Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Northwestern vs. Nebraska Preview
10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
As is the case for many fifth-year seniors, it's been a long, winding and ultimately rewarding career for defensive tackle and Evanston native Chance Carter, whose story is the focal point of Skip Myslenski's weekly Friday preview.
MORE: Northwestern vs. No. 19 Nebraska Game Preview
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A DIFFERENT CHANCE: Chance Carter is again a starter, a distinction he held all last season but lost before this one began. Still, he admits, "I'm not the most talkative guy in the world. I don't have the most juice by any means of anyone on this team. I'm kind of laid back. That's just who I am. Fitz (Pat Fitzgerald) doesn't always see it. Sometimes he comes into a meeting and says, `The only person I see giving juice is such-and-such.' And I'm thinking, `I am too. You just don't see it.'"
But then the fifth-year defensive tackle segues sharply and adds, "This being my last year, I want to go out a winner, get to a bowl game. So I've put in more time trying to lead the defensive line group (since I'm) the only senior on the line. Now I'm constantly showing more juice. With Sean (McEvilly) hurt and me being the only senior, I've got to bring the juice constantly every day."
A CONSIDERED CHANCE: Carter, who is now in grad school, majored in psychology as an undergrad. "I'm not much of a talker. I'm more of a thinker. Psychology's more of a thinking kind of science," he explains. It is no surprise, then, that he has analyzed this matter of juice and has an answer when asked if his manifestation of it is real or phony. "Sometimes you have to fake your energy," he declaims. "Not everybody wants to go to practice. Practice is practice. It is what it is.
"But if you bring a great attitude, and you bring fake juice, you trick yourself into having more energy and more fun. When I listened to Fitz my freshman and sophomore years, he was saying that and I was like, `Yeah. Right.' But last year and this year, definitely I understood what he was saying and I actually saw it work. I actually wrote a paper about it for one of my classes."
That class was in organizational behavior and, among its other facets, it analyzed what it meant to be a leader in the work world. "We saw a TED Talk on it," Carter now goes on. "The guy was talking about just being positive all the time. Even if it's false positivity, it does help you feet better, it does help you work better, produce more and do a lot more than if you're just moping around."
Does he believe that?
"Oh, yeah. Definitely."
THE LAST CHANCE: "It's been up-and-down," Carter says when considering his `Cat career, and that is accurate. He played little as a redshirt freshman, joined the rotation as a sophomore, started all dozen games last year and then slipped back into a reserve role until reemerging as a starter last Saturday at Minnesota. This is just the kind of vertiginous voyage that can sap one's desire to play. But, when asked about that, Carter will avow, "At no point was I ever going to chuck it. I love football. Always did. I enjoyed watching it, enjoyed playing it."
So what kept him going?
"I don't know. I was talking to (defensive line) Coach (Marty) Long, I think it was my sophomore year here. He was talking to me about Corey (Wootton) and Corbin (Bryant). He asked them when did you find that you were out there just playing and everything was just coming to you very easily. They said, `You know what, coach. I didn't really find it. I didn't do anything different. It just came, just naturally came.' I think that's what happened to me too. It just naturally came and started to click together. Once I saw that and the coaches saw that, I kind of built off that."
And is his sense of urgency up now that his career is rushing toward a close?
"Definitely. Definitely," he said at the start of this week. "Tomorrow I'm going to be faking a whole bunch of juice because we have to get this game (Saturday against Nebraska). A big reason we came out flat against Minnesota is no one had any energy, especially in the d-line. So I'm definitely going to get everybody into it and let them feed off me."
QUICKLY NOTED:
• The challenge for Carter and his d-line this week is the Huskers' Ameer Abdullah, who's averaging 146.3 rushing yards per game. "We have to be a lot better than we were a week ago up front," Fitzgerald said of facing him. "I thought our energy level was pathetic. I thought we weren't very physical. I thought we didn't fit gaps very well, especially early. That was very disappointing. Very disappointing. I thought they responded pretty well in the second half. But we'd already given Minnesota a one score lead because of the things we didn't do well."
• Fitzgerald would compare Abdullah to Darren Sproles, the Eagle will-o-wisp who does it all. That is true too of the Husker, who not only leads his team in rushing. He is also its top kickoff returner and third-leading receiver. "I think he's a great back. I think he's great in all three phases," Fitzgerald said. "Ameer's a complete back. I think he's something special."
• Abdullah is hardly the Huskers' only offensive threat. Their quarterback, Tommy Armstrong Jr., averages 71.2 rushing yards and 220.8 passing yards per-game, and his top two receivers -- Jordan Westerkamp and Kenny Bell -- average (respectively) 19 and 19.1 yards per reception. "Talent-wise, they're as good as there are in our league," Fitzgerald said of Nebraska's playmakers.
• Sophomore Westerkamp, who played at Montini Catholic, was recruited by the `Cats. "I think we had a great shot until he went out to their spring game and committed," Fitzgerald recalled this week. "He's a great young man, great family, great parents, great player. That's what we thought. He'd look awesome in purple. But obviously that wasn't in the cards."
• Keep an eye on Huskers punt returner De'Mornay Pierson-El, who has busted a pair for touchdowns.
• The Husker defense averages 7.2 tackles-for-loss per-game, tops in the Big Ten.
AND FINALLY, don't plan on leaving early: The `Cats and Huskers have met three times since the latter joined the Big Ten and those games have been decided by a total of just seven points. The `Cats won the first of them by three and then fell by one in 2012 and by three last season.
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