Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: A New Focus
9/23/2015 5:35:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
Nusports.com Special Contributor
Their season ended on the last Saturday of November and soon enough they scattered, once again exiled to their home towns for the holidays. For the second straight winter they had no bowl game to anticipate, no bowl game to prepare for, no bowl game to go out and win, and so here they faced only three weeks of inactivity that the senior receiver Christian Jones will starkly describe as "Miserable."
It would be early January before they finally returned to campus and it was right here, right now, that they began to make their way toward this fall and their 3-0 start and their ascension to No. 17 in the national rankings. They were too good to be sitting home for the holidays, they all felt that back then, and soon enough they were meeting to discuss how to preclude that from happening yet again.
"There were a few times internally, within our defensive group and within the whole team, that we got together and just said, 'This is not good enough. We've got to take it to the next level. We have the talent to do it. It's about our work ethic and our daily approach,'" recalls the senior defensive end Dean Lowry.
"It wasn't one time that we did that. It was multiple times within different groups. It was like, 'We've got to step it up. We've got to be a great team.' Then it developed. We first started talking about it, then we started backing it up with our work ethic in the weight room and our workouts. Then it just kept on going. And I think another thing, we felt like we were really the underdog. Coming in here, internally, we felt people doubted us, and they still doubt us. We always come with a chip on our shoulder, and it's paying off now."
"We had a few of those (meetings). Everybody around the program was tired of losing. . .," adds the junior corner Matthew Harris. "Having two 5-7 seasons, that was definitely a learning process. So many close games, we could pin point situations where it was just one play. I think that fueled our off-season. We didn't want to leave any doubt in any games, really. We just want to execute what the coaches have for us and win with a margin, so games don't even get close and we have to worry about those situations. Of course they're going to come and going to happen. But we want to be able to pull them out."
"We'd get together at somebody's house and just talk about winning," concludes the senior safety Traveon Henry. "That was something (former 'Cat receiver) Demetrius Fields came back and discussed with us. He said that was one thing that really spawned their Gator Bowl season. Just actually getting together as players and discussing what it was going to take to actually win. Setting the goals and setting different standards for what you think the team should be."
Last Monday, with his team sitting at 3-0, Pat Fitzgerald said this when asked about those 5-7 seasons. "I sensed a lack of focus, a lack of maturity in some areas. That combination, along with the chemistry not being right in the locker room, was disastrous. That starts with me as the leader. I'm the one who sets the tone and when it's not right in those areas, it's my fault. You 'fess it, you fix it, you move on."
How did he fix it, he was asked on Wednesday morning.
"It starts in the locker room," he said. "The seniors, the guys who have been here for awhile and been around when we had it right, understood how hard it was to get it there. Since January they've been working hard to build that foundation. Then I think the evidence of our first couple games shows they're getting a return on that investment. It's pretty powerful."
What about his coach's observation that there was a lack of focus, a lack of maturity and bad chemistry?
"It didn't take Fitz to tell us that. Everybody knew, but nobody wanted to bring it up. Nobody wanted to say anything," said Christian Jones. "Once the conversation started happening, everybody started looking back on everything and looking at themselves. It was, 'Am I mature enough? Are we (as a position group) mature enough? Is the team mature enough?'
"If it is 'I'm not mature enough,' you change yourself. If it is 'We're not mature enough,' you change the room. If it is 'The team's not mature enough,' you make little changes to fix that. Then you get the freshmen as soon as they come in. You let them know what the standard is and nobody is safe; everybody can be called out. If you see me doing something wrong, please tell me. I don't want to keep doing what's wrong and nobody is telling me. That is what we tried to establish."
"There were definitely distractions, whether it was off the field or on the field with injuries," Dean Lowry would say of his coach's observation. "But now, this is the most-focused group that we've had. There's a lot of guys on this team that just really love football, and love getting better, and want to be great."
Back in January, after they had met and as they began their winter workouts, it was evident they had undergone a transformation. "Yeah. There was an edge. Yeah. No doubt," Fitzgerald will recall. "There was an edge. There was a competitive edge. There was an accountability edge. Again. As a coach, you put up the vision, you put up the values, and you put up the structure. That's all great. But it doesn't matter unless the guys buy in, right? Then they hold each other to those standards."
"That started in the winter. It started when we came back," explained Jones. "People started policing their groups. Trav-e (Henry) had his group under a lock. The D line, you had a model for everyone else. Everybody wanted to be like the D line, everybody wanted to be as good as they were. That is the kind of the model everyone followed."
That D line is anchored by the senior end Deonte Gibson and last week he gave a glimpse of what that model looked like when he said, "This year we strive for, 'If it doesn't look right, fix it. Every time.' If there was something that was wrong, or something that we felt wasn't great, we fix it. Our whole mindset is we're not walking off the field unless we can get everything damn near perfect."
That was the mindset that seeped into the team now as winter wore on, and here--not insignificantly--it was the players themselves who led and initiated their own metamorphosis. Take the DB room, where Henry and corner Nick VanHoose show the way. If any one of them showed up late for a workout or film session, they all did extra work. "We hold each other accountable for pretty much everything," Keith Watkins II will say.
Or take the receiver room, where Jones and Stephen Buckley and Cameron Dickerson initiated changes. "Little things," explains Jones. "Nobody saying anything to anyone else unless they're doing it themselves. We made that a focus. And we made it a focus, 'If there's extras, we're doing them. And if there's no extras, we're doing extras anyway.' We tried to make it where nobody is ever safe from criticism or someone telling you that you can do better; whether it's from our group or somebody else's group. If somebody tells you that you can do better, obviously they're seeing something you can do."
"So we're nine months into the life of this team, and there have been days when it it been down," Fitzgerald will say Wednesday, reflecting on the results of this refurbishment that began back in January. "But we're in a very similar place that we've been in (when successful). I liked the way we handled the first bit of adversity we faced on Saturday (at Duke, where they trailed by four at halftime). We went into the locker room, I though we were very poised. The focus was great. I thought that the coaching was excellent. Everyone was really calm and it was, 'All right, what do we have to do better? What are we going to fix? Now let's go get this thing started, start faster than we did.'
"I think the strongest thing is faith without evidence, right? And when you've got evidence, you've got a chance to build trust. I think the guys have got a really strong trust in the locker room that is going to be critical as we move forward."
Some years ago the Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, an Army grad, was discussing the importance of player leadership, the very kind of leadership the 'Cats now enjoy. "If a leader has great internal leadership, and on-the-spot leadership, he's a much better leader," he said here. "In the military I'd liken it to the trenches. That squad leader being able to say, at a moment's notice, this is what we're supposed to do, this is what the unit needs. The company commander, who's at a different post, cannot give face-to-face, eye-to-eye (orders). Then when a player does it, it's peer level. It's not coming this way"--and he moved his hand from above his head down to eye level--"it's coming this way"--and his hand moved from his eyes to his listener's. "Then the person saying it has to do it. A coach, he doesn't have to do it."
"No doubt. No doubt," Pat Fitzgerald said Wednesday when this observation was shared with him. "Ownership has to be from within the locker room. If it is that way, it is strong. If there are competing priorities, it just fractures the team. This is a very focused group right now.
"So far, so good."
Nusports.com Special Contributor
Their season ended on the last Saturday of November and soon enough they scattered, once again exiled to their home towns for the holidays. For the second straight winter they had no bowl game to anticipate, no bowl game to prepare for, no bowl game to go out and win, and so here they faced only three weeks of inactivity that the senior receiver Christian Jones will starkly describe as "Miserable."
It would be early January before they finally returned to campus and it was right here, right now, that they began to make their way toward this fall and their 3-0 start and their ascension to No. 17 in the national rankings. They were too good to be sitting home for the holidays, they all felt that back then, and soon enough they were meeting to discuss how to preclude that from happening yet again.
"There were a few times internally, within our defensive group and within the whole team, that we got together and just said, 'This is not good enough. We've got to take it to the next level. We have the talent to do it. It's about our work ethic and our daily approach,'" recalls the senior defensive end Dean Lowry.
"It wasn't one time that we did that. It was multiple times within different groups. It was like, 'We've got to step it up. We've got to be a great team.' Then it developed. We first started talking about it, then we started backing it up with our work ethic in the weight room and our workouts. Then it just kept on going. And I think another thing, we felt like we were really the underdog. Coming in here, internally, we felt people doubted us, and they still doubt us. We always come with a chip on our shoulder, and it's paying off now."
"We had a few of those (meetings). Everybody around the program was tired of losing. . .," adds the junior corner Matthew Harris. "Having two 5-7 seasons, that was definitely a learning process. So many close games, we could pin point situations where it was just one play. I think that fueled our off-season. We didn't want to leave any doubt in any games, really. We just want to execute what the coaches have for us and win with a margin, so games don't even get close and we have to worry about those situations. Of course they're going to come and going to happen. But we want to be able to pull them out."
"We'd get together at somebody's house and just talk about winning," concludes the senior safety Traveon Henry. "That was something (former 'Cat receiver) Demetrius Fields came back and discussed with us. He said that was one thing that really spawned their Gator Bowl season. Just actually getting together as players and discussing what it was going to take to actually win. Setting the goals and setting different standards for what you think the team should be."
Last Monday, with his team sitting at 3-0, Pat Fitzgerald said this when asked about those 5-7 seasons. "I sensed a lack of focus, a lack of maturity in some areas. That combination, along with the chemistry not being right in the locker room, was disastrous. That starts with me as the leader. I'm the one who sets the tone and when it's not right in those areas, it's my fault. You 'fess it, you fix it, you move on."
How did he fix it, he was asked on Wednesday morning.
"It starts in the locker room," he said. "The seniors, the guys who have been here for awhile and been around when we had it right, understood how hard it was to get it there. Since January they've been working hard to build that foundation. Then I think the evidence of our first couple games shows they're getting a return on that investment. It's pretty powerful."
What about his coach's observation that there was a lack of focus, a lack of maturity and bad chemistry?
"It didn't take Fitz to tell us that. Everybody knew, but nobody wanted to bring it up. Nobody wanted to say anything," said Christian Jones. "Once the conversation started happening, everybody started looking back on everything and looking at themselves. It was, 'Am I mature enough? Are we (as a position group) mature enough? Is the team mature enough?'
"If it is 'I'm not mature enough,' you change yourself. If it is 'We're not mature enough,' you change the room. If it is 'The team's not mature enough,' you make little changes to fix that. Then you get the freshmen as soon as they come in. You let them know what the standard is and nobody is safe; everybody can be called out. If you see me doing something wrong, please tell me. I don't want to keep doing what's wrong and nobody is telling me. That is what we tried to establish."
"There were definitely distractions, whether it was off the field or on the field with injuries," Dean Lowry would say of his coach's observation. "But now, this is the most-focused group that we've had. There's a lot of guys on this team that just really love football, and love getting better, and want to be great."
Back in January, after they had met and as they began their winter workouts, it was evident they had undergone a transformation. "Yeah. There was an edge. Yeah. No doubt," Fitzgerald will recall. "There was an edge. There was a competitive edge. There was an accountability edge. Again. As a coach, you put up the vision, you put up the values, and you put up the structure. That's all great. But it doesn't matter unless the guys buy in, right? Then they hold each other to those standards."
"That started in the winter. It started when we came back," explained Jones. "People started policing their groups. Trav-e (Henry) had his group under a lock. The D line, you had a model for everyone else. Everybody wanted to be like the D line, everybody wanted to be as good as they were. That is the kind of the model everyone followed."
That D line is anchored by the senior end Deonte Gibson and last week he gave a glimpse of what that model looked like when he said, "This year we strive for, 'If it doesn't look right, fix it. Every time.' If there was something that was wrong, or something that we felt wasn't great, we fix it. Our whole mindset is we're not walking off the field unless we can get everything damn near perfect."
That was the mindset that seeped into the team now as winter wore on, and here--not insignificantly--it was the players themselves who led and initiated their own metamorphosis. Take the DB room, where Henry and corner Nick VanHoose show the way. If any one of them showed up late for a workout or film session, they all did extra work. "We hold each other accountable for pretty much everything," Keith Watkins II will say.
Or take the receiver room, where Jones and Stephen Buckley and Cameron Dickerson initiated changes. "Little things," explains Jones. "Nobody saying anything to anyone else unless they're doing it themselves. We made that a focus. And we made it a focus, 'If there's extras, we're doing them. And if there's no extras, we're doing extras anyway.' We tried to make it where nobody is ever safe from criticism or someone telling you that you can do better; whether it's from our group or somebody else's group. If somebody tells you that you can do better, obviously they're seeing something you can do."
"So we're nine months into the life of this team, and there have been days when it it been down," Fitzgerald will say Wednesday, reflecting on the results of this refurbishment that began back in January. "But we're in a very similar place that we've been in (when successful). I liked the way we handled the first bit of adversity we faced on Saturday (at Duke, where they trailed by four at halftime). We went into the locker room, I though we were very poised. The focus was great. I thought that the coaching was excellent. Everyone was really calm and it was, 'All right, what do we have to do better? What are we going to fix? Now let's go get this thing started, start faster than we did.'
"I think the strongest thing is faith without evidence, right? And when you've got evidence, you've got a chance to build trust. I think the guys have got a really strong trust in the locker room that is going to be critical as we move forward."
Some years ago the Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, an Army grad, was discussing the importance of player leadership, the very kind of leadership the 'Cats now enjoy. "If a leader has great internal leadership, and on-the-spot leadership, he's a much better leader," he said here. "In the military I'd liken it to the trenches. That squad leader being able to say, at a moment's notice, this is what we're supposed to do, this is what the unit needs. The company commander, who's at a different post, cannot give face-to-face, eye-to-eye (orders). Then when a player does it, it's peer level. It's not coming this way"--and he moved his hand from above his head down to eye level--"it's coming this way"--and his hand moved from his eyes to his listener's. "Then the person saying it has to do it. A coach, he doesn't have to do it."
"No doubt. No doubt," Pat Fitzgerald said Wednesday when this observation was shared with him. "Ownership has to be from within the locker room. If it is that way, it is strong. If there are competing priorities, it just fractures the team. This is a very focused group right now.
"So far, so good."
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