Northwestern University Athletics
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The Skip Report: Minnesota - Monday Notes
9/28/2015 4:58:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
REPLAY: It was early in the second quarter last Saturday in the 'Cats game with Ball State when Miles Shuler, the wide receiver, took off on an apparent fly pattern down the right boundary. But then, quicker than a hiccup, he applied the coach's adage that applies to this situation. "Fly and die. If he's even, he's leavin'," this adage goes, and it means this. If the defensive back is back-peddling, the receiver breaks off the route and sits. But if the receiver is even with that DB, he's blowing right on by him.
In this case Dedrick Cromartie, the Cardinals' DB, was far off Shuler, and so the 'Cat sat. But behind him Clayton Thorson, his young quarterback, offered long, and so when the ball descended at the 46, Cromartie was there all alone for an easy interception. This was the play Pat Fitzgerald would point to when asked about Thorson's admission later that night. "I started going through my progression," he had said then when asked the difference between his turnover-filled first half against Ball State and his solid performance in the second half.
"That would be Example A, a perfect example," Fitzgerald said Monday when asked for a negative result of that guessing. "He predetermined before he even caught the snap that he was going to throw a fade instead of letting the route progress and seeing what happens with the coverage."
GROWING UP CAN BE HARD TO DO: Fitzgerald, over the last month, has said often that Thorson is going through a process, the process of maturing as a college quarterback. Was his guessing a normal or abnormal step in that process?
"Yeah, I think it's a natural progression," he said. "Where you see that happen a lot, it's not just at quarterback. You see that happen a lot with defensive linemen. You see them guess and take the wrong step. The same thing with O linemen when they're expecting movement. So it's not a surprise. But it's great lesson learned. You cannot do that in this game. You cannot guess and expect to be consistent."
Is that just reverting to what had worked for him before?
"You can do things in high school at quarterback that you can't do at this level," Fitzgerald concluded. "There's probably one other guy on the other team that's at your level, that can play up to your level. So. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's got a lot of work to do, but he'll be fine."
GROWING UP FAST: Thorson, of course, was a far different quarterback in Saturday's third quarter, completing nine-of-his-16 passes in those 15 minutes for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns. That, Fitzgerald also said Monday, "Was a pretty good snapshot of what he's capable of."
THE CRUELEST MONTH: That is what T.S. Eliot called April in his classic poem The Waste Land. But for the 'Cats it has been October, which is now upon us. Consider: Since the start of the 2010 season, they are 20-2 in September. But in October, which arrives shorty after they have begun classes, they are 6-14. "We talked to them a lot about it in the off-season and we started again last week (when they did begin classes) about no excuses," Fitzgerald said Monday when asked about that disparity.
"I spoke about it last week. Football cannot be an excuse for (poor) academic performance, and vice-versa. Our guys time-managed pretty well last week, I thought, and I expect now that we're into our routine, into some semblance of normalcy, I think they'll be fine. Hopefully, getting into a routine will help them. I think athletes in general are creatures of routine. Every week (this season) has been a little bit different. Now, this will be the first week that we've got the same schedule that we had the previous week. So hopefully they'll be better than they've been in the past."
"At this point you understand your past, but you've got to flush it," defensive end Deonte Gibson later added when the disparity was brought up to him. "You've got to be ready to just play now. Everything that happened in prior years says that we'll struggle in October. I don't believe so. We've just got to come, be ready to go tomorrow and for the rest of the week, and the rest of October, and on and on. That's what I'm looking forward to."
"I think the leadership on the team is excellent this year. We're holding each other accountable," offensive guard Shane Mertz then concluded. "That's probably the biggest thing when it comes to the switch for us. It's no excuse. It doesn't change the fact that you should still be doing just as much film, if not more, than you were in September (when they weren't in class). Holding each other accountable is what's going to get us on the right track."
THE REAL DEAL: The 'Cats emerged unscathed from the non-conference portion of their schedule. But now, starting Saturday at Ryan Field with Minnesota, comes the main course, Big Ten play. "It's huge," Fitzgerald said when asked the difference between the hors d'oeuvres and the entrees. "First of all, that's why everybody came here. Beyond getting the best degree in college football and the experiences you get as a Northwestern student-athlete, that's to play Big Ten football. You've got eight weeks of it. You've got eight weeks to play over nine weeks, and I know the guys are stoked up. That's why you come here.
"Then you've got a lot of knowledge of each other. There's a familiarity of each other. I know, from our perspective, the respect level we have for everybody we play in conference. From that standpoint, you're going to have to go out and execute. You can't beat two teams. If we go out and do what we did in the first half (against Ball State) this Saturday and every Saturday moving forward in Big Ten play, we'll get embarrassed. So the bar goes up. The expectation of consistency in your play goes up. And I think it's what our fans get the most excited about. I know what our guys get the most excited about is Big Ten football. I know from our guys' perspective, to have the Big Ten opener at home is obviously something they'll be stoked up about."
"Conference play, you've got to pick up the flag a little more," Gibson would later agree. "Those first four are important. If you underestimate them, those guys are on scholarship too and you'll lose. But conference play has a little more intensity to it because these games really do count toward us achieving our goal of winning the Big Ten championship."
AND FINALLY, Mertz on Thorson: "You certainly wouldn't know Clayton was a freshman, honestly. He might as well be a fifth-year senior. He's out there, he's leading us, he's talking to the O line, he's talking to the receivers. I think he's done a phenomenal job this year. I have complete confidence that he's our quarterback and that he's going to do a great job throughout the rest of the year."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
REPLAY: It was early in the second quarter last Saturday in the 'Cats game with Ball State when Miles Shuler, the wide receiver, took off on an apparent fly pattern down the right boundary. But then, quicker than a hiccup, he applied the coach's adage that applies to this situation. "Fly and die. If he's even, he's leavin'," this adage goes, and it means this. If the defensive back is back-peddling, the receiver breaks off the route and sits. But if the receiver is even with that DB, he's blowing right on by him.
In this case Dedrick Cromartie, the Cardinals' DB, was far off Shuler, and so the 'Cat sat. But behind him Clayton Thorson, his young quarterback, offered long, and so when the ball descended at the 46, Cromartie was there all alone for an easy interception. This was the play Pat Fitzgerald would point to when asked about Thorson's admission later that night. "I started going through my progression," he had said then when asked the difference between his turnover-filled first half against Ball State and his solid performance in the second half.
"That would be Example A, a perfect example," Fitzgerald said Monday when asked for a negative result of that guessing. "He predetermined before he even caught the snap that he was going to throw a fade instead of letting the route progress and seeing what happens with the coverage."
GROWING UP CAN BE HARD TO DO: Fitzgerald, over the last month, has said often that Thorson is going through a process, the process of maturing as a college quarterback. Was his guessing a normal or abnormal step in that process?
"Yeah, I think it's a natural progression," he said. "Where you see that happen a lot, it's not just at quarterback. You see that happen a lot with defensive linemen. You see them guess and take the wrong step. The same thing with O linemen when they're expecting movement. So it's not a surprise. But it's great lesson learned. You cannot do that in this game. You cannot guess and expect to be consistent."
Is that just reverting to what had worked for him before?
"You can do things in high school at quarterback that you can't do at this level," Fitzgerald concluded. "There's probably one other guy on the other team that's at your level, that can play up to your level. So. He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's got a lot of work to do, but he'll be fine."
GROWING UP FAST: Thorson, of course, was a far different quarterback in Saturday's third quarter, completing nine-of-his-16 passes in those 15 minutes for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns. That, Fitzgerald also said Monday, "Was a pretty good snapshot of what he's capable of."
THE CRUELEST MONTH: That is what T.S. Eliot called April in his classic poem The Waste Land. But for the 'Cats it has been October, which is now upon us. Consider: Since the start of the 2010 season, they are 20-2 in September. But in October, which arrives shorty after they have begun classes, they are 6-14. "We talked to them a lot about it in the off-season and we started again last week (when they did begin classes) about no excuses," Fitzgerald said Monday when asked about that disparity.
"I spoke about it last week. Football cannot be an excuse for (poor) academic performance, and vice-versa. Our guys time-managed pretty well last week, I thought, and I expect now that we're into our routine, into some semblance of normalcy, I think they'll be fine. Hopefully, getting into a routine will help them. I think athletes in general are creatures of routine. Every week (this season) has been a little bit different. Now, this will be the first week that we've got the same schedule that we had the previous week. So hopefully they'll be better than they've been in the past."
"At this point you understand your past, but you've got to flush it," defensive end Deonte Gibson later added when the disparity was brought up to him. "You've got to be ready to just play now. Everything that happened in prior years says that we'll struggle in October. I don't believe so. We've just got to come, be ready to go tomorrow and for the rest of the week, and the rest of October, and on and on. That's what I'm looking forward to."
"I think the leadership on the team is excellent this year. We're holding each other accountable," offensive guard Shane Mertz then concluded. "That's probably the biggest thing when it comes to the switch for us. It's no excuse. It doesn't change the fact that you should still be doing just as much film, if not more, than you were in September (when they weren't in class). Holding each other accountable is what's going to get us on the right track."
THE REAL DEAL: The 'Cats emerged unscathed from the non-conference portion of their schedule. But now, starting Saturday at Ryan Field with Minnesota, comes the main course, Big Ten play. "It's huge," Fitzgerald said when asked the difference between the hors d'oeuvres and the entrees. "First of all, that's why everybody came here. Beyond getting the best degree in college football and the experiences you get as a Northwestern student-athlete, that's to play Big Ten football. You've got eight weeks of it. You've got eight weeks to play over nine weeks, and I know the guys are stoked up. That's why you come here.
"Then you've got a lot of knowledge of each other. There's a familiarity of each other. I know, from our perspective, the respect level we have for everybody we play in conference. From that standpoint, you're going to have to go out and execute. You can't beat two teams. If we go out and do what we did in the first half (against Ball State) this Saturday and every Saturday moving forward in Big Ten play, we'll get embarrassed. So the bar goes up. The expectation of consistency in your play goes up. And I think it's what our fans get the most excited about. I know what our guys get the most excited about is Big Ten football. I know from our guys' perspective, to have the Big Ten opener at home is obviously something they'll be stoked up about."
"Conference play, you've got to pick up the flag a little more," Gibson would later agree. "Those first four are important. If you underestimate them, those guys are on scholarship too and you'll lose. But conference play has a little more intensity to it because these games really do count toward us achieving our goal of winning the Big Ten championship."
AND FINALLY, Mertz on Thorson: "You certainly wouldn't know Clayton was a freshman, honestly. He might as well be a fifth-year senior. He's out there, he's leading us, he's talking to the O line, he's talking to the receivers. I think he's done a phenomenal job this year. I have complete confidence that he's our quarterback and that he's going to do a great job throughout the rest of the year."
••••••
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