Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Notes from Monday's Press Conference
9/24/2019 8:38:00 AM | Football
By Skip Myslenski]
NUsports.com Special Contributor
On further review. . . .
THE MOMENT: Less than two minutes remained in Saturday's first half and the 'Cats, down four, were looking at a third-and-20 at their own 48. This is when Hunter Johnson dropped and threw an interception on the right boundary even though, Pat Fitzgerald later said, he had an uncovered outlet receiver right in front of him.
"I've got to see that guy," Johnson said Monday when asked about that pick, which Michigan State cashed in for a touchdown with 24 seconds left until halftime. "I've got to check it down. I've got to check it down."
Did he see that outlet guy, he was asked directly?
"At the time, in the moment, I've got to work my progression a little more," he answered, skirting the question. "Yeah. Just need to work down to it."
THE REACTION: Johnson, of course, would get yanked from that game after guiding three third-quarter possessions that netted a mere 19 yards and not a single first down.
"I didn't give him a chance to have a response," Fitzgerald said Monday at his weekly presser when asked about that. "I went up to him in the locker room and said to him the decision to put in Aidan (Smith) was mine. We needed a spark. We had sputtered through the third quarter. At halftime we talked about some things we needed to clean up. We talked about the first 10 minutes of the third quarter being critical and we got our rear ends handed to us, and it started with the way we played offensively. I'm not just going to sit idle. We have to execute and if we don't execute we have to have competition. Hunter knows he's got to be better. He's the first guy to admit it. He's learning the system. He's learning how to be a starter. He's learning how all the details matter. I have a firm belief that he's just going to keep getting better."
"You want to be out there on the field with your guys, you want to be out there leading the team," Johnson himself said when asked his reaction to getting pulled. "But coach made a decision and I respect coach. I know he's doing what's best for the team, and that's how it's going that day."
And now?
"Football's football. You'll face adversity all the time and it's about how you respond. Coach Fitz talked about that this morning. The offensive coaches talked about it as well. My whole life I've been playing football and I've faced a lot of adversity in football. It's nothing I haven't seen before."
SUBJECT DU JOUR: Fitzgerald spoke not only to his team about responding. He also did that at his presser when asked to expand on an earlier observation that every conference game has its own personality.
"Saturday it was a slugfest," he said now. "Then we make a bad decision, we turn the ball over, we compound it by playing bad defense and we go down 14-3. The momentum shifted on one play, and we have a chance to come back and respond, and right now this young group did not respond the way I want our football teams to respond. So right now my mindset is I've got to get this group, when things don't go well, to learn how to respond. Anybody can be a front runner when it's easy. That's not life. That's not football. That's why I don't have time for the negativity. You can't dwell on that nonsense. You have to respond to adversity, and you've got to do it boldly, and you've especially got to do it when no one believes you can. If you don't believe in yourself then you have no chance.
"So I just saw some things (Saturday) that happened, some attitudes, some body language that I did not like. The first person that's going to get it fixed is me. That's what I talked to the squad about today. If we don't understand that something we value— it's very important to us as a program, the value of response— things are going to happen and you have to fight through it and you've got to respond to it the right way. When you don't (respond to it the right way) you get what you deserve. We've got to grow up and grow up quickly as a team or it's going to be a long season.
"Three weeks in I'm getting to know some of these guys a little bit better and I don't like their attitude. Guess who's going to fix it. Good old Under Armour size 12. Anybody who'd like to come along with me, come on, we'll work out tomorrow, we'll get after it. That's the only way I know how to do it, guys. It's the only way I know how to do it. It's worked in the past and it will always work, but you've got to embrace it."
And just what attitudes is he trying to eradicate?
"Woe is me. I made a mistake. Reading Twitter. Reading nonsense. Getting caught up in things that don't matter. What matters is how you prepare and how you play."
FOR EXAMPLE: Corner Greg Newsome II was a young 'Cat last season when, as a true freshman, he was constantly picked on by opposing offenses. Last Saturday that role was filled by redshirt first year corner A.J. Hampton, who got beat on that late first half touchdown while playing for the injured senior Trae Williams.
"We've got to coach him better, we've got to play better," Fitzgerald said of Hampton on Monday. "We went through the same thing last year with Greg, a young guy out there getting experience. Hopefully we get Trae back sooner than later. But A.J.'s just got to trust fundamentally, technically, the calls and just execute. When he did, he was really good. Unfortunately when we didn't, we didn't help him, which we have to, and Michigan State was able to make explosive plays."
Is there any way to hasten his learning curve?
"Everybody's got to go through it," said Fitzgerald. "I think back to my first time starting. We didn't have phones back then, so the only people who knew I played terribly were me, my folks and Ron Vanderlinden (then the 'Cat linebacker coach). No one else was there. Now it is what it is. When you go out as a starter, you're expected to play at a high level. If not, then we've got to create competition in practice. Guys have got to seize their opportunities. A.J.'s had a couple tough games, but we all have. We win as a team and we lose as a team. He's just got to continue to work to get better. We've got to coach him better. And we've got to execute in the moment."
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Newsome was later asked about his experiences of a year ago.
"Early on, when I got scored on the first time, I was really shocked. I hadn't been scored on too much in high school," he said. "But for me personally getting picked on was a better thing for me. It got me more confident knowing that I need to make those plays and knowing my team needs me to make those plays. So early on they're going to pick on him (Hampton). But he's going to start making those plays, whoever's in that role is going to start making those plays, then there'll be balance around the field. If he just stays and trusts the process, he'll be fine."
And did Newsome have to get over feeling Woe Is Me?
"When I got scored on the first time, I thought 'Dang, it's my fault. We're losing this game because of me.' Definitely as a young player that's what you've really got to overcome, just feeling sorry about yourself, getting scored on, getting picked on. It's going to happen, especially at corner position. It's going to happen. That's definitely something we're dealing with, but we'll get better over time."
AND FINALLY, FITZGERALD, when asked if he'll remind his team that the 'Cats lost their first crossover game last year (to Michigan) before sweeping the West on their way to a division title:
"I'd like to say we have the same team right now. We don't. We've got a group that I think has to learn from all their experiences, learn in a hurry, have a short memory and move on. I'd say now, especially on offense, we've got some guys who are squeezing the bat a little bit too hard. You've just got to cut it loose and play."
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