Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: The Quarterback
9/30/2015 6:44:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The quarterback must attend myriad matters in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson. Consider just the simple act of carrying out a ball fake. "Sometimes that gets lost," says his offensive coordinator, Mick McCall. "Earlier in the year, he wasn't (doing it) as much. This last week (against Ball State), I thought he did a better job of it. He needs to continue to do a better job of it, carrying out those fakes.
"But all those attention-to-detail things get lost in the moment because you're focused on-- there's so many thing going through your head. The older you get, the more slowed down it gets. Peyton (Manning of the Broncos) and (Aaron) Rodgers (of the Packers), everything slows down for them. Picture TV back in the 1950s when it was all scrambled up, then picture the HD stuff right now. That's the difference between the way those guys see it compared to the way a freshman sees stuff going on."
The quarterback must heed what he has been taught in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. Consider the pick he threw against the Cardinals, an offering he delivered without making the proper reads. "I just wasn't going through my progression," he admits, and then he explains why that can happen.
"I think sometimes you aren't focused on just that play," he explains. "Sometimes you think about the one before, or the one that's coming up, or you're thinking about the situation. Something our coaches stress is worry about the process. Worry about the process, not the results. I think I was a little worried about the results at that time. I wasn't just focusing on us."
"I think he guessed a little bit, and sometimes as a young quarterback you get that way," says McCall. "You think you see some things, and you're, 'I'm going to take this.' He knows the progression he needs to go through (but didn't). It's just a learning experience. It's playing in the moment. I think that's the biggest thing. So as we go forward, he's got to demand that out of himself. We demand that of him right now. And we've just got to keep coaching him."
And why does a young player get that way?
"You rely on your instincts as much as anything. But there's so much that goes into playing quarterback that you've got to simplify," explains McCall. "If you don't simplify and just focus on one, two, three, and you start thinking about everything else, you're not going to be able to make those decisions. There's 21 other guys out on the field, and five or six of them want to take your head off, and the other four or five back there want to get the ball from you, so you better focus in on the things you can control and the things you see. That's going to tell you where to go with the football.
"So. He just needs to relax and be able to do that. Again, that's a process."
The quarterback must go through a process if he is to shine in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. Just two falls ago, as a high school senior, he was an accomplished artisan, a certified craftsman whose talents were widely coveted. But now, this fall, he is again an apprentice, a raw talent seeking to master a very different game, a veritable novice working his way toward maturity. "Of course you want to be there. You want to understand it (the offense) like Trevor (Siemian) did last year," he says. "But I know I'm nowhere near that yet. I've got to be patient. I've got to take it one step at a time."
Those steps are now taken incrementally, are taken only after he has exhibited some growth. But back when he was competing for the starting position with Matt Alviti and Zack Oliver, the whole of their team's offense was thrown at them all. "We did this by design. We wanted to pour it on them and see what they could do with what we have," explains McCall. "I wanted to know what their limits were. I didn't want to baby step them here, baby step them there. I wanted to put it all on them and have them make mistakes, and have them have some adversity so they understood, 'Hey, I've got to really study.'
"Then I also knew what they knew. 'OK. We'll use that and we'll use this because they've kind of got that. But these things over here, not so much.' Now maybe we can grab one of those off of this bag over here and say 'Clayton, understand?' 'Yeah, I've got that now.' Now we can use that. And we'll grab something else in another couple weeks, and just keep building."
And so, metaphorically speaking, if your playbook is 20 pages, where is he now?
"In the game, five or six."
The quarterback must endure hard-eyed scrutiny of his work in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. He was there last Saturday night at Pat Fitzgerald's post-game press conference, and listened as an inquisitor asked if the coach had thought of benching his quarterback after his poor first half against the Cardinals. "I hear that and it gets a little fire under my skin," he recalls. "But it doesn't get me down as a player. It makes me more motivated.
"I try not to look at the articles. But at the same time, you've got to go out there and perform. There's a reason people are asking those questions, and that's on me. They're warranted. Those questions are warranted. I've got to play better. And I've got to take care of the ball. I've just got to keep playing."
The quarterback must just keep playing even as he attends to myriad matters and learns to heed what he has been taught and goes through a process while being carped at by critics. That is reality now for Clayton Thorson as he prepares for the 'Cats Saturday Big Ten opener against Minnesota, which will most certainly test how much he has grown. "Sure. Sure. Most definitely," says McCall. "They're going to lick their chops and come after him. That's the challenge of the whole thing, and I think he's up to the challenge. Again. It's a process. It's not going to look like a senior quarterback. When he plays his senior year, it's going to be night and day from what it is right now. He's just got to keep growing, keep getting better every week.
"The biggest thing is he trusts what we ask him to do, and goes through his progression of what he needs to see. We're not asking him right now-- well, I shouldn't say that. We are asking him to check a few plays. But he doesn't have to check a lot. You're not going to do that to a young quarterback. We're trying to make the reads simple, and yet it is what it is. You can't give him too much. So we're not taking a lot of stuff into the game plan. But we're taking enough that we can be successful."
And for Thorson himself, what has been the most-difficult part of the process he is going through?
"I don't know if it's the most difficult. It's the most important," he says. "It's just getting into a rhythm out there. It's just getting comfortable out there, just seeing the defenses, having clarity of thought. I don't know if it's the most difficult. But it's the most important, so it makes it the most difficult I guess. It's something you really stress."
The quarterback must have clarity of thought; thought as clear as HDTV. So how long will it be before the maelstrom of a game looks like that to Clayton Thorson. "I don't know. We'll see. It's different for everybody," says Mick McCall. "But he catches on pretty quick for the most part. Most of the time, he does not make the same mistake twice. That's a big thing in our book."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The quarterback must attend myriad matters in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson. Consider just the simple act of carrying out a ball fake. "Sometimes that gets lost," says his offensive coordinator, Mick McCall. "Earlier in the year, he wasn't (doing it) as much. This last week (against Ball State), I thought he did a better job of it. He needs to continue to do a better job of it, carrying out those fakes.
"But all those attention-to-detail things get lost in the moment because you're focused on-- there's so many thing going through your head. The older you get, the more slowed down it gets. Peyton (Manning of the Broncos) and (Aaron) Rodgers (of the Packers), everything slows down for them. Picture TV back in the 1950s when it was all scrambled up, then picture the HD stuff right now. That's the difference between the way those guys see it compared to the way a freshman sees stuff going on."
The quarterback must heed what he has been taught in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. Consider the pick he threw against the Cardinals, an offering he delivered without making the proper reads. "I just wasn't going through my progression," he admits, and then he explains why that can happen.
"I think sometimes you aren't focused on just that play," he explains. "Sometimes you think about the one before, or the one that's coming up, or you're thinking about the situation. Something our coaches stress is worry about the process. Worry about the process, not the results. I think I was a little worried about the results at that time. I wasn't just focusing on us."
"I think he guessed a little bit, and sometimes as a young quarterback you get that way," says McCall. "You think you see some things, and you're, 'I'm going to take this.' He knows the progression he needs to go through (but didn't). It's just a learning experience. It's playing in the moment. I think that's the biggest thing. So as we go forward, he's got to demand that out of himself. We demand that of him right now. And we've just got to keep coaching him."
And why does a young player get that way?
"You rely on your instincts as much as anything. But there's so much that goes into playing quarterback that you've got to simplify," explains McCall. "If you don't simplify and just focus on one, two, three, and you start thinking about everything else, you're not going to be able to make those decisions. There's 21 other guys out on the field, and five or six of them want to take your head off, and the other four or five back there want to get the ball from you, so you better focus in on the things you can control and the things you see. That's going to tell you where to go with the football.
"So. He just needs to relax and be able to do that. Again, that's a process."
The quarterback must go through a process if he is to shine in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. Just two falls ago, as a high school senior, he was an accomplished artisan, a certified craftsman whose talents were widely coveted. But now, this fall, he is again an apprentice, a raw talent seeking to master a very different game, a veritable novice working his way toward maturity. "Of course you want to be there. You want to understand it (the offense) like Trevor (Siemian) did last year," he says. "But I know I'm nowhere near that yet. I've got to be patient. I've got to take it one step at a time."
Those steps are now taken incrementally, are taken only after he has exhibited some growth. But back when he was competing for the starting position with Matt Alviti and Zack Oliver, the whole of their team's offense was thrown at them all. "We did this by design. We wanted to pour it on them and see what they could do with what we have," explains McCall. "I wanted to know what their limits were. I didn't want to baby step them here, baby step them there. I wanted to put it all on them and have them make mistakes, and have them have some adversity so they understood, 'Hey, I've got to really study.'
"Then I also knew what they knew. 'OK. We'll use that and we'll use this because they've kind of got that. But these things over here, not so much.' Now maybe we can grab one of those off of this bag over here and say 'Clayton, understand?' 'Yeah, I've got that now.' Now we can use that. And we'll grab something else in another couple weeks, and just keep building."
And so, metaphorically speaking, if your playbook is 20 pages, where is he now?
"In the game, five or six."
The quarterback must endure hard-eyed scrutiny of his work in the maelstrom of a game and this is not always an easy thing, especially not easy for a young quarterback like the 'Cats Clayton Thorson. He was there last Saturday night at Pat Fitzgerald's post-game press conference, and listened as an inquisitor asked if the coach had thought of benching his quarterback after his poor first half against the Cardinals. "I hear that and it gets a little fire under my skin," he recalls. "But it doesn't get me down as a player. It makes me more motivated.
"I try not to look at the articles. But at the same time, you've got to go out there and perform. There's a reason people are asking those questions, and that's on me. They're warranted. Those questions are warranted. I've got to play better. And I've got to take care of the ball. I've just got to keep playing."
The quarterback must just keep playing even as he attends to myriad matters and learns to heed what he has been taught and goes through a process while being carped at by critics. That is reality now for Clayton Thorson as he prepares for the 'Cats Saturday Big Ten opener against Minnesota, which will most certainly test how much he has grown. "Sure. Sure. Most definitely," says McCall. "They're going to lick their chops and come after him. That's the challenge of the whole thing, and I think he's up to the challenge. Again. It's a process. It's not going to look like a senior quarterback. When he plays his senior year, it's going to be night and day from what it is right now. He's just got to keep growing, keep getting better every week.
"The biggest thing is he trusts what we ask him to do, and goes through his progression of what he needs to see. We're not asking him right now-- well, I shouldn't say that. We are asking him to check a few plays. But he doesn't have to check a lot. You're not going to do that to a young quarterback. We're trying to make the reads simple, and yet it is what it is. You can't give him too much. So we're not taking a lot of stuff into the game plan. But we're taking enough that we can be successful."
And for Thorson himself, what has been the most-difficult part of the process he is going through?
"I don't know if it's the most difficult. It's the most important," he says. "It's just getting into a rhythm out there. It's just getting comfortable out there, just seeing the defenses, having clarity of thought. I don't know if it's the most difficult. But it's the most important, so it makes it the most difficult I guess. It's something you really stress."
The quarterback must have clarity of thought; thought as clear as HDTV. So how long will it be before the maelstrom of a game looks like that to Clayton Thorson. "I don't know. We'll see. It's different for everybody," says Mick McCall. "But he catches on pretty quick for the most part. Most of the time, he does not make the same mistake twice. That's a big thing in our book."
••••••
Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook, check us out on Instagram and download our mobile app from the Apple Store and Google Play! To interact directly with the #B1GCats, visit our Social Media page!
Players Mentioned
A Day in the Life with Marcus Romain | Northwestern Football
Friday, May 01
Football - Caleb Tiernan Draft Night Press Conference (4/24/26)
Saturday, April 25
Jerry Neuheisel MIC'D UP | Northwestern Football
Friday, April 10
Football - Players Pro Day Media Availability (Beerntsen, Stone, Tiernan)
Tuesday, March 17
