Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: No Give Up
11/18/2017 8:33:00 AM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
CARRYING ON: They opened this season, as they do every season, looking to contend for the conference title. But at Wisconsin, in their Big Ten opener, they frittered away a halftime lead and lost by nine, and a week later at home against Penn State they wilted late and fell by 24. Now, realistically, that championship they coveted was beyond their reach. But right here, their knees buckled and their season on the brink, the 'Cats did not blink. They instead set off on the five-game winning streak they carry into Senior Day and their Saturday morning date with Minnesota.
"Our guys have really worked hard over this— I'd say going into the Wisconsin game," Pat Fitzgerald said after the last win in their streak. "Maybe we didn't get the return on that investment right away. But they didn't stop grinding."
Did he ever fear they would stop, he was later asked.
"I didn't have that fear at all. None whatsoever, quite frankly," he said. "Sometimes you will go through it, and embrace it, and you won't get the results. That happens too. A couple years back I thought we had that. We never lost the team. We lost games, a lot of one-score games, but we never lost the team. I don't think that's in our guys' DNA, I just don't. I don't think there's give up. At least in my 18 years here, I haven't seen a guy give up. Ever. I just don't think that's a Northwestern man. I don't think that's what a Wildcat's about. I don't think that's the kind of guys we recruit. I say that, but that trap (quitting) is real easy to fall into. I just think collectively as a group, I don't envision that ever happening here."
So what kept them grinding back when they were 2-3?
"I think it started with the leadership," said the senior defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster, who is one of the team's four captains. "We dug ourselves a hole at the beginning of the season and we just all made a conscious decision to pull ourselves out of it. And the younger guys, they're gonna follow what we do. So if we continue to have a positive attitude, as we did— we just continued to show up and have passion at practice. As soon as we were in that hole, it started with the leadership. We knew we could pull ourselves out of it. We did."
"Yeah, I can agree to that," echoed safety Kyle Queiro, another leader. "In the DB room more specifically, Godwin (Igwebuike) and I, we were just having a basic conversation that we have in the locker room with a lot of DBs around. We were talking about how we have a decision at this point, at this junction of the season— we can win out or we can let some of our early (stumbles) keep us from a bowl game and keep us from having the type of season that we already imagined that we would have. So with that, we just made the decision. I don't think necessarily that a lot of things changed. We just did what we did better and harder because we realized it wasn't getting it done at that point in time. So all you could do is keep going."
IN A WORD: One adjective that has been employed often during their winning streak is "special," a description dropped late last Saturday night by Clayton Thorson.
"The seniors, we were talking about it earlier today and last night," he said here. "We've only got these last two weeks and a bowl game with this team. This group of guys is pretty special."
"I think it's our seniors, first of all," Fitzgerald said when asked what made it so."They've created a great brotherhood in that locker room. They own our squad. It's been really fun to watch all of those guys go throughout their career. They've just done a terrific job. I think you see it in how we play. I think you see the enthusiasm for each other. I think you see the brotherhood. We've got some outstanding older teammates that have laid a phenomenal legacy for the future. For them the future is now. They've got three guaranteed (games) left as a senior class, with none guaranteed individually because of the nature of the game. They've done a really good job."
"I've been a part of four teams here and, yeah, I think this is as close as we've been," agreed the senior running back Justin Jackson. "I think it's shown on the field. We had a tough start, but we all believed in each other. And every single time we go out there on Saturday we all have that belief in each other— on the same side of the ball and on the opposite side of the ball. That's helped elevate our team."
QUICKLY NOTED: Minnesota is 5-5 overall and 2-5 in the Big Ten with wins over Illinois and Nebraska. . . The Golden Gophers arrive off a 54-21 thumping of the Cornhuskers, whom they held to just 69 rushing yards on 33 attempts. . . Their running back Rodney Smith opened that game with a 100-yard kickoff return and then picked up 134 rushing yards during it. But their offensive star was their dual-threat quarterback Demry Croft, who piled up 183 rushing yards and ran for three touchdowns. "I thought he played great," Fitzgerald said of him this week. . . . Croft choreographs a run-pass option offense. So, said Fitzgerald, "The D line has got to be really sound with what they're doing. You've got to make teams one-dimensional. If you allow teams to run the ball with those RPOs, it really gets challenging to stop. It's no secret in our league. Typically, when you stop the run, you've got a good chance to win.". . . .The Gophs are in their first season under P.J. Fleck, who last fall guided Western Michigan to a one-point upset of the 'Cats. Last Tuesday, at his weekly press conference, he remembered that Fitzgerald was "One of the first people I talked to about becoming a head football coach years and years ago in terms of meeting me for lunch when I was an assistant coach at Northern Illinois. . . . He taught me so much about becoming a head coach. . .and the greatest quote he ever taught me was: Just make sure you don't manage anybody. Make sure you lead people. Managing, we manage machines. We lead people. That was the greatest quote that I could have learned at the time. He's a class act."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
CARRYING ON: They opened this season, as they do every season, looking to contend for the conference title. But at Wisconsin, in their Big Ten opener, they frittered away a halftime lead and lost by nine, and a week later at home against Penn State they wilted late and fell by 24. Now, realistically, that championship they coveted was beyond their reach. But right here, their knees buckled and their season on the brink, the 'Cats did not blink. They instead set off on the five-game winning streak they carry into Senior Day and their Saturday morning date with Minnesota.
"Our guys have really worked hard over this— I'd say going into the Wisconsin game," Pat Fitzgerald said after the last win in their streak. "Maybe we didn't get the return on that investment right away. But they didn't stop grinding."
Did he ever fear they would stop, he was later asked.
"I didn't have that fear at all. None whatsoever, quite frankly," he said. "Sometimes you will go through it, and embrace it, and you won't get the results. That happens too. A couple years back I thought we had that. We never lost the team. We lost games, a lot of one-score games, but we never lost the team. I don't think that's in our guys' DNA, I just don't. I don't think there's give up. At least in my 18 years here, I haven't seen a guy give up. Ever. I just don't think that's a Northwestern man. I don't think that's what a Wildcat's about. I don't think that's the kind of guys we recruit. I say that, but that trap (quitting) is real easy to fall into. I just think collectively as a group, I don't envision that ever happening here."
So what kept them grinding back when they were 2-3?
"I think it started with the leadership," said the senior defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster, who is one of the team's four captains. "We dug ourselves a hole at the beginning of the season and we just all made a conscious decision to pull ourselves out of it. And the younger guys, they're gonna follow what we do. So if we continue to have a positive attitude, as we did— we just continued to show up and have passion at practice. As soon as we were in that hole, it started with the leadership. We knew we could pull ourselves out of it. We did."
"Yeah, I can agree to that," echoed safety Kyle Queiro, another leader. "In the DB room more specifically, Godwin (Igwebuike) and I, we were just having a basic conversation that we have in the locker room with a lot of DBs around. We were talking about how we have a decision at this point, at this junction of the season— we can win out or we can let some of our early (stumbles) keep us from a bowl game and keep us from having the type of season that we already imagined that we would have. So with that, we just made the decision. I don't think necessarily that a lot of things changed. We just did what we did better and harder because we realized it wasn't getting it done at that point in time. So all you could do is keep going."
IN A WORD: One adjective that has been employed often during their winning streak is "special," a description dropped late last Saturday night by Clayton Thorson.
"The seniors, we were talking about it earlier today and last night," he said here. "We've only got these last two weeks and a bowl game with this team. This group of guys is pretty special."
"I think it's our seniors, first of all," Fitzgerald said when asked what made it so."They've created a great brotherhood in that locker room. They own our squad. It's been really fun to watch all of those guys go throughout their career. They've just done a terrific job. I think you see it in how we play. I think you see the enthusiasm for each other. I think you see the brotherhood. We've got some outstanding older teammates that have laid a phenomenal legacy for the future. For them the future is now. They've got three guaranteed (games) left as a senior class, with none guaranteed individually because of the nature of the game. They've done a really good job."
"I've been a part of four teams here and, yeah, I think this is as close as we've been," agreed the senior running back Justin Jackson. "I think it's shown on the field. We had a tough start, but we all believed in each other. And every single time we go out there on Saturday we all have that belief in each other— on the same side of the ball and on the opposite side of the ball. That's helped elevate our team."
QUICKLY NOTED: Minnesota is 5-5 overall and 2-5 in the Big Ten with wins over Illinois and Nebraska. . . The Golden Gophers arrive off a 54-21 thumping of the Cornhuskers, whom they held to just 69 rushing yards on 33 attempts. . . Their running back Rodney Smith opened that game with a 100-yard kickoff return and then picked up 134 rushing yards during it. But their offensive star was their dual-threat quarterback Demry Croft, who piled up 183 rushing yards and ran for three touchdowns. "I thought he played great," Fitzgerald said of him this week. . . . Croft choreographs a run-pass option offense. So, said Fitzgerald, "The D line has got to be really sound with what they're doing. You've got to make teams one-dimensional. If you allow teams to run the ball with those RPOs, it really gets challenging to stop. It's no secret in our league. Typically, when you stop the run, you've got a good chance to win.". . . .The Gophs are in their first season under P.J. Fleck, who last fall guided Western Michigan to a one-point upset of the 'Cats. Last Tuesday, at his weekly press conference, he remembered that Fitzgerald was "One of the first people I talked to about becoming a head football coach years and years ago in terms of meeting me for lunch when I was an assistant coach at Northern Illinois. . . . He taught me so much about becoming a head coach. . .and the greatest quote he ever taught me was: Just make sure you don't manage anybody. Make sure you lead people. Managing, we manage machines. We lead people. That was the greatest quote that I could have learned at the time. He's a class act."
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