Northwestern University Athletics
Upon Further Review: The Myslenski Iowa Breakdown
11/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 15, 2010
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
They talked on the phone and here is what Dan Persa said to Evan Watkins. "He was just telling me," remembers Watkins, "I know you're going to do very well. And if you need any help, I'll be there to help you out. But I have trust in you and you're going to be fine."
They talked on the phone and here is what Evan Watkins said to Dan Persa. "I told him," continues Watkins, "how sorry I was for him that it had to end like that, and basically that I had his back and I'm going to do everything I can for him to get this team to victory. I wanted him to know I've got him, and he's got my back too. We're all going to put in an effort to do it for him."
Is that the 'Cat mindset this week?
"There's a little of that in there," says wide receiver Demetrius Fields. "But it's a thing about Dan, he's such a great motivator and great leader, that he in a way wouldn't want us to do it for him. He'd want us to just keep it going along the way it has. If I would say anything, it's a pick-up-the-flag type of thing, everybody just going out and playing the same game we've been playing."
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This space on this day is traditionally given over to looking back, to dissecting the previous 'Cat game after the film has been reviewed and its nuances have been digested. But this is not a typical week, not after Persa ruptured his Achilles in their victory over Iowa and Watkins, his season-long backup, was thrust onto center stage. Now, so suddenly, the hot glare of the klieg lights shine down upon him, and he will be the one who leads his team into Wrigley Field Saturday for showdown with Illinois. Eerily, spookily, there is some strange power at work here. This is why.
"I was joking with him last night, I said, 'Remember when I recruited you and told you you were going to start your first game at Wrigley against the Illini?'" 'Cat coach Pat Fitzgerald said Monday. "He kind of chuckled. I said, 'Just like we scripted, right?'"
"He mentioned that," Watkins himself later said. "It's kind of ironic how it all works out."
And what did he think when Fitzgerald told him that?
"At the time, you take it as it is. You're excited about anything and everything in the recruiting process. But it's funny how things work out like that. . . Growing up in the Chicagoland area, playing at Wrigley against your in-state rival, it's the perfect opportunity. I'm really excited."
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He is 6-foot-6 and 240-pounds and a redshirt freshman from Carol Stream, and he has been to Wrigley some five-to-10 times. At Glenbard North he played both quarterback and safety, but his favored sports as a young boy were baseball and basketball and he didn't pick up on football until he was in the eighth grade. "But once I started it," he says, "I loved it." He has attempted just seven passes as a 'Cat, completing three, but in high school he threw for 3,500 yards and 36 touchdowns and -- notably, considering the offense he inherits -- rushed for 750 yards and 15 more touchdowns. "I had to do a lot of running," he would say on Monday. "I have no problem running, I love running. So when I need to show off my mobility, I will do that. I'm not Persa fast. But I'll get it done."
Do people think he can't run because he is so big?
"I assume so, yeah."
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"The adversity that Danny's facing right now equals an opportunity for Evan," Fitzgerald is saying. "You never want to see that happen to anyone. But there're 85 guys on scholarship for a reason and our twos are conditioned from day one that you're a play away and the only thing you can control is the way you prepare. With that being said, Evan's been preparing. You look back to the Indiana game, Danny goes down, it's a big third down, and to show you the confidence we have in him, we don't run the ball, we throw the ball. We've got the utmost confidence in him and he's got the utmost confidence in himself."
We ask Watkins about that confidence. "I think you have to have that if you're playing sports," he says. "In general, it just comes from my whole life playing sports and being very competitive. In order to be successful in athletics, you have to have confidence. You're not going to be successful unless you have confidence in yourself. Our program, one of our mottoes is trust in yourself. We believe in that firmly. If you're not trusting yourself, if you don't have confidence in yourself, you're going to be worrying about making mistakes and you're not going to be successful on the field."
But will there be butterflies in his belly?
"Oh, no doubt, no doubt. I'm going to be nervous, but more excited than anything. It's going to be a really good experience."
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Last Saturday, after throwing a beauty of a game-winning pass to Fields, Persa bunny-hopped and crumbled and stayed there. "Once you see a man go down like that, he's gone down a lot before, but he hops right back up and continues to play on. That's just how he is," Watkins remembered on Monday. "So when he doesn't get up for awhile, you know it's a little more serious. You've just got to be prepared for the opportunity. You prepare all season for something like this to happen. That's your job as a backup quarterback."
Later last Saturday, after reporting Persa's injury, Fitzgerald said he knew one person who would not sleep that evening and that was Watkins. True? "You can say that," he admitted Monday. "I'm pretty excited about the opportunity in front of me. So, yeah, I had a lot of energy and can't help thinking about it."
Did he keep waking up?
"Literally? No. But you're constantly thinking about. You're excited about the opportunity and preparing for it."
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"I think he's confident because of the way he's been coached and the way he's taken to Mick's coaching," Fitzgerald is saying Monday. "(Offensive coordinator) Mick (McCall), he's demanding on those quarterbacks. But their relationships are so strong, and the bonds are so strong, because of the way Mick's able to communicate with those guys. I think that's why there's some confidence there. There's great confidence from our end in him. . . I think Evan's prepared and poised to take this over and have some fun. I'm looking forward to watching him do it."
We ask Watkins about that coaching. "In every aspect of being a quarterback he's made me a much better quarterback," he says. "From reading the defenses to understanding his system to the progressions. He's really transformed me."
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"There's no doubt having Dan go down like that is devastating," Evan Watkins finally says on this Monday. "It's terrible for him to end a season like that. But that's my job, to be ready to take over. You just have to be prepared. I will be."
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