Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: An Update on the Backfield
9/27/2018 4:25:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Ten things as the 'Cats move on without sophomore running back Jeremy Larkin, who retired from football after being diagnosed with cervical stenosis. . . .
1. It was last Saturday night that Larkin shared his news with junior John Moten IV and senior Chad Hanaoka, the elders of the running back room. "He's like, 'I have really bad news.' I'm like, 'What could it be?'" remembers Moten. "I kind of joked at him, made some comments. But then he sat us down and told us he wouldn't be able to play football anymore. Right away me and Chad's eyes lit up. We were just devastated. . . .But then as he walked us through it he also explained to us it was an opportunity we could take advantage of and that we have nine more games left and we can't let this be detrimental to our team. We have to keep pushing. We have to keep rolling. We have to keep working hard everyday."
"He doesn't want us to sulk, to be down about him ending his career. He wants us to look ahead," adds Hanaoka. "That's allowed us to really focus on next man up."
2. The first man up on when the 'Cats host No. 14 Michigan on Saturday will be Moten, who two seasons ago served as the primary backup to the estimable Justin Jackson. Against Purdue, in the 10th game of that 2016 season, he burst for 119 yards on 16 carries, and with that gave glimpse of a bright future. But then, in that off-season, he underwent shoulder surgery and suffered a concussion and, he will say, "Jeremy stepped up and he beat me out. At that point I realized, yes, we have competitive depth. But I've been here a couple years now, I've seen people go down, I've seen all kinds of changes being made, so you always have to be ready."
And now that this change has occurred?
"I feel excited," he says. "At this point I'm playing for Lark and my teammates who're working hard with me everyday."
3. These are not inconsiderable shoes Morton will try to fill. Larkin had rushed for 346 yards, fifth best in the Big Ten, and had added 19 receptions, second best on the team behind Flynn Nagel's 20. He had taken direct snaps in goal-line situations and had accounted for five of the 'Cats seven rushing touchdowns. But this is not the first time Moten has succeeded a storied performer. Back in St. Louis, at John Burroughs School, he took the place of current Cowboy star Ezekiel Elliott. "I actually didn't think about it that way," he will say when asked if that experience will help him here.
"It's big shoes to fill either way. Jeremy was a great player, Zeke was a great player in high school and he still is. But, you know, I'm going to focus on playing my game, staying in it, taking it one play at a time, and just working and battling with my teammates."
4. Lou Ayeni, himself a former 'Cat back (from early 2000), is in his first season as coach of that room. "When I came in," he remembers "I told him (Moten), 'I heard a lot about you. And you've had a lot of expectations. And you haven't got to fulfill them.' My big thing is getting the most out of him and driving him to be the best John Moten he can be. He knows he has it. He can run. If you watch him he's like a gazelle out there. He's got experience. He's played a lot, so he knows what's going on out there. The biggest thing going forward is being able to shoulder a little bit more of the load as we get into Big Ten play."
5. As a redshirt freshman last season, Jesse Brown carried nine times for 64 yards. This season he has yet to carry and that is the case too with Drake Anderson and Isaiah Bowser, a pair of true freshmen. Then there is Hanaoka, the sage elder of the running back room who—not unimportantly—wears the leader's jersey, jersey No. 1. "You won't typically see my name in the papers after a game," he says when asked role in that room that was rocked by Larkin's news. "But guys see me come in every day and give my full effort all the time, and honestly I know my strength is technique and fundamentals and understanding of the offense. That was something I learned from Jeremy, something I learned from Justin in terms of studying the playbook, understanding conceptually what's going on.
"I feel I'm able to share that with these guys who maybe have a little bit more athletic ability than I do. They're really good players and I'm able to share with them the finer details of the offense and the finder details of technique that can help them advance their game to the next level. So it's leading by example, coming in with the right attitude every day, just getting after it and really keeping the group together."
6. In high school, it is important to remember, the running back just runs, and is rarely asked to perfect pass routes or pass protect. In college, obviously, these are necessary skills, skills the 'Cat newbies are far from mastering. "They've got the ability to do it, but they're still learning it," admits Ayeni. "That's part of my job, getting those guys ready to do everything."
Can they pass pro?
"They have to. They have no choice. That's been a big emphasis. We know Michigan brings a lot of pressure. They're really good upfront and really good at linebacker. We've got to be ready for that."
7. Another challenge to newbies, Pat Fitzgerald noted at his Monday press conference, was "Not to try to do too much. Just be who you are and do what you do. I think at times, when you're a young player, you try to press, you try to do too much."
"Sometimes you get caught up trying to do everything and trying to be master of everything," Ayeni will expand late Wednesday morning. "My big thing for them is to go out and play as hard as you can for as long as you can. We'll fix it on the sideline, we'll fix it when you come off. As we keep learning from experience, which is the greatest teacher of them all, you're going to be who you are."
8. The same temptation and the same challenge, in fact, confront the 'Cat offensive linemen. "No," left guard J.B. Butler says when asked if his line must do more now that Larkin is retired. "Through my years of playing, the more you try to do the worse you play. You just have to do your job to the best of your ability. You've got to trust the guys behind you to make the right reads and the right plays. You lose a big playmaker like Jeremy, obviously you're going to miss him. But we've got guys behind him who can do the job and as an O lineman, that's all you want, guys back there you can trust. We trust all those guys and they trust us. So if we go out there and try to do more and do some things we're not used to doing, we'll play very poorly. You've just got to do your job. That's the biggest part of it. Doing what you're supposed to do."
9. Coincidentally enough, Ayeni says, "I've been in this situation before. I've had some experience with this." That was in 2013 when he was at Toledo, which lost All MAC (and current Titan) running back David Fluellen just before it faced off with bitter rival Bowling Green. Into his place Ayeni inserted a young freshman named Kareem Hunt, who gashed the Falcons for 114 yards in a Rocket win and who, last season as a Kansas City Chief rookie, led the NFL with his 1,327 rushing yards.
That is the kind of experience that prompts Ayeni to now assert, "I think the best thing we can do is find what skill sets these guys excel at and accentuate that and give them the best opportunity to go out and be successful."
10. So just who is The Man now in the running back room? "We're going to find out," Lou Ayeni finally says. "I'm not going to lie to you. We're going to play a bunch of guys and see who emerges."
