Northwestern University Athletics
Oct. 7 Quick Hitters With Skip Myslenski
10/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 7, 2009
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
• The ankle he injured in the second quarter against Eastern Michigan has finally healed and junior running back Stephen Simmons is set to return Saturday when the 'Cats host Miami. "It's good. It's good," he said when asked his condition now.
And, with his return, how will he and the rest of the committee at his position be used?
"I assume it will be like the first couple of games," he said. "But I'm not sure, really."
• Uncertain too is just who will be in front of him blocking, which qualifies as a mild surprise since the 'Cats' offensive line was, not long ago, considered a strength. But, last Saturday at Purdue, their running backs managed just 52 yards on 20 carries; they suffered a pair of sacks; and their final rushing figures were 122 yards on 43 carries, which averages out to a two yards-per-attempt. They have, further, totaled 121.8 rushing yards per game, which is down 20 from a season ago, and already allowed a dozen sacks after giving up only 22 all last season.
"No one is playing really well right now and I'd say the collective group needs to play a whole heck of a lot better right now for us to run the ball and play the way we're capable of," their coach, Pat Fitzgerald, said of that line last Monday. Then, in a clear expression of his displeasure, he did this at practice. He trotted out different combinations of players to work on the first offensive unit.
"I want to run the damn ball and I want to finish blocks. So I don't care who plays," he said when asked about that. "I want to run the ball and finish blocks and I will find and Cush (offensive line coach Adam Cushing) will find and (offensive coordinator) Mick (McCall) will find the right combination of five guys who go out there and play their (rear) off."
Is the competition- - -
"Ongoing. Daily," he avowed, interrupting the question. "It will be ongoing tomorrow, it will be ongoing Saturday, it will be ongoing for the rest of the year."
How do you explain their lack of production?
"When you don't play your (rear) off and don't finish blocks, good things don't happen. It's called attitude. We haven't changed our expectations and we haven't changed the way we coach them. We've decided at times not to execute, to not do the things that we are capable of doing with the right attitude. I'm not going to accept it. Until we find the right five, you'll see different combinations out there until somebody decides to take a job and make it his."
• "We have to establish dominance on the line of scrimmage," guard Doug Bartels will say when asked about his coach's unhappiness. "We didn't execute the way we needed to in the run game this past week. For us to win games, we need to be a physical, dominating force on the line of scrimmage and push people off the ball. So, yeah, there's competition up front and the five people who are playing the best are going to be out there. It doesn't matter, your history or how many games you played in. The people who're playing the best right now, who are going to go out there and be dominant are going to be playing Saturday."
Are you surprised by the situation since you were considered a team strength at season's start?
"It looked that way, but there was always competition, guys pushing to get in the starting lineup from day one. When you're not executing something right, you need to make the changes to make it right. We're emphasizing that in practice. The people who show that they can do it in practice are going to be able to go out there and do it in the games."
How are you responding to your coach's biting criticisms?
"He needs to say it that way. It's not acceptable to not be able to run the ball and not be able to establish dominance of the line of scrimmage. Winning games, it's all starts in the trenches with the offensive and defensive lines. When the five people out there aren't doing it, we need to have five people out there, no matter who they are, it doesn't matter, we need five people out there who are able to do that."
How would you describe the lines play this year?
"I would say we've had high points and, at the same time, we've had low points. The thing is, I know what we're capable of, so I know what it needs to be when we go out there. At times it hasn't been that way. We're going to find the five people who are going to go out there and make it the way it needs to be."
Why isn't it the way it needs to be?
"It's hard to explain. We have the physical ability. It's a mindset that we're going to go out there and knock their down guys off the ball and be dominant, be a dominant force. It's a mental thing more than anything."
• Back in 2006, in his first game as the 'Cats head coach, Fitzgerald took his team to Miami. That school, of course, was the alma mater of the late Randy Walker, whose sudden death months earlier had led to Fitzgerald's ascension. It is no wonder, then, that he now says, "It will be a pretty emotional day for me Saturday (when his 'Cats play Miami), it really will. It brings back memories of our trip to Oxford and of coach in general and his family."
And what does he remember of that trip?
"It was a really humid night that night and it almost felt as if the humidity was symbolic of the emotion that was in the air. You could cut it with a knife."
Does he have a special memory of Walker himself?
"It has nothing to do with football," he says, clearly relishing the story now to come. "Stacy (his wife) and I go vacation down in Naples, Florida, where Tammy (Walker's widow) and Randy have a place. We had some fun on the beach one day. Coach said he looked forward to retiring one day and growing out a ponytail. One of my dad's best friends lives down in Naples half the year. He was a real clean-cut guy, but when he retired he grew a ponytail like Panama Jack.
"We went out for pizza one night and Walk said, 'That's going to be me in 15 years.' It's one of those memories, something that will always stick with me. Watching the sunset and having a few cocktails with Walk talking about growing a ponytail was pretty funny."
