Northwestern University Athletics
Football Media Day News Conference Transcript
8/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 11, 2010
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
NU Football Media Day Press Conference
Opening Statement...
"Good afternoon and welcome to the 2010 season. I'm excited to be back and I appreciate everyone being here to cover our program. One announcement here is that we're going to be wrapping up camp on Aug. 23 and be starting hopefully a new special tradition: it will be our first practice up at Great Lakes Naval Base so we'll come down from Kenosha, practice there and return to Evanston Monday night. Looking forward to giving back, sharing some time and camaraderie with those that are stationed there at Great Lakes. There's a tremendous tradition of football there and hopefully it will become something that's kind of a hallmark of our program and a special way to wrap up camp.
I'd also like to wish all the high school coaches and players here in the great state of Illinois best of luck today, first day of high school football practice. I know the coaches are chomping at the bit and we've had a couple players out to watch practice the last few days so it's been fun to watch their anticipation starting to grow."
On the plans for the kicking game...
"Stefan (Demos) is a very confident young man. He's an All-Big Ten-level kicker, if he does the things he's capable of he'll probably be on the Lou Groza (watch) list throughout the year so we'll see where it goes as he performs. He put us in position to be in a Jan. 1 bowl game last year and I thought he had a tremendous season. Unfortunately a couple of his kicks didn't go the way he wanted them to go. I knew he responded from what happened in Tampa when we got on the bus to the airport. My son Ryan is a ball of energy and I think Stefan and Ryan were playing "I Spy" five minutes into the trip to the airport. Spring was a really solid indicator. He kicked it very well; we didn't kick a million reps but he was well over the 90-percent mark in practice. He's come into camp and his legs are in great shape.
With that being said, a year ago I really wanted to find a way to lighten his load and not have him handle all three phases. But at the end of the day he was the one who won all three jobs. As we begin camp, Brandon Williams is our starting punter. Through two days he's done a nice job, he's punted the ball well, fundamentally and technically he's improved from day one of last year when he arrived on campus. I'll probably take a lot of the punting load off Stefan in camp, and we'll work Jeff Budzien a little bit. We joked yesterday that if Stefan had to go out and punt the first punt at Vanderbilt he could do it with his eyes closed. We're going to lighten the load on his leg in camp and get Brandon ready for the opener."
On the wide receiving corps...
"I hope we don't know anything about them so we can do even better than we did last year. You start with Drake Dunsmore, I think that catch and run he had against Auburn was one of the best plays of the bowl season and a statement of the athleticism he has. He came into last year without really having an offseason, without being able to train, and it was probably the Indiana game where he got in game shape and could play his full role. I thought the last half of the season and the bowl game was probably the best ball he's played.
Jeremy Ebert has played a lot of ball for us, missed all of last offseason due to injury but he's as strong as he's ever been and has had a strong start to camp. Three more players who have played a lot for us, Sidney Stewart, Charles Brown and Demetrius Fields. Also at superback we have Josh Rooks who has been in somewhat of a starting role the last three years. I think we have solid depth there with eight of our top 10 receivers returning. Over the last couple years, we lose Eric Peterman, Ross Lane and Rasheed Ward so up come Zeke Markshausen and Andrew Brewer. Who are those names going to be this year? We'll wait and see. Kevin Johns, who runs that group, and the rest of our offensive staff does a great job putting our guys in the right spots to play to their strengths and we play very good about the depth."
On the experience of the offensive line...
"Credit goes to Adam Cushing and the O-line. Al Netter recently became the first offensive lineman elected to the Leadership Council and I thought his leadership throughout the winter, spring and summer has really been a catalyst to unifying that group from a chemistry standpoint. At practice, they go off to one corner, and a couple years ago they were silent. I questioned whether they were actually at practice. Yesterday I told Coach Cushing that they were close to becoming a distraction. They're working really well with each other. What's fun to watch is they're ultra-competitive, they all want to start and yet they're really encouraging each other and coaching each other up. To have that kind of ownership speaks volumes. We can play a lot of guys up there and multiple guys can play multiple positions. To have that flexibility and depth gives me a lot of confidence in their improvement."
On whether any freshmen have stood out early in camp...
"It's probably better if you ask me next Saturday. Through two days of running around in shorts everybody looks good. Today they'll get punched in the mouth for the first time and we'll see who hangs on to the football. When you add the physical component to practice it goes to a whole other level. I thought the whole group came to camp in really great condition. I only made them run one leg of the conditioning test. But we'll make those decisions after the first scrimmage when we have a better look at them."
On Arby Fields' experience playing baseball during spring practice...
"He did a great job. It was the first time in his life he played baseball and football at the same time, and then go to class. So there was a lot on his plate. I thought we had a good plan going in, we tweaked it on a daily basis based on how he felt, he did a nice job communicating and we were smart with him about not being overly physical with him in spring practice. He got some live reps but not the same amount the rest of the running backs went through. I thought he had a pretty good freshman year, he obviously had a big day down in Champaign (in baseball). We had a pretty good blueprint with Quentin Williams having done it before so to have two guys playing multiple sports was fun. But they know the deal, they won't ride the pine and keep playing baseball. Coach (Paul) Stevens and I work together to make a plan and I thought it worked for both guys."
On whether playing baseball can help someone improve in football...
"In my humble opinion, absolutely not, and that's from a guy who played first base and should have been running track. Maybe from a competitive standpoint, remaining focused, you're competing against yourself a lot in baseball, there's a lot of fundamental and technique, and of course being part of a team with nine working parts instead of 11. But from a conditioning or physical standpoint, no offense to our baseball players but no, not really."
On who the front-runner is to be the starting running back...
"I'm not ready to say who the front-runner is yet, again we're not in pads. I'm really pleased with where the group is across the board, similar to our offensive line they're a really tight-knit and close group. They all want to be the guy, the Tyrell Sutton, the Jason Wright, the Noah Herron, the Damien Anderson, the Darnell Autry. Until someone emerges and becomes that guy we're going to have a lot of competition and try to run the ball efficiently."
On discussing the running back tradition with current players...
"It starts with recruiting. Empirical data speaks for itself: the tradition of 1,000-yard rushers, of our backs in the NFL, it's impressive and one of the best traditions in the country. I think the group is competitive, they all want to be that marquee player, but until one emerges we'll just keep doing what we're doing."
On what has stood out about the team early in camp...
"This is my fifth year here (as head coach) and this is the best-conditioned team we've had. On day one we pushed the tempo and finished a couple of drills with two or two and a half minutes left in our six-minute periods. For day one, that's going at it, especially where the weather was on Monday. The varsity went right through it like nobody's business. We had a lot of retention execution-wise and from a scheme standpoint but the job our strength coaches did and the job of our guys to take care of business during the summer puts us in position to be more accelerated than we were in the past."
On how injuries last year benefited the team moving forward...
"We have a total of 31 guys with starting experience. That's a lot of depth. Some of them may have only had one or two starts but they've been in the fray, been out in the arena, and they understand what it takes to get prepared. You look at Dan Persa last year in the Penn State game, he went into that week as the 1B and I thought he played well but to see the spike in how well he played in Iowa City, I think that's indicative of how you can see the growth in guys getting out for their first experience. Demetrius Dugar, David Nwabuisi, Patrick Ward, those kinds of guys are competing for positions and they understand what it takes to go out and help the team win."
On defensive end Kevin Watt...
"You can't replace Corey Wootton, how do you replace 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds? What impresses me about Kevin is his work ethic and his attitude, he's committed to being the best player he can and he understands his strengths. One of his hallmarks is his mental toughness. He's a tough guy, technically and fundamentally very sound, he plays with a good motor. I'm looking forward to watching not only him but also Quentin Williams, I'm excited about that group."
On the overall team speed...
"I think I came up here a few years ago and said I wanted to increase our size and speed. It's taken us a few years to get to that point but I think on our entire three-deep we're going to start with overall athleticism when we're looking at a young man on tape or on a track or in basketball practice. Our coaches have done a great job recruiting and upgrading our athleticism. The developments that have happened with our strength and speed staff are great, our guys have bought into that. Also with our nutrition, we're a very lean team, you can watch us practice and we're as big and fast as we've been but we're also as lean as we've been. They've bought into the whole package."
On his recruiting philosophies...
"That's a great question. I have no idea what a star means, I was a negative-star-rated player. No disrespect to those who rate young men, they don't work for us, they don't rate for us. What's important in our program will ever have a correlation to a start program. I think hits on a website have more to do with the star rating than anything. It's just amazing how certain schools have certain star-rated players every year. We use a lot of scouting services as references to start and we have a very specific plan of how we go about recruiting student-athletes. I'm not sharing that. It's the hallmark of our evaluation and we take a lot of pride in that evaluation, finding the right fit not only athletically but culturally for our locker room, that person who's humble and fits our values, wants to compete and loves football. I think we have a good plan and our coaches stick to it, it's got nothing to do with stars."
On goals for the kick return game...
"One of our goals is to improve, I think we're close. When you look at our kick return game last year, the issues were turnovers, we put the ball on the ground and that just kills your average. On punt returns we're about a yard away from being in the top half of the league, so that's falling forward when you're getting tackled. We have a handful of guys in Hunter Bates and Charles Brown who have done it in the past. We also have Jordan Mabin and I like what I've seen from Venric Mark, we'll get Tony Jones out and see how he looks. The kick returners are pretty set going into the season, with Stephen Simmons and Jacob Schmidt, and we'll find out who their backups are. I like that combination going into the season."
On the impact the last two bowl games have had on recruiting...
"Well we already have 13 young men verbally committed to play for us, that's an all-time high for us at this time of the year. We have 13 young men and I've never even set foot in their house yet. Recruiting has really accelerated. A number of the young men we have verbally committed right now stepped foot on our campus last year for either camp, at our games, at our bowl practices, so the process is really accelerated. I remember Coach (Gary) Barnett didn't offer me a scholarship until I sat in his office on my official visit (in December), so a lot has changed. But there's no question success breeds recruiting success. We're close to where we want to be but we're not there yet."
On the top priorities he'd like to see NU alumni address to support the program (via Twitter)
"The first thing I'd like to see alumni do is wear purple and show up to Ryan Field as much as they can. We've seen more and more of our fans coming out and being supportive, buying season tickets, being involved as much as they can. Join the Northwestern Gridiron Network, our booster club, and support the Wildcat Fund for overall athletics. If we continue to do that one alum at a time it's going to be a fun atmosphere at Ryan Field and wherever the 'Cats go. It's fun for me when I travel and I see a lot more Northwestern purple across the country."
On the rise of Twitter and social media usage among his players...
"We talk about it in our introductory meeting, understanding what it means to be a Wildcat and how much of a privilege it is to be a part of this family. Whatever happens in our football family stays in our football family. I don't need our guys tweeting that Venric Mark caught a bubble screen and went 80 yards and fell down at the 2-yard line, which was pretty funny. The guys understand that they live in a fish bowl, there have been plenty of bad examples so we have empirical data to show them of what not to do. That never leaves you, it follows you, and you're part of something bigger so let's be smart. I'm never going to ban them from using it but let's be smart and we'll move forward."
On preparing for hot weather in the season-opener at Vanderbilt...
"We rent a cooling service for hot-weather games that goes into the shoulder pads, we did it in the Dome at Syracuse and we did it for the bowl even though we didn't end up needing it. We'll do that for our guys and we'll get basically an air conditioning unit for our sideline to keep them cool. We have a great hydration and preparation plan for our guys, we test them regularly to make sure they're hydrated enough or they won't practice. We do some pre-screening with the freshmen and then post-practice for guys who have issues."
On the team's goals for the year...
"One of our goals that we talked about day one and it's now covered up on our goal board is to win a bowl game. That's the same goal we had a year ago. We don't define the goal because one of our objectives is to be a champion so that's unstated. That's a macro approach but more important is how we look at it on a micro standpoint--everyday we want to consistently prepare, and that's really difficult. Social media is a distraction, video games, girls, I could keep going on, but we have to focus and be consistent in the way we approach improvement. We have upperclassmen now who understand the way things are supposed to be done. We had some guys not running off the field the other day and it didn't take a coach to say something, it was peer-to-peer accountability and it was fun to watch. We just need to keep that moving in the right direction."
