Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Wildcats' Wideouts Focused on Improving
8/16/2016 9:00:00 AM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Your group is under pressure, the wideout Austin Carr is told.
"Some would say," he replies with a smile, and then he chuckles.
Do you feel that?
"No," he says.
No?
"No," he insists.
Why not?
"We're focusing on our own goals and own potential, which we see as very high," he explains. "We're not allowing critics or negativity to constrict us. Honestly, I think that that doesn't give us breathing room to improve. It's OK to make mistakes during camp. It's OK to make mistakes going 100 miles per-hour and learning from that. Obviously, we want to be better, and we hear our coaches telling that to us. So, focusing on ourselves."
"We're better than we were last year and we're taking that to heart," another wideout, Andrew Scanlan, will echo days later. "We're trying to own the fact that Justin (Jackson) can have a better season, that Warren (Long) can have a better season, just by opening it up vertically, making the plays the way we can. It's very encouraging to us to know that we're ready to throw the ball, that we're ready to go."
"We just want to go out there and show everyone, all the people who are doubting us," a third wideout, Flynn Nagel, will add minutes later. "People are saying, just because of last season, that the receivers are the weakness on our team. But we think as a group that we have a really, really talented group. So now we just want to go out there and show people that."
The analogy belongs to Northwestern running back coach Matt MacPherson, who compares offensive football to a watch. "There's so many working parts, right? Pieces that have to function together for it to work and operate and have the right timing," says Pat Fitzgerald, explaining this analogy. "That's offensive football. Very different from defense. Defense, you see it, you go tackle it. It's a whole lot more complicated than that (on offense), and when we've had that watch-like mentality, that precision, we've been pretty darn salty. When we haven't, we've been pretty darn ugly. The timing, the execution, all 11 heartbeats have to operate as one for you to be efficient offensively. Defensively, the tackle can get reached, the linebacker can fit wrong, but if the safety fits right and tackles, everybody's 'All right. What a great defense.' That's not the way it is offensively."
Just this morning, in their meeting room, the wideouts watched a film featuring the relationship of quarterback Payton Manning and receiver Marvin Harrison during their halcyon days with the Colts. "It said those two people were exactly the same people," remembers Nagel. "If you have a good relationship with your quarterback, that's going to absolutely effect the way you perform on the field. The more you meet with him, the more you talk to him, the more you work with him, the more you hang out with him even, the better it's going to translate to the field."
A year ago, through all of the off-season that preceded the fall of 2015, a quarterback competition unfolded among a trio of 'Cats, which not only precluded the formation of that kind of relationship. It meant too that Zack Oliver, the eldest of the three, was running the film sessions shared by the quarterbacks and wideouts, and that the latter had as many balls thrown to them by Oliver and Matt Alviti as they did by eventual starter Clayton Thorson.
That kept them from learning about Thorson, kept them from getting down their timing with Thorson, kept them from building any kind of symbiotic relationship with Thorson, but this off-season it was all so different. This off-season Thorson, the incumbent starter, not only ran those film sessions and got more reps with his wideouts. He also made, he says, "A conscious decision to make sure we had time outside of football hanging out and building camaraderie. That's where it all starts. Trusting each other and looking out for each other.
"Outside the football field, there's so much that can be gained. If it's laser tag, if it's going to the movies. We would have wide receiver-quarterback movie nights in the summer"—and now he's smiling at the memory—"we'd sit down on these couches, it was a little too hot, and these leather couches are sticking to our skin, but we're building camaraderie. I think that's really helped with running routes, talking the same language. That's really something that's changed. We're talking the same language now. That's helped so much."
"We do everything together now," avows Scanlan. "We love Chili's, I'll tell you that much. We love going to Chili's after film sessions, after throwing sessions. We've had movie nights. Ice cream. It's not something we're making guys go to. It's just something, 'Let's get together. Let's hang out. Let's get to know each other.' It was awesome, especially with Clayton. He has a personality you want to be around. Last year, he didn't project that as much as he could have. This year, now he's one of my best friends on the team. I'm not just saying that because he's the quarterback. He's somebody you always want to be around, for sure."
"It's given Clayton the opportunity to settle in as a leader on the field and to settle in as a buddy to the wideouts," concludes Carr, speaking of this off-season when there was no quarterback competition. "And being sure about who's going to be throwing me the ball, it helps on the field with timing. It's just kind of, 'I know where you're going. You know what kind of ball I'm going to throw.' That kind of X factor is something we've been continually building. We're still building that. We're not where we want to be. We're still building that now. But we've put enough work in, I think, to where that kind of chemistry can grow."
Thorson, in fact, will soon be auditing another chemistry class. For, after finishing here, he will go view that movie featuring Payton Manning and Marvin Harrison.
Austin Carr's 16 receptions were the most by any Northwestern wideout last season, which explains why that group is under pressure to improve. It also explains why Fitzgerald, who stresses that his team worry only about itself, will occasionally stick his head into their meeting room and remind them that no one is writing glowing odes about them. ("Sometimes it's healthy to take a little bit of the outside and bring it inside. You can use some of that," he recently explained.) "Coaches are able to do that," Carr will say when asked about these visits.
"They want to keep us from reading the press and, as a group, we don't discuss that. We're not talking about it. It's not like, 'What did they say?' Obviously we're responding to our coaches, and we're trying to be the best we can be. As far as what Coach Fitz says? Yeah. He's poked his head in and said some inflammatory things to get us fired up, and we like it. It's a head coaches job to get us motivated, and he does."
And how do they feel knowing so many opine that this Wildcats' season may hang on their room's production?
"It leaves us feeling excited," says Carr, the excitement right there in his voice. "I think we're going to catch a lot more this year. I think we're going to run a lot more; we're going to score a lot more. That leaves us excited. We're frothing at the mouth."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Your group is under pressure, the wideout Austin Carr is told.
"Some would say," he replies with a smile, and then he chuckles.
Do you feel that?
"No," he says.
No?
"No," he insists.
Why not?
"We're focusing on our own goals and own potential, which we see as very high," he explains. "We're not allowing critics or negativity to constrict us. Honestly, I think that that doesn't give us breathing room to improve. It's OK to make mistakes during camp. It's OK to make mistakes going 100 miles per-hour and learning from that. Obviously, we want to be better, and we hear our coaches telling that to us. So, focusing on ourselves."
"We're better than we were last year and we're taking that to heart," another wideout, Andrew Scanlan, will echo days later. "We're trying to own the fact that Justin (Jackson) can have a better season, that Warren (Long) can have a better season, just by opening it up vertically, making the plays the way we can. It's very encouraging to us to know that we're ready to throw the ball, that we're ready to go."
"We just want to go out there and show everyone, all the people who are doubting us," a third wideout, Flynn Nagel, will add minutes later. "People are saying, just because of last season, that the receivers are the weakness on our team. But we think as a group that we have a really, really talented group. So now we just want to go out there and show people that."
The analogy belongs to Northwestern running back coach Matt MacPherson, who compares offensive football to a watch. "There's so many working parts, right? Pieces that have to function together for it to work and operate and have the right timing," says Pat Fitzgerald, explaining this analogy. "That's offensive football. Very different from defense. Defense, you see it, you go tackle it. It's a whole lot more complicated than that (on offense), and when we've had that watch-like mentality, that precision, we've been pretty darn salty. When we haven't, we've been pretty darn ugly. The timing, the execution, all 11 heartbeats have to operate as one for you to be efficient offensively. Defensively, the tackle can get reached, the linebacker can fit wrong, but if the safety fits right and tackles, everybody's 'All right. What a great defense.' That's not the way it is offensively."
Just this morning, in their meeting room, the wideouts watched a film featuring the relationship of quarterback Payton Manning and receiver Marvin Harrison during their halcyon days with the Colts. "It said those two people were exactly the same people," remembers Nagel. "If you have a good relationship with your quarterback, that's going to absolutely effect the way you perform on the field. The more you meet with him, the more you talk to him, the more you work with him, the more you hang out with him even, the better it's going to translate to the field."
A year ago, through all of the off-season that preceded the fall of 2015, a quarterback competition unfolded among a trio of 'Cats, which not only precluded the formation of that kind of relationship. It meant too that Zack Oliver, the eldest of the three, was running the film sessions shared by the quarterbacks and wideouts, and that the latter had as many balls thrown to them by Oliver and Matt Alviti as they did by eventual starter Clayton Thorson.
That kept them from learning about Thorson, kept them from getting down their timing with Thorson, kept them from building any kind of symbiotic relationship with Thorson, but this off-season it was all so different. This off-season Thorson, the incumbent starter, not only ran those film sessions and got more reps with his wideouts. He also made, he says, "A conscious decision to make sure we had time outside of football hanging out and building camaraderie. That's where it all starts. Trusting each other and looking out for each other.
"Outside the football field, there's so much that can be gained. If it's laser tag, if it's going to the movies. We would have wide receiver-quarterback movie nights in the summer"—and now he's smiling at the memory—"we'd sit down on these couches, it was a little too hot, and these leather couches are sticking to our skin, but we're building camaraderie. I think that's really helped with running routes, talking the same language. That's really something that's changed. We're talking the same language now. That's helped so much."
"We do everything together now," avows Scanlan. "We love Chili's, I'll tell you that much. We love going to Chili's after film sessions, after throwing sessions. We've had movie nights. Ice cream. It's not something we're making guys go to. It's just something, 'Let's get together. Let's hang out. Let's get to know each other.' It was awesome, especially with Clayton. He has a personality you want to be around. Last year, he didn't project that as much as he could have. This year, now he's one of my best friends on the team. I'm not just saying that because he's the quarterback. He's somebody you always want to be around, for sure."
"It's given Clayton the opportunity to settle in as a leader on the field and to settle in as a buddy to the wideouts," concludes Carr, speaking of this off-season when there was no quarterback competition. "And being sure about who's going to be throwing me the ball, it helps on the field with timing. It's just kind of, 'I know where you're going. You know what kind of ball I'm going to throw.' That kind of X factor is something we've been continually building. We're still building that. We're not where we want to be. We're still building that now. But we've put enough work in, I think, to where that kind of chemistry can grow."
Thorson, in fact, will soon be auditing another chemistry class. For, after finishing here, he will go view that movie featuring Payton Manning and Marvin Harrison.
Austin Carr's 16 receptions were the most by any Northwestern wideout last season, which explains why that group is under pressure to improve. It also explains why Fitzgerald, who stresses that his team worry only about itself, will occasionally stick his head into their meeting room and remind them that no one is writing glowing odes about them. ("Sometimes it's healthy to take a little bit of the outside and bring it inside. You can use some of that," he recently explained.) "Coaches are able to do that," Carr will say when asked about these visits.
"They want to keep us from reading the press and, as a group, we don't discuss that. We're not talking about it. It's not like, 'What did they say?' Obviously we're responding to our coaches, and we're trying to be the best we can be. As far as what Coach Fitz says? Yeah. He's poked his head in and said some inflammatory things to get us fired up, and we like it. It's a head coaches job to get us motivated, and he does."
And how do they feel knowing so many opine that this Wildcats' season may hang on their room's production?
"It leaves us feeling excited," says Carr, the excitement right there in his voice. "I think we're going to catch a lot more this year. I think we're going to run a lot more; we're going to score a lot more. That leaves us excited. We're frothing at the mouth."
••••••
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