By Skip Myslenski
NUSports.com Special Contributor
Sure, there are questions about the 'Cat defense. Deonte Gibson and Dean Lowry, its pair of esteemed ends, are gone now, and both their talents and their leadership skills must be replaced. That is true too of the linebacker Drew Smith and the corner Nick VanHoose and the safety Traveon Henry, all both leaders and veteran presences.
But this is spring, and so neither these lingering questions nor the lack of definitive answers is unusual. Both are part of any football team's fabric at this time of the year. Yet there is still something very certain about this unit, and it goes beyond returning talents like middle linebacker Anthony Walker and corner Matthew Harris. It is this: The culture it established a year ago, when it catalyzed the 'Cats, has carried over, and this gives it a chance of encoring its splendid performance of last fall.
"We were a brotherhood, we were family (last fall)," explains defensive tackle C.J. Robbins, who will be a sixth-year senior this fall after missing previous seasons due to injury. "The dudes who left, the ones I came in with, we had a tight bond. Even the younger dudes, as older guys we took them in. So I'm real cool with Anthony, Matt Harris, all of them. We have a really tight bond and it came over on the field. We all just trusted each other and were able to cut loose because we knew—like, even if I'm out of my gap, I know Ant's got my back and is going to fill the gap."
And that is what has carried over?
"I think it has. It was good for the young guys to see such a tight-knit group and what I have to keep pulling myself back on is we started (this spring) at such a higher foundation than I'm used to, we're over here expecting more already. Like we had that tightness, that tight bond, and we're starting to get that feeling back that we had going into the season and it's only spring ball. So it's really cool to step back and see we're really this close and the potential we have to do more. We know the gap that is there with young guys filling in. But it's a lot closer than past years. People are at a higher level of playing (this spring) and because we were able to me more advanced last year we're starting a little ahead of where we usually are."
"We're much further along. From my perspective, we're much further along," head coach Pat Fitzgerald will later agree. "Again. Every day on the field presents a different challenge because you might have a guy with a shoelace issue, or this or that. So the 15 to 18 guys who might be in the rotation aren't in the rotation right now. That's spring ball, that's early fall camp. That last piece might not come into play until maybe two weeks, 20 days out from the opener. It's going to be a process to get to that."
Last spring, in the wake of two 5-7 seasons, the 'Cats defense was not yet a brotherhood, and simply attempting to reestablish a culture that had been lost. "When you have a five-and-seven season, you have to look at everybody, everybody comes under scrutiny," Deonte Gibson said back then. "You might have made some great plays last year. But at the same time, what you did wrong is something you have to work at. Guys have really embraced that, especially on the defensive line. It's a dirty position and you have to deal with all that comes with it."
So, sure, there are questions about the 'Cat defense, especially about who will replace Gibson and Lowry (current leaders in the clubhouse are Ifeadi Odenigbo and Xavier Washington). Yet its culture is now firmly back in place, which means its aura this spring is far different from that reflected by Gibson just 12 months ago. "Definitely. Winning always give everybody confidence," agrees Robbins. "But I think as a group the older guys are handling it well and trying to keep everybody humble and hungry. So it's not really confidence to where we're laid back. We know what we did, but we know we left things on the field too that we can fix and we can do better."
So what was the defense's goal when this spring practice opened?
"Just dominate," he will say. "That's always our goal. It's nothing too in depth. We just want to dominate every opponent we can. Especially up front as a defensive line, we want to dominate and be physical in any capacity."
"Just to get better than we were last year, and really be consistently great," Matthew Harris will say when asked the same question. "We were pretty good last year. But we just want to be great. That was the mentality of everybody coming in. This year's a new year, we're focusing on what we can control and we're trying to be the best defense in the country."
And how does this attitude reflect itself this spring?
"I think more than anything in a standard of expectations," Pat Fitzgerald will finally say. "The way that we're going to prepare for practice. The way that we're going to practice. The way that we're going to communicate. The way we're going to compete. The attention to detail. All those things that made us be successful is something we're trying to reestablish with new chemistry and new bodies. So just trying to get back to that standard."
NUSports.com Special Contributor
Sure, there are questions about the 'Cat defense. Deonte Gibson and Dean Lowry, its pair of esteemed ends, are gone now, and both their talents and their leadership skills must be replaced. That is true too of the linebacker Drew Smith and the corner Nick VanHoose and the safety Traveon Henry, all both leaders and veteran presences.
But this is spring, and so neither these lingering questions nor the lack of definitive answers is unusual. Both are part of any football team's fabric at this time of the year. Yet there is still something very certain about this unit, and it goes beyond returning talents like middle linebacker Anthony Walker and corner Matthew Harris. It is this: The culture it established a year ago, when it catalyzed the 'Cats, has carried over, and this gives it a chance of encoring its splendid performance of last fall.
"We were a brotherhood, we were family (last fall)," explains defensive tackle C.J. Robbins, who will be a sixth-year senior this fall after missing previous seasons due to injury. "The dudes who left, the ones I came in with, we had a tight bond. Even the younger dudes, as older guys we took them in. So I'm real cool with Anthony, Matt Harris, all of them. We have a really tight bond and it came over on the field. We all just trusted each other and were able to cut loose because we knew—like, even if I'm out of my gap, I know Ant's got my back and is going to fill the gap."
And that is what has carried over?
"I think it has. It was good for the young guys to see such a tight-knit group and what I have to keep pulling myself back on is we started (this spring) at such a higher foundation than I'm used to, we're over here expecting more already. Like we had that tightness, that tight bond, and we're starting to get that feeling back that we had going into the season and it's only spring ball. So it's really cool to step back and see we're really this close and the potential we have to do more. We know the gap that is there with young guys filling in. But it's a lot closer than past years. People are at a higher level of playing (this spring) and because we were able to me more advanced last year we're starting a little ahead of where we usually are."
"We're much further along. From my perspective, we're much further along," head coach Pat Fitzgerald will later agree. "Again. Every day on the field presents a different challenge because you might have a guy with a shoelace issue, or this or that. So the 15 to 18 guys who might be in the rotation aren't in the rotation right now. That's spring ball, that's early fall camp. That last piece might not come into play until maybe two weeks, 20 days out from the opener. It's going to be a process to get to that."
••••••
Last spring, in the wake of two 5-7 seasons, the 'Cats defense was not yet a brotherhood, and simply attempting to reestablish a culture that had been lost. "When you have a five-and-seven season, you have to look at everybody, everybody comes under scrutiny," Deonte Gibson said back then. "You might have made some great plays last year. But at the same time, what you did wrong is something you have to work at. Guys have really embraced that, especially on the defensive line. It's a dirty position and you have to deal with all that comes with it."
So, sure, there are questions about the 'Cat defense, especially about who will replace Gibson and Lowry (current leaders in the clubhouse are Ifeadi Odenigbo and Xavier Washington). Yet its culture is now firmly back in place, which means its aura this spring is far different from that reflected by Gibson just 12 months ago. "Definitely. Winning always give everybody confidence," agrees Robbins. "But I think as a group the older guys are handling it well and trying to keep everybody humble and hungry. So it's not really confidence to where we're laid back. We know what we did, but we know we left things on the field too that we can fix and we can do better."
So what was the defense's goal when this spring practice opened?
"Just dominate," he will say. "That's always our goal. It's nothing too in depth. We just want to dominate every opponent we can. Especially up front as a defensive line, we want to dominate and be physical in any capacity."
"Just to get better than we were last year, and really be consistently great," Matthew Harris will say when asked the same question. "We were pretty good last year. But we just want to be great. That was the mentality of everybody coming in. This year's a new year, we're focusing on what we can control and we're trying to be the best defense in the country."
And how does this attitude reflect itself this spring?
"I think more than anything in a standard of expectations," Pat Fitzgerald will finally say. "The way that we're going to prepare for practice. The way that we're going to practice. The way that we're going to communicate. The way we're going to compete. The attention to detail. All those things that made us be successful is something we're trying to reestablish with new chemistry and new bodies. So just trying to get back to that standard."