Northwestern University Athletics
Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
The Skip Report: One Last Run on Ryan Field
11/25/2016 3:52:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE ORIGIN TALE: Once upon a time, in the Illinois Valley town of Peru, there was a strapping young lad who grew up to be a football star at that city's high school. His dad Cameron was a UPS driver and one day a customer, serendipitously enough (since that is the way these types of tales work), told him about a man named Greg Durdan. He owned a farm some 30 minutes outside of Peru and, long before he attained acclaim, our strapping lad went to work for him. He was just a general handy-man, doing chores like baling hay. But his work not only helped bulk him up ("It definitely helped me get strong. It didn't take the place of weight training. But it was definitely an added workout in there," he remembers). It also forged a bond between him and the farmer.
They got to know each other well— so well, in fact, that the farmer put pen to paper when the lad started to star on the gridiron and wrote out a letter extolling his virtues. He stuck it in an envelope and sealed it and sent it off to a man named Randy Bates, who just happened to coach the linebackers at the prestigious Big Ten school on the shores of Lake Michigan. And that, says the defensive lineman C.J. Robbins, is "Pretty much how my connection with Northwestern came to be."
THE PRESENT: Robbins, a sixth-year senior, has blossomed into a defensive force and a respected team leader. He has also remained close to Durdan, who not only attends 'Cat home games. He also drops off pumpkins for the coaches in the fall and sweet corn for them in the summer. "He's a big part of my life," says Robbins, who will grace Ryan Field for the final time on Saturday when the 'Cats host Illinois.
Does it seem like yesterday that he went to work for him?
"It really does. I can look back and think, 'Wow, I can remember doing that.' And he always comes up and we talk about everything. It was a big piece of my life, and I was really thankful to have someone like him as a support system."
Big game Saturday, obviously. But does he still find himself thinking back a lot?
"I personally don't try to think back too much. I just try to keep my eye in the moment. But there are times. I might be in the cold tub. I'll just be sitting there and I'll just start thinking, 'Wow, I've been here for a long time.' Or I'll think of past players. So little random stuff will pop up into my head and I'll think, 'Wow, this is the last one.' But it really hasn't set in yet that this was the last Tuesday practice in my college career.' But there are times I reminisce about it and realize it little by little."
Does he remember, like, his first Camp Kenosha?
"Yeah. I do. I literally think back on all the little stuff. The first Kenosha and the stuff that me and the class I came in with— my two good friends Max Chapman and Deonte Gibson (D linemen who graduated last year). The little goofy stuff we would do in meetings. I just think about all of it, even to the first year I started playing. When I'm on the field now, I might think back and go, 'Wow. I was bad my first year. I couldn't do any of this.'"
Does he still talk to Max and Deonte?
"I talk to Max maybe every other week and I talk to Deonte about every day. Trevyon Green (the former running back) too. A really good friend. Andrew Smith (the former linebacker). I talk to him a lot too. So I don't necessarily reach out and ask. But when we're in conversation I'll sprinkle some stuff, 'What are you guys doing with this in the real world?'"
What's his next chapter?
"I really don't know. I'd love to play football as long as possible. If that were another chapter, that'd be great. If not, just go where the chapters take me."
Some guys have said that keeping the team together is more important than beating the in-state rival, more important that copping the trophy that goes with it. Agree?
"A rivalry is a rivalry. You have them in high school. You have then in college. And it's great to play in a rivalry game. But the main goal is to extend your season that extra month and to keep your team together and to be able to hang out with your friends that extra month. That's the funnest part. Going to bowl season is the funnest part. You get rewarded for what you did during the season. You get some presents, and you get more time with your friends and family. The past two weeks, knowing we don't have many chances left, I've just been trying to go into practice with an edge. Even more so this week knowing we've got just one shot left. Just really trying to realize I don't have time to reminisce and sit and remember all that stuff. I'm trying to get this last one to extend our season one more game. Just really thinking about that."
QUICKLY NOTED: Former Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith is in his first season guiding the Illini (3-8, 2-6). So, Pat Fitzgerald said this week, "We've got one-year's worth of evidence (game film). We've never played each other from the standpoint of their coaching staff and of their team and what they're trying to accomplish schematically. So plan to adjust. At some point around the second quarter, we'll have a pretty good idea. Then they'll make their adjustments (to what the 'Cats do) and we'll have to adjust again in the second half.". . . The Illini offense averages nearly as many rushing yards per-game (148.1) as it does passing yards (156.2). "I get real excited," D tackle Tyler Lancaster said about the prospect of playing a run-oriented team. "Against Purdue, they pass like 70 percent of the time and that took me out of the game a lot. When they run the ball, I know I can get in on the play, make something happen. So I get excited when I hear a team runs a lot.". . . The 'Cats have allowed more sacks (30) than all but one team in the conference (Maryland's given up 37). Illini D end Carroll Phillips, in turn, leads the conference in TFLs (17) and is second in sacks with eight. His bookend on that line, Dawuane Smott, himself has 13 TFLs. . . . Familiar faces: Illini offensive co-ordinator Garrick McGee had the same job with the 'Cats in '06 and '07; Illini linebacker coach Tim McCarigle starred as a 'Cat linebacker when Fitzgerald was his position coach and started his coaching career as a grad assistant under Fitzgerald in 2011; and Illini D tackle Tito Odenigbo is the brother of 'Cat D end Ifeadi— who, it should be noted, leads the Big Ten in sacks with nine.
AND FINALLY: The 'Cats enter this Rivalry Game on Senior Day the same as it did two falls ago, needing a win to be bowl eligible. They lost that one, 47-33. "We've thought about it a little bit," safety Godwin Igwebuike said this week. "That was obviously a tragic situation. We had a lot of guys banged up, a lot of guys injured (including quarterback Trevor Siemian). This is a completely different team. We're going to attack it like our backs are against the wall. That is the reality of the situation. Give it everything we have. I have full trust in my teammates that we're going to give it everything we have. I think we lacked some passion in that game (two years ago) on top of people being banged up. I don't expect that to happen this time around. If you're not excited for this game, you might as well just go home now. You have a challenge in front of you where you either spend a couple of weeks at home with nothing to do— I know I've got nothing to do at home. I've got family. But my friends are gone. I'll be lonely. So we've got to go out and get this dub. That's what we all want to do. We all want to stay here. We all want to extend the season for our seniors. More opportunities to play with each other. More memories to be made. So there's no doubt we'll go out there with passion, to say the least."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
THE ORIGIN TALE: Once upon a time, in the Illinois Valley town of Peru, there was a strapping young lad who grew up to be a football star at that city's high school. His dad Cameron was a UPS driver and one day a customer, serendipitously enough (since that is the way these types of tales work), told him about a man named Greg Durdan. He owned a farm some 30 minutes outside of Peru and, long before he attained acclaim, our strapping lad went to work for him. He was just a general handy-man, doing chores like baling hay. But his work not only helped bulk him up ("It definitely helped me get strong. It didn't take the place of weight training. But it was definitely an added workout in there," he remembers). It also forged a bond between him and the farmer.
They got to know each other well— so well, in fact, that the farmer put pen to paper when the lad started to star on the gridiron and wrote out a letter extolling his virtues. He stuck it in an envelope and sealed it and sent it off to a man named Randy Bates, who just happened to coach the linebackers at the prestigious Big Ten school on the shores of Lake Michigan. And that, says the defensive lineman C.J. Robbins, is "Pretty much how my connection with Northwestern came to be."
THE PRESENT: Robbins, a sixth-year senior, has blossomed into a defensive force and a respected team leader. He has also remained close to Durdan, who not only attends 'Cat home games. He also drops off pumpkins for the coaches in the fall and sweet corn for them in the summer. "He's a big part of my life," says Robbins, who will grace Ryan Field for the final time on Saturday when the 'Cats host Illinois.
Does it seem like yesterday that he went to work for him?
"It really does. I can look back and think, 'Wow, I can remember doing that.' And he always comes up and we talk about everything. It was a big piece of my life, and I was really thankful to have someone like him as a support system."
Big game Saturday, obviously. But does he still find himself thinking back a lot?
"I personally don't try to think back too much. I just try to keep my eye in the moment. But there are times. I might be in the cold tub. I'll just be sitting there and I'll just start thinking, 'Wow, I've been here for a long time.' Or I'll think of past players. So little random stuff will pop up into my head and I'll think, 'Wow, this is the last one.' But it really hasn't set in yet that this was the last Tuesday practice in my college career.' But there are times I reminisce about it and realize it little by little."
Does he remember, like, his first Camp Kenosha?
"Yeah. I do. I literally think back on all the little stuff. The first Kenosha and the stuff that me and the class I came in with— my two good friends Max Chapman and Deonte Gibson (D linemen who graduated last year). The little goofy stuff we would do in meetings. I just think about all of it, even to the first year I started playing. When I'm on the field now, I might think back and go, 'Wow. I was bad my first year. I couldn't do any of this.'"
Does he still talk to Max and Deonte?
"I talk to Max maybe every other week and I talk to Deonte about every day. Trevyon Green (the former running back) too. A really good friend. Andrew Smith (the former linebacker). I talk to him a lot too. So I don't necessarily reach out and ask. But when we're in conversation I'll sprinkle some stuff, 'What are you guys doing with this in the real world?'"
What's his next chapter?
"I really don't know. I'd love to play football as long as possible. If that were another chapter, that'd be great. If not, just go where the chapters take me."
Some guys have said that keeping the team together is more important than beating the in-state rival, more important that copping the trophy that goes with it. Agree?
"A rivalry is a rivalry. You have them in high school. You have then in college. And it's great to play in a rivalry game. But the main goal is to extend your season that extra month and to keep your team together and to be able to hang out with your friends that extra month. That's the funnest part. Going to bowl season is the funnest part. You get rewarded for what you did during the season. You get some presents, and you get more time with your friends and family. The past two weeks, knowing we don't have many chances left, I've just been trying to go into practice with an edge. Even more so this week knowing we've got just one shot left. Just really trying to realize I don't have time to reminisce and sit and remember all that stuff. I'm trying to get this last one to extend our season one more game. Just really thinking about that."
QUICKLY NOTED: Former Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith is in his first season guiding the Illini (3-8, 2-6). So, Pat Fitzgerald said this week, "We've got one-year's worth of evidence (game film). We've never played each other from the standpoint of their coaching staff and of their team and what they're trying to accomplish schematically. So plan to adjust. At some point around the second quarter, we'll have a pretty good idea. Then they'll make their adjustments (to what the 'Cats do) and we'll have to adjust again in the second half.". . . The Illini offense averages nearly as many rushing yards per-game (148.1) as it does passing yards (156.2). "I get real excited," D tackle Tyler Lancaster said about the prospect of playing a run-oriented team. "Against Purdue, they pass like 70 percent of the time and that took me out of the game a lot. When they run the ball, I know I can get in on the play, make something happen. So I get excited when I hear a team runs a lot.". . . The 'Cats have allowed more sacks (30) than all but one team in the conference (Maryland's given up 37). Illini D end Carroll Phillips, in turn, leads the conference in TFLs (17) and is second in sacks with eight. His bookend on that line, Dawuane Smott, himself has 13 TFLs. . . . Familiar faces: Illini offensive co-ordinator Garrick McGee had the same job with the 'Cats in '06 and '07; Illini linebacker coach Tim McCarigle starred as a 'Cat linebacker when Fitzgerald was his position coach and started his coaching career as a grad assistant under Fitzgerald in 2011; and Illini D tackle Tito Odenigbo is the brother of 'Cat D end Ifeadi— who, it should be noted, leads the Big Ten in sacks with nine.
AND FINALLY: The 'Cats enter this Rivalry Game on Senior Day the same as it did two falls ago, needing a win to be bowl eligible. They lost that one, 47-33. "We've thought about it a little bit," safety Godwin Igwebuike said this week. "That was obviously a tragic situation. We had a lot of guys banged up, a lot of guys injured (including quarterback Trevor Siemian). This is a completely different team. We're going to attack it like our backs are against the wall. That is the reality of the situation. Give it everything we have. I have full trust in my teammates that we're going to give it everything we have. I think we lacked some passion in that game (two years ago) on top of people being banged up. I don't expect that to happen this time around. If you're not excited for this game, you might as well just go home now. You have a challenge in front of you where you either spend a couple of weeks at home with nothing to do— I know I've got nothing to do at home. I've got family. But my friends are gone. I'll be lonely. So we've got to go out and get this dub. That's what we all want to do. We all want to stay here. We all want to extend the season for our seniors. More opportunities to play with each other. More memories to be made. So there's no doubt we'll go out there with passion, to say the least."
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