Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Friday Notes - Ball State
9/25/2015 3:53:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE PRESENT: His name was Jake Gaither and, from 1945 through 1969, he grew into a coaching legend while guiding Florida A&M. "I like my boys to be agile, mobile and hostile," he liked to say, and so he most certainly would have loved the current iteration of Northwestern middle linebacker Anthony Walker. For he has been a heat-seeking missile with mayhem on his mind all through this young season, collecting 10 tackles against Stanford and 19 against Duke and two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week awards.
Hard to believe, then, that Pat Fitzgerald once said of him, "He became the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man a little bit. There were some days I thought he might be a defensive end for us during his redshirt freshman year."
THE TALE: He had played at Monsignor Pace down in Miami Gardens at a svelte 210. But in the summer of 2013, when he landed in Evanston, Walker was 25 pounds heavier and so outsized that he was not recognized by Jay Hooten, the 'Cats director of football performance. "He had put on so much muscle mass, he had gotten so big, in a good way," he once recalled. "He looked good, but I didn't recognize him. I recognized his dad."
"I was doing a lot of lifting before I came, so I was top heavy," Walker himself recalled this week, and the results were deleterious. For now he no longer possessed the speed and agility he had flashed in high school, and he could no longer cover a field from boundary to boundary. This is when his coach mused that a position change might be in his future, and when Hooten began to reshape him into the destructive force he is today.
He did that by forbidding him to lift weights ("I actually didn't lift for a whole year," says Walker) and limiting him strictly to correctives ("Basically what they do is work mobility, core stability, different types of activation in the muscles that you need to be able to move better on the football field," explains Hooten).
THE RESULT: Anthony Walker, while concentrating on correctives, dropped 10 to 15 pounds. But now he is back up to 235 and still able to be agile and mobile and hostile. "It's a different 235," Walker says when asked how that is possible.
"The point was to back him down, back him off weights, get his mobility back, get him back to being the kid we wanted to recruit," Hooten explains. "After that, after we saw that he was running the way we wanted him to run, then we started building him back up. It was a 10 to 15 pound muscle gain, and then his strength went through the roof.
"So now he's not only one of the strongest guys, not only one of the most mobile guys, but also one of the fastest guys on the field. That was the point. We wanted to get his weight back up, get his lean muscle mass back up, and still have him running the way he was when we took him off the program and put him on correctives."
SNAPSHOTS FROM THE WALKER ALBUM: His dad, Anthony Sr., is a coach, and from the earliest of ages he accompanied him to work. That is why he started doing pushups at the ripe old age of two. He was just mimicking what the older boys were doing. . . . When his dad got a high school job, he started watching film with him. "I was probably seven," Walker remembers. "Saturday morning, they had film, I was right there with them before my game (in Little League). Always being around my dad, I was always around football.". . . When watching film now, he says, "You've always got to be your own worst critic. So the first thing I do is look at missed tackles, missed assignments and then also my run fits to make sure I'm always in my gaps. I've had a few in the past three games, mistakes that I made. I'm just trying to limit the missed tackles, the missed assignments and make sure I'm always doing my job.". . . He unfailingly credits the D line for his sterling performances. "They take up those big (offensive) linemen coming out," he says. "That gives me time to diagnose the play and get downhill faster. So I really appreciate those guys always sacrificing for me. I really appreciate it. Like Coach Fitz said, 'You've got to keep those guys happy.'". . . But there is a swagger about him. "Always have that swag. My dad always told me that," he explains. "Deion Sanders was one of his favorite players and he became my favorite player. Playing with swag and confidence, it's hard to stop a man like that.". . . He still stays in touch with his dad. "I literally haven't missed a day since I've been in college talking to my dad," he says. "It's, 'Hey, how was school today? How was practice? I'm checking in.' I ask him the same thing. 'How was work today? How was practice?' Just making sure he's good and he always says, 'Stay confident, stay ready.' That's about it. But we talk everyday. Great dude. Love him.". . . But he doesn't so much love thinking of those days when he was almost switched to defensive end. "That's a time I never want to remember," he says with a smile and a hearty laugh. "So we're not even going to talk about it."
QUICKLY NOTED: When the 'Cats host Ball State Saturday night at Ryan Field, it will be the first ever meeting between the two schools. . . . The Cardinals sit 2-1 with wins over VMI and Eastern Michigan sandwiching a 27-point loss at Texas A&M, where they trailed by 46 at halftime. "They kind of ran into a buzz saw," Fitzgerald said of that game. "But you watch the way they played maybe the last two series (of the first half) and through the second half; they played their tails off, and played very, very well.". . . Freshman quarterback Riley Neal is expected to make his first collegiate start against the 'Cats. Last Saturday against Eastern Michigan, he came off the bench and went 24-of-28 (85.7 percent) for 194 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 86 more yards and another touchdown. . . . The Cardinals have rushed for better than 200 yards in each of their games and, for the season, average 249 yards-per-game on the ground. . . But this does not mean that the DBs on the 'Cats Sky Team will get no work. "Ball State's going to test us deep," explained Fitzgerald. "They're going to take at least six shots outside, at least. They do it not only with their wide guys. They also attack the safeties. We know what we're going to get this week from a challenge standpoint in the secondary. This is a very, very skilled and speedy group of wide receivers. They've got a really good plan to get one-on-ones by what they do from formation to formation."
AND FINALLY, linebacker Drew Smith, on Anthony Walker: "I'm proud of him. I took him under my wing when he first got here. So it's like seeing my little brother do well."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE PRESENT: His name was Jake Gaither and, from 1945 through 1969, he grew into a coaching legend while guiding Florida A&M. "I like my boys to be agile, mobile and hostile," he liked to say, and so he most certainly would have loved the current iteration of Northwestern middle linebacker Anthony Walker. For he has been a heat-seeking missile with mayhem on his mind all through this young season, collecting 10 tackles against Stanford and 19 against Duke and two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week awards.
Hard to believe, then, that Pat Fitzgerald once said of him, "He became the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man a little bit. There were some days I thought he might be a defensive end for us during his redshirt freshman year."
THE TALE: He had played at Monsignor Pace down in Miami Gardens at a svelte 210. But in the summer of 2013, when he landed in Evanston, Walker was 25 pounds heavier and so outsized that he was not recognized by Jay Hooten, the 'Cats director of football performance. "He had put on so much muscle mass, he had gotten so big, in a good way," he once recalled. "He looked good, but I didn't recognize him. I recognized his dad."
"I was doing a lot of lifting before I came, so I was top heavy," Walker himself recalled this week, and the results were deleterious. For now he no longer possessed the speed and agility he had flashed in high school, and he could no longer cover a field from boundary to boundary. This is when his coach mused that a position change might be in his future, and when Hooten began to reshape him into the destructive force he is today.
He did that by forbidding him to lift weights ("I actually didn't lift for a whole year," says Walker) and limiting him strictly to correctives ("Basically what they do is work mobility, core stability, different types of activation in the muscles that you need to be able to move better on the football field," explains Hooten).
THE RESULT: Anthony Walker, while concentrating on correctives, dropped 10 to 15 pounds. But now he is back up to 235 and still able to be agile and mobile and hostile. "It's a different 235," Walker says when asked how that is possible.
"The point was to back him down, back him off weights, get his mobility back, get him back to being the kid we wanted to recruit," Hooten explains. "After that, after we saw that he was running the way we wanted him to run, then we started building him back up. It was a 10 to 15 pound muscle gain, and then his strength went through the roof.
"So now he's not only one of the strongest guys, not only one of the most mobile guys, but also one of the fastest guys on the field. That was the point. We wanted to get his weight back up, get his lean muscle mass back up, and still have him running the way he was when we took him off the program and put him on correctives."
SNAPSHOTS FROM THE WALKER ALBUM: His dad, Anthony Sr., is a coach, and from the earliest of ages he accompanied him to work. That is why he started doing pushups at the ripe old age of two. He was just mimicking what the older boys were doing. . . . When his dad got a high school job, he started watching film with him. "I was probably seven," Walker remembers. "Saturday morning, they had film, I was right there with them before my game (in Little League). Always being around my dad, I was always around football.". . . When watching film now, he says, "You've always got to be your own worst critic. So the first thing I do is look at missed tackles, missed assignments and then also my run fits to make sure I'm always in my gaps. I've had a few in the past three games, mistakes that I made. I'm just trying to limit the missed tackles, the missed assignments and make sure I'm always doing my job.". . . He unfailingly credits the D line for his sterling performances. "They take up those big (offensive) linemen coming out," he says. "That gives me time to diagnose the play and get downhill faster. So I really appreciate those guys always sacrificing for me. I really appreciate it. Like Coach Fitz said, 'You've got to keep those guys happy.'". . . But there is a swagger about him. "Always have that swag. My dad always told me that," he explains. "Deion Sanders was one of his favorite players and he became my favorite player. Playing with swag and confidence, it's hard to stop a man like that.". . . He still stays in touch with his dad. "I literally haven't missed a day since I've been in college talking to my dad," he says. "It's, 'Hey, how was school today? How was practice? I'm checking in.' I ask him the same thing. 'How was work today? How was practice?' Just making sure he's good and he always says, 'Stay confident, stay ready.' That's about it. But we talk everyday. Great dude. Love him.". . . But he doesn't so much love thinking of those days when he was almost switched to defensive end. "That's a time I never want to remember," he says with a smile and a hearty laugh. "So we're not even going to talk about it."
QUICKLY NOTED: When the 'Cats host Ball State Saturday night at Ryan Field, it will be the first ever meeting between the two schools. . . . The Cardinals sit 2-1 with wins over VMI and Eastern Michigan sandwiching a 27-point loss at Texas A&M, where they trailed by 46 at halftime. "They kind of ran into a buzz saw," Fitzgerald said of that game. "But you watch the way they played maybe the last two series (of the first half) and through the second half; they played their tails off, and played very, very well.". . . Freshman quarterback Riley Neal is expected to make his first collegiate start against the 'Cats. Last Saturday against Eastern Michigan, he came off the bench and went 24-of-28 (85.7 percent) for 194 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 86 more yards and another touchdown. . . . The Cardinals have rushed for better than 200 yards in each of their games and, for the season, average 249 yards-per-game on the ground. . . But this does not mean that the DBs on the 'Cats Sky Team will get no work. "Ball State's going to test us deep," explained Fitzgerald. "They're going to take at least six shots outside, at least. They do it not only with their wide guys. They also attack the safeties. We know what we're going to get this week from a challenge standpoint in the secondary. This is a very, very skilled and speedy group of wide receivers. They've got a really good plan to get one-on-ones by what they do from formation to formation."
AND FINALLY, linebacker Drew Smith, on Anthony Walker: "I'm proud of him. I took him under my wing when he first got here. So it's like seeing my little brother do well."
••••••
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