Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: Friday Notes - Iowa
9/30/2016 3:23:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
QUICK HITTERS. . . .
LAST AUGUST, on the evening before the 'Cats first practice for this season, sixth-year senior defensive lineman C.J. Robbins addressed the team. The topic of his talk, he later said, was "About mentality and about being a dog, someone who grinds, someone who's gritty. Having that mentality in general is what we want to go with."
This week, with the 'Cats 1-3 and facing a road test at Iowa on Saturday, the veteran leader was asked what message he was delivering now. "We talked about this at the beginning of the year, and I still hold true to the talk I made about being a dog and grinding. I'm telling everybody that and everybody is embracing the grind," Robbins said. "That speech that I gave wasn't meant for a time when everything is going right. It's a time like this when your true dog comes out, when your true character comes out. You can get beat up. But it's about getting back up and getting more mad and going and fighting harder and fighting harder. That's been my recurrent theme. Embrace this. Don't be satisfied. Don't hang your head. If I see young dudes get beat and hang their heads, I say, 'Keep your heads up.' I've had many years when I've been beaten many a time. You've got to push it to the side and just keep playing. It's one play at a time. So it's really embracing that grind. Keep fighting. Just keep fighting. . . .
"We don't get another chance to go try and win until the next Saturday. So you have to sit there with that loss, with that game that you played for a whole week. That's the grind. You've got to understand, I'm going to go fix this and not dwell on it. It's a grind that weighs on your mind. You're in class and you think, 'Dang I could have done that in the game,' and then it's like, 'I'm going to watch more film to get better.' It's a I'm-going-to-do-every-little-thing-kind of grind. It's about not being satisfied, and always looking for work, and always having that burn in your eyes and that burn in your heart to just keep going, keep going, keep going."
THE 'CAT DEFENSE, last season, was a dominant force, but this fall it has six first-time starters and has been woefully inconsistent. Its problem, his whole team's problem, is not one of preparation, Pat Fitzgerald has said often this past month. It's a problem of production, of performance on the field. "It's being comfortable on the field, being comfortable with yourself," Robbins said when asked why good practice habits disappeared in a game. "We hit a 'Trust Yourself' board (as they head toward the field for a game), and it really is trusting yourself and not having that voice in the back of your head saying, 'Should I do this?' It's just going and playing. Cutting it loose. Not thinking. Just playing football. For experienced dudes, you don't see that (the voice) much. We've got experience. We're comfortable on the field. For first time players, it's an adjustment all the way around. Over time there's something new, it's something that gets you a little shaky. Then it's how much you can shake that off and just go play and be you."
Has that contributed to the defense's inconsistency?
"It's not our whole problem, by any means. But it definitely plays into it. At the end of the day it's just doing your job, and whatever it may take for you to do your job, you've just got to find that. We can flip on some film of my first year out there and I got my butt whupped all over that field because I played high, this, that and the other. It was all those things that distracted me from being able to just focus and go."
So, allegorically speaking, you've seen a lot and the newbies are on Chapter One of a 12 chapter book?
"Yeah. Exactly," C.J. Robbins finally says. "They've gotten a ton of reps to play this season and a ton of reps to play in their career. But each game they'll get better, they'll feel more comfortable."
IOWA PUNTER RON COLUZZI, the Big Ten's reigning Special Team Player of the Week, has kicked 20 times this season and had only one returned (for no yards). Punt returner Flynn Nagel is the 'Cats reigning Special Team Player of the Week and on the job, said Fitzgerald, is "Being aggressive while still being smart." How, Nagel was later asked, does he stay aggressive and keep fear at bay while knowing that, on any kick, he might get (to use a favorite Fitz-ism) his lips knocked off. "In my mind," he says, "I've been through the worst a punt returner could possibly experience.
"I had a play in high school, my senior year, I was back on a punt return— this was right after halftime, so I don't know if they planned it or if, if they did, if they wanted to take me out of the game. I don't know. But we kept them to a three-and-out, they punted it, I ran up to fair catch it. The ball was still way up in the air, the guy clearly saw me fair catch it, and when I wasn't even close to catching the ball, I just got killed. When we watched on film the next day, the guy raced off the line, nobody touched him and he wasn't slowing down for anything. So he just came and he killed me. I bit through my mouthpiece, bit straight into my tongue, my mouthpiece was like ripped in half. In my mind it can't get worse than that back there."
NAGEL'S PRIMARY ROLE IS WIDE OUT and, shortly after committing to the 'Cats, he contacted the former great Jeremy Ebert, who had roomed with his (Nagel's) brother Brett while in school. "I asked him if he could help me out with anything that would help me get adjusted as quickly as possible to playing college," explains Nagel, and soon enough they were working out together. There Ebert would go through the concepts of the 'Cat offense with him, and push him through drills designed to improve his receiving skills. He also gave him some advice. "He said don't lose confidence when you get here because everybody is going to be like that player in high school, where you're a superstar," remembers Nagel. "He said don't lose that confidence when you get to college. Just play fast, play the way you know how to play.
"That was a huge thing for me because when I got here obviously I saw everyone on the team was great, everyone I was competing against was great, everyone on the defense I was playing against was great. That was a big step for me from high school to college. But I think I handled it pretty well."
AND FINALLY, 'NUFF SAID: At his Monday press conference, Fitzgerald said this about the Hawkeyes: "It's Iowa. They do what they do and they do it very well." At his Tuesday press conference, Iowa coach Kirk Ferencz said this about the 'Cats: "They certainly have an identity. They know what they want to be, what they want to do, and they do it really well."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
QUICK HITTERS. . . .
LAST AUGUST, on the evening before the 'Cats first practice for this season, sixth-year senior defensive lineman C.J. Robbins addressed the team. The topic of his talk, he later said, was "About mentality and about being a dog, someone who grinds, someone who's gritty. Having that mentality in general is what we want to go with."
This week, with the 'Cats 1-3 and facing a road test at Iowa on Saturday, the veteran leader was asked what message he was delivering now. "We talked about this at the beginning of the year, and I still hold true to the talk I made about being a dog and grinding. I'm telling everybody that and everybody is embracing the grind," Robbins said. "That speech that I gave wasn't meant for a time when everything is going right. It's a time like this when your true dog comes out, when your true character comes out. You can get beat up. But it's about getting back up and getting more mad and going and fighting harder and fighting harder. That's been my recurrent theme. Embrace this. Don't be satisfied. Don't hang your head. If I see young dudes get beat and hang their heads, I say, 'Keep your heads up.' I've had many years when I've been beaten many a time. You've got to push it to the side and just keep playing. It's one play at a time. So it's really embracing that grind. Keep fighting. Just keep fighting. . . .
"We don't get another chance to go try and win until the next Saturday. So you have to sit there with that loss, with that game that you played for a whole week. That's the grind. You've got to understand, I'm going to go fix this and not dwell on it. It's a grind that weighs on your mind. You're in class and you think, 'Dang I could have done that in the game,' and then it's like, 'I'm going to watch more film to get better.' It's a I'm-going-to-do-every-little-thing-kind of grind. It's about not being satisfied, and always looking for work, and always having that burn in your eyes and that burn in your heart to just keep going, keep going, keep going."
THE 'CAT DEFENSE, last season, was a dominant force, but this fall it has six first-time starters and has been woefully inconsistent. Its problem, his whole team's problem, is not one of preparation, Pat Fitzgerald has said often this past month. It's a problem of production, of performance on the field. "It's being comfortable on the field, being comfortable with yourself," Robbins said when asked why good practice habits disappeared in a game. "We hit a 'Trust Yourself' board (as they head toward the field for a game), and it really is trusting yourself and not having that voice in the back of your head saying, 'Should I do this?' It's just going and playing. Cutting it loose. Not thinking. Just playing football. For experienced dudes, you don't see that (the voice) much. We've got experience. We're comfortable on the field. For first time players, it's an adjustment all the way around. Over time there's something new, it's something that gets you a little shaky. Then it's how much you can shake that off and just go play and be you."
Has that contributed to the defense's inconsistency?
"It's not our whole problem, by any means. But it definitely plays into it. At the end of the day it's just doing your job, and whatever it may take for you to do your job, you've just got to find that. We can flip on some film of my first year out there and I got my butt whupped all over that field because I played high, this, that and the other. It was all those things that distracted me from being able to just focus and go."
So, allegorically speaking, you've seen a lot and the newbies are on Chapter One of a 12 chapter book?
"Yeah. Exactly," C.J. Robbins finally says. "They've gotten a ton of reps to play this season and a ton of reps to play in their career. But each game they'll get better, they'll feel more comfortable."
IOWA PUNTER RON COLUZZI, the Big Ten's reigning Special Team Player of the Week, has kicked 20 times this season and had only one returned (for no yards). Punt returner Flynn Nagel is the 'Cats reigning Special Team Player of the Week and on the job, said Fitzgerald, is "Being aggressive while still being smart." How, Nagel was later asked, does he stay aggressive and keep fear at bay while knowing that, on any kick, he might get (to use a favorite Fitz-ism) his lips knocked off. "In my mind," he says, "I've been through the worst a punt returner could possibly experience.
"I had a play in high school, my senior year, I was back on a punt return— this was right after halftime, so I don't know if they planned it or if, if they did, if they wanted to take me out of the game. I don't know. But we kept them to a three-and-out, they punted it, I ran up to fair catch it. The ball was still way up in the air, the guy clearly saw me fair catch it, and when I wasn't even close to catching the ball, I just got killed. When we watched on film the next day, the guy raced off the line, nobody touched him and he wasn't slowing down for anything. So he just came and he killed me. I bit through my mouthpiece, bit straight into my tongue, my mouthpiece was like ripped in half. In my mind it can't get worse than that back there."
NAGEL'S PRIMARY ROLE IS WIDE OUT and, shortly after committing to the 'Cats, he contacted the former great Jeremy Ebert, who had roomed with his (Nagel's) brother Brett while in school. "I asked him if he could help me out with anything that would help me get adjusted as quickly as possible to playing college," explains Nagel, and soon enough they were working out together. There Ebert would go through the concepts of the 'Cat offense with him, and push him through drills designed to improve his receiving skills. He also gave him some advice. "He said don't lose confidence when you get here because everybody is going to be like that player in high school, where you're a superstar," remembers Nagel. "He said don't lose that confidence when you get to college. Just play fast, play the way you know how to play.
"That was a huge thing for me because when I got here obviously I saw everyone on the team was great, everyone I was competing against was great, everyone on the defense I was playing against was great. That was a big step for me from high school to college. But I think I handled it pretty well."
AND FINALLY, 'NUFF SAID: At his Monday press conference, Fitzgerald said this about the Hawkeyes: "It's Iowa. They do what they do and they do it very well." At his Tuesday press conference, Iowa coach Kirk Ferencz said this about the 'Cats: "They certainly have an identity. They know what they want to be, what they want to do, and they do it really well."
••••••
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, visit our Social Media page and download our mobile app from the Apple Store and Google Play! To get involved with the #B1GCats, become a season-ticket holder or join the Wildcat Fund!
Players Mentioned
WR
/ Football
DL
/ 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
