Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: Upon Further Review
10/24/2016 8:35:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
INSTANT REPLAY: The offense hummed early last Saturday against Indiana, and by halftime had put up 24 points and rolled up 371 net yards. But in the second half it posted a bagel and netted just 37 yards. "We just didn't execute. We didn't execute," Pat Fitzgerald said at his Monday presser, explaining the reason for that latter performance. "We're an immature team, guys. I don't know how many times I've got to say it. I met with the Leadership Council today and they're like, 'Coach, how many more times do you have to say these things until these guys figure it out?'
"We played a Big Ten football team that went in at halftime and said 'Let's go fight' and they did. They came out fighting. I told our guys, 'Let's go win the second half. We win the second half, we win the game.' And we had some guys on offense stop playing fundamentally-sound football, stop fighting, stop attacking. They know who they are. It was made very clear this morning (at their team meeting). Then we had some guys in the kicking game, unfortunately we had to play some twos, and they played terribly. We're a 4-3 football team for a reason. Just got to keep coaching the heck out of them. That's what we're going to do. I promise you, that's what we're going to do. Hopefully we'll get better this week. Otherwise we'll get killed in Columbus (when they face Ohio State on Saturday)."
THE PIVOT POINT: That immaturity was evident early to Fitzgerald and Saturday, after his team's win, he talked of what followed. "We really had to change gears with the way we practiced to more of a winter-workout, spring-ball type of mentality," he said here. "What I did, I brought our Leadership Council together and I said, 'This is going to get really nasty around here. I need you to be my Pied Pipers in the locker room. I need you to come with me. We lost some Alpha Males. The new Alpha Male in the room is going to be me, whether you like it or not.'"
"We were 0-2 at that point, so it was kind of expected," Justin Jackson said Monday when asked about that moment. He is a member of the Leadership Council and here he continued, "We all agreed with it. We felt we needed to turn it up a little bit in practice and just hold each other accountable. We felt we weren't playing like we wanted to and obviously it worked (the 'Cats are 4-1 since then.) So I think the coaches are going to continue to do that and we're going to continue to police ourselves first and then each other the same way we've been doing the last month or so."
THE RESULT: Saturday, asked to expand on the approach adopted back when his team was 0-2, Fitzgerald said, "We believe you win because of fundamentals. That's what we preach around here. We were not doing that at all in the first two games. . . . We weren't playing to our standard and we had to force a change in our mental approach, in our toughness."
Monday, when asked if he had ever done this before, he offered up a revelatory soliloquy. "Every team's different," he said here. "It's not that the team is bad. You've just got to know your squad. From a leadership standpoint, you have to be flexible. And you have to listen. And you have to observe behaviors and patterns of behaviors. I'm very proud of the job our older guys are doing. I think they're doing a really, really good job. I think back to when I was early in my career— again, I say a lot of these things from that context because I try to look at it (as if I'm) looking out of the face mask. I've been looking into the face mask now for a long time. But to remember what it was like looking out of the face mask.
"My freshman year here I was just happy to be here. Then two plays into the Boston College game (the second of the season, two teammates) go down and it's like, 'Go!' I'm like, 'Me? OK.' And I wasn't ready and I didn't do a very good job. I think my play that year was very similar to the way we played as a team (early this season). So I kinda saw it from a personal experience standpoint with some guys. Maybe they just weren't mentally and emotionally and physically ready. But we don't have anyone else, so we don't have a choice. We have to get them mentally, emotionally and physically better. Not that you don't do that every year. But your tactics, the way you do things, sometimes they have to change. That's what our staff has done and, more importantly, that's what our leaders on the team and that's what the upperclassmen have let us be able to do. It wouldn't work if they didn't own it in the locker room in their own right."
"He knows we could have been playing better than we had been, and he knows the urgency wasn't high enough and he feels it starts with him," Jackson later said when asked about this altered approach. "He's doing everything he can and as the leadership we're doing everything we can to trickle that through the locker room and the team. I wasn't really surprised (Fitzgerald took over). You know how fire-y a guy he his and he has so much passion for us. He wants us to be great and he's going to push us to our limits. He's been doing that and it's been working for us, and he's going to continue to do that and we're going to continue to take it in stride and keep working and keep trying to get wins."
But has it gotten nasty, to use Fitzgerald's word.
'If you're soft minded, maybe," Justin Jackson finally said. "But we've all been yelled at by coaches before, so it's nothing new. He just wants the best for us. It's nothing personal. It's all about football. So. Just take it in stride and keep going. You can't worry about your feelings. You've just got to keep playing football."
AND FINALLY, SADLY: Senior corner Matthew Harris, who has not played since suffering a concussion in the 'Cats Week Two loss to Illinois State, announced Monday that he is retiring from football. When he told his teammates that at their morning meeting, they gave him a standing ovation. "It's been a long road for Matthew from a standpoint of injuries. . . (and) I fully support his decision. I think it's the right thing for both the short term and the long term," Fitzgerald would say. "I'm just very thankful for what Matthew brought to our program. He's a young man who, from the minute he stepped into our program, was an instant impact as far as a person. A terrific, terrific young man. . . . We all wish we could play longer. I remember when it was time for me to put my helmet back up on the shelf. I made that decision. I didn't have that made for me. I made that decision and people around me kind of questioned it a little bit. But I just thought it was the right thing at the right time. This is the right thing at the right time (for Harris), and he's in control of the decision. Like I said, I 100 percent believe it's the right decision and I fully support it."
"It obviously was tough for all of us. He's one of your brothers, a guy who's battled through so much stuff," said Justin Jackson, thinking back to the moment Harris revealed his decision. "But you've got to take care of yourself and football doesn't last forever. He's going to have a great life. He's a great leader and does so much for the community, and he's going to do great things with his life."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
UPON FURTHER REVIEW. . . .
INSTANT REPLAY: The offense hummed early last Saturday against Indiana, and by halftime had put up 24 points and rolled up 371 net yards. But in the second half it posted a bagel and netted just 37 yards. "We just didn't execute. We didn't execute," Pat Fitzgerald said at his Monday presser, explaining the reason for that latter performance. "We're an immature team, guys. I don't know how many times I've got to say it. I met with the Leadership Council today and they're like, 'Coach, how many more times do you have to say these things until these guys figure it out?'
"We played a Big Ten football team that went in at halftime and said 'Let's go fight' and they did. They came out fighting. I told our guys, 'Let's go win the second half. We win the second half, we win the game.' And we had some guys on offense stop playing fundamentally-sound football, stop fighting, stop attacking. They know who they are. It was made very clear this morning (at their team meeting). Then we had some guys in the kicking game, unfortunately we had to play some twos, and they played terribly. We're a 4-3 football team for a reason. Just got to keep coaching the heck out of them. That's what we're going to do. I promise you, that's what we're going to do. Hopefully we'll get better this week. Otherwise we'll get killed in Columbus (when they face Ohio State on Saturday)."
THE PIVOT POINT: That immaturity was evident early to Fitzgerald and Saturday, after his team's win, he talked of what followed. "We really had to change gears with the way we practiced to more of a winter-workout, spring-ball type of mentality," he said here. "What I did, I brought our Leadership Council together and I said, 'This is going to get really nasty around here. I need you to be my Pied Pipers in the locker room. I need you to come with me. We lost some Alpha Males. The new Alpha Male in the room is going to be me, whether you like it or not.'"
"We were 0-2 at that point, so it was kind of expected," Justin Jackson said Monday when asked about that moment. He is a member of the Leadership Council and here he continued, "We all agreed with it. We felt we needed to turn it up a little bit in practice and just hold each other accountable. We felt we weren't playing like we wanted to and obviously it worked (the 'Cats are 4-1 since then.) So I think the coaches are going to continue to do that and we're going to continue to police ourselves first and then each other the same way we've been doing the last month or so."
THE RESULT: Saturday, asked to expand on the approach adopted back when his team was 0-2, Fitzgerald said, "We believe you win because of fundamentals. That's what we preach around here. We were not doing that at all in the first two games. . . . We weren't playing to our standard and we had to force a change in our mental approach, in our toughness."
Monday, when asked if he had ever done this before, he offered up a revelatory soliloquy. "Every team's different," he said here. "It's not that the team is bad. You've just got to know your squad. From a leadership standpoint, you have to be flexible. And you have to listen. And you have to observe behaviors and patterns of behaviors. I'm very proud of the job our older guys are doing. I think they're doing a really, really good job. I think back to when I was early in my career— again, I say a lot of these things from that context because I try to look at it (as if I'm) looking out of the face mask. I've been looking into the face mask now for a long time. But to remember what it was like looking out of the face mask.
"My freshman year here I was just happy to be here. Then two plays into the Boston College game (the second of the season, two teammates) go down and it's like, 'Go!' I'm like, 'Me? OK.' And I wasn't ready and I didn't do a very good job. I think my play that year was very similar to the way we played as a team (early this season). So I kinda saw it from a personal experience standpoint with some guys. Maybe they just weren't mentally and emotionally and physically ready. But we don't have anyone else, so we don't have a choice. We have to get them mentally, emotionally and physically better. Not that you don't do that every year. But your tactics, the way you do things, sometimes they have to change. That's what our staff has done and, more importantly, that's what our leaders on the team and that's what the upperclassmen have let us be able to do. It wouldn't work if they didn't own it in the locker room in their own right."
"He knows we could have been playing better than we had been, and he knows the urgency wasn't high enough and he feels it starts with him," Jackson later said when asked about this altered approach. "He's doing everything he can and as the leadership we're doing everything we can to trickle that through the locker room and the team. I wasn't really surprised (Fitzgerald took over). You know how fire-y a guy he his and he has so much passion for us. He wants us to be great and he's going to push us to our limits. He's been doing that and it's been working for us, and he's going to continue to do that and we're going to continue to take it in stride and keep working and keep trying to get wins."
But has it gotten nasty, to use Fitzgerald's word.
'If you're soft minded, maybe," Justin Jackson finally said. "But we've all been yelled at by coaches before, so it's nothing new. He just wants the best for us. It's nothing personal. It's all about football. So. Just take it in stride and keep going. You can't worry about your feelings. You've just got to keep playing football."
AND FINALLY, SADLY: Senior corner Matthew Harris, who has not played since suffering a concussion in the 'Cats Week Two loss to Illinois State, announced Monday that he is retiring from football. When he told his teammates that at their morning meeting, they gave him a standing ovation. "It's been a long road for Matthew from a standpoint of injuries. . . (and) I fully support his decision. I think it's the right thing for both the short term and the long term," Fitzgerald would say. "I'm just very thankful for what Matthew brought to our program. He's a young man who, from the minute he stepped into our program, was an instant impact as far as a person. A terrific, terrific young man. . . . We all wish we could play longer. I remember when it was time for me to put my helmet back up on the shelf. I made that decision. I didn't have that made for me. I made that decision and people around me kind of questioned it a little bit. But I just thought it was the right thing at the right time. This is the right thing at the right time (for Harris), and he's in control of the decision. Like I said, I 100 percent believe it's the right decision and I fully support it."
"It obviously was tough for all of us. He's one of your brothers, a guy who's battled through so much stuff," said Justin Jackson, thinking back to the moment Harris revealed his decision. "But you've got to take care of yourself and football doesn't last forever. He's going to have a great life. He's a great leader and does so much for the community, and he's going to do great things with his life."
••••••
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