Pat Fitzgerald, heighten his frustration?
"No," he veritably snaps. "It heightens your sense of urgency. You want to give everything you can from the standpoint of motivating your players and getting them to believe they are that close. Now. You can think you're that close and (if) you do the same things you've been doing, we'll get it done. That's not the case. You need to have a greater sense of urgency and go out and do it. That's what we've been talking about all week."
"It's that old saying. Going insane is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome," senior safety Brendan Smith echoes minutes later. "If we keep on saying we're one play away, one play away, one play away, one play away, we've got to stop that. We just got to start making plays happen and, as a team, worrying about your individual job first and concentrating on that. Once all 11 guys on the field are doing their job first, there's a better chance of the outcome coming out on our side."
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This was the subject last Tuesday at the 'Cats' weekly players-only meeting. "Team unity, basically. We have to become a team. That was the main emphasis," says Smith. "We can't have guys half in, half out. Maybe 70 percent of the team buying in and 30 not, or 90, 10. We need everyone to be on the same page and we have to play as one heartbeat and one unit. That's what we're trying to stress."
"We're still trying to find out where guys are at," adds the quarterback Mike Kafka. "We've had injuries. That's no excuse. Guys need to step up, guys need to grow up a little bit more, young guys who're getting playing time, they've got to grow up and fit in their roles. Everyone's trying to find their way. But guys are really working at it. That's all you can ask for."
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Nearly a century ago, way back in 1921, a playwright named Luigi Pirandello authored a drama entitled "Six Characters In Search of an Author." Now, as they prepare to open the second third of their schedule Saturday at Purdue, the 'Cats can be similarly viewed as countless characters in search of an identity. "We're still jelling. We're still improving. We're still finding out who we are, really," says Kafka and that may be true enough.
But October has arrived and their season is no longer young and, after consecutive late-game losses, there is this axiom to consider. Some teams, when facing a crucible, have been so steeled by past success that they wonder which one of them will make the play to pull out yet-another victory. But others, confronting the same situation, have been so spooked by past failures that they wonder just how are they going to screw it up this time.
"No. I don't think so," Fitzgerald says when asked if his team's confidence has been so corroded that it is teetering on the edge of the latter category. "Looking at us in games decided by seven or less, we're 19-5 in the last 24 opportunities like that. We know how to finish. We've just got to get there."
"I personally want it. I want that ball. I want the opportunity to make that play. I want to be on the field at that time," Smith says when confronted with that same axiom. "As long as we have guys, and we do, I'm not trying to say I'm the only one. We have guys who want that opportunity. As long as we have that attitude and mindset that we want to make the plays, that won't happen. It should never get to that point. I think the toughest part is when you play your best game and you lose. Then what do you say? But we know there's room for improvement, we know we can work harder on the field, we know we can do more film study, we know we call do all these little things. There's light at the end of the tunnel."
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"As a quarterback you have to have a short memory," Mike Kafka says when asked about the effect of his own late-game errors (an interception against Syracuse, a fumble against Minnesota). "Good things are going to happen and bad things are going to happen. So you've got to move on. If you let it become a distraction, it will affect your play. That's one thing I've learned hanging around here. Sometimes if things don't go right and you let it get into your head, it just really diminishes your performance. That's not what we need right now."
• • • • • •
"What I've been telling guys is it's all about your attitude, its all about how you look at it," senior superback Mark Woodsum is saying. "We can say we lost two tough games and be down about it. Or we can say we were in two games and had a chance to win them. That's the attitude you have to take with you and know that we are very capable. The game's there for us to win. We've just got to take it. It's not really that another team is taking it away from us. It's just there for us to take it and we're not doing it. So I'm trying to re-emphasize to everyone, especially the younger ones, to not get down on yourself, to trust yourself, trust your ability, trust the coaches and the plan, and just keep your heads up and go out and make the plays."
People often say a successful quarterback has that abstract "it" and the same is true of successful teams. Does, he is then asked, this team have "it"?
"I think we're flirting with it," he says. "There're moments we've had it. There're moments when we're not quite there yet. As I said before, we have a great team here, we have great leadership. So I really think we can grab it. But obviously we're not quite there yet. So we're just trying to stay up and keep working forward to improve like every team in the country's trying to do. As long as we keep working to improve and keep a good attitude about ourselves, I'm confident that we'll be one of those 'it' teams and well go somewhere nice in December or January."
Are you shocked you don't have 'it' yet, Brendan Smith is asked two days later.
"Not shocked," he says. "Would I like to be there? Yes. But every team's different. Every team every year, it's different. We still never know how it's going to end. We could end 11-2 and that's the best team record in school history. As long as we start buying in, everyone, collectively, that's going to give us the best chance to win and that will make us grow as a team."
• • • • • •
Better tackling and better finishing and better care of the ball and better defense against explosion plays are all concrete necessities, obvious needs that are addressed and worked on each practice. But here the 'Cats are four games into their season, a season that has now reached a pivotal juncture, and they are still talking about unity and attitude and trust and defining themselves and performing with a greater sense of urgency.
These are abstract virtues continually stressed by Fitzgerald, stressed with all the ardor of a revivalist preacher, and so finally he is asked if he is surprised to hear that his players are still searching. "No. That's why we haven't gotten it done," he bluntly answers.
"I can say it 'til I'm blue in my face. I can say it 'til I puke. They need to take it to heart and they need to do it. If they don't do it, I need to find other players to do it. It's a pretty simple equation."
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