Northwestern University Athletics
Speed Demons: Northwestern Freshmen Earning Opportunities
10/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 27, 2010
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
This first conversation has meandered, touching down on the various adjustments of any freshman's year, but now it has reached the first quarter of the 'Cat game last Saturday with Michigan State. Already, just moments earlier, Venric Mark has let drop that his favorite play is the punt return and now, at Ryan Field against the Spartans, he is going to do that for just the second time this season. "Coach (Pat Fitzgerald) gave me my shot. My shot came," he will say, remembering the moment, and here the pleasure in his voice is palpable.
"I won't be a liar. I was ecstatic. I was real happy. The game just has to slow down again, I'm not going to lie. High school, when I caught that punt, I don't know how to explain it. It was like slow motion for me. Here I haven't been doing it and on the first one I got 10 yards, on the second one (he returned later against the Spartans) I got 16 yards. So it was coming back to me a little bit. But I'm back there now, Coach is actually giving me a shot, so hopefully it'll slow down again."
A second conversation has also meandered, again touching down on the various adjustments of any freshman's year, but now it has reached the interview he gave following his promising performance against the Spartans. "I'm getting to feel as if it's my offense," the running back Adonis Smith said then.
"When I said that, I'm like back at home," he will say now and here the excitement in his voice is palpable. "When I was in high school, it was my offense, I understood everything. That's how I'm getting to feel now. I feel I'm understanding everything, so I can help my team out more. With me helping my team out, we can excel to a different level."
You obviously want to play more, we say to him.
"Oh, definitely."
Do you ever stand on the sidelines thinking, "Put me in? Put Me in? Put me in?"
"Put me in. It is (like that). I guess every freshman feels that way. But the only reason I feel that way is I want to win and I know the team wants to win and, at the end of the day, I feel like I can help us do that. Other backs can help us too. But I feel like I present something, I don't want to say extra, but I guess extra to help us, that gives us that extra edge."
And what's that extra?
"My vision, my speed and my ability to make plays, big plays."
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Once, in the long ago, the legendary Texas coach Darrell Royal was asked about a recruit who was on his way to Austin. "He runs faster than small town gossip," he declared, which is just the way to think of both Venric Mark and Adonis Smith. Each is a blur, quicker than a hiccup, a will-o'-the-wisp who can mesmerize, and that is why they have intrigued as this season has unfolded. They are tantalizing talents who have whetted appetites with their occasional appearances, precocious performers imbued with that kind of speed that simply draws attention to itself.
That alone, of course, is not enough to guarantee success at the Big Ten level and so both, not surprisingly, have labored to attain the opportunities now in front of them. Smith sprained both his ankles during the last 'Cat scrimmage in Kenosha and only recently returned to full health. Mark got his first work as the hot back on the kickoff team and from there assumed expanded roles. Both also endured struggles with the playbook.
"Really, just learning the plays because in high school all I needed to know was Adonis right, Adonis left, and that's what we'd do," Smith says when asked his toughest adjustment. "But here I need to know what I do on pass protection, what I do on pass routes, I need to know every position. That's the hardest part to me. But I've been doing my job, getting good on that actually, coming in and watching film. I'm getting better. . .and that's been the biggest part of me getting on the field."
"Learning the playbook. Learning all the plays, learning how to run the route, blocking schemes, everything," Mark echoes when asked about his adjustments. "Demetrius Fields has helped me. Jeremy Ebert sat me down with the playbook, taught me different schemes, taught me different plays and how to learn them, how not to just learn a certain route, learn the concept of the play, which helps me out a lot."
Is this all new to him?
"It actually is. In high school it's, 'This is your route on this play, this is your route on that play.' Here it's learn the whole concept. That way you can play more spots on the field."
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He has kneaded them, nurtured them, introduced them slowly to the fray that is the college game of football. But now their appearances are increasing and so we wonder how Fitzgerald decides to use his freshmen. Is it situational? Is it instinctive? "It's a little bit of both," he says. "It's what they do well. In our offensive room it says, 'Players, formations, plays.' We're always going to play to our guys' strengths. So with that being said, I wouldn't say that just about the freshmen. I'd say it about our entire team. We're going to ask our guys to do things they do best.
"It's also what they know, probably most importantly from the standpoint of freshmen. They don't know the whole playbook. They haven't been in the offense like (quarterback) Danny (Persa) has for four years. At the same point, you want to make sure to put them in a position to make plays. I like how we brought them along. I used that analogy earlier in the year when you guys asked why don't we see them more. I'm not going to throw them in the deep end. I'm going to give them a chance to get confidence, and when you get confidence and a belief in yourself, then you have an opportunity to execute better."
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There is no guarantee Venric Mark will return punts when the 'Cats play at Indiana on Saturday, nor is it guaranteed that Adonis Smith will be their workhorse at running back. Those are the types of hands Fitzgerald does not tip, the types of decisions he does not share. But now, for these freshmen, the long wait is over at last and they are in the mix, part of the rotation, up for consideration and poised to perform. Has it been hard to wait, we ask Mark.
"It's not really that hard," he says. "They told us that from the beginning. These guys, guys like (defensive tackle) Corbin Bryant, Mabs (corner Jordan Mabin), (corner) Justan Vaughn, all the guys who have played here have a goal and me, as a freshman, I have to show them I can help them. I understand that, so it's really not hard. . . Of course, every player wants to play. . . But I knew my time was coming."
Has it been hard to wait, we ask Adonis Smith.
"Aaah, talking to my dad, he just told me to be patient," he says. "Patience is the key. Things happen for a reason. At first it was frustrating, I'm not going to lie, it was frustrating because I knew I had the ability to help the team out. But just being patient, my chance came."
And now that it's here?
"For me, when I'm out there, I'm just looking to score. My mindset is, every time I touch the ball, touchdown."
And when he has a big run and gets to the end zone, how's it feel?
"It feels," concludes Adonis Smith, "like I've been there before."
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