Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald:
Opening Statement:
"Players of the week: Offensively, Cameron Green, I thought probably had his career day. Really was outstanding. Some big plays in the game, especially down the stretch. Big play maker was Flynn Nagel. The play he made there in overtime, yards after the catch I think he had close to 50 yards after the catch. Paddy Fisher was our defensive player of the week. I think stats had 17 tackles, we had 21 as we watched the tape. So hopefully we can do a better job in the press box next week Kyle. That would be good. Defensive big play maker was Joe Gaziano. A couple of big sacks, especially the one there in overtime. Charlie Kuhbander was our special teams player of the week. Four-for-four, you take the field goal and the four extra points, those seven points were critical in our success. Jelani Roberts, Joe Bergin, and Chris Bergin were our practice players of the week on O, D, and the kicking game."
"It was a resilient battle, like I said after the game, with some good things and some things we have to clean up. Found a way to win against a ranked opponent, and that's not an easy thing to do. You move forward and you pop in the tape and you look at a very improved Nebraska team. I thought their bye week, you could see that they set out to do some things to improve, and it showed up in the Purdue game. Great battle back, great fourth quarter comeback, great two-minute drive there at the end to win it, and we're going to have our hands full in one of the great, great venues in college football and you could argue the best fan base in America. They're rabid. It's a great challenge to play in, and we'll have our hands full with that. Hopefully our guys will have a great week of prep, and we'll play more consistently out in Lincoln."
On the emotions of the swings in the game...
"I haven't thought about it, it was just next play. We moved the ball well early, and then we fumble the ball in the plus territory, which kind of killed some momentum there in the first quarter. It seemed like the first quarter went really quick on Saturday, and then it kind of slowed down as we went along. We were really close to getting another first down their right at the end. Credit to Michigan State, their D-end made a really nice play. We had a chance to get off the field there on that last drive a couple times and just couldn't get it done. I think it was more on problem solving and creating solutions, and then getting ready for the next series. Is that our first triple overtime game? (Since Michigan in '13)"
"It had been a while and I thought we handled it really well. It's definitely a challenge when you're on the field, let's say we're on defense, then on the next set we've got to go defense again. I thought our guys really handled that well. We may not have executed, but I thought they took quick to the adjustments and so we went out and played. There were a lot of swings back and forth, so that's probably why I haven't thought about it. We were just focused on the next play."
On Paddy Fisher...
"I think it starts with his pedigree at home. You look back at the way he was raised by his family. You look at the performance he had in his career at Katy High School. Coach Joseph and his staff did a phenomenal job. They've been one of the best defenses in Texas since I've been recruiting down there. Paddy came prepared. He does a great job in practice. He's a diligent worker. I think he's really starting to gain confidence, and slowly starting to take this defense over and the team, and its been fun to watch that maturation."
On comparing Fisher to an NU Linebacker from the mid-90's...
"I think he's got a chance to be better than Barry Gardner. He's longer than Barry, taller, got longer arms. I think he's really embraced the role. I think he learned a lot from watching Anthony last year, and how he went about getting ready for games. I don't think he's played his best football yet. I think he's still learning, and that's probably going to be an ongoing process. It's not from a lack of effort, and it's not from a lack of pedigree."
On comparing Fisher's playing style to Fitzgerald's...
"Well its a different game. He's a lot like the generational linebackers, I think he easily could have played back then because of his size. There's some new age linebackers at their size who would've never been able to play back in the '90s. And then there's guys like me with my lack of athleticism that couldn't play now. The game has evolved. It's a much more spacial game. You think about a couple of the plays that Paddy has made outside of the numbers, even the fumble caused on Saturday that was a big play in the game. That's a big 250 lbs guy that can run sideline to sideline, it's pretty impressive."
On Fisher's maturation...
"From my vantage point, I think his confidence is going up and up and up, and I think there goes his performance with it. It's hard to play Big Ten football, let alone be successful at it. I think every guy thinks they can do it, but there's still that little bit of doubt in your mind until you can go out there and do it consistently. You're probably thinking too much, and then all of a sudden you come to the realization, 'I can do this.' I think he's done that. I think he's come to the realization, "hey, I can play at this level." Now he's trusting his instincts, he's trusting his film prep, and fundamentally he's been improving every day. It's been a really impressive start to a young man's career."
On how tackles are recorded...
"We watch the tape. The defensive staff, myself, I don't chart it. All of our position coaches chart the production of their players, and then our GA's double check it. It's usually always off in the press box. Its usually always off in the press box. Not that I'm driving the bus over anybody in our press box, I'm talking about nationally. How can you see it when it happens like that, especially with defensive numbers. And a bunch of guys go into the pile, and they probably give it to the first person to get up who was probably the last guy to make the tackle. So it's not the person in the press box whose fault it is, it's when we made the decision as the NCAA a couple years ago, when did they make the decision that the 'official stats' are the stats that are done on game day, that now the tackles and the production and the discrepancies. For probably every defensive coach in the country it's somewhat comical to see the differences between what happens when you're able to watch the tape, versus what is reported. It's always off."
"It's not the fault of the spotter, or whoever is making the call on gameday. You can't see it. There's 18 bodies that go into the pile, and you can't see it."
"Twenty-one tackles is the truth (for Fisher). He had 14 solos, seven assists, 21 if I'm doing my math. Half a tackle for loss, two forced fumbles, three third down stops, hit the quarterback, had a quarterback pressure. We don't really care about the official stats."
"When they decided to put the defensive stats into the press box, it is no longer an accurate assessment of what guys do. In my humble opinion, as a guy who had 299 tackles, and got hosed out of 300. I may be a little biased. A little bit, just a little. Could you not find one more? Just give me a half an assist a couple games?"
"It's been a running joke in our defensive staff ever since they did it, because it's been comical. And again, I don't fault the spotters, because I can't see it. Let alone, you guys are up top, it's probably hard to see it from your vantage point. I can't see it half the time. I just coach the team. It's tough. If they wanted an accurate harassment they should go back and watch the coach's copy. You get the sideline and the end zone, and you can see it. But nobody cares about defensive stats, its all about points."
On Thorson's game...
"I thought he had a really good game, I thought he was really consistent. Maybe one throw, when they got the sack when they brought the safety from the boundary, we were covered but I thought he maybe could've got it out of his hands. But the rest of the game I thought he played really well. He gave us a chance to win. We had six drops, so he had 33 completions if you take the six drops that's 39 of 48, that's pretty spectacular in my book."
On what defines a successful season...
"Winning games. Winning games. Just keep winning. A couple games earlier in the season I don't think we executed very well. We played some pretty good teams, at the time we played them. I think it's easy to look at a team today and say "oh, they aren't that good" or "they're really good" and every game is an individual season of itself. You can't control what happens afterwards. Injuries become a factor as the season goes along. I think we're pretty battle tested and I think the guys are working hard, and I think they're getting a return on that investment. That's all I can ask them to keep doing and we've got to find a way to win games."
"The talking season creates a lot of the noise that I have to deal with as a head coach that I can't control. We had veterans coming back, but this is probably the youngest team that we've had on the field in my twelve years. You look at the amount of first years we're playing, we've never played this amount. There've been extended questions to me about a redshirt-first-year linebacker. I'm excited not only about the finish here in the last month, but also about where we're going because we've got a lot of young guys that we're playing right now. You're looking at an end of the year looking back question, and I'm looking at right now. We've got to find a way to go 1-0 and that's my only focus right now, and try and get ready for tomorrow's practice. How am I going to motivate the guys when I see them at 7:10, and I've got the team. Its that micro at this point of the year. You're grinding through trying to win games, and dealing with girlfriends breaking up with guys, and midterms, and what's the wind going to be like tomorrow at practice, can we put the lifts up. It's really that mundane, the list of decisions that I've got to make on a daily basis that are much more important to me."
On if this is the most talented set of underclassmen...
"Talent is like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. Whatever you want to write. I just think the guys need to keep working to get better. We wouldn't recruit them unless we thought they were going to be great players that fit our program. We think all of our guys are really talented. All of them. Some things come into play. Maybe they get beat up, maybe they get beat up and get injured. Maybe they miss two or three cycles in the weight room. Maybe guys go out and get 21 tackles and it gets reported as 17. Every guy is an individual case by case basis. I think as a group that, especially our young guys, have learned a lot. I'm sitting there in our leadership council meeting today and I asked Jesse Brown what have you learned, he said 'everything.' Just how important every step is, I'm still not good enough at it. You've got a lot of that going on, and then you've got a guy like Clayton that he throws a guy that's not perfectly where it's supposed to be and he gets crapped all over. You get everything, just trying to manage it, and help the guys stay the course, stay confident, and work hard to get better, and do that collectively then as a team. It's fun. It's really truly awesome. It's a blast. The cool thing is that no two days are the same. That's why it's so invigorating, it's such a challenge. I get asked a lot in the offseason, 'Do you think you get complacent because you've been one place for so long?' Absolutely not. Every day is new, and spectacular challenge. It's the other way around. It's a daunting challenge, but it's awesome. I wouldn't want to do it anywhere else."
On Nate Hall's hand and interception...
"I saw some blood coming out of his glove when he came to the sideline, but after that I'm managing the game. And then they told us he was going to be out for a little bit, so now I'm managing not only his substitutions, but because he's out now somebody goes into his role, and that guys role on special teams, and that impacts like seven other guys so we're talking through that adjustment. And then they said he's back in and I said "hey you seven guys, you're not playing now. You're back down, you're back in." You talk about roles on gameday, it's chaotic. Gameday is chaotic. That's why I'm not smart enough to call plays. I think the management of the game, being able to have streamlined communication with the athletic training staff on where's he at, how long do you think he's going to be out, will we have him back in the first half, do you think we'll have him back in the game. His backup goes in, Warren Long's a starter for us on special teams, now we've got to pull Warren down.Those are multiple guys that are his backups. It's kind of fun. It's chaotic but it's fun."
On Cam Green's performances...
"A couple of them he was wide open. So that's good. That's good play calling. You can ask our opponent. Not my problem. Some things schematically that I'm not going to talk to you about that I think our offensive staff did a good job of. He's been working really hard. This is the most dedicated and focused that I've seen Cam. Like a lot of our guys that are playing in the younger part of their careers, are starting to see the return on the investment of the time that they're putting in. We only get 20 hours with them. As a guy that early in my career only worked on football for 20 hours, maybe Coach Barnett would say I worked for like 12, I wouldn't disagree with him, eventually you either figure it out or you get beat out. When you figure it out, you're usually going a lot longer than that on your own. In film prep, there's a lot that goes into it, and we can't make guys do that they have to choose to do that, that's the way the rules are set up. I think he's working really hard and I'm really proud of him for the way he's responded because he's definitely seen the work pay off."
On if Northwestern will focus on the running game against Nebraska...
"No."
On Gaziano's improvements...
"He was really close to a few other plays, man. Really close. Very similar to Paddy. Xavieran Brothers, you talk about a powerhouse program in the Northeast in Boston. He was a great player in high school, and a guy who I think is just working his rear end off. I think that whole group up front is right now. I said that probably three weeks, maybe a month ago, that the D-line, without a doubt, we're playing a lot of guys, maybe 8-10 in the rotation right now, and that entire group is really focused. They are really working hard, Sunday through Friday, to get ready for Saturday. Sunday's are our off day. I see guys coming in as I'm walking in the building. As I'm going to get a workout in guys are walking around the building. It's not just the D-line, but the guys don't have to do that, they choose to do that. Today, guys getting after it in the run through, getting after it in the weight room. Right now, we're setting all kinds of PR's in the weight room. In season, guys are working their rear ends off. Jay Hooten and his staff are doing a great job. I conditioned the team last Tuesday, I'm going to run their rear ends off again tomorrow. I just think this group is really focused right now, and really working hard. I think we've played, especially the last two weeks, two really well coached really good football teams, and have been really, really physical games. And to see the way that Nebraska has responded from some tough challenges early, it's been really impressive to me what Mike and his staff have done. There's been a lot of change out there, a lot of storm. Mike's a vet, he's a great friend, he's handled it really well. And you can see that return the way he's handled it the way they're playing right now. It wasn't perfect on Saturday, by us or by them against Purdue, but what a response by them. It was really, really impressive the way that they finished that game against a Purdue team that I think is playing really outstanding."
On Nagel's breakout...
"I think he's been really grinding in practice. I think his confidence is back up. I think his confidence is back up, playing fast, that's what it looks like to me. I don't think he ever lost it, I just think he had a couple plays he'd like to have back early in the year, and he's been working at it. He had a really good game."
On approaching bowl eligibility...
"Just talking about going 1-0. This group's really been focused. Even when we really didn't end up being successful, this has been a pretty focused group. And I think they've learned from their experiences. In the past I'd be concerned about the maturity of our team maybe based on looking at records or listening to outside noise. I don't get a sense of that at this point. Do I talk to them about those sort of things? Yeah, because I have to. But other years I've got to really be demonstrative about it because of a lack of maturity. I haven't sensed that yet to this point, but I gauge a lot of that based off our work ethic and during the week of our preparation. Our guys know what we're getting into. We're getting into a hostile environment against a very talented football team, against a very veteran coaching staff that I think is outstanding. We're going to have our hands full."
On Tanner Lee...
"You could argue that he had probably his best game on Saturday against Purdue. Made some big time throws. That two minute drive that he led was awesome. It was impressive. When a quarterback is hot like that it's kind of like how Clayton and Lewerke were on Saturday. Those two dudes were on fire. Going back to double dribble days, when I was playing video games, they were en fuego, man. Somebody's got to make a play defensively to try and change momentum. That's what it looked like on Saturday, he threw the ball into some tight windows, their guys went up and made some big time catches for him. Tight end played great. Stanley Morgan made some big plays. Pierson-El's been there I think as long as I've been the head coach at Northwestern. He's unbelievable return man, hes a great player."
On the balance between Big Ten divisions...
"Frankly, I don't care. Right now, I'm just really focused on trying to get the team ready to play. We've played two east teams and beaten them. Nebraska played, I don't know, it doesn't matter. Again, I think that's probably an off-season, talking season question, that I'm sure will be well debated in the talking season by the talking heads. But East and West makes a lot more sense to me than what we did before. Still got to win football games."
"Happy Halloween. Go 'Cats."
Redshirt first-year linebacker Paddy Fisher
On discrepancy over how many tackles he had against MSU on Saturday...
"(Laughs) I'm not sure. I heard 17, I heard 21. It is what it is. Saturday's over-with. It's time to move on and focus on Nebraska, so that's it, I don't know."
On being named Water Camp FBS Defensive Player of the Week...
"Yeah, it means a lot. Just going out there and playing with all the guys on my D-line and my secondary, and being able to receive that award is special and it means a lot - with Walter Camp one of the founding fathers of this game ... and to be named the recipient of that award for this week is a big honor."
On Katy High School and his preparation ...
"Yeah, Katy was definitely structured identically to how it is here at Northwestern, so it was almost like I was playing four years of college ball already. It just had a lower intensity, and just not as many athletic guys. Just throughout the competition level. But it really helped me come in here with confidence and a step ahead of the other guys, and allowed me to be able to help the other guys and show them the way..."
"Just the way practices form, around how we go about practice, the period lengths start off with pat and go, and then special teams, and then team run, and then O vs. D, and then throughout the offseason too, the way we lift, and run schedules, and all that. And then spring ball of course."
On his favorite linebackers growing up...
"Growing up, definitely Brian Urlacher, Ray Lewis, and then throughout high school I looked up to Luke Kuechly a lot, and watched him at BC, and Carolina."
"Urlacher's a big dude, just physical, and just loved to hit people."
On watching footage of Fitzgerald's playing days...
"I have not yet. I was talking to someone else earlier this week, I do plan on pulling up those archives soon - hopefully in the winter or something. But for now, it's just focusing on Nebraska and teams we got left."
On his jersey number...
"It's a family number. My older brother - both my older brothers had it in high school. And I had 40 last year, and I had a chance to switch to 42 after Joe Jones left, and I jumped on that right away. Just a family tradition deal. ... My brother was on varsity, and Coach Joseph - the coach at the high school - just gave him the jersey number 42, and my second oldest brother came through the program. He was #42, and it just trickled down."
On the last play of the upset win against MSU...
"So I saw [defensive lineman] Joe Gaz [Gaziano] come around the corner, then strike the ball out of the quarterback's hand - he fumbled it, then I saw the quarterback scramble, and then I went to go put a little pressure on him. And then I got to the quarterback, he threw the ball, and then I just turned around, and saw the ball in there, and then Nate Hall came down with it. Great play, and after that it was just a surreal moment."
On filling big shoes at the middle linebacker role and mimicking how Anthony Walker, Jr. played...
"I mean it comes around every once in a while, but at the end of the day, I can't let all that hype get to me and let it distract me from theme and how I'm playing. I'm a different player than the guys that came before me, and a different person than anybody else, so I just focus on myself and getting my teammates better, and just trying to go win ballgames and help each other out."
On Fitz's pipe dream of having a retractable dome over Ryan Field...
"No dome."
Junior offensive lineman Tommy Doles
On the emotions of the rollercoaster OT win against #16 MSU...
"One thing to say is, it's fun. You know, when we dream about playing college football, you think of exciting games like that. So, I mean it's a thrill of emotion. There's ups and downs and overtime, but to get a win like that, it's a lot of fun. More practically, within your position group, you gotta stay focused, remember that you still have a job to do, have to have confidence going on their knowing that "alright, we're gonna score." If you have that mindset, we trust our defense to make plays, and it's a good time."
On ranking the game among the most fun he's played in...
"I'd say so, yeah. Coming into the game, the offensive line - we just decided that we're gonna finish every play. We're gonna play with an attitude, we're gonna play tough, we're gonna play for the guy next to us. And throughout the game, that's what we were doing - coming off the boundary, we'd making our corrections, figure out what we gotta do, but we were enjoying it. There's only so many games ... so many moments left, and nothing's guaranteed. And especially as you're coming in the twilight of the season, I think of seniors - like [senior] Brad North, I mean this is the last season I'll play next to him, right? And [senior] Macan [Wilson]. So you just really wanna enjoy each moment and get the most out of it. But it helps when you get a groove and get some confidence."
On offensive line improvement...
"One thing to note is that there wasn't any pep talk we heard or magic pill that we took that [made us say], 'Oh, okay, *click* we just figured it out now.' I think it's a product of our work in the offseason and training camp, the work that we put in throughout the season, and it's things starting to come together. It's getting our timing together, being on the same page, making our calls, and playing with a chip on our shoulder - playing with a little bit more of an attitude, and... we love doing our job, and if we can give Clayton some more time, or open up some holes, that's gratifying to us."
On having a running back capable of diagnosing pass protections...
"Yeah, it's great, 'cause Justin Jackson - you've all seen him make him guys miss in open field - that's fun to watch, but he's the complete package as a running back, he's great in pass protection, he knows what's going on 'cause when we watch pressure cutups, we make sure the quarterbacks and the running backs are in with us, 'cause everyone's a part of that process, but I think more than anything, Justin's a competitor, he's a team player. I think of my official visit back in, what, 2013. I was in the hotel room with Clayton and Justin. We're looking at a newspaper article about Justin Jackson, Gatorade Player of the Year, and we're gassing it up a little bit. [But] Justin Jackson [is like], 'I don't care about any of that [accolades]. I just wanted to win a state championship.' And I think that just points to his selfless attitude. For him, it's not about the numbers, accolades. It's all about what he can do for the team. And you see that on little things like pass protection."
On Fitz's pipe dream of having a retractable dome over Ryan Field...
"Unpopular opinion coming from an offensive lineman, but ideal weather: 43 degrees, partly cloudy, slight breeze, beautiful fall leaves. So I thought it was perfect. But I don't have to catch any balls, so [gestures towards Macan Wilson]..."
On what constitutes a successful season...
"I think if ask a lot of guys, we're thinking about the next game. And that's the answer that you don't want to hear, but... I guess stepping back from that and a lot of this high-level stuff, you know, it'll be in retrospect, it'll be how we look back on this season. If we can look back at each game and have no regrets about the way we prepared, have no regrets about having left everything out there on the field, I think we can be proud of what we put out there. And I'd like to believe that if we put in the preparation, and if we show up to perform, that's gonna coincide with winning games. ... As I'm starting to get older, you start thinking about more of the high-level stuff, 'cause, it's the game that we've been playing since fifth grade in my case. We'll never have this exact team together again, so did I get the most out of the time I had playing with Macan and Brad North and all these guys with us? So I think we'll look back on it after this season, but that's how I see success."
Senior wide receiver Macan Wilson
On the emotions of the rollercoaster OT win against #16 MSU...
"Yeah, just going off [what Tommy said], you get into a groove as an offense, and we were coming together in our position groups after every drive. Just constantly making sure everybody's staying in the game, staying ready, for anything to happen next. So, it's just constantly expecting to go back out there and have to put together another scoring drive. Especially with the game going the way it was, we had to stay on our toes the whole time, keep focused, but I thought everybody did a really good job of that."
On Fitz's pipe dream of having a retractable dome over Ryan Field...
"I'd take a retractable dome if we could get one. That'd be kind of cool."
On what constitutes a successful season...
"I mean right now, we're just focusing on these last four games we got left. ... I think at this point we're at now in the season, we're gonna try and figure out [how to] finish out these last four games as strong as we can, and then hopefully, I think our goals ahead of us right now are just trying to get the best bowl game we can get into and try to win that one. Looking back on however we finish up, it'll be what it is, and you head into the offseason trying to come out even stronger next year."
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