Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald is as constrained as a stoic in his public appearances.
Rarely does he evince extreme emotion, and always he massages any question to deliver the point he wants to make.
That was true even this week in the wake of his team’s brutal loss to Duke, which snapped the nation’s longest losing streak at 22 games. He talked, predictably, of missed opportunities, areas needing improvement and his own mistakes. Through it all he resembled a buttoned-down physician dissecting a patient’s X-ray.
Only once in 30 minutes did that guise slip — when the glory days of 1995 were raised. That was the season he starred on a Wildcats team that ended years of frustration with a Big Ten championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. But that was also the season his Wildcats, like those he coaches now, suffered a surprising loss on their way to the conference portion of their schedule.
Was there anything he learned that year that he can draw on now to help get his team ready to play Saturday at Ohio State?
“Absolutely!” he said, his voice suddenly up a couple of octaves.
Then he resettled himself and leaned into the microphone as he continued.
“When you go through adversity, champions, they let it go,” he said. “It could be, as a champion, you have a bad play. You have got to let it go. It’s not a bad series, it’s not a bad quarter, it’s not a bad half, it’s not a bad game.
“You need to learn from it, you need to grow from it, but once we get out to practice, it’s time to play.
“It’s the 24-hour rule. Game’s over. After 24 hours, you’re miserable, you’re very critical, you look at yourself in the mirror, you get upset, you get mad and you come out fighting. That’s exactly what we’ll do. Our guys will be hungry to play. We’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”
That is exactly what he and his Wildcats teammates did, winning nine straight before falling in Pasadena, and that is surely the formula for a rebound. But that was then and this is 2007, and doubts exist that these Wildcats can do the same. Fitzgerald’s words, especially those about his team’s readiness to play, echo promises made in the past that, when game time dawned, went unfulfilled.
This is a potentially fatal flaw and best seen through Northwestern’s defense, which on consecutive Saturdays has played first halves that were uninspired and ineffective. On each occasion it regrouped and offered an estimable display in the half that followed. Yet this trend is not only surprising in a group that prides itself on its internal leadership. It is also suicidal when the opponent is Ohio State instead of Nevada, or Michigan instead of Duke.
“It’s on the players,” middle linebacker Adam Kadela said. “We have to come up with something as leaders to make sure we’re getting guys to the right place so we’re starting faster and [not] playing on our heels.”
On game day the Wildcats must improve quickly if they hope to survive the minefield that awaits them and enter October in possession of a winning record.
Their defense rarely has pressured the quarterback. Their offense has been dormant for long stretches. Neither has made big third-down plays or taken advantage of superb field position consistently.
“We have to make the plays that are there to make. … Our guys are in position,” Fitzgerald said this week of his defense, but using words that could apply to his offense as well. “We just have to have the confidence to cut it loose and make it happen.”
That’s the onus on the Wildcats. They have to give life to their coach’s emotional words and prove they are hungry and able to fight for 12 rounds. They, quite simply, must make it happen.
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smyslenski@tribune.com
