Northwestern place-kicker David Wasielewski opened the season by making eight of his first nine field-goal attempts. But in the Wildcats’ Oct. 5 loss to Ohio State, he missed from 18 and 39 yards, and after that he just kept on missing.
When his streak of failures reached seven in Saturday’s game against Indiana, coach Randy Walker replaced him with kickoff specialist Brian Huffman. Huffman then missed a 22-yarder late in that game, and now Walker is uncertain who will get the call on field goals when Northwestern visits No. 6 Iowa Saturday.
“I really don’t have an answer,” Walker said Monday. “Obviously, it has not been what we want. We have had some big misses for a lot of games now. . . . Quite honestly, Waz does very well all week in practice. He’s our best kicker. I still believe that. I have no doubt about it. But he hasn’t made kicks in games, and that’s frustrating.”
The problem?
“It’s obvious to me it’s from the shoulder pads up because the kid can kick,” Walker said.
Wasielewski was not available for comment, but Huffman was and he agreed with that assessment.
“Sometimes you get in a rut and it’s really hard to get out of it,” he said. [Wasielewski] has all the physical tools. . . . I think it’s in his head. He needs to work things out.”
Keeps on ticking
One consistent bright spot in the Wildcats’ struggling season has been tailback Jason Wright, who was named the Big Ten’s co-offensive player of the week along with Penn State tailback Larry Johnson for his performance against Indiana. In that game he became the eighth NU runner in history to surpass 1,000 yards for a season. He currently has 1,106. He also proved his versatility.
He rushed for a career-high 219 yards, his sixth 100-plus effort of the season. He scored four rushing touchdowns, tying the school’s single-game record. He caught three passes for 59 yards and returned two kickoffs for 30 yards. And he totaled 308 all-purpose yards to run his season total to 1,772, second best in the Big Ten and fifth best in the nation.
“What can I say about Jason Wright? He’s playing awful well,” Walker said. “Here’s a guy who’s not only a good running back for us. He covers kickoffs, he returns kickoffs, he’s just a heck of a football player. I swear he has four eyes. He has one in each ear hole too. He makes some cuts and some decisions, you go, `Wow, that was really good.'”
Said Wright: “I was really happy to go over 1,000. That was one of the goals I set at the beginning of the year, so I was really excited about that. But at the same time, the credit for all my success, especially from scrimmage, goes to the O-line. Their improvement has made an improvement in my game. I’ve been getting credit for what they’re doing.”
Quickly noted
Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 11:05 a.m. and will be carried on ESPN2. . . . Safety Mark Roush, who left the Indiana game with bruised ribs, is expected to play against the Hawkeyes. Also expected back are safety Dominique Price (ankle) and linebacker Braden Jones (shoulder), who sat out against Indiana.
