Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Western Michigan Presser
8/29/2016 5:09:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
PAT FITZGERALD said it all when he opened his first Monday presser of the year by exclaiming, "Happy Game Week! Finally! Here we go!" He looked, as he offered up that greeting, like a little kid opening his presents on Christmas morning.
HIS WILDCATS open their season Saturday at Ryan Field against Western Michigan, who are among the favorites to win the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Twelve months ago, in the same setting, they did that against Stanford, which was then among that favorites to win the PAC 12. That afternoon their defense dominated the Cardinal, shut down the Cardinal, held the Cardinal without a touchdown, and with that the tone of their year was established. "Last year was great," middle linebacker Anthony Walker, Jr., said Monday when asked if his unit would be looking to do the same against the Broncos. "But we have to come ready to play this year. We can't look back at Stanford and say, 'That's how we want to play.' We want to set a new standard this year. Obviously, we didn't get the big goal, which was to win the Big Ten championship. So we're going in with that in mind this year."
"Last year, that was great. Stanford. Tough opponent," echoed corner Matthew Harris. "But this year is a whole new year. We've been trying to make sure we find an identity for our defense. We're not the same as last year. We have different strong suits. Honestly, we're just trying to build that camaraderie as a defense, to build a name for this year. We're not the same as last year. We're a different team."
And what is their identity now?
"I guess we'll see in this opener," said Harris. "It's something that really builds through the whole season. It doesn't just happen. It's really how we respond in our toughest times, in our toughest battles. That's when our identity will come out. So we'll see. We're not exactly sure yet. We're trying to come out there and be dogs, honestly."
BE DOGS. That admonition, or a variation, recurs often when talking to defenders, and so here a definition (to hang from the refrigerator door) from sixth-year lineman C.J. Robbins, referring to a speech he gave at a team meeting early this month: "I had a talk last night about mentality and about being a dog, someone who grinds, someone who's gritty. Having that mentality in general is what we want to go with."
STILL. On Monday Jay Hooten, the Wildcats' director of Football Performance, asked Fitzgerald, "Whaddya think?"
Answered the coach: "Ask me that question at three o'clock on Saturday."
"We've had a lot of practice. . .," Fitzgerald will later explain, and then he chuckled. "But I just want to see us play. I want to see the new pieces go out and play and compete against a different colored jersey. I want to see how we handle in-game success, in-game adversity, how guys handle the coaching during that time period. (I want to) see us play four quarters of our style of football. That's what my expectations are."
BUT THERE ARE NO exhibition games in college football. That is why Fitzgerald's hope is just an expectation, which is also true of the defense's desire to be dogs. This is also why Matthew Harris could not yet define his unit's identity, and why Fitzgerald regularly echoed his answer to Hooten during his presser. He did that when asked who might emerge from the team's plethora of receivers. "Again. I've seen a lot of guys practice well," he said here. "Again. It's one thing to know your opponent from playing against yourself. The guys know the strengths and weaknesses of the secondary and the linebackers, the coverage concepts. But now we're playing a team that bases on a man-free coverage, a little different structure than what we see from our defense. So how (do) we handle that?"
And he did that when asked about its depth. "The guys have been doing a really good job of working their tails off to improve, and that's all we ask. Improve. Get better," he said here. "Their playing time on Saturday will be determined not only by the preparation they put in throughout the week. But also, especially for some of these younger guys, by how they play in the kicking game. I think this is maybe the deepest group that we've had. But time will tell as we go out and play. That's my evaluation from practice. But let's see how it is in games."
And he did that once more when he again said (with a change of time), "We're going to learn a lot about ourselves by four o'clock on Saturday. That's the bottom line. A lot of work to do between now and then (at practice). But looking forward to watching our guys play. I know they'll be excited. It's been a long road since January. A pretty nasty taste in our mouths (from) the last game that we played. So. Looking forward to watching them compete."
QUICKLY NOTED: Fitzgerald is 9-1 in season openers as the 'Cats' head coach, the lone loss coming to Cal in 2014. "I wish I had the perfect answer for that," he said Monday when asked his secret. "We've been in some really, some barnburners to start the year. We try to do a great job (of) peaking on Saturday, not taking too much out of the guys here. We definitely transition this week. We're out of camp mode. There's that trap that you can fall into and stay in a camp mentality. But with us not being in school, we want our guys to have more time off, more opportunity to be fresh. We definitely shorten practices up. So I think maybe our plan has helped us be fresh for the opener. And then we've found a way to win. Not many of them have been beautiful victories. But we found a way to win."
Connor Mahoney, early in his career, played on the D line and as an extra tight end in short-yardage situations before settling in last season as a starting guard on the offensive line. Now he is one of their four captains along with Walker, Harris and the wide receiver Austin Carr. "It means everything to me. It's the biggest honor I've ever gotten," he said when asked about that. "I think that it shows that if you keep pushing and have the right attitude, anything can happen. I'm excited to lead this team and I think I can do a good job. I've seen it from both sides. I've seen it from a lot of different perspectives.". . .
The Denver Broncos named former Wildcat Trevor Simian as their starter Monday, which prompted Fitzgerald to remember chats they had while playing golf earlier this summer. "His goal wasn't to be the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos. His goal was to win a championship with the Denver Broncos," he recalled. "So this is the next step. I think he's fallen into a great opportunity with an outstanding team. He just has to go out and be Trevor."
AND FINALLY, MAHONEY, when a asked about his old quarterback's ascension: "I texted him and told him to get a haircut."
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