Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: From the Inside Out
11/24/2017 1:23:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The good teams I've had over the years have had players on them, I'd just simply say, 'You better make damn sure Jones is straightened out' and, I mean, Jones would be straightened out in a heartbeat.
—Bob Knight
Basketball coaching legend
The advantage it gives a coach? If a leader has great internal leadership, and on-the-spot leadership, he's a much better leader. In the military I'd liken it to the trenches. That squad leader being able to say, at a moment's notice, this is what we're supposed to do, this is what the unit needs. The company commander, who's at a different post, cannot give face-to-face, eye-to-eye orders.
—Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
who played for and coached at Army
Their season opened draped in promise and garnished by expectations, but very quickly it bumped up against harsh reality. Duke drilled them, and Wisconsin rallied from a halftime deficit to top them by nine. Penn State then smothered them to win by 24, and now the 'Cats found themselves 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten and as bedraggled as Dust Bowl migrants as they traveled to College Park for a meeting with Maryland.
Their most-brilliant star, Justin Jackson, was banged up and only occasionally resembling his radiant old self. Their offensive line, which had coalesced into an effective unit at the previous season's end, had lost its edge and was now a limp hand, not the fist it strived to be. Their receivers, generally young and untested, were not getting separation on DBs that smothered them, and their offense was coming off a game in which it had gone three-and-out 10 times while scoring but a late-and-meaningless touchdown.
The 'Cats are now 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten and travel to Champaign to close out their regular season against Illinois on the wings of a six-game winning streak. But back then, back when they headed East for their Oct. 14 date with the Terps, that story line seemed as fanciful as a Hollywood script to all except those who mattered most. That would be the 'Cats themselves.
"We didn't feel sorry for ourselves," Pat Fitzgerald noted this week, thinking back to this crucible. "Guys got banged up, we didn't look like, 'Oh, no. The sky is falling.' The guys focused on what was important and that was preparing. They shut off the noise of negativity, focused on what they could control. The leadership on this team took it upon themselves to go out and practice and get better and improve."
Fitzgerald, throughout the winning streak his team now rides, has regularly lauded his seniors and the leaders, and to some this certainly sounds like another boring lecture in Coach Speak Cliche 101. They would prefer something sexier, an Aladdin's Lamp, a magic pill, a Golden Ticket that guarantees entrance to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. But that is the stuff that flows from the fertile minds of novelists, Here, in reality, the 'Cats were pulled back from the abyss by some very real folk who straightened them out like Knight's unnamed player, who gave them on-the-spot orders like Krzyzewski's squad leader.
Their names are familiar now to any who follow this team. Jackson and quarterback Clayton Thorson. Center Brad North and guard Tommy Doles and superback Garrett Dickerson. D tackles Tyler Lancaster and Jordan Thompson. Senior linebacker Brett Walsh and senior safeties Kyle Queiro and Godwin Igwebuike. They are the 'Cats generally credited with catalyzing their rebound, and Fitzgerald is generally referring to when he talks of players owning the locker room.
"It's critically important," he says when asked about that. "Any time the young men own the squad— that's what we try to build here. A program that's run from the locker room out. Every team is different. It's not I wish I had this magic wand and if we do this it works. In some years, like this year, we've had phenomenal leadership. Other years, we get some injuries with some older guys and it's been good. Not one time have I felt that it's been bad. It's been good. So. Terrific job. It's been really fun to watch.
"I think it starts in two rooms this year. It starts in the D line room. That group comes every day ready to rock, ready to get better, ready to improve. I also feel that way about the running back room. I've been really impressed with that room. I thought they had a great offseason and it's carried over. Maybe Johnny (Moten) and Jesse (Brown) and Corey (Acker) and Auston (Anderson) aren't getting a ton of touches, but that whole group is involved heavily in the kicking game. Lark (Jeremy Larkin) and JJ (Jackson) are getting more of the touches, but that whole group has been highly productive this year. It's been fun to watch."
Now he is asked the importance of the peer pressure that comes with player ownership.
"Peer pressure is probably in our feeling society today something that I shouldn't talk about. It's not nice now. I know. I get all these e-mails, so I got to make sure I follow the proper protocol," he demurs. But then, in the next heartbeat, he fairly shouts, "Hell, yeah, it's important. It's the only thing that matters.
"If you can hold your teammate accountable by doing the right things yourself, you've got a strong squad. You've got an opportunity to go to battle. When you don't have it, you don't have a chance. It's critically, critically important. Those are the types of guys that we try to recruit. We try to recruit leaders in high school, and my hope is that we can recruit multi-sports leaders. I really like it when we have guys who obviously are great football players that we think are going to come here to help us compete, to help us win championships. But then they may be role players in other sports and learn what it's like to be the sixth or seventh guy on the basketball team, or maybe be a rotational baseball player, or a track guy that's not the 100 meter dash winner.
"Obviously I'd like to have more of those (dash winners). But the more you have to be an all-around athlete and an all-around teammate— when you get to this level, it gets hard. Guaranteed it gets hard. . . . If you get a collection of those types of guys (who know what it's like to grind as the sixth man), you've got a chance to go far."
AND FINALLY: It has been a grind this year for a young Illinois team that is 2-9 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten in its second season under former Bear coach Lovie Smith. Still, said Fitzgerald, "This is our lone rivalry. This is the only one that matters to us. To fight for the Land Of Lincoln trophy, it means the world to our program. This is one of the games that we talk about during training camp and then we kind of put it aside and then bring it back up. . . . Usually you just throw the records out and it's a heck of a competition."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
The good teams I've had over the years have had players on them, I'd just simply say, 'You better make damn sure Jones is straightened out' and, I mean, Jones would be straightened out in a heartbeat.
—Bob Knight
Basketball coaching legend
The advantage it gives a coach? If a leader has great internal leadership, and on-the-spot leadership, he's a much better leader. In the military I'd liken it to the trenches. That squad leader being able to say, at a moment's notice, this is what we're supposed to do, this is what the unit needs. The company commander, who's at a different post, cannot give face-to-face, eye-to-eye orders.
—Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
who played for and coached at Army
Their season opened draped in promise and garnished by expectations, but very quickly it bumped up against harsh reality. Duke drilled them, and Wisconsin rallied from a halftime deficit to top them by nine. Penn State then smothered them to win by 24, and now the 'Cats found themselves 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten and as bedraggled as Dust Bowl migrants as they traveled to College Park for a meeting with Maryland.
Their most-brilliant star, Justin Jackson, was banged up and only occasionally resembling his radiant old self. Their offensive line, which had coalesced into an effective unit at the previous season's end, had lost its edge and was now a limp hand, not the fist it strived to be. Their receivers, generally young and untested, were not getting separation on DBs that smothered them, and their offense was coming off a game in which it had gone three-and-out 10 times while scoring but a late-and-meaningless touchdown.
The 'Cats are now 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten and travel to Champaign to close out their regular season against Illinois on the wings of a six-game winning streak. But back then, back when they headed East for their Oct. 14 date with the Terps, that story line seemed as fanciful as a Hollywood script to all except those who mattered most. That would be the 'Cats themselves.
"We didn't feel sorry for ourselves," Pat Fitzgerald noted this week, thinking back to this crucible. "Guys got banged up, we didn't look like, 'Oh, no. The sky is falling.' The guys focused on what was important and that was preparing. They shut off the noise of negativity, focused on what they could control. The leadership on this team took it upon themselves to go out and practice and get better and improve."
Fitzgerald, throughout the winning streak his team now rides, has regularly lauded his seniors and the leaders, and to some this certainly sounds like another boring lecture in Coach Speak Cliche 101. They would prefer something sexier, an Aladdin's Lamp, a magic pill, a Golden Ticket that guarantees entrance to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. But that is the stuff that flows from the fertile minds of novelists, Here, in reality, the 'Cats were pulled back from the abyss by some very real folk who straightened them out like Knight's unnamed player, who gave them on-the-spot orders like Krzyzewski's squad leader.
Their names are familiar now to any who follow this team. Jackson and quarterback Clayton Thorson. Center Brad North and guard Tommy Doles and superback Garrett Dickerson. D tackles Tyler Lancaster and Jordan Thompson. Senior linebacker Brett Walsh and senior safeties Kyle Queiro and Godwin Igwebuike. They are the 'Cats generally credited with catalyzing their rebound, and Fitzgerald is generally referring to when he talks of players owning the locker room.
"It's critically important," he says when asked about that. "Any time the young men own the squad— that's what we try to build here. A program that's run from the locker room out. Every team is different. It's not I wish I had this magic wand and if we do this it works. In some years, like this year, we've had phenomenal leadership. Other years, we get some injuries with some older guys and it's been good. Not one time have I felt that it's been bad. It's been good. So. Terrific job. It's been really fun to watch.
"I think it starts in two rooms this year. It starts in the D line room. That group comes every day ready to rock, ready to get better, ready to improve. I also feel that way about the running back room. I've been really impressed with that room. I thought they had a great offseason and it's carried over. Maybe Johnny (Moten) and Jesse (Brown) and Corey (Acker) and Auston (Anderson) aren't getting a ton of touches, but that whole group is involved heavily in the kicking game. Lark (Jeremy Larkin) and JJ (Jackson) are getting more of the touches, but that whole group has been highly productive this year. It's been fun to watch."
Now he is asked the importance of the peer pressure that comes with player ownership.
"Peer pressure is probably in our feeling society today something that I shouldn't talk about. It's not nice now. I know. I get all these e-mails, so I got to make sure I follow the proper protocol," he demurs. But then, in the next heartbeat, he fairly shouts, "Hell, yeah, it's important. It's the only thing that matters.
"If you can hold your teammate accountable by doing the right things yourself, you've got a strong squad. You've got an opportunity to go to battle. When you don't have it, you don't have a chance. It's critically, critically important. Those are the types of guys that we try to recruit. We try to recruit leaders in high school, and my hope is that we can recruit multi-sports leaders. I really like it when we have guys who obviously are great football players that we think are going to come here to help us compete, to help us win championships. But then they may be role players in other sports and learn what it's like to be the sixth or seventh guy on the basketball team, or maybe be a rotational baseball player, or a track guy that's not the 100 meter dash winner.
"Obviously I'd like to have more of those (dash winners). But the more you have to be an all-around athlete and an all-around teammate— when you get to this level, it gets hard. Guaranteed it gets hard. . . . If you get a collection of those types of guys (who know what it's like to grind as the sixth man), you've got a chance to go far."
AND FINALLY: It has been a grind this year for a young Illinois team that is 2-9 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten in its second season under former Bear coach Lovie Smith. Still, said Fitzgerald, "This is our lone rivalry. This is the only one that matters to us. To fight for the Land Of Lincoln trophy, it means the world to our program. This is one of the games that we talk about during training camp and then we kind of put it aside and then bring it back up. . . . Usually you just throw the records out and it's a heck of a competition."
Players Mentioned
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