Northwestern University Athletics
Monday Press Conference Quick Hitters With Skip Myslenski
11/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2009
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
• He was asked to reconstruct the play that ended with him scoring a touchdown last Saturday against Iowa and, immediately, a smile swept across the face of defensive tackle Marshall Thomas. "Corey (Wootton, the defensive end) made a great play," he then said. "I just saw the ball there. I felt like the (Iowa) center was right there next to me and I was like, 'Man, I need to jump on this.' So I just jumped on it. Then I looked up and I kinda knew it, but then I really realized I was in the end zone and just got excited. Great play, and all my teammates came and we all celebrated together."
Was that his first touchdown?
"Yeah. Any level."
Did he ever get close before?
"Never."
• Thomas' fumble recovery catalyzed the 'Cats to their upset over the previously-unbeaten Hawkeyes and so they must have had a fun bus ride home from Iowa City, right? "That was a long bus ride," the wide receiver Sidney Stewart demurred with a laugh. "I guess maybe the first 15, 20 minutes it was. After that, I looked behind me, I see Cory listening to some Dave Chappell comedy stand up. We had a good time, doing what we do. But after that, we just kind of dozed off."
"Like Sid was saying, the first 15, 20 minutes driving out of the city was cool," added Thomas. "After that, just passed out the rest of the way."
"But when we got home, it was good to see our band and a lot of our fans waiting for us," concluded Stewart. "That was a great feeling."
• File this one, if you will, under the heading of strange bedfellows. Corbin Bryant, the 'Cats' junior defensive end, tore his ACL last November against Michigan. Chris James, Illinois' junior wide receiver and a teammate of Bryant at Morgan Park High School, did the same a year earlier. Now, on Saturday, they will bump up against each other when the 'Cats visit Champaign. "We," Bryant says of this, "know the pains of coming back from rehab."
• Bryant, says 'Cat coach Pat Fitzgerald, is playing his best ball of the year. This is hardly surprising and here is why. "It's starting to get close to 100 percent," Bryant says of his knee. "I'm almost a year after surgery, I think. This week will be a year. They said coming up on a year, I'd feel more like 100 percent."
How has he been hampered?
"Definitely the explosiveness. But I'm keeping on working hard in the weight room, working on my legs, squatting, leg presses, things like that, and it's been constantly coming back a little more and more every week."
Wootton, coming back from his own knee surgery, said he felt awkward at times. Did Bryant have similar thoughts?
"No. No. But just getting back used to the game was tough. At the beginning of camp, I was struggling a little bit with my technique because I hadn't played football since last November. So working on my technique was the tough thing. But I would say I've got it back pretty well."
• Bryant, on Wootton: "Because of his practice habits, he's just been getting better and better each week. You'll see an even better Corey this week after this week of practice."
• Bryant, you might not know, did not take up football until his senior year of high school. "I loved basketball a whole lot. That was my passion when I was growing up, when I was a little kid," he explains. "You know, in Chicago, everyone wants to be that great basketball player. But I saw my calling in football. A lot of my friends were playing it my senior year and I said, 'Why not play? It could be a great opportunity.' And it was."
Was he a great basketball player?
He laughs. "I like to think I was pretty good. I got a couple rebounds here, a couple three-pointers there."
Did he have a favorite dunk?
"Ah, nah. If I could just get up there, it would be good."
Did the coach at Morgan try to get him out for football before his senior year?
"Every year, actually, he was trying to. My brothers (Matt and Andrew) were stars on the team before I came to high school, so he knew I was there. He'd say, 'Where's Bryant at? Where's Bryant at?' I was kind of shying away from him until my senior year. I just wanted to dedicate myself to one sport."
• Fitzgerald, on his quarterback situation: "We fully expect Mike (Kafka) to run our offense. Now the different things we're going to do with him will be determined, number one, by health, and also by what we believe we can do to hopefully take advantage of what we see on video. I guess we'll see Saturday."
• Stewart, on the same: "Honestly, we went out to the (Iowa) game understanding that we didn't know exactly what was going to happen. So we, as receivers talking about it, we've got confidence in Dan (Persa) and we've got confidence in Mike and whoever's going to go out there and play, we've got confidence in him. So it didn't feel much different. We did a lot of reps in practice with Dan. . .(so) I don't think it felt different at all."
Is there a difference in the way each delivers a pass?
"The ball comes off Dan's hand a little bit differently. No better or worse than Mike's. It just comes off differently. Coming into the game, I think it was on Wednesday, Dan and I got together and I caught a few extra balls after practice. Once that happened, I knew how it was going to come off. It's not harder, per se, but it is a little more downward. But it wasn't a factor."
• In case you missed it: The x-rays on Persa's left hand, which he injured late against Iowa, came back clean. He is listed as day-to-day heading into Illinois.
• And finally, Fitzgerald, when asked if he will use the Illini's installation as a four-point favorite (despite their 3-6 record) as a motivational prod: "If I were to use that, I probably could use it every week, you know. It would be beating a dead horse. But at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with that."
