Northwestern University Athletics
Skip Myslenski's B1G Media Day Primer
7/24/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
July 23, 2013
'Cat coach Pat Fitzgerald meets the nation's press on Wednesday at the annual Big Ten Media Day. But, before fulfilling that annual obligation, he sat down with NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski, who opened their conversation by recalling the bold statements both he and his players made in the spring. Normally, Fitzgerald is reminded, teams tap dance when asked to explicate their aims and ambitions. But not his 'Cats. They, instead, openly declared that they were going after a championship.
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"They're in our team room. Our goals have always been there. We don't hide it, we don't cover it up. But I think the team coming back this year (compared to) maybe some previous teams truly believe it. I think that's why that message comes out more now than ever.
"They've been a part of the whole maturation of the program. Kain (Colter, the quarterback) and the guys who played as true freshmen, they've seen the thing evolve, they've seen the talent and they've seen the competition. And they've also been part of the success. So, you know, maybe that's why it's being portrayed that way. You're hearing it more and more from not just myself, but across the board with the young men. Now. Obviously talk is talk. You've got to go out and have action. You talked about spring, I think we improved then in a lot of ways. We had some injuries. We had to tweak some things and what not. But I thought we really improved in a lot of way and hopefully we've got that carryover as we start fall camp."
But there's an obvious question here. Aren't you, by openly stating your goals, putting extra pressure on yourself to deliver?
"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe you're just listening for the first time. I'm saying that with all due respect. But we really haven't changed what we've said. We really haven't changed anything. Maybe just now everybody externally believes a little bit more, and everybody externally thinks, `Yeah. Maybe they can.' In the past maybe they thought, `Yeah. Well. It's still just Northwestern.' I know for a fact our players are tired of that."
That incredulity, he is told, was manifested by an announcer who came on after his `Cats victory over Mississippi State in last January's Gator Bowl. That man, he is further told, just could not grasp the idea of Northwestern competing for championships.
"I understand that. Again, we haven't done it. Until you do it consistently -- we've had three championships since the mid `90s, so we can do it -- but we haven't done it consistently enough. The first thing we had to be able to do was go to bowl games consistently. Well, five years I think is pretty consistent. Now all that has become a tradition. So. I think the process in which we go about getting the team prepared, the way that we go about our business, the blueprint works. Now how is it going to work for this team? Where are the tweaks going to have to come in camp. We've made our pre-camp thoughts and decisions on what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. But then you get into day three (up in Kenosha) and it's like, `All right. Now we've got to go over here and do this.' That's probably what I'm most excited about. I think we have a lot of options as a program to develop the team. As I look to the future, not only this year but moving forward, the staff's done a great job recruiting."
But it's too early to say what those tweaks might be?
"Right. Right."
Or whether you'll be a running team or passing team?
"Right. Right. We didn't think we'd be as dominant a running team (as they were last season) until about three weeks into camp last year. We got through the first scrimmage and sat down Sunday (as a staff), we're sitting there talking and we said, `We're going to be able to run the football. We're really going to be able to run the football. Now let's take some of the chapters of the playbook and build some better play action, some more movement plays, so on and so forth. But we've got a chance to win a championship running the football.' Nobody needed to know that and we started the season off, we did a pretty good job of it almost to a fault. We didn't have to throw it as much as in the past. Then the question was, `Why can't you throw it.' `Well. We didn't have to.` It's Football 101. If you can control the line of scrimmage, you're going to win a lot of football games. And we were able to do that pretty well."
Speaking of the line of scrimmage, is it even too early to talk about the offensive line (which must be rebuilt after losing three starters)?
"Not really. It's young, but it's talented. It's a very talented group. Now they lack experience. But a year ago, we had to go in with three guys that had played a lot and two guys who hadn't played a lot and had to grow and mature. So now we're one off, we're two and three. But those two guys (center Brandon Vitabile and tackle Jack Konopka) have done a great job leading, and there's a big group of guys like (tackle Paul) Jorgensen and (guard Matt) Frazier who have been here. There's a lot of guys who have been here and then you've got a lot of young guys. . .that are very talented. It's going to be interesting to see -- between Jorgie, (Eric) Olson and Mertzie (Shane Mertz) -- who's going to be the right tackle. There were years we didn't even know who was going to compete. Now we've got three. Who's going to win the guard position between (Ian) Park and Frazier, (Geoff) Mogus and (Adam) DePietro? Then you add into the mix (redshirt freshman Kenton) Playko, and maybe (junior Hayden) Baker sneaks in there as not only backup center, but as guard. There's great competition. We feel like we've got 11 guys that can play."
Since it is too early to talk specifics, he is now told, let's recall your spring comment that the program's in place, that the culture's in place, that the question now is how do you take that next step to the championship. How do you?
"Number one, you remember how you've gotten here. You don't lose sight of the process you need to get you're team to win. We haven't done that. We've had great staff continuity, so we all know each other and what we all want and how we need to do it. Then just pure, unadulterated competition. You've just got to continue to bring in talent on top of talent on top of talent, and then roll the ball out and do the best job you can as a developmental staff helping the guys get stronger and faster and to understand their craft fundamentally and technically. Then let them go play and see where we're at, see where our depth's at. That's probably the thing I'm most excited about. I walked out of spring going, `Pretty deep football team.' I'm not sure, even if I wanted to, I could name a two-deep right now because there's a good chance the summer phase -- that phase, of any year I've been head coach, the summer might lead to more competition than we've ever had. That's how you take that next step and I don't think that's going to stop."
He is now reminded that, in the spring, he also said it was important that his team develop a chemistry between then and the opening of fall camp. Does he have a sense yet if that has happened?
"Talking to the guys, they say to me this is the closest they've ever been. We'll see. It's been a little warm, but it hasn't been really uncomfortable. We're going to get to a place where it gets uncomfortable. We obviously had a tough deal last year with an injury in camp with Trey. (After taking a hit, running back Treyvon Green remained prone for long minutes and was eventually taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He recovered fully.) We had to overcome that as a team. We're practicing, a guy gets hurt, we're there on a knee. You remember that. That was tough, to watch one of your brothers--"
That was scary.
"Yeah. It was. And to watch the way the guys -- that almost brought them together even closer. Then we lost a tough game early (to Penn State) in Happy Valley. Give them the credit, but there were a lot of things we could have done different collectively as a program. We come back, we respond, we win the next game. We lose a tough game here against Nebraska. We come back, we win the next game. We go on the road, we lose a tough game at the end to Michigan. We come back, win a game on the road. So, to me, I think this team has learned a lot through those experiences. But we're going to face similar, not the same, but similar types of adversity and how are we going to respond to it?"
Is there comfort in knowing that a lot of those players who overcame that adversity are back for this season?
"Human nature is to say, `They've got this amount of guys coming back, they're going to be this good.' But that's not the way it works. They lived it, yes, but we had a big group of seniors who are gone and some of those guys are the guys who had to pull people up and help people through. So what have we learned through that? I don't know. There've been little things that have happened, but nothing to that degree."
And, we tell him, over the years we have learned that players change from season to season and that every team is a new team, no matter how many returnees it might have.
"No question. Amen to that. It's a totally different team. It's an exciting time. And it's not just Northwestern. It's across the board at this time. Especially with football, there's so may working parts that -- the first two weeks of camp, we, collectively, learn a lot about our team."
One other thing he said in the spring, we remind him, is that last year's seniors provided a great blueprint for success. What, we then wonder, are the specifics of that blueprint?
"The last learning ingredient we figured out was the chemistry ingredient. We had teams prior to that that had pockets of guys who were really close, but we didn't quite have everybody on the same page internally in the locker room. That's obviously my job as a leader to give the team a vision, and we've got to share it and embrace it. It's that old coachism, `We're only as strong as the weakest guy from the embracing standpoint.' So, with that being said, I thought the seniors learned from that. I thought they watched a lot of great leaders, but said, `You know what. Maybe we should have done this instead of that. Let's try this.` They did and it worked and they said, `Ahhh. now we get it.'
"I think back to the championship teams I was a part of here, and the other championship teams I've been a part of, there was always great cohesiveness and great chemistry and great love and brotherhood in the locker room. Not everybody liked each other. That's what some people think. You don't have to like me.You've just got to respect me. And I've got to respect that you're going to work and do everything you can to be the best you can be for the team. I think that went to a higher level. We've had it, but I think it went to a higher level a year ago."
How does he respond to this spring comment of Colter, who back then said, "I feel we really proved we can do big things here as a football program. So I feel the message this year is different. I feel we have that confidence now. Now we know we can compete. There should be no doubt about that. So now it's just about coming out there with swagger, coming out there with confidence, and really just wearing teams down."
"I think he said it there three times. It's confidence. You could say, `Well, you've gone to bowl games.' Well, you know what? I wish I could say we had done it for 50 years. But even if you had, it still hasn't been done by this team. So that gives me great excitement as we move forward that (one of) your leaders speaks like that. And he understands that that's what it takes."
Since confidence is half the battle?
"If not more. And I don't think you can teach that. I think you have to have that through experience. Then once you believe that, you believe it."
But the flip side is, once you get success and confidence, you might forget how you got there, which goes back to one of your earlier comments. That you feel the players on this team have not forgotten.
"Yeah. Yeah. Again. I can't evaluate the summer yet because of not being able to work with them (as mandated by NCAA rules). But--"
But you get reports from the weight room and --
"I like where we're at. I like where we're at."
Here's one last thing you said in the spring and, to me, it succinctly captures the attitude now coursing through your program. "We could just keep going to bowl games. But that's not acceptable anymore."
"The teams that have been before us have raised the bar. The four previous bowl teams prior to last year, you could argue a couple of those teams may have been better than last year's team. You could argue that and I don't know if I've got a fight against that. But this group was able to get over the hurdle, and so now we've raised the bar. People say, `Wow, expectations are so high externally.' They pale in comparison to the expectations internally. So, again, I'll go back. Maybe just now people are noticing, `Hey, they play a pretty darn good style of football here. Maybe they can.`
"`Yeah. But it's still just Northwestern.'
"So we're still not, externally, maybe ever going to be able to sway some people over the age of 40. That's OK. But that's why you've got to understand that noise and take it for what it is, and understand internally that's why we focus on ourselves, that's why we set our standard, that's why we do what we do."
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