EVANSTON- With just four days remaining until the 2018 college football season kicks off, the Northwestern Wildcats held a press conference on Monday in the auditorium of their brand new practice facility, Ryan Fieldhouse, where head coach Pat Fitzgerald -among others- spoke to the press about Thursday night’s Big Ten opener against Purdue.
This is an annual occurrence as the team meets with the media on every Monday of game week. A variety of topics were covered but the major ones included a scouting report on the Boilermakers, the health of Clayton Thorson, the task that NU’s defense faces on Thursday, how much the team loves the new facility, and how they continue to feel disrespected despite everything that the program has achieved on Fitzgerald’s watch.
Here are the five biggest takeaways from Monday’s media gathering…..
Coach Fitzgerald feels his team deserves more credit-
The Wildcats finished 2017 on an eight-game winning streak. This includes wins over then-16th ranked Michigan State, Big Ten power Iowa, blowout victories over division rivals Minnesota and Illinois, and the Music City Bowl. Despite that resume, Northwestern finished the year ranked 17th in the AP and coaches polls, and 21st in the College Football Playoff rankings. This year they begin the season unranked despite receiving votes in both the AP and coaches polls, and this doesn’t sit well with coach Fitzgerald.
“We’re still a program that when you talk about preseason, the ‘hype’ season, and the talking season, maybe our fans don’t click enough on the mouses is what I’m guessing,” says Fitzgerald about the perceived slight. He continued, “We’re never going to be ‘sexy’, I’d rather go out and earn it anyways. I’d rather earn on the front end then to talk about it on the back end; hype doesn’t matter, action is what matters.”
“Preseason rankings are a bunch of trash,” added Clayton Thorson.
Clayton Thorson’s status will indeed be a game-time decision-
The senior quarterback, who tore his ACL at the end of last season, and his head coach have said from the time spring practices concluded that whether or not Thorson would start opening night would be a game-time decision. Well it turns out that they were being truthful in that sense as Thorson continued to say Thursday night’s season debut would be decided by Fitzgerald and the medical staff. He continued to defer to coach Fitz’ despite the fact that he’s been fully cleared for all workouts and practices for the last few months.
When asked to elaborate further on his playing time Thorson said, “I don’t know, what did (coach Fitzgerald) say about that?” He added, “I’m just doing what’s best for our team, and that’s been my goal for the past four years here and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
He did say however that if he does start against the Boliermakers that his teammates and his family will be the first to know.
Northwestern’s defense is ready to face Purdue’s offense-
Sophomore linebacker Paddy Fisher and senior cornerback Montre Hartage (both team captains) spoke at Monday’s press conference and said they’re ready for the challenge that Purdue’s unique offense with head coach Jeff Brohm and quarterback David Blough presents.
“(They’re) a very energetic team,” Hartage said, “They’re going to come come out to throw the ball, and throw the ball deep.”
“(They) have (a) really good quarterback with a lot of experience and a really good backfield, as well as a physical offensive line. And they have skill on the outside too,” added Fisher.
These men are the leaders of Northwestern’s defense this season and they’ll have plenty of responsibility for the games that lie ahead.
Thorson is adjusting to life without Justin Jackson-
For the first time in Thorson’s Wildcat career, he won’t be handing the ball off to NU’s all-time leading rusher who’s now with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers. But he’s been developing new relationships with the current group of running backs.
“It’ll be different not having him back there with me but I’ve been practicing with ‘Lark’ (sophomore Jeremy Larkin), (freshman) Isaiah (Bowser), (junior) John (Moten IV), (sophomore) Jesse (Brown) and all of those guys that I’ve gotten used to it now. But I’m sure I’ll get a text from (Jackson) either before the game or afterwards,” said Thorson about life after Jackson.
The Urban Meyer situation provides life lessons at Northwestern-
Pat Fitzgerald has never been shy about discussing the issues within the college game. And when he was asked about the suspension of Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer he offered this…..
“There’s always lessons to be learned. I think it’s not only lessons in our game but it’s lessons in life. I try, and our staff (tries), and everybody I know I ask them to keep me (updated) on things that I think are great life lessons to teach our guys, great life lessons to teach our program, great leadership lessons for me to learn (and) to share with our staff and our guys. I think that will always be ongoing unfortunately… There are great life lessons that you can learn and that you can teach from.”
The lesson that Fitzgerald is mainly focused on however is winning in West Lafayette on Thursday night. This will be the first time in the modern era of Wildcats football that they open the season with a conference game. The last time that Northwestern played a Thursday night opener period was back in 2004, a loss at TCU, back when Fitzgerald was an assistant for the late Randy Walker.
