Dec. 12, 2009
Northwestern's Annual Award Winners Named at NGN Banquet
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
They gathered Saturday afternoon to dine and to dole out awards and to celebrate a regular season that earned them a date on New Year's Day. But. "I don't think I'm going to do a banquet next year," 'Cat coach Pat Fitzgerald said on Friday with a laugh. "I'm serious. When you have business left to attend to, it's almost like I want to do something around the spring game to honor our seniors. Tomorrow is not the end. Tomorrow is just a way to celebrate a great class that's been tremendously successful."
They gather in a small room to recount that season that earned them a date on New Year's Day. There, on the left, is safety Brad Phillips and next to him, defensive end Corey Wootton. Then there is the receiver Andrew Brewer and, next to him, receiver Zeke Markshausen. For long minutes they politely fulfill their collective duty, but then. But then they are asked if it's uncomfortable to reflect with that date still ahead of them.
Phillips chuckles. "It's weird. It's definitely weird," he then says.
"I had someone ask me probably three weeks ago what will this team be remembered for. I went, 'Wow. Shoot,'" says Markshausen. "That was at a time when we still had two games left. I was, 'I can't answer that.' We still don't know. We still don't know exactly how we're going to finish the script, how we're going to finish the story. That's what's exciting to me, getting to do that. We've got a big stage, a big opportunity."
"It's hard to talk about the season when it's not over yet," says Wootton. "We have one more opportunity. But I think the biggest thing is we want to be remembered as the first team to win a bowl game since 1949. We're focused on that goal."
"That," says Phillips, "is our number one goal. That's what we played for and now it's right in front of us."
Behind them now is a season that was filled with exhilarating triumphs and a couple enervating defeats, with performances that mesmerized and ones that disappointed, with injuries and recoveries and unexpected starters (see: Ricky Weina) and a rush that carried them through an undefeated November. So, we wonder, what was least appreciated by the viewer as he watched their vertiginous voyage.
"We had a big group of playmakers last year on offense. Coming in this year, we had to recreate that group, make our own group," says Markshausen. "That's not really easy to do in the short amount of time that we have. But I think we did that pretty well.
"I'd say our ability to compete with top ranked-teams in the Big Ten," says Brewer. "I think people were a little surprised by our performance against Penn State and at Iowa and then closing the season beating Wisconsin and playing the way we did. A lot of people didn't really give us a shot to win any of those games."
("Probably the battle through adversity," Fitzgerald will later say when asked the same question. "We don't talk a lot about injuries. That's for a reason. But going into the year, we were pretty beat up. Not from what happened in camp, but coming off the injuries we had a year ago. Guys who were front-liners were working back into shape. Guys who were coming into the season in backup roles were thrust into starting roles. But we battled. It wasn't perfect, but we battled and we kept improving and then we got healthier and that added to our depth and before you know it, we played pretty good football. What's encouraging is we got stronger as the season went on.")
How, we then ask, did they keep it together during that voyage?
"I think it was just what we wanted to accomplish," says Brewer. "The team knew what we wanted to do, we knew we wanted to play in a good postseason game and, obviously, where we were wasn't going to get it done. We realized we were playing a lot better as the season went on. There were just a couple games there in the middle where we weren't able to finish. I think the difference was we were able to finish these last couple games."
Which, naturally, raises the question of why that didn't happen earlier?
"It goes back to what we talked about earlier in the season," says Phillips. "I don't know if you remember the conversation we had about coming together as a team and just clicking. It took a little longer this year for us to figure out where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. But once we put our minds to it, decided, ok, this is how we're going to play and how we're going to do it, we finished pretty strong."
Why longer?
"It's just a different team. Different chemistry," he says.
As that time passed, did they ever feel the season slipping away?
"I think," says Phillips, "we're at a point in this program where we believe we can compete (with) and beat any team in the country, especially in the Big Ten. I think that confidence that we've developed. . .allows us to keep going and keep working and trust that, if we keep doing what we're doing, we'll eventually pull out some games. I don't think there's ever a point in anyone's mind that we're out of it anymore. It's a confidence."
"The amount of work you put in, the dedication that everyone has, doesn't allow that to seep into your mind," says Markshausen. "If you're really invested, and I believe all our guys are, that's not even an option. That gets canceled out."
"Even though we weren't in the spot we wanted to be in at the middle of the season -- 5-4 was a little disappointing -- it certainly was never over, especially the way we were playing," says Brewer. "We might have been losing, but we were playing good football. We just weren't able to do it the whole game. That's what cost us. . . We were playing good enough ball to win the games. We just needed to play the whole way through. So we weren't throwing in the towel or anything."
("No. No," Fitzgerald will later say when asked the same question. "You could see that we were going to be a good team if we put it all together. What I told the staff, and what I kept telling the players, just believe in our values, believe in who we are, just stay the course. If we can keep our attitude right and keep working hard, we're going to improve. They listened.")
So there's a belief system that buoys them when the going gets tough?
"You live for close situations," says Phillips. "We always have those close games. From that experience, and going back to that confidence factor in the program that we can beat anyone, it's not a matter of who's going to make the play. It's a question of saying to yourself, 'I'm going to make this play.'"
"In any game, no matter what the score is, we're always thinking we're going to win that game, no matter what," says Wootton. "I know some people call us the Cardiac `Cats. That's a nickname that's come about because, when it comes down to it, in close games we've been successful."
("The reality is we're talking about 18 to 23 year-old young men who have more on their plate than any group of college kids have ever had," Fitzgerald will later say. "It's getting more and more challenging for them to stay focused. They're getting hit from right, left, up, down with information and who they decided to listen to. . .really dictates kind of where you're going to go. It's becoming increasingly more difficult and I'm really proud of them. I really am.")
Through all of their voyage, we finally wonder, do they have a favorite moment?
"Too many. Too many," Phillips says softly.
"My favorite was the last game. Beating Wisconsin," says Wootton. "Something we wanted to do was go 3-0 in November and we had gotten two in a row. This was a critical game for us, definitely. Our bowl game would depend on this game heavily. It was close the whole game, it came down to a few plays here and there, and we got those plays and we got the W."
"I'll back that up and say that the atmosphere around that game was pretty cool," says Markshausen. "The guys were so pumped up. I think the level of confidence Brad was talking about, we came into that game with a pretty impressive level of confidence just knowing we were going to do whatever we wanted to. The only people who could stop us were ourselves. I really felt the crowd had a big part of the game too, which was pretty cool to see."
"The turning point (for me) was at Iowa," says Brewer. "I saw the whole team change. We knew we could do it, but at that point in the season, there wasn't as much as we wanted to show for it. Then going into Iowa and beating Iowa and seeing the extra confidence we were able to build from that game was tremendous. Seeing that turning point in the attitude of the team to, 'We're going to run the table. We're going to win these last couple games and we're going to go to a bowl game and there's nothing that's going to stop us.'"
"There's too many," Phillips says one last time. "I could reiterate what these guys said. They were all good moments. But the thing that I'm focusing on is to make the one in Tampa the best one."
They gathered Saturday to dine and to dole out awards and to celebrate a regular season that earned them a date on New Year's Day. But. But would they rather not have it with that date still ahead of them? "I think it's cool, I think it's exciting. One thing is our families are here. We can get together and recognize a lot of the stuff that's gone on," says Markshausen. "But the theme is still the bowl game. You'll hear it a lot. The talk's not of Wisconsin, Iowa. It's the Outback Bowl."
"They've been phenomenal. They've had an edge about them," Fitzgerald will later say when thinking of his team's preparation for that bowl. "They understand the opportunity. I don't know how our opponent looks at it. But I know how we look at it right now. This group has a chance to put an exclamation point on their career. The last group that had the honor and the privilege to be coached and mentored by Randy Walker, and now to have this be the bookend so to speak, or the last chapter of their career, is a significant and special opportunity.
"And they get it."