Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern/Outback Bowl News Conference
12/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 6, 2009
Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips and Northwestern Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Phillips: Opening statement...
"Welcome everyone. I know it's a busy winter evening for everyone, but a very exciting one. At 3:31 p.m., I was on Lakeshore Drive, coming back from the Bears game this afternoon. I got a call from Jim McVay, Mitch Shriber and Gwen Mitchell from the Outback Bowl in Tampa asking us if we would accept their invitation to the 2010 Outback Bowl, of which I said we would be very honored and humbled. I almost crashed my car, got one hand back on the wheel, and told them that we would graciously accept. It's just a tremendous opportunity, not only, and Pat [Fitzgerald]'s going to talk about the football program, not only for out for out football program, but for our entire university. To be showcased on New Year's Day has significant meaning to this entire university and the Northwestern community. I'll just finish with that. Again, thanks for coming."
Fitzgerald: On the team playing its best at the end of the season and how that affects bowl preparation...
"I think it played a significant factor. We're definitely playing our best football of the year right now. With the layover, we're going to have to make sure we keep our edge. I thought, based on this week's practice, our attitude is in the right spot. Now we know where we're playing, when we're playing and who we're playing so there are a few questions answered. But as we move forward, we'll work hard this week as coaches to give our men a great plan. They'll be in finals and we'll reconvene on Friday and really start our preparation for a great opponent and a great challenge. It's going to be a tremendous challenge, but we'll be excited for it."
Fitzgerald: On his excitement level for the seniors and their last game...
"It means the world to me for our seniors. We've got 21 great seniors. This is their last opportunity to put on the purple and white. Do it on January 1st, I don't know if you could write a better script for a finale. I'm really excited for them. I just look forward to the opportunity to work with them one more game and hopefully end up with an opportunity for us to find a way to win. That's our number one goal in our program, is to win a bowl game and it's here in front of us. Like I said, now we know where and who and when. Now we need to get better."
Fitzgerald: On facing Auburn in the Outback Bowl...
"All I know of them is what I saw in the Iron Bowl and what one heck of a football game that was. That went right down to the wire. I can't say that I studied it. I was Mr. Mom at that time, chasing around three boys. My analysis of them isn't what it should be, but at the end of the day, it'll get a lot better in the next 48 hours. We'll have a pretty good idea. They're very athletic. Gene [Chizik] has done a great job, obviously at Iowa State and then when he was at Texas was the first time that we met, here at a clinic in Chicago that he was speaking and I was speaking after him. Another coordinator on defense I know is Ted Roof from his times at Minnesota and then at Duke, so a little bit of crossover there. Some of our assistant coaches know some of theirs, but the first opportunity for us to compete against them with this staff and their staff so it's going to be a great challenge."
Phillips: On building relationships with bowls and telling Northwestern's story...
"I think throughout the entire year, we're continuing to build relationships with all of the Big Ten bowl partners, and Outback being one of them. Every Friday night, we entertain them at a function, either at my house or at the local country club with an opportunity for us to tell our story about how well Northwestern travels. I know that there have been some things said and talked about, but the facts are the facts. If you look at last year's travel, if you look at our history since '95 and how well we've done, we've just tried to put that in order. Our athletic communications staff did a great job of putting a binder together with facts and figures. Pictures, I think pictures tell a thousand words. To see the purple in the crowd says a lot. 158 daily flights to Tampa, nearly 18,000 alums in the Florida area, those are things that I think are important to tell and just states the case of how well Northwestern travels when we do go to a bowl game. I think it was across the entire year, but certainly over the course of the season, that we were able to do that. But at the end of the day, it's about the product on the field. It's about the football program and the accomplishments of the kids that you're going to hear from later on and the guy sitting to my right. That's what got us to Tampa, end of story. What we did was what every other school does, and that is tell their own story, whatever the uniqueness is."
Phillips: On whether he expected the Outback Bowl to choose Northwestern...
"I felt like there was a lot of momentum moving toward Tampa in the last three weeks. Recently, in the last week or so, there were still college football games yesterday. I was on the phone the last month or so pretty regularly and then the last week almost every hour with somebody affiliated with a bowl game. It's not to disparage any other bowl opportunities that we had. I think we were all just trying to tell the story of wherever we were going to be selected, that our fans are going to come, our team is going to be excited, and we're going to put on a good show for them. So when I got the call from the Outback Bowl, I felt really good that they were rewarding team that had really earned it on the field in playing their best football and certainly had rewarded a university that has been waiting for this kind of opportunity for a little while."
Fitzgerald: On the preparations between Northwestern's final regular season game and the bowl game...
"We took the Thanksgiving break to unwind and recharge a little bit. When the guys came back last week, we had a couple days of practice Tuesday and Thursday. Then we went this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Around those days, we lifted and ran so we've got kind of a plan in place here for how we're going to take on the preparation for the game. Once we know our destination, now we kind of set our plan in place. We'll give our guys an opportunity to go home for the holidays and then get back and meet down there on Christmas night and be ready to go that game week there. They're in finals this week so if they're going to do anything, it will have to be on their own. I'm sure we'll see a bunch of guys in around their finals, get a little respite from studying and things of that nature. It's not like they have three a day. They typically only have to take three courses in the fall so they'll have three finals, at the most, this upcoming week."
Fitzgerald: On the excitement and opportunity to play in the Outback Bowl...
"The coaches and I were chuckling. Every time we go on the road recruiting, I always want to know if I can go eat at Outback, so it's kind of funny. They were all laughing at me in the staff meeting. We're excited and we're excited to go to Florida. This is this team's first time, and first opportunity to go to Florida. I know we went back when I was a student-athlete, but this specific team, it's that first opportunity. To play on January 1st and to play against an SEC team that's outstanding, you couldn't ask for a better challenge. That's what you want. If you're a senior, you want to play your last game, in a great challenge, in a great environment, in a great opportunity. Like I said, you couldn't script it any better. So based on the response I heard from our team in our team meeting once Dr. Phillips was able to alert us to our opportunity, they're pretty excited."
Phillips: On the excitement and opportunity to play in the Outback Bowl...
"I would just say that it's difficult to come up with another event that brings a university closer together than a bowl game. Whether it's the student-athletes, whether it's the former student-athletes, whether it's the coaches, and certainly the greater university, alums, donors, fans, it is just an wonderful opportunity to come together as a family. The Northwestern family will have that opportunity on January 1st. I think the early reaction, my BlackBerry and emails have just gone ballistic, with just enthusiasm of what the opportunity is and to reconnect some folks that maybe haven't had a chance to come back to every game or haven't had a chance to see us play this year, the bowl game provides that wonderful opportunity for the university to come together."
Fitzgerald: On this year's bowl preparation in comparison to last year's preparation for the Valero Alamo Bowl...
"We didn't want to peak too soon. I thought a year ago, we had to back it down a little bit in game-week, based on the way that our guys did a tremendous job of preparing. We'll have a similar model from a structure standpoint that we'll present to our guys here this week. But at the end of the day, it goes back to what we do every other week, and that's consistently preparing. We just have a little bit more time, a little similar to what you might have when you start Camp Kenosha for the opener. You've got about two and a half, three weeks to get ready for the opener and you don't want to have it be a sprint. You want to have it more be a marathon. Sprinkle things in, keep their minds fresh, keep their bodies fresh and find a way to peak there on January 1st at 11 a.m. Eastern."
Phillips: On the importance of football performance versus business to the bowl selection process...
Well one affects the other certainly, and the economy, we all know isn't well. We are trying to live through it, but it is a factor. One of the stories for us: we're not a bowl weary program or university. There is great excitement; there was great excitement last year, and I think there is even more excitement this year over the destination, and the opportunity that is continuing to build as Pat does such a great job of growing this program, and building it. But the economics are important. I think that it's going to be important for us to travel well, and do demonstrate, as we have in years past, that we are excited about coming to the Outback Bowl, that we are eager to come back to Florida for the first time in 13 years. But the economics are something that's talked about. The one thing I will say though, in the two experiences here, the Big Ten Conference does it as well as anyone in the country. There are no back-room negotiations financially, that we will commit to another 2,000 or 4,000 tickets. You take what the bowl asks you to take, what's agreed upon when the contracts are put together. So, there really is a clean slate relative to who is the best team to take, and who would be most excited, or whatever the bowl criteria is, you would have to ask them. I think that helps all the schools in the Big Ten, especially in this economy we have right now."
Phillips: On Northwestern's ticket allotment for the Outback Bowl, and if there is an opportunity for more tickets if necessary...
"There is, it's right at about 12,000, with opportunity for additional tickets. There are some stadium club level seats, along with regular seats, so it's all broken down and all part of what the Big Ten has and what the SEC has, and a game like the Outback Bowl, all their other seats are already accounted for. It's basically a sellout, etc; I think each university takes care of their own allotment, and uses those through their own ticket offices, so anyone that is interested in tickets, you need to call our box office or get on NUSports.com. There's multiple ways for folks to purchase tickets and to travel down there. We'll also do some different types of air packages, land packages, game ticket only packages, and that is all forthcoming. Again, just get on the Northwestern website, there will be a lot of different ways for people to come to the game, depending on what their needs are.
Phillips: On the differences between marketing the bowl game last year versus this year, and how the experience of last year helped...
"I would probably say there were more similarities than differences, and it really is about stating the case, as I indicated with some of the other numbers. It's never about who you're going against, or who you are perceived to be going against, and maybe any deficiencies that they would potentially have. It's truly about what your institution can bring, and what your football program can bring. So we really stayed on point with that; we came up with some great packets, which came out of our athletic communications department. I think just the regular communication, maybe that's one of the things we did more of this year; instead of every other day, call every day. And in the last week, instead of calling every other hour, call every hour. It's part of what I think we have to do as a department, because the football team has done their part with their performance in the regular season, and that speaks clearly for the student athletes and how well they've performed. And as Pat [Fitzgerald] said, we are playing our best football right now, so it was really up to us as a department to do everything we could to put our best foot forward. And if we weren't selected to go to the Outback Bowl, we'd be just as excited to go to wherever we were supposed to go to next."
Fitzgerald: On how this changes the perception of the program and the conference...
"I think for our young men, it's an opportunity for them to make a statement to the country, when you have a January 1st opportunity. There's been a year-long battle with the media and the Big Ten Conference, and we've had to stand upon what we did in the bowl season last year. We didn't find a way to get the job done, so we were part of the problem, but now we can be part of the solution. There's nothing more that our team does than take pride in being part of the Big Ten, and I think that starts from top to bottom in our program. That's why young men choose to come here. They choose to come and compete in the Big Ten, and now we have an opportunity to represent our conference, and that means a lot to us. On the home front, for our story, without question, our tradition of success is young, and our team is one that's on the rise, and one that's exciting to watch, and our brand of football, I think, is one fans enjoy seeing. I've been out here since '93, and I can't think of too many games that haven't been awesome. They're fan-friendly; some shootouts, some really close, low-scoring games. But for the most part, it seems most go down to the fourth quarter, and I think that's what fans want to see: entertaining football games, and that's the brand of football that we play."
Fitzgerald: On how the Florida bowl game will impact recruiting the local high school talent...
"It's huge. I was down there last week, and we'll be back down there. We will make some trips out recruiting this week, and we'll be back down there again. We'll invite every coach in the state of Florida to our practices, open door policy like we have here. We've had a bunch of coaches from the Chicago-land area here for the last four practices. A ton of senior and junior recruits here, so to have this kind of excitement and momentum for our program, from a recruiting standpoint, is huge for the future of our program. We've got a great class going right now, and these last few slots that we have are going to be critical to putting the exclamation point on the class. To have it in a talent rich state like Florida, and to have it in a great area like Tampa, where it's just centrally located gives us an opportunity to have a lot of talented players and great high-school coaches experience and come see Northwestern football first hand."
