Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: The Evolution of Dean Lowry
11/4/2015 4:40:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
It was the second Sunday of last November, the Sunday after the 'Cats had fallen to 3-6 with their one-point loss to Michigan, and Dean Lowry was in obvious distress when he entered the office of defensive line coach Marty Long. "He was in tears," he remembers. "I thought something was wrong off the field, when a kid comes into your office on a Sunday."
But that was not it, not it at all. "He apologized to me for not giving his all," Long goes on. "When I say 'all,' we define that as The Wildcat Way. Going as hard as you can for as long as you can. And he said, 'Coach, I promise you I'm going to play that way for the rest of the season.' So at the end of last season, you saw him go like that (upward) on a scale. That (attitude) went on into the summer and that's what you see playing now, and he's getting a lot of attention because of that."
"I don't know if I was quite in tears, but I was pretty emotional," Lowry himself will later recall. "It was like that point in the season was a reflection of my play, the team's play. I wasn't playing up to my potential, and I promised him I would give the effort he knows I can give and play to my potential. A lot of guys on this team put a lot of effort into football. It's my life to me. When things don't go your way, it's tough. But you've got to respond well and face adversity and just keep working."
Six days later, in the 'Cats overtime upset of No. 15 Notre Dame, Dean Lowry did respond well, finishing that afternoon with a half-dozen tackles (1.5 of them for losses) and a forced fumble. He has not, since then, stopped responding.
Marty Long says that Sunday, that visit, was "The moment he figured out he was going to be a good player." But Dean Lowry, the senior defensive end, has been far more than that this season. He has been a force, a potent presence, a rare blend of speed and power who has run up some gaudy stats and unfurled plays fit for the highlight reel.
He has 36 tackles, the most of any lineman. He has two-and-a-half sacks, second only to Deonte Gibson's five. He has an interception and four quarterback hurries and four pass breakups, more than any 'Cat but corners Matthew Harris and Nick VanHoose. He has, most notably, a team-high (along with linebacker Anthony Walker) 10.5 tackles-for-loss, a full half-dozen of those coming two Saturdays ago in his team's win at Nebraska. "I've never coached a guy who's had six tackles-for-loss," marvels Long, who has been playing his trade since 1986. "And he didn't play the whole game. He played probably 70 percent of the game."
"I would say I feel dialed in right now," says Lowry when asked about that performance. "I feel an extreme sense of focus in terms of certain keys that I'm seeing and what I have to do."
He is then, more poetically, in that zone special talents inhabit when they're astride their game, in that very place he has striven to attain since he joined the 'Cats in 2012 as a lanky, undersized, 235-pound defensive end out of Rockford Boylan. He would need to be bulked up, that was clear. ("You knew he didn't have the strength. He didn't have the definition in his arms," remembers Long.) But, thinking of him even then, Pat Fitzgerald says, "He was a relentless motor player in high school. . .a coach's dream. Great work ethic. Terrific leader. Great attitude. . . . Then you go watch him play basketball, he played hard."
"Defensive linemen, that's what the good ones are known for," Lowry says when asked about those descriptives. "You watch the guys in the pros on Sundays and the better ones in college, they all have relentless motors and effort. I just realized from a young age that I might not always be the biggest and the strongest, but I could always control my effort."
What was the source of that realization?
"Maybe Coach Long instilled that into me my freshman year. Freshman year, I wasn't always the biggest or strongest guy, but I could make effort plays. Now that I've put on some weight, it's a good combo, being physical and strong, but also being an effort player."
But Fitz says you played hard before that, that you played hard in high school.
"What I've always tried to do is outwork people. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. That's what I've tried to live by my four years here."
Dean Lowry played some even as an undersized freshman, and was a fixture on the defensive line in the two seasons that followed. He also, through this time, followed the plan laid out for him, lifting weights and eating right and inexorably adding muscle to his six-foot-six frame. But then last January, in the wake of another disappointing 'Cat season, Long noticed a change. "I don't know why it happened this year," he says, "but he really took a liking to the weight room and his body just bloomed."
He is sitting on a bench outside the 'Cat locker room and now he spots Joe Orozco, the sports' performance staff member who works with the D line. He calls him over, and Lowry's name is mentioned. "His attitude and effort (in the off-season) were unbelievable," Orozco immediately says. "He attacked every day, every lift as hard as he could, and that helped to translate into how he's performing."
"Our strength coaches are with us all the time and the guys love these guys," Long now says. "He worked with him (Lowry) during the summer and brings him to me, he brings him to me and I'm looking at a man. . . . I would give all the credit to Joe and Coach (Jay) Hooten (the head of the sports' performance staff). Those guys built him into a machine."
"Dean set the standard for the rest of the group," Orozco then says. "That made it pretty intense in there. He set the standard for every exercise and guys would follow him."
"He was a showoff in the weight room, and would laugh about it and joke about it," Long says here. "'Hey, coach, here's the 150s,' and he's benching them with one arm. Or, 'Coach, come and get some of this right here' (while he's) flexing his muscles. Guys are saying things like 'Dean Strong' and everything like that. That's what's been fun.'"
"I love the weight room," Lowry later says when asked about all this. "The music's blaring, you're working out with your buddies, you're getting better, it's a great atmosphere. I'm a pretty quiet guy off the field. But in the weight room, I just get after it. I'm pretty vocal in there. That's where I really try to get after it and get big, as we say."
He is now 290 pounds, 55 more than when he joined the 'Cats, and still he is blessed with the speed he possessed when he was a freshman string bean. That is what makes him a rare combination, and this season those physical qualities have blended with his studiousness to create a lethal mix. "Football is just like another class for him," Long told a Rockford paper this summer, and here he explains.
"In the meeting room," he explains, "he has really embraced studying the game and understanding formations and what they do coming out of formations."
"We study film all the time. It's huge for us," Lowry himself later says. "Knowing the instinctual parts of the game, knowing certain keys and reacting, when you go out there, then it's second nature. Then you've just got to go out there and play."
That is just what he did in an instructive moment down at Duke, where the Blue Devils--already up seven--were threatening to score again. They were here on the 'Cat 11, facing a second-and-goal, and now their quarterback Thomas Sirk lofted a pass toward the flat that ended up in Dean Lowry's hands. "Coming out of the game," Long recalls, "I asked him, 'How did you know to get your hands up?'
"He said, 'Coach, that was the same formation that they ran it out of before. I knew they were going to bubble and I got my hands up.'
"He tipped it for an interception."
"Duke had been running a lot of swing screens," Lowry himself later expands. "My key was, the tackle blocked down and I knew to put my hands up. I made a play. We talk about it a lot. Win your one-on-ones and make a play. That's what happened there. It was taking what you learn on film and bringing it to the game."
Dean Lowry, then, is an anomaly in this age of instant gratification, a featured performer who did not arrive full blown. He instead diligently constructed himself over the years. So now, with his performances, he is a testament to resilience and resolve, to persistence and perseverance, and this is no surprise. "I do believe that slow-and-steady wins the race, and a constant work ethic through three, four years really pays off," he will say, explaining why. "Last year I don't think I played as well as I wanted to at times. But I stuck to the plan and worked this off-season, and I think it's paying dividends now."
Those words echo the message of a famed commercial from back in the '70s, a message that is so appropriate in this season of his emergence as a force, as a presence, as a rare blend of speed and power. That commercial was for the investment firm Smith Barney and it ended with the great actor John Houseman memorably declaiming, "How do they make money? The old-fashioned way. They earn it."
Dean Lowry, most certainly, appreciates that approach.
He, in fact, embodies it.
NUsports.com Special Contributor
It was the second Sunday of last November, the Sunday after the 'Cats had fallen to 3-6 with their one-point loss to Michigan, and Dean Lowry was in obvious distress when he entered the office of defensive line coach Marty Long. "He was in tears," he remembers. "I thought something was wrong off the field, when a kid comes into your office on a Sunday."
But that was not it, not it at all. "He apologized to me for not giving his all," Long goes on. "When I say 'all,' we define that as The Wildcat Way. Going as hard as you can for as long as you can. And he said, 'Coach, I promise you I'm going to play that way for the rest of the season.' So at the end of last season, you saw him go like that (upward) on a scale. That (attitude) went on into the summer and that's what you see playing now, and he's getting a lot of attention because of that."
"I don't know if I was quite in tears, but I was pretty emotional," Lowry himself will later recall. "It was like that point in the season was a reflection of my play, the team's play. I wasn't playing up to my potential, and I promised him I would give the effort he knows I can give and play to my potential. A lot of guys on this team put a lot of effort into football. It's my life to me. When things don't go your way, it's tough. But you've got to respond well and face adversity and just keep working."
Six days later, in the 'Cats overtime upset of No. 15 Notre Dame, Dean Lowry did respond well, finishing that afternoon with a half-dozen tackles (1.5 of them for losses) and a forced fumble. He has not, since then, stopped responding.
Marty Long says that Sunday, that visit, was "The moment he figured out he was going to be a good player." But Dean Lowry, the senior defensive end, has been far more than that this season. He has been a force, a potent presence, a rare blend of speed and power who has run up some gaudy stats and unfurled plays fit for the highlight reel.
He has 36 tackles, the most of any lineman. He has two-and-a-half sacks, second only to Deonte Gibson's five. He has an interception and four quarterback hurries and four pass breakups, more than any 'Cat but corners Matthew Harris and Nick VanHoose. He has, most notably, a team-high (along with linebacker Anthony Walker) 10.5 tackles-for-loss, a full half-dozen of those coming two Saturdays ago in his team's win at Nebraska. "I've never coached a guy who's had six tackles-for-loss," marvels Long, who has been playing his trade since 1986. "And he didn't play the whole game. He played probably 70 percent of the game."
"I would say I feel dialed in right now," says Lowry when asked about that performance. "I feel an extreme sense of focus in terms of certain keys that I'm seeing and what I have to do."
He is then, more poetically, in that zone special talents inhabit when they're astride their game, in that very place he has striven to attain since he joined the 'Cats in 2012 as a lanky, undersized, 235-pound defensive end out of Rockford Boylan. He would need to be bulked up, that was clear. ("You knew he didn't have the strength. He didn't have the definition in his arms," remembers Long.) But, thinking of him even then, Pat Fitzgerald says, "He was a relentless motor player in high school. . .a coach's dream. Great work ethic. Terrific leader. Great attitude. . . . Then you go watch him play basketball, he played hard."
"Defensive linemen, that's what the good ones are known for," Lowry says when asked about those descriptives. "You watch the guys in the pros on Sundays and the better ones in college, they all have relentless motors and effort. I just realized from a young age that I might not always be the biggest and the strongest, but I could always control my effort."
What was the source of that realization?
"Maybe Coach Long instilled that into me my freshman year. Freshman year, I wasn't always the biggest or strongest guy, but I could make effort plays. Now that I've put on some weight, it's a good combo, being physical and strong, but also being an effort player."
But Fitz says you played hard before that, that you played hard in high school.
"What I've always tried to do is outwork people. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. That's what I've tried to live by my four years here."
Dean Lowry played some even as an undersized freshman, and was a fixture on the defensive line in the two seasons that followed. He also, through this time, followed the plan laid out for him, lifting weights and eating right and inexorably adding muscle to his six-foot-six frame. But then last January, in the wake of another disappointing 'Cat season, Long noticed a change. "I don't know why it happened this year," he says, "but he really took a liking to the weight room and his body just bloomed."
He is sitting on a bench outside the 'Cat locker room and now he spots Joe Orozco, the sports' performance staff member who works with the D line. He calls him over, and Lowry's name is mentioned. "His attitude and effort (in the off-season) were unbelievable," Orozco immediately says. "He attacked every day, every lift as hard as he could, and that helped to translate into how he's performing."
"Our strength coaches are with us all the time and the guys love these guys," Long now says. "He worked with him (Lowry) during the summer and brings him to me, he brings him to me and I'm looking at a man. . . . I would give all the credit to Joe and Coach (Jay) Hooten (the head of the sports' performance staff). Those guys built him into a machine."
"Dean set the standard for the rest of the group," Orozco then says. "That made it pretty intense in there. He set the standard for every exercise and guys would follow him."
"He was a showoff in the weight room, and would laugh about it and joke about it," Long says here. "'Hey, coach, here's the 150s,' and he's benching them with one arm. Or, 'Coach, come and get some of this right here' (while he's) flexing his muscles. Guys are saying things like 'Dean Strong' and everything like that. That's what's been fun.'"
"I love the weight room," Lowry later says when asked about all this. "The music's blaring, you're working out with your buddies, you're getting better, it's a great atmosphere. I'm a pretty quiet guy off the field. But in the weight room, I just get after it. I'm pretty vocal in there. That's where I really try to get after it and get big, as we say."
He is now 290 pounds, 55 more than when he joined the 'Cats, and still he is blessed with the speed he possessed when he was a freshman string bean. That is what makes him a rare combination, and this season those physical qualities have blended with his studiousness to create a lethal mix. "Football is just like another class for him," Long told a Rockford paper this summer, and here he explains.
"In the meeting room," he explains, "he has really embraced studying the game and understanding formations and what they do coming out of formations."
"We study film all the time. It's huge for us," Lowry himself later says. "Knowing the instinctual parts of the game, knowing certain keys and reacting, when you go out there, then it's second nature. Then you've just got to go out there and play."
That is just what he did in an instructive moment down at Duke, where the Blue Devils--already up seven--were threatening to score again. They were here on the 'Cat 11, facing a second-and-goal, and now their quarterback Thomas Sirk lofted a pass toward the flat that ended up in Dean Lowry's hands. "Coming out of the game," Long recalls, "I asked him, 'How did you know to get your hands up?'
"He said, 'Coach, that was the same formation that they ran it out of before. I knew they were going to bubble and I got my hands up.'
"He tipped it for an interception."
"Duke had been running a lot of swing screens," Lowry himself later expands. "My key was, the tackle blocked down and I knew to put my hands up. I made a play. We talk about it a lot. Win your one-on-ones and make a play. That's what happened there. It was taking what you learn on film and bringing it to the game."
Dean Lowry, then, is an anomaly in this age of instant gratification, a featured performer who did not arrive full blown. He instead diligently constructed himself over the years. So now, with his performances, he is a testament to resilience and resolve, to persistence and perseverance, and this is no surprise. "I do believe that slow-and-steady wins the race, and a constant work ethic through three, four years really pays off," he will say, explaining why. "Last year I don't think I played as well as I wanted to at times. But I stuck to the plan and worked this off-season, and I think it's paying dividends now."
Those words echo the message of a famed commercial from back in the '70s, a message that is so appropriate in this season of his emergence as a force, as a presence, as a rare blend of speed and power. That commercial was for the investment firm Smith Barney and it ended with the great actor John Houseman memorably declaiming, "How do they make money? The old-fashioned way. They earn it."
Dean Lowry, most certainly, appreciates that approach.
He, in fact, embodies it.
••••••
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