Northwestern University Athletics
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The Skip Report: There is No Magic Elixir That Guarantees Success
10/17/2016 5:44:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA, there is no magic elixir that guarantees success. These are truisms long uttered by all kinds of coaches and especially by those wired like Pat Fitzgerald, who is as practical and pragmatic as he is direct and honest. So it was again at his Monday presser when he was asked about the progress of his Wildcats, who have most recently won consecutive games at Iowa and at Michigan State after opening their season with consecutive home losses to Western Michigan and Illinois State. "I think it's the way we've been preparing," he said here. "When you look back and see where we were coming out of camp and how we were a little beat up, how we had to do a little bit more managing than I really like— but it doesn't really matter. We've done it in the past and won 10 games. So it's really not that.
"But you start to get the DNA of your squad (as the season progresses), and we were so inconsistent that we needed to have, I think, a much greater attention to detail. That was my challenge to the coaches. With us being as inconsistent as we were early, that comes to coaching; that comes to attention to detail; that comes to discipline; that comes to focus; that comes to fundamentals; that comes to competitive nature; that comes to toughness; that comes to the standard that we have. We weren't playing to our standard. That's on us as coaches. You know that great old coach-ism: 'You're either coaching it or you're allowing it to happen. Which one is it?' So get it fixed, and get it fixed now.
"That's what we're doing. We're just grinding. I think we have our focus in the right spot. I think we're embracing that improvement-mentality. You're six or seven games in, whether or not you've had your bye. You know who you are, whether you like it or not. You look in the mirror and go, 'Wow. You're pretty hot.' Or you look in the mirror and go, 'You're fricking ugly.' It doesn't matter. You are who you are, and you've got to find a way to win. You're in conference play and everybody's beat up, and those who embrace that grind and that improvement-mentality typically do the right things during the week to put themselves in a position to win. If you don't, you beat yourself during the week (and) you go into the game and you lose.
"To me, it's not rocket science. It's a simple formula. The challenge is doing it. The challenge is doing it. Doing it with girlfriends. Doing it with parents. Doing it with homecoming. Doing it with midterms. Being able to manage what you have to manage, and focusing in and doing the things winners do."
HIS CANDOR manifested itself even more clearly when a questioned pivoted toward those losses to the Broncos and the Redbirds. "Oh. We're going back to earlier in the year stuff. All right. All right," he now said, a soft smile on his face. "Well, that team stunk. Yeah. So I just hope we don't have that team show back up. I think that team is dead. I think. I don't know for sure yet. I'll know a little bit more tomorrow [when the team practices]. That was a really bad football team. That was my fault. I think we're working to get better. I think we're working to get things fixed."
HIS REALISM manifested itself even more clearly when he discussed the pivotal kickoff return of Solomon Vault, who took it 95 yards for a touchdown to stem Spartan momentum. That jaunt helped him get named the Big Ten's Special Team Player of the Week, but here Fitzgerald noted, "Really he had to outrun only one guy, the backside two. It was the 10 guys up in front of him. Our kickoff return team was just great." He then went on to mention any number of them: the wideouts Flynn Nagel, Andrew Scanlan and Ben Skowronek; the superbacks Garrett Dickerson and Came Green; and the linebacker Brett Walsh. "I know Solomon gets to be the highlight of the game," he then concluded. "But more importantly those guys made it happen up in front of him."
SCANLAN, a fifth-year who entered this season with just a single career catch (he had a pair against the Spartans), has also been lauded for his leadership in the wideout room, and here there is no lack of irony. For last fall, before the 'Cats' final appearance at Ryan Field, Fitzgerald called him to his office and said, "We would like to honor you for Senior Day. It's totally up to you if you want to come back for the fifth year."
"Coach Fitz is a straight-forward guy. He sat me down and said, 'We don't see your time increasing, your role increasing,'" he recalled on Monday. "For me personally, I didn't take it as a shot. That's for sure. I just took it as a personal challenge. My sense of pride kind of rose a little bit. I really wanted to come back. I really wanted to lead this team, lead the wide receiver group especially being as young as we are in that room. I can't complain at all. I'm definitely so happy I came back, for sure."
IFEADI ODEGNIBO had a pair of sacks against the Spartans a game after collecting four against Iowa. For that he was named the team's Defensive Big Playmaker of the Week. But the Defensive Player of the Week honors went to redshirt freshman Joe Gaziano, who just rocked State quarterback Brian Lewerke in the end zone for a safety. "I really think we were kinda hanging out, watching the homecoming parade until Joe's sack," Fitzgerald said of that play, which came early in the second quarter with the 'Cats down three. "It was, 'What are we doing?' That's what was frustrating to me, and at halftime I was very, very demonstrative. I was not very pleased at all with the way we played in the first half. We were much better in the second quarter than we were in the first quarter. But you achieve what you emphasize, and we talk all the time here about starting fast. We start our practices fast. Everything we do is of that nature. Our lifts. And not to do that to me is a choice. I didn't like the choices we were making early and Joe's sack, you kind of saw our energy level go up."
"Joe was definitely a big-game changer," sixth-year defensive end C.J. Robbins later echoed. "He definitely gave the whole team a spark. You could see we came out flat. That really gave us the spark we needed."
AND FINALLY, ROBBINS, on then and now: "Everything's changed. The first two games, we were a young team. I'm not saying we're not young anymore. But we've meshed together a lot more. Our communication is better. Our conditioning is better. Things are echoing through from practice and showing up in the game."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA, there is no magic elixir that guarantees success. These are truisms long uttered by all kinds of coaches and especially by those wired like Pat Fitzgerald, who is as practical and pragmatic as he is direct and honest. So it was again at his Monday presser when he was asked about the progress of his Wildcats, who have most recently won consecutive games at Iowa and at Michigan State after opening their season with consecutive home losses to Western Michigan and Illinois State. "I think it's the way we've been preparing," he said here. "When you look back and see where we were coming out of camp and how we were a little beat up, how we had to do a little bit more managing than I really like— but it doesn't really matter. We've done it in the past and won 10 games. So it's really not that.
"But you start to get the DNA of your squad (as the season progresses), and we were so inconsistent that we needed to have, I think, a much greater attention to detail. That was my challenge to the coaches. With us being as inconsistent as we were early, that comes to coaching; that comes to attention to detail; that comes to discipline; that comes to focus; that comes to fundamentals; that comes to competitive nature; that comes to toughness; that comes to the standard that we have. We weren't playing to our standard. That's on us as coaches. You know that great old coach-ism: 'You're either coaching it or you're allowing it to happen. Which one is it?' So get it fixed, and get it fixed now.
"That's what we're doing. We're just grinding. I think we have our focus in the right spot. I think we're embracing that improvement-mentality. You're six or seven games in, whether or not you've had your bye. You know who you are, whether you like it or not. You look in the mirror and go, 'Wow. You're pretty hot.' Or you look in the mirror and go, 'You're fricking ugly.' It doesn't matter. You are who you are, and you've got to find a way to win. You're in conference play and everybody's beat up, and those who embrace that grind and that improvement-mentality typically do the right things during the week to put themselves in a position to win. If you don't, you beat yourself during the week (and) you go into the game and you lose.
"To me, it's not rocket science. It's a simple formula. The challenge is doing it. The challenge is doing it. Doing it with girlfriends. Doing it with parents. Doing it with homecoming. Doing it with midterms. Being able to manage what you have to manage, and focusing in and doing the things winners do."
HIS CANDOR manifested itself even more clearly when a questioned pivoted toward those losses to the Broncos and the Redbirds. "Oh. We're going back to earlier in the year stuff. All right. All right," he now said, a soft smile on his face. "Well, that team stunk. Yeah. So I just hope we don't have that team show back up. I think that team is dead. I think. I don't know for sure yet. I'll know a little bit more tomorrow [when the team practices]. That was a really bad football team. That was my fault. I think we're working to get better. I think we're working to get things fixed."
HIS REALISM manifested itself even more clearly when he discussed the pivotal kickoff return of Solomon Vault, who took it 95 yards for a touchdown to stem Spartan momentum. That jaunt helped him get named the Big Ten's Special Team Player of the Week, but here Fitzgerald noted, "Really he had to outrun only one guy, the backside two. It was the 10 guys up in front of him. Our kickoff return team was just great." He then went on to mention any number of them: the wideouts Flynn Nagel, Andrew Scanlan and Ben Skowronek; the superbacks Garrett Dickerson and Came Green; and the linebacker Brett Walsh. "I know Solomon gets to be the highlight of the game," he then concluded. "But more importantly those guys made it happen up in front of him."
SCANLAN, a fifth-year who entered this season with just a single career catch (he had a pair against the Spartans), has also been lauded for his leadership in the wideout room, and here there is no lack of irony. For last fall, before the 'Cats' final appearance at Ryan Field, Fitzgerald called him to his office and said, "We would like to honor you for Senior Day. It's totally up to you if you want to come back for the fifth year."
"Coach Fitz is a straight-forward guy. He sat me down and said, 'We don't see your time increasing, your role increasing,'" he recalled on Monday. "For me personally, I didn't take it as a shot. That's for sure. I just took it as a personal challenge. My sense of pride kind of rose a little bit. I really wanted to come back. I really wanted to lead this team, lead the wide receiver group especially being as young as we are in that room. I can't complain at all. I'm definitely so happy I came back, for sure."
IFEADI ODEGNIBO had a pair of sacks against the Spartans a game after collecting four against Iowa. For that he was named the team's Defensive Big Playmaker of the Week. But the Defensive Player of the Week honors went to redshirt freshman Joe Gaziano, who just rocked State quarterback Brian Lewerke in the end zone for a safety. "I really think we were kinda hanging out, watching the homecoming parade until Joe's sack," Fitzgerald said of that play, which came early in the second quarter with the 'Cats down three. "It was, 'What are we doing?' That's what was frustrating to me, and at halftime I was very, very demonstrative. I was not very pleased at all with the way we played in the first half. We were much better in the second quarter than we were in the first quarter. But you achieve what you emphasize, and we talk all the time here about starting fast. We start our practices fast. Everything we do is of that nature. Our lifts. And not to do that to me is a choice. I didn't like the choices we were making early and Joe's sack, you kind of saw our energy level go up."
"Joe was definitely a big-game changer," sixth-year defensive end C.J. Robbins later echoed. "He definitely gave the whole team a spark. You could see we came out flat. That really gave us the spark we needed."
AND FINALLY, ROBBINS, on then and now: "Everything's changed. The first two games, we were a young team. I'm not saying we're not young anymore. But we've meshed together a lot more. Our communication is better. Our conditioning is better. Things are echoing through from practice and showing up in the game."
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