By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Ten things about Macan Wilson, the fifth-year wide receiver. . . .
1. His first catch came last fall on their first possession of their season opener against Western Michigan. It went for 12 yards and a first down. His first touchdown came six games later on the first play of the second quarter of their win over Indiana. It went for 32 yards and pushed their lead up to 21-3.
These firsts came in Macan Wilson's fourth season with the Wildcats.
2. We live, of course, in an era of instant analysis and instant communication and instant gratification, and so here we have a story that flies in the face of what so many now hold sacred. It is, in stark contrast, a tale of realization and patience, of diligent labor and incremental improvement, of both opportunity and success that were well-earned.
"Everybody just matures a little bit differently," Pat Fitzgerald will say when asked about this tale.
"For some guys it happens right away.You've got the Miller brothers (defensive linemen Alex and Samdup). Right away. Instant impact players. Then there's other guys, it takes a year or two. Sometimes it takes three. I learned a long time ago you never give up on a guy. You just keep coaching the heck out of them and hope at a certain point that light switch goes on. For Macan it's done that."
3. He claims that he never went a few rounds with depression or disenchantment as he worked his way toward satori. But he does admit that, "There's definitely that moment when you come in and realize, 'Hey, it's going to take some time before I'm able to compete at this level.' But once you get there, everyone as a D1 athlete has that drive inside him. So for me personally there were never any moments of big discouragement or anything. It was having that goal to work for."
And before he arrived, before he had that realization, what did he expect coming in?
"I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. But when I got here and realized the physicality of the game at this level, I said I've got to develop my body a little bit, obviously pick up the offense and get a better understanding of the game we're playing. Coming in and seeing all those things, seeing the different level the game's being played at was definitely a moment of realization for me. The kind of dedication and effort it was going to take to succeed."
4. There was a not-uncertain maturity to that analysis, especially emanating from a young man who back in high school in Houston had caught 71 touchdown passes and been named All State three times. There he lived, figuratively, in the penthouse. But now as a callow first year he was banished, again figuratively, to the outhouse.
"It's nothing special. It's just like being a freshman in high school again. It's the same kind of situation," he says when asked how he handled that. "You've got to work your way up. You've got to come in, earn everybody's respect, work hard. I think Northwestern makes it easy because the older guys are always willing to help the younger guys out and bring them along. Coaches do a good job of focusing on the development of younger players. So it's really just earning your stripes and working your way up again."
5. He was invisible to the public as he earned those stripes, but that was surely not the case with his teammates.
"Everyone knew he had a lot of ability. it was just a matter of going and taking it," recalls the quarterback Clayton Thorson. "He also had some guys who were older than him. Tony Jones and Cam Dickerson, Miles (Shuler), a few other guys. So he was definitely down the depth chart. But he kept working and you could see it last year, he had a lot more confidence. I think that was the big thing that turned it for him. He started playing more so he got more confidence. When you get one rep every practice, it's tough to do that."
6. Last year, coincidentally enough, Wilson would emerge while playing aside Austin Carr, a former walk-on who was first noticed as a fourth-year junior and was now on his way to being a Biletnikoff Award finalist.
"Definitely," he will say when asked if Carr and his tale were an inspiration to him. "There's no one else here that I've seen who's worked harder than Austin did. To see him, to watch him grow from what he was when I got here— he was a year older than me, we were similar levels. Then to see him progress, to see him grow as a direct result of the work he's putting in was really encouraging to watch and really motivating for me and for everybody else in the room too I think."
7. Wilson himself had much to work on.
"The main thing for me," he remembers, "was getting an understanding of the offense we were running, and then being able to see and read coverages, and see what defenses were trying to do so you can gain a better understanding of what you're trying to do and how the concepts you're running are supposed to work, and where the holes in the defense are going to be so you can attack that and play faster. Earlier on I was overthinking a lot of things, thinking too much. But once I gained a better understanding of the offense and what defenses were trying to do, I can go out on the field and play fast and not think about it too much."
8. Macan Wilson finished last season with 22 catches for 306 yards, and through this season's first seven games he has 20 for 258. Just as importantly, and as one more testament to his perseverance, he also has that relationship with Thorson that must exist if a quarterback and receiver hope to succeed.
"I think my relationship with Clayton has grown a lot this last year, this last offseason, along with the rest of the receivers," he says. "We spend a lot of time watching film with him, making sure we're on the same page. Even now, we come in and watch film together four nights a week or so. That's a relationship that's huge, that you continue to build on. I don't know if you ever get to where you want to be. But it's something you continually work toward and continue to build on. Those relationships grow the most during the season. So that's something we're still working on now."
"I feel we're anticipating things real well. I think we were last year too," adds Thorson himself. "You can see different routes that I throw to him, I'm trusting that he's going to be in this spot and he goes up and makes plays. We've seen it (that ability) for awhile, and now it's awesome to see (in a game). He's a deep threat, an underneath threat, everything."
"I think he's always had really good hands. He just needed to get his confidence up," concludes Fitzgerald. "Looks like he's in a pretty good place right now."
9. He's also in grad school, and logs in for online lectures three nights a week while working on a masters in Predictive Analytics.
"Any kind of analytics job would be cool, I think. Anywhere they're looking at big data that companies are collecting," he says when asked what he'll do with that degree, and then comes this, which calls up echoes of that long ago summer when he first joined the 'Cats.
"But," he says here, "I'm still in my first quarter of it, still learning the basics here."
10. And finally there's his handle, Macan, which is the maiden name of his mom Lisa, who was one of six girls.
"They all agreed that whoever had the first boy in the family, they would name him Macan to keep it going," he explains. "That was me."
Growing up, did he ever get kidded about it?
"Not really. And I kinda liked having a unique name. Macan-bacon is generally what everybody thinks of when they hear it for the first time. I get it still. When I introduce myself to people I say, 'Macan.'
"They say, 'Macan?'
"I say, 'Yeah.'
"They're like, 'Macan bacon?'
"I say , 'Yes.'
"It goes just like that."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
Ten things about Macan Wilson, the fifth-year wide receiver. . . .
1. His first catch came last fall on their first possession of their season opener against Western Michigan. It went for 12 yards and a first down. His first touchdown came six games later on the first play of the second quarter of their win over Indiana. It went for 32 yards and pushed their lead up to 21-3.
These firsts came in Macan Wilson's fourth season with the Wildcats.
2. We live, of course, in an era of instant analysis and instant communication and instant gratification, and so here we have a story that flies in the face of what so many now hold sacred. It is, in stark contrast, a tale of realization and patience, of diligent labor and incremental improvement, of both opportunity and success that were well-earned.
"Everybody just matures a little bit differently," Pat Fitzgerald will say when asked about this tale.
"For some guys it happens right away.You've got the Miller brothers (defensive linemen Alex and Samdup). Right away. Instant impact players. Then there's other guys, it takes a year or two. Sometimes it takes three. I learned a long time ago you never give up on a guy. You just keep coaching the heck out of them and hope at a certain point that light switch goes on. For Macan it's done that."
3. He claims that he never went a few rounds with depression or disenchantment as he worked his way toward satori. But he does admit that, "There's definitely that moment when you come in and realize, 'Hey, it's going to take some time before I'm able to compete at this level.' But once you get there, everyone as a D1 athlete has that drive inside him. So for me personally there were never any moments of big discouragement or anything. It was having that goal to work for."
And before he arrived, before he had that realization, what did he expect coming in?
"I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. But when I got here and realized the physicality of the game at this level, I said I've got to develop my body a little bit, obviously pick up the offense and get a better understanding of the game we're playing. Coming in and seeing all those things, seeing the different level the game's being played at was definitely a moment of realization for me. The kind of dedication and effort it was going to take to succeed."
4. There was a not-uncertain maturity to that analysis, especially emanating from a young man who back in high school in Houston had caught 71 touchdown passes and been named All State three times. There he lived, figuratively, in the penthouse. But now as a callow first year he was banished, again figuratively, to the outhouse.
"It's nothing special. It's just like being a freshman in high school again. It's the same kind of situation," he says when asked how he handled that. "You've got to work your way up. You've got to come in, earn everybody's respect, work hard. I think Northwestern makes it easy because the older guys are always willing to help the younger guys out and bring them along. Coaches do a good job of focusing on the development of younger players. So it's really just earning your stripes and working your way up again."
5. He was invisible to the public as he earned those stripes, but that was surely not the case with his teammates.
"Everyone knew he had a lot of ability. it was just a matter of going and taking it," recalls the quarterback Clayton Thorson. "He also had some guys who were older than him. Tony Jones and Cam Dickerson, Miles (Shuler), a few other guys. So he was definitely down the depth chart. But he kept working and you could see it last year, he had a lot more confidence. I think that was the big thing that turned it for him. He started playing more so he got more confidence. When you get one rep every practice, it's tough to do that."
6. Last year, coincidentally enough, Wilson would emerge while playing aside Austin Carr, a former walk-on who was first noticed as a fourth-year junior and was now on his way to being a Biletnikoff Award finalist.
"Definitely," he will say when asked if Carr and his tale were an inspiration to him. "There's no one else here that I've seen who's worked harder than Austin did. To see him, to watch him grow from what he was when I got here— he was a year older than me, we were similar levels. Then to see him progress, to see him grow as a direct result of the work he's putting in was really encouraging to watch and really motivating for me and for everybody else in the room too I think."
7. Wilson himself had much to work on.
"The main thing for me," he remembers, "was getting an understanding of the offense we were running, and then being able to see and read coverages, and see what defenses were trying to do so you can gain a better understanding of what you're trying to do and how the concepts you're running are supposed to work, and where the holes in the defense are going to be so you can attack that and play faster. Earlier on I was overthinking a lot of things, thinking too much. But once I gained a better understanding of the offense and what defenses were trying to do, I can go out on the field and play fast and not think about it too much."
8. Macan Wilson finished last season with 22 catches for 306 yards, and through this season's first seven games he has 20 for 258. Just as importantly, and as one more testament to his perseverance, he also has that relationship with Thorson that must exist if a quarterback and receiver hope to succeed.
"I think my relationship with Clayton has grown a lot this last year, this last offseason, along with the rest of the receivers," he says. "We spend a lot of time watching film with him, making sure we're on the same page. Even now, we come in and watch film together four nights a week or so. That's a relationship that's huge, that you continue to build on. I don't know if you ever get to where you want to be. But it's something you continually work toward and continue to build on. Those relationships grow the most during the season. So that's something we're still working on now."
"I feel we're anticipating things real well. I think we were last year too," adds Thorson himself. "You can see different routes that I throw to him, I'm trusting that he's going to be in this spot and he goes up and makes plays. We've seen it (that ability) for awhile, and now it's awesome to see (in a game). He's a deep threat, an underneath threat, everything."
"I think he's always had really good hands. He just needed to get his confidence up," concludes Fitzgerald. "Looks like he's in a pretty good place right now."
9. He's also in grad school, and logs in for online lectures three nights a week while working on a masters in Predictive Analytics.
"Any kind of analytics job would be cool, I think. Anywhere they're looking at big data that companies are collecting," he says when asked what he'll do with that degree, and then comes this, which calls up echoes of that long ago summer when he first joined the 'Cats.
"But," he says here, "I'm still in my first quarter of it, still learning the basics here."
10. And finally there's his handle, Macan, which is the maiden name of his mom Lisa, who was one of six girls.
"They all agreed that whoever had the first boy in the family, they would name him Macan to keep it going," he explains. "That was me."
Growing up, did he ever get kidded about it?
"Not really. And I kinda liked having a unique name. Macan-bacon is generally what everybody thinks of when they hear it for the first time. I get it still. When I introduce myself to people I say, 'Macan.'
"They say, 'Macan?'
"I say, 'Yeah.'
"They're like, 'Macan bacon?'
"I say , 'Yes.'
"It goes just like that."