Northwestern University Athletics
The Mindset to Dominate
9/4/2015 12:32:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Life is not glamorous in that world called The Pit, where the work is dirty and the object is domination. An attitude is needed to operate there, and the men who ply their trade in its maelstrom must have an edge, a virulent vibe, a ruthless streak about them. "Mean bastards on the field and perfect gentlemen off," is how Dick Stanfel described offensive linemen back when he was coaching them for the Bears during their glory days in the 1980s.
So it was no surprise last spring when Shane Mertz, the 'Cats six-foot-eight, 310-pound guard, said of his group, "We're all about being nasty. So every opportunity we get to chop someone down and lay them down hard, we take it. Chop-ortunities are the focus for us."
"You want to talk about an O-line attitude, you want to talk about playing tough, you go play on people's legs. You've got to go cut people down," his position coach, Adam Cushing, more recently explained, speaking here of legal blocks. "So we talk about taking every chop-ortunity there is. Every time we can cut somebody, we feel that's a way to show we're playing nasty, that we're playing tough, that we're willing to sell out and lay out to make a play."
His line is the motor that powers the 'Cat offense, and a year ago it was as inconsistent as a two-year old's behavior. One weekend it would operate with a ruthless efficiency, opening holes as wide as a superhighway, but the next it was hesitant, a step slow, a sputtering engine filled with coughs and wheezes. Often during that fall Pat Fitzgerald talked about it, and eventually a pair of themes emerged from his comments. At times, he would say, it suffered from paralysis-by-analysis. It also suffered, he would add on other occasions, from a lack of competitive depth, from a surfeit of comfortable twos (backups).
"Sometimes as coaches, we want to have every single answer. And sometimes the answer is just play a little harder, play with a little more attitude," Cushing said this week when asked how that first issue was addressed. "Instead of making them think out there, let's just run the same play and let's just see them execute it better. Let's just come at 'em. One thing we embraced in the off-season as an O line is play tough. A lot of things don't matter. It's just your attitude."
"In our schemes (last year), there was a lot of ambiguity, right?" guard Ian Park would soon explain. "People weren't sure, 'Do I block him here? If the defense moves around, what do I do?' In spring ball and fall camp, he has it set in stone. Whatever happens out there, you follow these rules and these guidelines. Also the guy next to you is going to do that. He'll know what to do if something changes."
So you don't have to think as much?
"After one step, if you're thinking, you'll get blown up," said Park.
"What's really helped us too is trying to find similarities in plays," center Brad North now added. "If we have a call for something else, it's the same technique and so we just have to relate back."
So you're playing faster?
"Absolutely," they said simultaneously.
And the whole line's playing faster?
"Oh, yeah," they said, again simultaneously.
That change, this simplification of their duties, was accompanied by another authored in spring practice, where the composition of the O line was as fluid as the current stock market. Geoff Mogus, a two-year starter at left guard, was now at left tackle. Mertz, a tackle all his life, was now at right guard. Park, who started eight games at guard back in 2013, was one day at center, where he was battling North for a starting role. But the next, he was back again working at guard. The aim here was not just finding the best five, as both Fitzgerald and Cushing often say. It was also to engender the competition that was missing a season ago.
"It's keeping you on your toes and making sure you know every position as opposed to just your role and being comfortable with that," Park would explain. "It's making you uncomfortable so that, in a game situation, I may have to go in at center, or someone has to come in for me at guard. It's being ready. That's something we emphasized all spring and through camp."
"Absolutely. And off of what Ian said, the next guy has to be ready," said North."I know that was a problem last year. There were some guys that went into the game that were just-- for example, us. We didn't really know what we were doing because during the week we weren't going to play. There were opportunities that arose that required us to go and play, and we weren't ready. So the big emphasis this year is not just getting the best five out there, it's getting the best players out there. If that means constantly rotating people in and out, we're willing to do that as long as we get the most production out of it."
You're saying you two specifically were not ready?
"I was not ready when I went in last year, that's for sure," confirmed North. "Like you said, Fitz talked about guys who were comfortable, and I was definitely one of those guys with my role and when the opportunity arose, I wasn't ready. I took it upon myself this year to be mentally focused, to be focused on what I need to do and what everyone around me is doing. That's made me a better football player."
"It was more my attitude," said Park. "I had started a bunch of games the year before and I came off a surgery, and I wasn't physically ready and I wasn't mentally ready. I think it was more mental, just having that killer attitude. Being confident. The biggest thing for me is confidence. I didn't really believe that I could do my assignment, that I could get it done. I was shaky on that. Having a full year in the weight room this year, being able to participate in spring ball, helped me establish confidence. Now I can truly believe in what I'm doing every time I step on the field and perform my job."
Mogus, this line's leader, will start at left tackle Saturday when the 'Cats open their year against No. 21 Stanford. Next to him will be Park, who has augmented his athletic ability with strength acquired during a full off-season in the weight room. ("He's grown up. He's much stronger than he was," Cushing says of him.) At center will be North, whom Cushing describes as "A really heady football player, which you have to be to play our center position." Then at right guard will be Mertz, finally healthy after a series of injuries, and at right tackle will be Eric Olson, who like Park got stronger in the weight room ("His failures last year were mostly lack of strength," Cushing says).
"I really think the group is hungry to get better on a daily basis, they're hungry to have an O line attitude, to go out there and do whatever is necessary to block the guy across from them," Cushing will finally say, speaking not only of this quintet, but of all those he guides. "Right now I feel we have eight guys who are ready to go into the football game and play multiple positions if necessary. I kind of feel, let's just go as fast as we possibly can and do all those things we need to do as an offense and play all of them."
And do they understand how crucial they are to the offense's success?
"We know it's on us," says Park. "Whether we move the ball or don't move the ball, whether we communicate or don't communicate, that really makes or breaks any drive, any game. But we don't feel that pressure. We've got five guys, we trust each other, and I'm doing it for the guy next to me and we're going to get it done together."
"The attitude we want to adopt," North soon concludes, "is be tough both mentally and physically. The last few years, I feel like we just kind of lost that. So we want to build consistency, and then we want to try to just dominate the guy across from us. Like Ian said, we're doing it for the guy next to us. That's my definition of toughness. Just doing it for the guy next to you, going as hard as you can for as long as you can.
"Our mindset this year is we want to dominate."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Life is not glamorous in that world called The Pit, where the work is dirty and the object is domination. An attitude is needed to operate there, and the men who ply their trade in its maelstrom must have an edge, a virulent vibe, a ruthless streak about them. "Mean bastards on the field and perfect gentlemen off," is how Dick Stanfel described offensive linemen back when he was coaching them for the Bears during their glory days in the 1980s.
So it was no surprise last spring when Shane Mertz, the 'Cats six-foot-eight, 310-pound guard, said of his group, "We're all about being nasty. So every opportunity we get to chop someone down and lay them down hard, we take it. Chop-ortunities are the focus for us."
"You want to talk about an O-line attitude, you want to talk about playing tough, you go play on people's legs. You've got to go cut people down," his position coach, Adam Cushing, more recently explained, speaking here of legal blocks. "So we talk about taking every chop-ortunity there is. Every time we can cut somebody, we feel that's a way to show we're playing nasty, that we're playing tough, that we're willing to sell out and lay out to make a play."
"Sometimes as coaches, we want to have every single answer. And sometimes the answer is just play a little harder, play with a little more attitude," Cushing said this week when asked how that first issue was addressed. "Instead of making them think out there, let's just run the same play and let's just see them execute it better. Let's just come at 'em. One thing we embraced in the off-season as an O line is play tough. A lot of things don't matter. It's just your attitude."
"In our schemes (last year), there was a lot of ambiguity, right?" guard Ian Park would soon explain. "People weren't sure, 'Do I block him here? If the defense moves around, what do I do?' In spring ball and fall camp, he has it set in stone. Whatever happens out there, you follow these rules and these guidelines. Also the guy next to you is going to do that. He'll know what to do if something changes."
So you don't have to think as much?
"After one step, if you're thinking, you'll get blown up," said Park.
"What's really helped us too is trying to find similarities in plays," center Brad North now added. "If we have a call for something else, it's the same technique and so we just have to relate back."
So you're playing faster?
"Absolutely," they said simultaneously.
And the whole line's playing faster?
"Oh, yeah," they said, again simultaneously.
That change, this simplification of their duties, was accompanied by another authored in spring practice, where the composition of the O line was as fluid as the current stock market. Geoff Mogus, a two-year starter at left guard, was now at left tackle. Mertz, a tackle all his life, was now at right guard. Park, who started eight games at guard back in 2013, was one day at center, where he was battling North for a starting role. But the next, he was back again working at guard. The aim here was not just finding the best five, as both Fitzgerald and Cushing often say. It was also to engender the competition that was missing a season ago.
"It's keeping you on your toes and making sure you know every position as opposed to just your role and being comfortable with that," Park would explain. "It's making you uncomfortable so that, in a game situation, I may have to go in at center, or someone has to come in for me at guard. It's being ready. That's something we emphasized all spring and through camp."
"Absolutely. And off of what Ian said, the next guy has to be ready," said North."I know that was a problem last year. There were some guys that went into the game that were just-- for example, us. We didn't really know what we were doing because during the week we weren't going to play. There were opportunities that arose that required us to go and play, and we weren't ready. So the big emphasis this year is not just getting the best five out there, it's getting the best players out there. If that means constantly rotating people in and out, we're willing to do that as long as we get the most production out of it."
You're saying you two specifically were not ready?
"I was not ready when I went in last year, that's for sure," confirmed North. "Like you said, Fitz talked about guys who were comfortable, and I was definitely one of those guys with my role and when the opportunity arose, I wasn't ready. I took it upon myself this year to be mentally focused, to be focused on what I need to do and what everyone around me is doing. That's made me a better football player."
"It was more my attitude," said Park. "I had started a bunch of games the year before and I came off a surgery, and I wasn't physically ready and I wasn't mentally ready. I think it was more mental, just having that killer attitude. Being confident. The biggest thing for me is confidence. I didn't really believe that I could do my assignment, that I could get it done. I was shaky on that. Having a full year in the weight room this year, being able to participate in spring ball, helped me establish confidence. Now I can truly believe in what I'm doing every time I step on the field and perform my job."
Mogus, this line's leader, will start at left tackle Saturday when the 'Cats open their year against No. 21 Stanford. Next to him will be Park, who has augmented his athletic ability with strength acquired during a full off-season in the weight room. ("He's grown up. He's much stronger than he was," Cushing says of him.) At center will be North, whom Cushing describes as "A really heady football player, which you have to be to play our center position." Then at right guard will be Mertz, finally healthy after a series of injuries, and at right tackle will be Eric Olson, who like Park got stronger in the weight room ("His failures last year were mostly lack of strength," Cushing says).
"I really think the group is hungry to get better on a daily basis, they're hungry to have an O line attitude, to go out there and do whatever is necessary to block the guy across from them," Cushing will finally say, speaking not only of this quintet, but of all those he guides. "Right now I feel we have eight guys who are ready to go into the football game and play multiple positions if necessary. I kind of feel, let's just go as fast as we possibly can and do all those things we need to do as an offense and play all of them."
And do they understand how crucial they are to the offense's success?
"We know it's on us," says Park. "Whether we move the ball or don't move the ball, whether we communicate or don't communicate, that really makes or breaks any drive, any game. But we don't feel that pressure. We've got five guys, we trust each other, and I'm doing it for the guy next to me and we're going to get it done together."
"The attitude we want to adopt," North soon concludes, "is be tough both mentally and physically. The last few years, I feel like we just kind of lost that. So we want to build consistency, and then we want to try to just dominate the guy across from us. Like Ian said, we're doing it for the guy next to us. That's my definition of toughness. Just doing it for the guy next to you, going as hard as you can for as long as you can.
"Our mindset this year is we want to dominate."
Players Mentioned
OL
/ Football
OL
/ Football
OL
/ Football
OL
/ Football
OL
/ FootballA 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
