Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Alviti Ready If Called Upon
8/26/2016 1:32:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Just two weeks remained until their season opener against Western Michigan when the Wildcats concluded their Saturday scrimmage in Kenosha, and that explained well enough the urgency in Pat Fitzgerald's voice as he later addressed them. His talk was filled with compliments, with cautions, with any number of messages, but there was one point he drove deeper than a Kris Bryant home run. It was this; "Every role is significant," a reality well understood by the junior quarterback Matt Aliviti.
"Yeah. I think everybody understands that," he will later say. "But especially as a quarterback— in the quarterback room, Coach (Mick) McCall (the offensive coordinator) and Fitz always stress leadership. It's our job, as a group collectively, to be leaders on this team. That's a big role I've had to play over the last few years, and I'm doing the best I can with it."
Twelve months ago, as the Wildcats labored in Kenosha, Matt Alviti was involved in a quarterback competition with then senior Zack Oliver and redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson. The last, of course, was eventually named the starter, and in the season that followed Alviti would attempt just three passes, completing one, and rush a mere three times for a net of minus-one yard. But here is the thing. Through all of that competition and all of that season, he was operating with two torn hip labrums.
He learned of his condition when spring practice ended in 2015, but here he passed on having an immediate operation and opted instead to push on. "The doc said that as long as I felt good enough to go that I could go and play," he explains. "So I decided to hold out and wait until the season ended."
But a year ago you were going through a competition with torn hip labrum, it is noted incredulously.
"Part of it, the reason why I didn't get the surgery, is I felt that I could still play and still compete," he says simply . "So, yeah, I'd say it effected me. But it didn't effect me a whole lot."
In January his right hip labrum was repaired. Six weeks later they did the same to the left. "So it was a long haul, a long winter getting healthy, recovering," he will say this afternoon in Kenosha. "But I'm definitely glad I got it done, and that I'm back healthy, close to 100 percent, and ready to go for the season. I'm in a good spot right now, I feel really good, and even more, the team's in a good spot. Guys are really excited about the season, especially coming off the loss we had against Tennessee. But we've kind of put that behind us and are working toward Western Michigan."
And what changes were wrought by the operations?
"I definitely feel a lot better. Looser in the hips. More mobility, especially cutting-wise. Everything straight away before I had my first surgery was fine. But cutting was what really bothered them. But for the most part, throughout camp, I haven't felt any pain, any infringement. So I feel healthy. I'm glad to have had the surgery done."
There is no quarterback competition this year. The starting job belongs to Thorson with Alviti consigned to the role of his backup. But note his answer above when he begins discussing his recovery, note specifically how he moves that answer from his state to the state of this team, and appreciate just what that means. Here is a man who was highly-acclaimed when he joined the 'Cats; a man with aspirations as high as that acclaim those many years ago; a man whose career did not unfold as he had hoped, but still he concerns himself with the whole rather than look inward and bemoan his own fate.
The latter, of course, is what so many of us laymen would do; is, in fact, what so many of this age's narcissistic competitors would do. But not Matt Alviti.
"You have to be the best teammate. You have to be a great supporter of Clayton, our starting quarterback," he says. "But you always have to be ready to play, especially being the number two guy. Anywhere in the quarterback room, you have to be ready to step in. Anyone can get hurt at anytime. So your preparation has to be the same as the starting quarterback, and you've got to be ready. In order to be successful, if you get put in there, you have to be prepared. You can't just hold back and sit back and not do anything. From that standpoint, you have to get in the film room just as much as the other quarterbacks."
But, again, so many would not do that. They would mope or they would transfer. What makes him this way?
"It's how you've been brought up, how you motivate yourself, especially the guys around me. Especially as a team," Alviti says. "When you're on a team this big and you're playing in the Big Ten, you don't want to let your teammates down. So if someone were to go down, you want to be able to go fill that and, in my situation, not see a lull in the offense. That's a big thing that motivates you, is the guys around you. Your teammates and your roommates and people you live with kind of keep your head up. That's what special about Northwestern. A great group of guys, a very unique group of people. We don't get down on each other often. We're always there to have each other's back, to support each other. That's been very supportive, and obviously my family. I have a great support system in my family. I know they're always going to be there for me whether football is part of my life or not. Those are two of the main things that have helped me throughout my career."
Every role is significant. But the quarterback is an offense's choreographer and, back on Media Day, Pat Fitzgerald avowed, "We're going to need two quarterbacks. Most teams that are in the spread are going to play two quarterbacks at some point. Not by choice, sometimes. But by the nature of the way the game unfolds."
"I've been, what, in this role 10 years now, and almost every year we've played at some point, at least in one game, two quarterbacks," he says Saturday, explaining that observation. "That's where that comes from. It's not by design, 'Hey, we're doing this.' It just seems to have happened. So I think you would be very naive, as a college coach, not to get two guys ready for sure, maybe even three. Right now, there's no doubt that Clayton and Matt have done a really good job."
And so, as gruesome as the thought might be, Matt Alviti truly is just one play away.
"It's been like that since after my redshirt year," he will finally say on this Saturday. "Since then I've always been told you're one play away. It goes back to what I said before. It's about how you prepare for the week and how you prepare for your opponents each day."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Just two weeks remained until their season opener against Western Michigan when the Wildcats concluded their Saturday scrimmage in Kenosha, and that explained well enough the urgency in Pat Fitzgerald's voice as he later addressed them. His talk was filled with compliments, with cautions, with any number of messages, but there was one point he drove deeper than a Kris Bryant home run. It was this; "Every role is significant," a reality well understood by the junior quarterback Matt Aliviti.
"Yeah. I think everybody understands that," he will later say. "But especially as a quarterback— in the quarterback room, Coach (Mick) McCall (the offensive coordinator) and Fitz always stress leadership. It's our job, as a group collectively, to be leaders on this team. That's a big role I've had to play over the last few years, and I'm doing the best I can with it."
Twelve months ago, as the Wildcats labored in Kenosha, Matt Alviti was involved in a quarterback competition with then senior Zack Oliver and redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson. The last, of course, was eventually named the starter, and in the season that followed Alviti would attempt just three passes, completing one, and rush a mere three times for a net of minus-one yard. But here is the thing. Through all of that competition and all of that season, he was operating with two torn hip labrums.
He learned of his condition when spring practice ended in 2015, but here he passed on having an immediate operation and opted instead to push on. "The doc said that as long as I felt good enough to go that I could go and play," he explains. "So I decided to hold out and wait until the season ended."
But a year ago you were going through a competition with torn hip labrum, it is noted incredulously.
"Part of it, the reason why I didn't get the surgery, is I felt that I could still play and still compete," he says simply . "So, yeah, I'd say it effected me. But it didn't effect me a whole lot."
In January his right hip labrum was repaired. Six weeks later they did the same to the left. "So it was a long haul, a long winter getting healthy, recovering," he will say this afternoon in Kenosha. "But I'm definitely glad I got it done, and that I'm back healthy, close to 100 percent, and ready to go for the season. I'm in a good spot right now, I feel really good, and even more, the team's in a good spot. Guys are really excited about the season, especially coming off the loss we had against Tennessee. But we've kind of put that behind us and are working toward Western Michigan."
And what changes were wrought by the operations?
"I definitely feel a lot better. Looser in the hips. More mobility, especially cutting-wise. Everything straight away before I had my first surgery was fine. But cutting was what really bothered them. But for the most part, throughout camp, I haven't felt any pain, any infringement. So I feel healthy. I'm glad to have had the surgery done."
There is no quarterback competition this year. The starting job belongs to Thorson with Alviti consigned to the role of his backup. But note his answer above when he begins discussing his recovery, note specifically how he moves that answer from his state to the state of this team, and appreciate just what that means. Here is a man who was highly-acclaimed when he joined the 'Cats; a man with aspirations as high as that acclaim those many years ago; a man whose career did not unfold as he had hoped, but still he concerns himself with the whole rather than look inward and bemoan his own fate.
The latter, of course, is what so many of us laymen would do; is, in fact, what so many of this age's narcissistic competitors would do. But not Matt Alviti.
"You have to be the best teammate. You have to be a great supporter of Clayton, our starting quarterback," he says. "But you always have to be ready to play, especially being the number two guy. Anywhere in the quarterback room, you have to be ready to step in. Anyone can get hurt at anytime. So your preparation has to be the same as the starting quarterback, and you've got to be ready. In order to be successful, if you get put in there, you have to be prepared. You can't just hold back and sit back and not do anything. From that standpoint, you have to get in the film room just as much as the other quarterbacks."
But, again, so many would not do that. They would mope or they would transfer. What makes him this way?
"It's how you've been brought up, how you motivate yourself, especially the guys around me. Especially as a team," Alviti says. "When you're on a team this big and you're playing in the Big Ten, you don't want to let your teammates down. So if someone were to go down, you want to be able to go fill that and, in my situation, not see a lull in the offense. That's a big thing that motivates you, is the guys around you. Your teammates and your roommates and people you live with kind of keep your head up. That's what special about Northwestern. A great group of guys, a very unique group of people. We don't get down on each other often. We're always there to have each other's back, to support each other. That's been very supportive, and obviously my family. I have a great support system in my family. I know they're always going to be there for me whether football is part of my life or not. Those are two of the main things that have helped me throughout my career."
Every role is significant. But the quarterback is an offense's choreographer and, back on Media Day, Pat Fitzgerald avowed, "We're going to need two quarterbacks. Most teams that are in the spread are going to play two quarterbacks at some point. Not by choice, sometimes. But by the nature of the way the game unfolds."
"I've been, what, in this role 10 years now, and almost every year we've played at some point, at least in one game, two quarterbacks," he says Saturday, explaining that observation. "That's where that comes from. It's not by design, 'Hey, we're doing this.' It just seems to have happened. So I think you would be very naive, as a college coach, not to get two guys ready for sure, maybe even three. Right now, there's no doubt that Clayton and Matt have done a really good job."
And so, as gruesome as the thought might be, Matt Alviti truly is just one play away.
"It's been like that since after my redshirt year," he will finally say on this Saturday. "Since then I've always been told you're one play away. It goes back to what I said before. It's about how you prepare for the week and how you prepare for your opponents each day."
••••••
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
A 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
