Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Carrying On The Fight
11/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Skip Myslenski recaps the salient takeaways from Monday's weekly press conference, which focused on a Northwestern team determined to make the most of the final third of the season.
Monday Press Conference Video: Coach Fitzgerald | Student-Athletes
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Pat Fitzgerald was philosophic Monday in the wake of his team's loss at Iowa. "Football, man. It's awesome. It just humbles the heck out of you. Humbles the heck out of you," he said here. "Then you watch guys on tape on Saturday night, you see the same things, you see a poor kid get hurt inches away from scoring a touchdown to win a game and it breaks your heart watching it."
He was referring to Mississippi receiver Laquon Treadwell, a graduate of Crete-Monee high, who was about to give the Rebs a late lead when he was tackled at the goal line and fumbled and helped off the field with a broken left fibula and dislocated ankle.
"I mean, it's sad to see that happen," Fitzgerald said. "[But] it's awesome to teach guys about life. That's what football is. It reveals life situations and you've got to deal with it. You've got to man up, man. You've got to put your chin up and your chest out and you've got to go. You've got to man up.
"You see a kid from Chicago get hurt like that, it breaks your heart. It just breaks your heart to see those kinds of things. Then as a leader, as a guy who's a father (of three boys), someone who's been there (as a player), it's awesome to have that challenge and you bow up and you do something about it.
"People want to sock ya, punch ya, you've got to take it. If you can't take it, you shouldn't be in this profession."
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Pat Fitzgerald was alternately whimsical and realistic and whimsical again Monday when asked if he had consulted any of his old mentors after that defeat. "Yeah. Stacy (his wife) was great. A temple massage, it was wonderful," he said here. "I sat down next to Ryan (one of his sons) on Saturday, he said, `Dad, we got spanked.' I was like, `Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate ya.' So, you know. Eight-years old.
"Then woke up on Sunday and let's rock. You put your chin up and your chest out and you go back to work. You roll your sleeves up and go to work, man. It's not real hard when you get your fanny whipped. You know, it's not hard. It's not like you can go, `Eeew, we were close. Eeew. Aaah. Ooooh. All right. Get home safe. Roll your clock back an hour. See you Monday.' There's not a whole lot more you can say. We got our butts whipped. But, yeah. I talked to a couple guys. Gotta stay the course."
Was it his old head coach, Gary Barnett? His old linebacker coach, Ron Vanderlinden?
"I talked to one. Yeah," Fitzgerald now said. "So we're going to put in the wishbone, line up in a Bear front, bring 70 guys on pressure, on-side kick on every kick, go for it on every fourth down, fake every field goal, fake every punt. I had Paul (Kennedy, the head of Athletic Communications) print out the laundry list of suggestions. I've got them all. Hank (defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz) and I are checking them off right now. They're all in. They're all in."
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Pat Fitzgerald was blunt, brutally so, Monday when assessing his team's performance in Iowa City. "Sometimes," he said here, "you've got to embrace the suck, you know. We were bad. You've got to embrace it. There's no magical formula. You just take it. My wife reminded me I dropped a really important pass against Oak Lawn my junior year (in high school) and we lost. It was bad. I was wide open on a corner route and I lost it (the pass) and we lost the game.
"You don't forget things like that. I won't forget last week. I won't forget it. But you've got to use the frustration as motivation. I can't control anything else than that. Just motivate our guys to get better, and have our D-line attack their targets, and have our linebackers fit their gaps, and have the DBs that were right there make a play, get their hands a little bit further in and knock the ball out, and put our eyes where they should be on a flea flicker. That's what you've got to do.
"They're great guys. I love `em. Just got to coach `em harder, coach `em better."
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Pat Fitzgerald was pragmatic and professorial Monday when asked the difference between his current `Cats and those 2012 `Cats who went 10-3 and won the Gator Bowl. "I think there are a lot of differences," he said here. "I think we were very fortunate in 2012 health-wise. Very fortunate. We were probably one of the healthiest teams in the country. That helped not necessarily for any other reason than we were able to practice hard, real hard.
"I thought that team really improved each week. I thought you saw our level of play go up each week. That was a really big by-product of our preparation. That'll probably be what sticks out to me about that team is how hard we were able to practice and were able to really bring them along. The credit goes to those players. They really embraced that. We missed that here the last couple of cycles (with the spate of oft-detailed injuries they have endured). Last fall, that obviously carried over. You guys were at spring. We didn't scrimmage a lot. We were hoping to make up a lot of those plays in fall camp. Weren't able to do that, and it's kind of just manifested itself.
"So we've just got to keep grinding. Creating habits mentally and physically, I think that's the biggest difference. It's not an excuse. It's just reality. We've got to keep trying to manufacture that in practice. You guys have been out to practice. We've got to shorten it to go as hard as we're going. We just don't have enough guys (due to the injuries). But we've just got to keep going. That's what we've got. We're going to play those cards and the guys are going to come along with us. We'll talk about it again tomorrow. About sticking together.
"Our backs are against the wall. The guys we got, just go grind it out and fight it out. Unfortunately we didn't do that Saturday. That's my responsibility as the leader. It's over. You move on. You flush the bad experience and you move on. I know some people can't do that. But I think we've got a locker room full of guys that will do that. I really do. At least the guys who can practice and play."
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Pat Fitzgerald was philosophic one last time on Monday. "I really trust people that give everything they have. That's all I could ask," he finally said here. "I ask that of the players. I ask that of our folks up at training table. I ask that of our grounds crew. I ask that of three little knuckleheads at home, of a wonderful wife. I ask that of myself first and foremost. Just give everything you've got. If you can do that, you look yourself in the mirror and you know you've given everything you've got and sometimes you don't get it done.
"That's how I look at things in life and I enjoy every minute of it. I embrace it. I love it. I love working with these guys. I love working with the kind of guys we have here in the locker room, and the same thing with our staff. I just appreciate everybody for all that they do. And it hurts nobody more than me when we don't have success and I see guys struggle. And I get freakin' excited about it, and I embrace it, and I try to attack it, and I expect our guys to follow that lead, and I haven't seen a deviation off of that. I really haven't.
"So. We'll continue to fight. I promise you that."
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