Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: Displaying Their Maturity
9/13/2015 6:59:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Pat Fitzgerald often says, "It's all about us." It is not about the opponent, or the noise surrounding a game, or the beliefs and perceptions embraced by those outside his program. It is about his 'Cats, and their attitude, and their approach to the business at hand.
This was especially true last week in the wake of their season-opening upset of then-No. 21 Stanford. Now ahead of them was Eastern Illinois, an FCS foe, and so on Monday he did not celebrate the victory so recently achieved. Instead, he recalled early Saturday evening, "I challenged them hard. I challenged them hard about proving to ourselves that we're mature enough to handle success with the expectations we have for ourselves. Not externally. But the standards that we want to live up to every moment of every day."
Then on Tuesday, in their first practice for the Panthers, the ante was upped further. "It was pretty rough. It was one of the hardest practices we've had all year," tackle Geoff Mogus recalled on Saturday.
"He (Fitzgerald) wanted to keep the intensity level high," added wide receiver Austin Carr. "He talked to us after the Stanford game about dealing with success and not taking our foot off the gas pedal. So the Tuesday practice, it was really high tempo. He had the scout guys really, really fired up."
"Were we going to show up ready to go?" concluded Fitzgerald himself. "I thought the way we approached the start of the week was going to be more important than today. No disrespect to Eastern, but we felt pretty confident about the game. I wanted to see our maturity level in the way we prepared."
On Saturday at Ryan Field, the 'Cats showed a promising level of maturity by doing what good teams do. They kept their collective foot on that proverbial gas pedal, and beat, beat up, beat down an overmatched opponent. They rolled up 496 yards of total offense and held the Panthers to just 138. They averaged 5.8 yards per offensive play and the Panthers, a mere 2.8. They collected 28 first downs and the Panthers, only eight. They converted 10-of-their-17 third-down opportunities and the Panthers, not even one of their 11. They held the ball for 37:05 and the Panthers, a paltry 22:55.
There was no drama in this one. no hint that they might slip and lose a possible trap game, and that too manifested a promising level of maturity. Their young quarterback, Clayton Thorson, was coolly efficient, completing 11-of-his-16 attempts and exhibiting poise when flushed. "What was most impressive to me today about Clayton was, when he did get out of the pocket, his decision-making was excellent. He didn't try to force anything," Fitzgerald would accurately note. "There was one play that was a little muddy and instead of trying to force the ball, he threw it away. Then he made some real good choices in the scramble drill."
"We work that in practice everyday," said Thorson himself. "That's something you've got to do as a quarterback. When a play breaks down, you've got to get out and make a play."
But any number of 'Cats made plays on this day. The corner Matthew Harris had a pair of interceptions, returning the second 71 yards for his team's last touchdown of the game. Running back Warren Long rushed for a career-high 72 yards and scored the first touchdown of his career, and the latter was true too for Carr, a former walk-on who earlier in the week had been put on scholarship. "Did I score? It hasn't hit me yet," he said of his benchmark.
"It feels like it was a long time coming. You're a little guy, three-, four-years old watching guys on TV do that and finally, when it's your chance, it happens so fast. I just remember crossing the goal line and wanting to embrace my teammates. Obviously, it feels very good. It happens so fast. But it feels good."
Their defense was certainly good while shutting out the Panthers, and so too were running back Justin Jackson (78 yards on 22 carries) and superback Dan Vitale (four receptions for 40 yards). Then there was their offensive line. This was the position group most criticized by Fitzgerald after the Stanford game, and now it would enter this affair bruised and battered.
It would be missing Eric Olson, who had started at right tackle. Two other starters, center Brad North and left guard Ian Park, would play sparingly while battling injuries of their own. Then Adam DePietro, who had started in Olson's place, would himself go out after getting injured midway through the fourth quarter. Still, despite all of that, it did its job well enough that the 'Cats netted 344 yards on the ground. "We knew we had to respond," Mogus, the line's leader, would say. "We've got to be physical. We've got to push the tempo. We've got to play fast. We've got to cut it loose, that's what it comes down to."
"We worked with the other guys all week," said Fitzgerald, speaking of those who replaced the Stanford starters. "It was their opportunity to step up and, for the most part, there was some very positive play by those guys. I'm going to reserve judgment until I watch the tape. But to be able to run the ball the way we did, it was a pretty clean, pretty effective game offensively."
That, in the end, is as good a way as any to describe the 'Cats overall performance on this afternoon. This too was a measure of their promising level of maturity and then later, after they had closed out their 41-point win, it was exhibited again by Harris and the defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo. That moment came when they were told this was the first time since 1958 that a 'Cat defense had held consecutive opponents to not a single touchdown. "We have something special here and every time we put on that black jersey, we know that we have something," Odenigbo would say when asked how he felt about that accomplishment.
"That's one thing our coaches always let us know. You can always do better. If you don't think you can do better, something's wrong. It's about being perfect."
"We're not trying to live up to a standard. We're trying to set goals that people don't think are possible," Harris then concluded. "So, yeah, it's cool that we've done something that hasn't been done in awhile. But at the same time, we've got to focus on what we're doing next."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Pat Fitzgerald often says, "It's all about us." It is not about the opponent, or the noise surrounding a game, or the beliefs and perceptions embraced by those outside his program. It is about his 'Cats, and their attitude, and their approach to the business at hand.
This was especially true last week in the wake of their season-opening upset of then-No. 21 Stanford. Now ahead of them was Eastern Illinois, an FCS foe, and so on Monday he did not celebrate the victory so recently achieved. Instead, he recalled early Saturday evening, "I challenged them hard. I challenged them hard about proving to ourselves that we're mature enough to handle success with the expectations we have for ourselves. Not externally. But the standards that we want to live up to every moment of every day."
Then on Tuesday, in their first practice for the Panthers, the ante was upped further. "It was pretty rough. It was one of the hardest practices we've had all year," tackle Geoff Mogus recalled on Saturday.
"He (Fitzgerald) wanted to keep the intensity level high," added wide receiver Austin Carr. "He talked to us after the Stanford game about dealing with success and not taking our foot off the gas pedal. So the Tuesday practice, it was really high tempo. He had the scout guys really, really fired up."
"Were we going to show up ready to go?" concluded Fitzgerald himself. "I thought the way we approached the start of the week was going to be more important than today. No disrespect to Eastern, but we felt pretty confident about the game. I wanted to see our maturity level in the way we prepared."
On Saturday at Ryan Field, the 'Cats showed a promising level of maturity by doing what good teams do. They kept their collective foot on that proverbial gas pedal, and beat, beat up, beat down an overmatched opponent. They rolled up 496 yards of total offense and held the Panthers to just 138. They averaged 5.8 yards per offensive play and the Panthers, a mere 2.8. They collected 28 first downs and the Panthers, only eight. They converted 10-of-their-17 third-down opportunities and the Panthers, not even one of their 11. They held the ball for 37:05 and the Panthers, a paltry 22:55.
There was no drama in this one. no hint that they might slip and lose a possible trap game, and that too manifested a promising level of maturity. Their young quarterback, Clayton Thorson, was coolly efficient, completing 11-of-his-16 attempts and exhibiting poise when flushed. "What was most impressive to me today about Clayton was, when he did get out of the pocket, his decision-making was excellent. He didn't try to force anything," Fitzgerald would accurately note. "There was one play that was a little muddy and instead of trying to force the ball, he threw it away. Then he made some real good choices in the scramble drill."
"We work that in practice everyday," said Thorson himself. "That's something you've got to do as a quarterback. When a play breaks down, you've got to get out and make a play."
But any number of 'Cats made plays on this day. The corner Matthew Harris had a pair of interceptions, returning the second 71 yards for his team's last touchdown of the game. Running back Warren Long rushed for a career-high 72 yards and scored the first touchdown of his career, and the latter was true too for Carr, a former walk-on who earlier in the week had been put on scholarship. "Did I score? It hasn't hit me yet," he said of his benchmark.
"It feels like it was a long time coming. You're a little guy, three-, four-years old watching guys on TV do that and finally, when it's your chance, it happens so fast. I just remember crossing the goal line and wanting to embrace my teammates. Obviously, it feels very good. It happens so fast. But it feels good."
Their defense was certainly good while shutting out the Panthers, and so too were running back Justin Jackson (78 yards on 22 carries) and superback Dan Vitale (four receptions for 40 yards). Then there was their offensive line. This was the position group most criticized by Fitzgerald after the Stanford game, and now it would enter this affair bruised and battered.
It would be missing Eric Olson, who had started at right tackle. Two other starters, center Brad North and left guard Ian Park, would play sparingly while battling injuries of their own. Then Adam DePietro, who had started in Olson's place, would himself go out after getting injured midway through the fourth quarter. Still, despite all of that, it did its job well enough that the 'Cats netted 344 yards on the ground. "We knew we had to respond," Mogus, the line's leader, would say. "We've got to be physical. We've got to push the tempo. We've got to play fast. We've got to cut it loose, that's what it comes down to."
"We worked with the other guys all week," said Fitzgerald, speaking of those who replaced the Stanford starters. "It was their opportunity to step up and, for the most part, there was some very positive play by those guys. I'm going to reserve judgment until I watch the tape. But to be able to run the ball the way we did, it was a pretty clean, pretty effective game offensively."
That, in the end, is as good a way as any to describe the 'Cats overall performance on this afternoon. This too was a measure of their promising level of maturity and then later, after they had closed out their 41-point win, it was exhibited again by Harris and the defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo. That moment came when they were told this was the first time since 1958 that a 'Cat defense had held consecutive opponents to not a single touchdown. "We have something special here and every time we put on that black jersey, we know that we have something," Odenigbo would say when asked how he felt about that accomplishment.
"That's one thing our coaches always let us know. You can always do better. If you don't think you can do better, something's wrong. It's about being perfect."
"We're not trying to live up to a standard. We're trying to set goals that people don't think are possible," Harris then concluded. "So, yeah, it's cool that we've done something that hasn't been done in awhile. But at the same time, we've got to focus on what we're doing next."
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