Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Quick Hitters on the Big Hitters
9/14/2018 11:20:00 AM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Quick hitters on some big hitters (and, not unimportantly, on the big guys who are their secret sauce). . . .
THE WILDCATS' leading tackler, with 21, is the sophomore Will linebacker Blake Gallagher, who won that job last off-season.
"Blake has a great nose for the football," says his position coach, Tim McGarigle. "He's your Will linebacker that can be removed from the box and be solid in coverage, but also come in the box and deliver at the point of attack. Very versatile and very instinctual."
And how'd he win the job?
"He took it. He's a kid that attacks every day like he attacks the football field. He's going to show up ready to go. You can see the downhill and the attack mindset he has on the field. That's how he lives his life."
"That's how I try to do it," Gallagher himself agrees. "Attack every day. Get the most out of it. Try to get better everyday."
THE 'CATS second-leading tackler, with 20, is the sophomore Mike (middle) linebacker Paddy Fisher, who a fall ago was a first-year sensation.
"A natural-born leader," McGarigle says when asked to describe him. "A big (6-foot-4, 241-pound) Mike linebacker that can run sideline to sideline. He leads the defense, leads the team, the team rallies around him, he's a captain. He controls the middle of the field in all aspects of the game."
But a day earlier, McGarigle is told, Fisher himself said this when asked to compare his current self to what he was last fall. "Not good enough," he said. "I still got a lot to improve. I don't feel like I've been playing as well as I should be or as well as I can be. I still have a lot of potential to fill and a lot of room to improve."
"Absolutely. Absolutely," the coach agrees. "Even though he's a great player right now, he hasn't arrived, that's for sure. He continues to work on his footwork, his technique, on hopefully becoming a better player each game, which I think he has been."
THE 'CATS' third-leading tackler, with 17, is the senior Sam linebacker Nate Hall, who is flourishing even after suffering a season-ending knee injury last fall.
"The ultimate veteran," McGarigle says of him. "He's as smart a football player that we have or that I've been around. He's built for his position (6-foot-2, 231 pounds). He can utilize his athleticism in space and really make a lot of big plays for this defense, which he's done the last couple years."
GALLAGHER, starting for the first time, is still a mere pup compared to Fisher and Hall. So, says McGarigle, "We let him go play. We let the other guys, the veteran guys, communicate and make the checks and everything. Not that he doesn't know it. But those guys, especially Nate, he's started a ton of football games and Paddy started a season. Blake's coming into his own. But it takes games, it takes experience before you can really cut it loose and just play off instincts instead of thinking."
"If I'm not sure on something, they get me lined up in the right place. We just talk it out," Gallagher says when asked how the vets help him in game. "Playing with those guys is awesome. They're among the best linebackers in college football. So being out there next to them is cool, it's exciting. You just get to fly around, and cut it loose, and make plays."
BUT LESSONS ARE LEARNED not only on Saturdays. "Just watching them, practicing with them every day, you learn new things, you learn different things," Gallagher goes on. "You learn why they're so successful. Those two guys come in, they're in there early watching film, working their asses off, staying after it, staying late and attacking every practice."
ANOTHER REASON this trio is successful, another big (pun intended) reason, is the defensive line.
"There's no such thing as a great linebacker without a great defensive line. That's where it starts in this defense," avows McGarigle. "I think (D line) Coach (Marty) Long and the leaders on the defensive line have done an unbelievable job of taking pride not in making tackles, but in stopping the run. That is the recipe for a great defense. They want the linebackers to lead the team in tackles. They take pride in that. The way they play allows the linebackers to make a lot of plays. It's how they play in front of us."
"They're everything," echoes Gallagher. "Look at the size of those guys. They're up there grinding in the trenches. They're doing the hard stuff. We get to play off of them, play behind them and fly around. But they're busting their asses in the trenches, doing all the grinding."
"The reason why my name is on the stadium twice is an unbelievable defensive line. It wasn't because of me," Pat Fitzgerald himself said last fall. "There's nobody that has more appreciation for defensive linemen than me, and all of the guys who have played D line here, during my time here, even as a linebacker coach, understand my affinity for them."
HERE IS THAT D LINE'S job down in the trenches. "They're getting off, and striking, and not allowing (offensive) linemen to climb to our level," explains McGarigle. "They let us flow over the top and be in position to make plays. There are certain defenses at other places where it's not a priority to get hands on linemen. The way we stress it, and the way Coach Long stresses it, and the way the D line executes— they eat up blocks. They're block eaters. They eat up double teams, they take up two blockers, and that allows us to make plays. Like I said before. There's no such think as a great linebacker without the guys in front of him. That's the secret sauce of this defense."
A BIG SHOUT THEN to the ingredients in that sauce. To the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Joe Gaziano and the 6-foot-3, 292-pound Jordan Thompson. To the Miller brothers, 6-foot-3, 285-pound Alex and 6-foot-3, 258-pound Samdup. To the 6-foot-4, 288-pound Fred Wyatt and the 6-foot-6, 292-pound Ben Oxley. To the 6-foot-3, 254-pound Trent Goens and the 6-foot-6, 274-pound Trevor Kent. To the 6-foot-5, 254-pound Ernest Brown IV and the 6-foot-2, 300-pound Jake Saunders.
"It's a cliche. But it's bringing your lunch pail to work everyday," Gaziano said last fall when asked about the D line's oft-unheralded labors. "It's a blue collar type of job. You're not going to get all the glory. Your name's not necessarily going to get written up in the paper. But if you do a great job, your linebackers are going to succeed. Our linebackers are very thankful for us, and we appreciate them being with us and being great teammates.
"When we do a great job, the linebackers get the glory. But they give it back to us."
QUICKLY NOTED: On Saturday night the 'Cats host 1-0 Akron, which topped Morgan State last week after its season opener at Nebraska was postponed due to thunder-and-lightening. . . . The Zips are guided by the well-traveled Terry Bowden, who is in his 25th season overall as a collegiate head coach and in his seventh at the school. . . . A year ago the Zips won the MAC East, but in both the writers' and coaches' preseason polls they were picked to finish fourth this season. . . . The school has just one win over a Big Ten team, and it came back on Sept. 5, 1894 when it toppled Ohio State 12-6 in Columbus. It was then called Buchtel College and its coach was one John W. Heisman, who would later lend his name to a trophy you may have heard of.
AND FINALLY, GALLAGHER, who played some running back in high school, when asked if he ever considered doing that in college: "I ain't got no wiggle, so no."
