Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: No Time To Celebrate
9/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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At Northwestern's weekly Monday press conference, there may have been plenty of note to discuss from Saturday's win at Penn State, but Pat Fitzgerald and the Wildcats clearly have turned their attention to a looming matchup with No. 17/16 Wisconsin this weekend at Ryan Field. Skip Myslenski reports for NUsports.com:
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ON SATURDAY in State College the 'Cats topped undefeated Penn State by 23, the Nittany Lions' most-lopsided loss since they fell to Miami back in 2001. This was a signature win for them, a performance far better than any they had put on through their first three games, and so Fitzgerald was asked if it could be a confidence booster for his team. "I think anytime you win it's an opportunity for confidence," he began tepidly enough, but then he immediately added this unexpected analysis.
"And then I think the guys were really realistic this morning after we got done watching the tape and saw how poorly we played. I think that was probably more motivational than the win. I really do."
Now he ticked off a series of missed opportunities, opportunities that could have padded the 'Cats score, and finally they had 30 more points on the board. "Fifty-nine points to six sounds like a pretty good performance, and I think that's what we left out there," he finally said. "That's what I told the team today. So we're a long way from being what we could be. A long way."
"We definitely left some points out there," Tony Jones would later say. "I know in the wide receiver meeting this morning we touched on that. Our red zone efficiency has to improve."
"We know we left some points out there," center Brandon Vitabile then echoed. "You're not happy about that. But it's also a good thing to build on, to see we had these opportunities."
THAT WAS HARDLY the only time on Monday that Fitzgerald took a realistic, hard-eyed look at his `Cats.
"I know the DNA of this team right now. We are very, very immature," he would say on another occasion. "We are far from where we need to be. It continues to show up in little details. That's where we're at and that might not change this year. We're going into October. I got two months left. And it's not really a senior issue. It's an underclassmen issue of immaturity. So we've just got to keep going with those guys, taking every practice as if it's Winning Edge and spring practice and bowl practice and camp. That's the maturity this group has shown from a little-detail standpoint."
You say immaturity. What do you mean?
"I mean a lot of things," he said, and now he paused for three heartbeats
"The kids know what I'm talking about," he then added, "and they'll get it fixed or the floggings (at practice that began after the Northern Illinois loss) will continue."
Is it different from just not executing?
"It's got a lot less to do with what happens on the field and a lot more to do with the details of everything you do every single day," he here expanded. "Like going to breakfast in the morning. Showing up on time. Actually exercising the technique we ask you to do in special teams not some of the time, but all of the time. That's just a few of a litany. So we've got a long, long way to go."
"We haven't done a good enough job instilling things in (the younger) guys that were instilled in us when we were younger," Vitable, a captain, later said. "We've got to be more in tune with that and make sure they're doing the little things. At the end of the day that's what really matters, executing the small things.
"It's just the little things," corner Nick VanHoose echoed when asked about his coach's observation, and then he explained. "We've had guys missing meals, skipping them. It's little things like that. You miss a meal here and there, you're going to start losing weight. You start losing weight, for your one-on-one battle that week, that person might have an extra five pounds on you that you should have had. Little things like that we need to get the younger guys on board about."
IT HAS BEEN WELL DOCUMENTED that Fitzgerald changed his approach after the loss to Northern Illinois and began pushing his `Cats through punishing practices. That should be remembered when considering this answer from Vitabile, who had been asked this: Did the `Cats need to lose to play the way they did against Penn State, or does he look back now and wonder why they didn't play that way from the start.
"I definitely felt that after the game. `Why did it take so long?'" he said. "But. I'm not glad we lost. But we made some changes in the way we practiced, just our attitude, which were necessary for us to get to where we want to go. That definitely helped us be successful this past weekend. So like I said, I'm not happy that we lost. But we learned from it, which is very positive."
VITABILE also had this to say about that new approach. "We were practicing very physically, and that's something you always need when you go into Big Ten play. We were pushing the tempo, which is something we always try to do but the coaches were really on us to do in practice more so than ever. You're going to be tired, but it doesn't really matter. Just push through it. That's the type of stuff that gives you-- Coach Fitz talks about the hardened edge, which is something we've been trying to get back in practice."
CORNER Matthew Harris went down and stayed down Saturday after bringing down Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg. "Seeing him drop down and not move, it's one of your brothers. It's basically a family member going down in front of you. I was scared," VanHoose said Monday, recalling that scary moment. "At first, I thought he wasn't moving at all. Going through my mind it was, I need to pray. It's rough. I don't know. It's pretty emotional seeing one of your brothers get injured like that."
Harris would be taken off the field on a stretcher and transported by ambulance to a hospital. But on his way out of the stadium he gave a very positive thumbs-up signal and then, shortly after the game ended, Fitzgerald informed the team that he was all right. He was all right enough, in fact, to be at the `Cats plane when they reached it, and he greeted them with the champions' pose, shaking his fists above his head. "That was pretty cool," remembered Fitzgerald.
Will he play Saturday when he Wisconsin comes to Ryan Field?
"He was very active this morning in our run through, making our corrections and in our kind of pre-game-week stuff," he said. "We expect him to be non-contact tomorrow, then we'll see how he progresses. But we're very hopeful that we'll have him."
"He had a heating pad on his neck, whatever," said VanHoose, who went through that run-through with Harris. "He said he was stiff and sore. I was like, `Yeah, it's Big Ten football now.' He'll get used to it."
SAFETY Ibraheim Campbell, injured during the Penn State game, is out for Wisconsin.
MIDDLE LINEBACKER Collin Ellis missed the Penn State game after suffering a concussion against Western Illinois. Still, said Fitzgerald, "We hope to have him back. But he's still going through our protocol, so we'll see how that goes."
REDSHIRT FRESHMAN Anthony Walker replaced Ellis against the Nittany Lions and starred, returning an interception for a touchdown and leading the 'Cats in tackles with eight. He was named the team's defensive player of the week for his performance, but, noted Fitzgerald, "He had 10 mental errors in the game. So he, along with a lot of other guys, can do a lot of things better."
Any chance he replaces Ellis as the starter?
"Unless you do something poorly when you come back from injury, we don't take guys' jobs because they got hurt. But Anthony played well enough to play. No doubt about that. We're going to rotate guys. We always do."
PLACE KICKER Jack Mitchell missed a pair of extra points and a 44-yard field goal attempt on Saturday. Still, when asked who his kicker would be against the Badgers, Fitzgerald said, "Jack Mitchell. We'll have a competition. But Jack's our starter today."
AND FINALLY, Tony Jones, who missed the `Cats previous two games, on how he felt physically after playing for the first time in a month: "It feels great after a win. Physically, I feel good. Not great. But I feel good. Winning definitely makes your body feel a heck of a lot better."
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