Sept. 3, 2010

It is football-eve in Evanston. The equipment truck already is on the road, and the team will follow this morning, bound for Nashville and a date with Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night. The game will be televised in Chicago on CSN+ or CLTV (check local listings) as well as on ESPN Gameplan and ESPN3.com. Or tune in on the radio and listen to the familiar intonations of "Mr. Cat" Dave Eanet on WGN-AM 720 and at WGNradio.com. Classes are not in session yet, but student radio WNUR 89.3 FM also has the call.

Whether you are making the trip to Nashville in person (as are a large group of NU fans), or watching from elsewhere, it is football season. Final preparations include ensuring you have bought your 2010 season tickets (available by clicking here or calling 847-491-CATS (2287)) and reading this collection of quick hitters compiled by NUsports.com Special Contributor Skip Myslenski. GO 'CATS!

By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor

• The 'Cat offense clearly belongs to quarterback Dan Persa, who has waited three years for his chance to frolic on center stage. So is he nervous awaiting his team's season opener Saturday at Vanderbilt? "I think if you're not nervous for any game, there's something wrong with you. I think it's human nature to be a little nervous about your job," he says. "But I'm confident. I think I had a pretty good spring and summer and fall camp. That definitely carries over into the season. . .and I feel very comfortable with the offense we're running. So, yeah, I'm a little nervous. But as soon as I run out onto the field, it pretty much goes away."

Has he talked to anyone about handling his new role?

"I've been talking to a lot of people. I talk to my dad before every game. I talk to Baz (former 'Cat quarterback Brett Basanez). I've been talking to him a lot this week. I've talked to Zak Kustok. I talked to Mike (Kafka) the other night. I'm just getting as many viewpoints as I can. They've been through so many games."

What are they telling him?

"It's not so much the first game, but looking at the bigger picture. Staying consistent. It's going to be a long season, there's going to be ups and downs, but the more consistent you stay, the better you'll play."

Is there a difference between preparing to start and preparing to be a backup?

"I don't think there's that much difference. I think last year I prepared to start pretty much every game. The only difference is you know you're going to start and you know you're going to have a large impact on the game. That's the biggest thing. And that just kind of fuels me to stay on my computer at home, to watch as much film as I can until I fall asleep and just get up and do it again. I think the more prepared we are, we'll be the last to quit."

Does he actually fall asleep watching game film?

"Nah. But I do dream a lot about football."

• A personal note from Your Humble Scribbler on Persa's admission of nerves: In the long ago, on the same subject, the Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "If you're not nervous, you don't care."

• 'Cat coach Pat Fitzgerald, on Persa: "Danny's a true dual-threat quarterback. . . But I think what's more important, especially in the opening game, is decision making, going out and seeing different-colored jerseys, going out and seeing guys react a little bit differently. That'll be critical, how he handles that."

• Stefan Demos has been the 'Cat punter for the last three falls and, for the last two, their place-kicker as well. But, come Saturday, he will hand that former role over to redshirt freshman Brandon Williams. "Demos is not a punter. He's just a kicker in the punter's role and he handled it very, very well," Fitzgerald said of the change. "Brandon's really stepped up. He's averaged well over 40 yards in camp. We haven't seen that since when. I don't know. I made fun of Demos all of camp. We finally have a punter in our program and it's not him. But he's had a great camp too, kicking over 90 percent on field goals and kicking deeper than he ever has on kickoffs."

"We do have a punter. I've never been a punter," Demos himself would say when asked about his coach's bit of sarcasm. "I just did it on Saturdays. I did the best I could with what I had. But I'm more of a kicker, so I love it that we have a punter now. I agree with him 100 percent. It doesn't offend me. I'm just back doing what I love. So I'm enjoying that."

Is there a cause and effect between his kicking performances in camp and his loss of the punting duties?

"Absolutely. Absolutely. My legs feel better. I feel healthier, more in shape, and I just have to worry about one swing. Punting's a completely different swing. Being able to just focus on field goals and kickoffs, I have more time to practice them. So, yeah. I'm kicking my kickoffs better than I ever have and my field goals are right there with them."

• Last season, Vandy running back Warren Norman rushed for 783 yards; returned three kickoffs for touchdowns; became the first freshman since the great Herschel Walker to lead the SEC in all-purpose yards (he had 1,941); and was named the conference's Freshman of the Year. But two Wednesdays ago his right knee was scoped and now he is listed as questionable for Saturday's game. "I don't want to compare him to anyone. I'd just say he's a great running back," 'Cat linebacker Quentin Davie said when asked about Norman. "When he hits the hole, he hits it and has a lot of speed to get away and break a long run."

Would he be happy if he didn't play?

"Oh, definitely," interrupted defensive tackle Corbin Bryant, who was sitting next to Davie. "But that's not going to be the case."

• The 230-pound linebacker Chris Marve, the SEC's top returning tackler, is the Commodore to watch on defense. "We all know he's the star of their defense. He's very fast, very physical," offensive tackle Al Netter says of him.

"He has a high motor," adds Persa. "He runs to the ball really well. I think the key to having a successful offensive day is slowing him down a little bit. I think we have a good plan for that."

• Vandy was shocked in mid-July when Bobby Johnson suddenly resigned after eight years as its head coach. Named to replace him was offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell, a longtime friend of Johnson and a member of his staff through all of his seasons in Nashville. This, of course, was not the most-enviable way to take over a program. Yet Caldwell, renowned for (among other things) his wit, has not been overwhelmed, which he proved recently when asked if he thought he would ever be part of a game billed as The Brain Bowl.

"Lord, I hope it don't come down between me and Coach Fitzgerald," he said. "I do have an education. I just don't like to use it."

• And finally: Caldwell, who appeared at the SEC's Media Day just eight days after succeeding Johnson, on whether any of his coaching cohorts had congratulated him while he was there: "No, not a one. They don't know me. They have no idea who I am. I can still walk in places and nobody knows me. Last night I was opening the door for some people and they gave me a tip."

• Ah, heck. A postscript, since it is just too good: Caldwell is from Pageland, S.C., which had a population of 2,521 in the 2000 census. Talking of life there during this year's Media Days, he remembered, "You had to like watermelon, number one, because it was the watermelon capitol of the world. We proclaimed (that) anyway. You had to like hunting and fishing. Frog gigging. I was scared to death of girls, so that didn't interest me, and I played ball. We played all sports to get out of work. That was the policy. If you played a sport, you didn't have to work during practice time. That's why I played basketball. I was probably the worst there's ever been, but I played so I wouldn't have to go pour concrete. That's a fact, tell you the truth. My first hourly paying job was on the (Nicholas) turkey farm. I don't know if I could tell you what my job was, but I was on the inseminating crew. That's a fact. I worked my way to the top."

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Check out the full Skip Myslenski NUsports.com Archive!

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