Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: Friday Notes - Duke
9/18/2015 2:00:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
A BAND OF BROTHERS: Consider the fate of offensive linemen, the supporting actors in the production that is called a football game. If they do not fill their roles, the stars cannot shine. But when they do fill their roles, the stars are the ones who find their names in the headlines. "Then you have to deal with this," Jimbo Covert once related.
He was the Pro Bowl tackle on the Bears' Super Bowl champions and here he continued, "A defensive lineman can go a whole game and not get a sack, and it won't say in the paper that he played a lousy game. But an offensive lineman can block his guy for 70 plays and give up one sack, and it's going to say he did a lousy job. It's not fair. But that's the nature of the game."
That is also the nature of life for those who together man an O line, and this reality welds them, melds them, fuses them into a unit as tight as a miser. So it was no surprise to hear how the 'Cat O line has responded to the criticism it has received through the first two weeks of this season. "We," said guard Connor Mahoney, "kind of band together when Coach Fitz (Pat Fitzgerald) or the other coaches are getting on us."
"We try to band together and play through that adversity and embrace the hard practices and wear it as a badge of honor that we have the hardest practices on the team. We're working harder than not only everybody on the team, but anybody we're playing. That's what we want to do. We've embraced that. We're trying to make that our identity as a group. No matter what happens, we go hard, we play physical and we work harder than anybody else."
TRANSITIONING: Mahoney, back in high school, played both offensive tackle and defensive end, but was recruited by the 'Cats to strictly play defense. He did that his true freshman year, but as a redshirt freshman he worked as both an offensive lineman and a superback. Last season, as a sophomore, he was switched back to defensive tackle, but then last spring he was once more moved to the offensive line. "We wanted to create more athleticism and competition on the offensive line," Fitzgerald said, explaining the last change. "He was kind of maybe four, five in the D tackle rotation. I kind of felt the younger depth in the D line was going to force Connor into a tougher situation. I told him I was moving him over to compete to start."
"I'd been through the routine before, so I was open to it," Mahoney himself said when asked his reaction to yet-another move. "I had the attitude, 'Wherever the team needs me to play.' Wherever I could get the opportunity to play, I wanted to do that."
This would be no easy change for him. There was a playbook to learn, and techniques to master, and even a necessary attitude adjustment. "On defense," he explained, "you're getting off the ball. It's all attack, attack, attack, penetrate the line and react to the offense and go tackle the ball. The offensive line, there is some of that in run blocking. But a lot of it is retreating, pass blocking. You can't be over-aggressive. So when you come over to the offensive side of the ball, you kind of have to change your mindset a little bit. But you still want to keep that edge. That's one of the things I really wanted to keep from the defensive side of the ball. Being physical, attacking, finishing plays."
He would play some in the 'Cats season-opening win against Stanford, which the offensive line exited bruised and battered. So last week against Eastern Illinois he was, so suddenly, the starter at left guard, and he is scheduled to again be that Saturday when they visit Duke. "From when I started in spring ball, now it's a completely different game," he would finally say of his dizzying experience. "It's slowly getting more manageable and slowing down for me. It's still a little bit new. But, hey. I've got a good opportunity. So I'm going to go out there and play my ass off."
BACK TO THE FUTURE: The 'Cats quick start as been mirrored by sophomore middle linebacker Anthony Walker, who leads them in tackles (17) and tackles-for-loss (five). "The mental part of the game is one of the biggest keys right now," he said when asked about his performance. "Coach Fitz talked to me last year (when he took over for the injured senior Collin Ellis) about, 'Does it feel like high school yet?' It really didn't. All the way through to the end of the year, it didn't feel like I was in high school. He said, 'Then you're not there yet.'"
High school?
"Being comfortable. And being able to diagnose a play before it happens," Walker explained. "That's a big part of being a great linebacker. You have to know what to expect from each play. The game has started slowing down for me a lot. Now I've just got to keep going."
QUICKLY NOTED: The 'Cat defense has given up an average of just 189 yards per-game, third best in the nation. It has also held its two opponents to an average of just 2.8 yards per-rush and 4.1 yards per-pass. It has, finally, not yet surrendered a touchdown. Asked which part of that performance it takes most pride in, Anthony said, "We take great pride in being a great defense overall. We don't want to be just great in one area. We want to be great stopping the run, great stopping the pass and great getting pressure on the quarterback. We don't focus on one aspect of the game. We want to be a complete defense. To be the best in the nation, we know we have to be a complete defense. So that's our focus.". . . That defense will be challenged Saturday by 2-0 Duke, which put up 92 points in its wins over Tulane and North Carolina Central. . . . The Blue Devils are coached by David Cutcliffe, who has refurbished their once-woebegone program and guided them to three straight bowl appearances. . . . Cutcliffe was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach when Peyton Manning played at Tennessee and the head coach at Ole Miss when Eli Manning played there. Each summer the brothers fly into Durham to work with their old mentor. . . . The Blue Devils current quarterback is the 6-foot-4, 220-pound redshirt junior Thomas Sirk, who's a dual threat. "He keeps you on your toes," Walker said of him. "You can't get lulled to sleep on him throwing the ball outside. He can always pull it down and run a little bit. And you can't get too intrigued with his running ability as well. You've got to be able to play both.". . . The most dangerous of the Blue Devils is the 5-foot-9 safety and kick returner DeVon Edwards, who once clocked a 10.61 100-meters while running for their track team. In his career he has returned four kickoffs and two interceptions for touchdowns. "He's Venric Mark fast. He can really go," Fitzgerald said, comparing him to the former 'Cat returner.
AND FINALLY, from the deja-vu-all-over-again file: When the 'Cats met Tennessee in the 1997 Citrus Bowl, Duke's Cutliffe was the Vols' O coordinator and Fitzgerald, his team's star linebacker. The 'Cats lost that day, 48-28.
NUsports.com Special Contributor
A BAND OF BROTHERS: Consider the fate of offensive linemen, the supporting actors in the production that is called a football game. If they do not fill their roles, the stars cannot shine. But when they do fill their roles, the stars are the ones who find their names in the headlines. "Then you have to deal with this," Jimbo Covert once related.
He was the Pro Bowl tackle on the Bears' Super Bowl champions and here he continued, "A defensive lineman can go a whole game and not get a sack, and it won't say in the paper that he played a lousy game. But an offensive lineman can block his guy for 70 plays and give up one sack, and it's going to say he did a lousy job. It's not fair. But that's the nature of the game."
That is also the nature of life for those who together man an O line, and this reality welds them, melds them, fuses them into a unit as tight as a miser. So it was no surprise to hear how the 'Cat O line has responded to the criticism it has received through the first two weeks of this season. "We," said guard Connor Mahoney, "kind of band together when Coach Fitz (Pat Fitzgerald) or the other coaches are getting on us."
"We try to band together and play through that adversity and embrace the hard practices and wear it as a badge of honor that we have the hardest practices on the team. We're working harder than not only everybody on the team, but anybody we're playing. That's what we want to do. We've embraced that. We're trying to make that our identity as a group. No matter what happens, we go hard, we play physical and we work harder than anybody else."
TRANSITIONING: Mahoney, back in high school, played both offensive tackle and defensive end, but was recruited by the 'Cats to strictly play defense. He did that his true freshman year, but as a redshirt freshman he worked as both an offensive lineman and a superback. Last season, as a sophomore, he was switched back to defensive tackle, but then last spring he was once more moved to the offensive line. "We wanted to create more athleticism and competition on the offensive line," Fitzgerald said, explaining the last change. "He was kind of maybe four, five in the D tackle rotation. I kind of felt the younger depth in the D line was going to force Connor into a tougher situation. I told him I was moving him over to compete to start."
"I'd been through the routine before, so I was open to it," Mahoney himself said when asked his reaction to yet-another move. "I had the attitude, 'Wherever the team needs me to play.' Wherever I could get the opportunity to play, I wanted to do that."
This would be no easy change for him. There was a playbook to learn, and techniques to master, and even a necessary attitude adjustment. "On defense," he explained, "you're getting off the ball. It's all attack, attack, attack, penetrate the line and react to the offense and go tackle the ball. The offensive line, there is some of that in run blocking. But a lot of it is retreating, pass blocking. You can't be over-aggressive. So when you come over to the offensive side of the ball, you kind of have to change your mindset a little bit. But you still want to keep that edge. That's one of the things I really wanted to keep from the defensive side of the ball. Being physical, attacking, finishing plays."
He would play some in the 'Cats season-opening win against Stanford, which the offensive line exited bruised and battered. So last week against Eastern Illinois he was, so suddenly, the starter at left guard, and he is scheduled to again be that Saturday when they visit Duke. "From when I started in spring ball, now it's a completely different game," he would finally say of his dizzying experience. "It's slowly getting more manageable and slowing down for me. It's still a little bit new. But, hey. I've got a good opportunity. So I'm going to go out there and play my ass off."
BACK TO THE FUTURE: The 'Cats quick start as been mirrored by sophomore middle linebacker Anthony Walker, who leads them in tackles (17) and tackles-for-loss (five). "The mental part of the game is one of the biggest keys right now," he said when asked about his performance. "Coach Fitz talked to me last year (when he took over for the injured senior Collin Ellis) about, 'Does it feel like high school yet?' It really didn't. All the way through to the end of the year, it didn't feel like I was in high school. He said, 'Then you're not there yet.'"
High school?
"Being comfortable. And being able to diagnose a play before it happens," Walker explained. "That's a big part of being a great linebacker. You have to know what to expect from each play. The game has started slowing down for me a lot. Now I've just got to keep going."
QUICKLY NOTED: The 'Cat defense has given up an average of just 189 yards per-game, third best in the nation. It has also held its two opponents to an average of just 2.8 yards per-rush and 4.1 yards per-pass. It has, finally, not yet surrendered a touchdown. Asked which part of that performance it takes most pride in, Anthony said, "We take great pride in being a great defense overall. We don't want to be just great in one area. We want to be great stopping the run, great stopping the pass and great getting pressure on the quarterback. We don't focus on one aspect of the game. We want to be a complete defense. To be the best in the nation, we know we have to be a complete defense. So that's our focus.". . . That defense will be challenged Saturday by 2-0 Duke, which put up 92 points in its wins over Tulane and North Carolina Central. . . . The Blue Devils are coached by David Cutcliffe, who has refurbished their once-woebegone program and guided them to three straight bowl appearances. . . . Cutcliffe was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach when Peyton Manning played at Tennessee and the head coach at Ole Miss when Eli Manning played there. Each summer the brothers fly into Durham to work with their old mentor. . . . The Blue Devils current quarterback is the 6-foot-4, 220-pound redshirt junior Thomas Sirk, who's a dual threat. "He keeps you on your toes," Walker said of him. "You can't get lulled to sleep on him throwing the ball outside. He can always pull it down and run a little bit. And you can't get too intrigued with his running ability as well. You've got to be able to play both.". . . The most dangerous of the Blue Devils is the 5-foot-9 safety and kick returner DeVon Edwards, who once clocked a 10.61 100-meters while running for their track team. In his career he has returned four kickoffs and two interceptions for touchdowns. "He's Venric Mark fast. He can really go," Fitzgerald said, comparing him to the former 'Cat returner.
AND FINALLY, from the deja-vu-all-over-again file: When the 'Cats met Tennessee in the 1997 Citrus Bowl, Duke's Cutliffe was the Vols' O coordinator and Fitzgerald, his team's star linebacker. The 'Cats lost that day, 48-28.
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