Confidence in Kenosha; Superbacks; Michigan and Iowa Preview

The first week of Northwestern football practice is in the books with no major news out of Evanston.  The team arrived in Kenosha Saturday night ready for their annual week of training camp.  Reviewing the papers from the past week, there is one common thread – this is a confident Wildcat team.  This week in Kenosha will go a long way to determining how that confidence will translate to on the field performance.  EVR will also preview the Superback position and the Michigan and Iowa games.

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Everyone wants to know how Dan Persa did in his first week of practice, including Tina, Teddy, and Lindsey, who all wrote feature stories on Persa this week.  Dan was happy to be out with his Wildcat teammates, but admitted that it felt “weird” – it was after all his first football activity in nine months.  Reports are that Dan was able to handle dropping back and passing fairly well, while throwing the ball very accurately.  But he was hesitant and somewhat less confident with running and cutting.  Of course many wonder whether this will lead to a change in the game plan.  Depends on who you ask.  Fitz maintains that the Cats will do what they need to do to win.  While OC Mick McCall suggested that Dan would pass from the pocket more in 2011 even if he had not been injured.  Whether it is by design or by necessity, EVR expects the Cats to try to use the RBs to control the running game – at least to start the season – and only utilize Persa as a runner if it is not working.

One Wildcat has made clear that he expects to be on the field this year, and that is back-up QB Kain Colter.  In fact, in a Tribune interview, Kain suggested that he would be pressing Dan Persa for his job.  While it is hard to read this without snickering, you have to like the confidence that Kain Colter emits.  Fitz hits the nail on the head when he says that he would prefer that Kain act prepare as though he is going to be the starter – as opposed to simply waiting on the sideline for his turn.  Hopefully, Cat fans will not need to worry about a Dan Persa injury.  But if necessary, the Cats will need to see a better performance than the end of last season.  Either way, Fitz suggests that we will see Kain on the field in 2011.  As he showed last season, he is a heck of an athlete and needs to have the ball in his hands.

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While the QB news makes the sports page news, the most significant story coming out of Evanston week was the news of moving Ben Burkett to right guard.  Burkett has started every game over the last three years at center.  Right guard is also the only spot on the offensive line where the Cats do not return a starter.  The O-Line was a spotty group in 2010; giving up too many sacks and producing too few rushing yards.  So adjustment is welcome.  The move appears to be designed to give redshirt freshman Brandon Vitabile an opportunity to start at center.  Brandon was one of NU’s highest rated recruits of the 2010 class.  For more on this decision, check out Skip’s Saturday blog posting.  This is a development that EVR will follow closely over the next three weeks.

On NU defender who has finally found confidence on the field is starting cornerback Jeravin Matthews.  Matthews, a senior, has seen time at running back, wide receiver, kick returner, and generally on special teams. He tells Tina Akouris that this is the first time he has reported to Kenosha at the same position as the year before.  Jeravin recorded 15 tackles as a backup last season and has impressed the coaching staff enough to be given the starting job out of spring football.  The front seven of the NU defense will need to spend the first few weeks finding its identity – and that will place a lot of pressure on the secondary.  The emergence of Venric Mark as a return man will allow Jeravin to focus on his defensive tasks for 2011.

This post is all about developing player confidence into performance.  And this team is brimming with confidence – as can be seen by Skip Myslenski’s blog post.  Fitz suggests that this is rooted in the failures of this senior class in the previous years:

·         But we were not very pleased with the way we finished a year ago. We've moved on from it, but still. It's like when you get your tail whipped; you remember who whipped your tail. Those memories, they stick with you as motivation if you use them the right way and that's kind of the way we've approached this off-season.

Senior Superback Drake Dunsmore created a little bulletin board material earlier in the week by stating:

·         I honestly think this is the year that we win the Big Ten championship and we get a major bowl game."

Senior Wideout Jeremy Ebert added his sentiment:

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I haven't been around a team like this. The confidence we have going into the season is unlike any other since I've been here. Yeah. We're ready to play some football. . . I think we just know we can get the job done this year. . . We have a little fire in our stomachs from how we left off last season and where we thought it was going to go. So we have a lot of unfinished business this year. . . We have something to prove this year.

Senior QB Dan Persa followed suit:

·         Yeah. I think it's just confidence. I think we got a lot of confidence last year working through the things we worked through and we know we can play with anybody. That's the biggest thing.  I think it's been like that since the senior class has been here.  It's always struck some of the guys that we weren't getting respected as much as we thought we should be.

And Senior tackle Al Netter summed the whole thing up:

·         I think that we've been through so much here at Northwestern and now we feel we're on the verge of being something special.  We all feel this is the special year. We have a lot of leadership. We have a lot of guys with playing experience. So I think there is a special buzz and we all feel it

College football is defined by leadership, confidence, and emotion.  These guys are speaking unlike any Northwestern senior class before.  They will be the ones responsible for translating their swagger to on the field performance.

Also of note, apparently the team is having a mustache growing contest.

Superback Preview

As anyone who is reading this blog knows, the NU superback position is a hybrid position that is part fullback and part tight end – and at times part slot receiver as well.  Based on a little bit of research, it appears that NU is the only team that uses the Superback title for this role.  This basically means that Drake Dunsmore is the best Superback in the country.

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Dunsmore will continue to be one of the most important cogs in the Northwestern offense.  And more importantly, he arrives in August completely healthy for the first time in his tenure at NU.  Speaking of confidence, Dunsmore says in an interview with Skip, that the Wildcat seniors talk about winning the Big Ten Championship “all the time.”  Dunsmore is on the John Mackey Award watch list and for good reason.  He has 98 career catches for more than 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns.  Drake has a lot of strength (for those of you who remember this) and has great hands.  His frame makes him difficult to cover, but is large enough to take on a linebacker in a blocking assignment.  This makes him perfect for the Superback role.  But his health is important as the depth at this position is not great – primarily because of a lack of experience.

The depth chart lists Sophomore John Plasencia as the backup to Dunsmore.  John is taller and heavier than Drake, so one has to wonder whether he will have the same ability to excel in the passing game – although he did catch 40 passes in his final two years in high school.  His size, however, is perfect for a blocking end or fullback.  He appeared in four games last year but did not record any stats.

The superback position is rounded out by Junior Brett Nagle and redshirt freshman Mark Szott.  Nagle has appeared in two games in two years.  He has one career reception, against Rice last season.  Szott is likely to redshirt, although Fitz has spoken highly of his route running during interviews.

Michigan – October 8, 2011 – Ryan Field.  Michigan makes its first trip to Evanston since 2007, a heartbreaker for Northwestern, who lost a fourth quarter lead in that game.  Since then the two programs have been on opposite ends of the spectrum.  NU has had, maybe, the best three year stretch in program history.  Michigan, probably its worst.  By the time they get to Evanston, Michigan will have had a good chance to kick the tires on its new system under coach Hoke.  This will be Michigan’s first road game after five weeks at home – with Notre Dame its only truly challenging opponent.

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Michigan’s offense begins and ends, of course, with Heisman Trophy candidate Denard Robinson.  NU will get a decent warm-up the week before with Nathan Scheelhaase, but even the Illini QB cannot match the speed and field awareness of Robinson on the run.  This will be the biggest test of the NU run defense, as they will be best served forcing Robinson to throw.   The rest of Michigan’s offense is very experienced, as they bring seven more seniors and only one sophomore to the party.  Michael Shaw is their leading rusher from the running back position, but he only had 75 carries so it remains to be seen whether he can carry the load that Michigan will ask of him.  Roy Roundtree returns as Robinson’s favorite target.  The O-Line has three seniors.  But the key to the offense may be sophomore (albeit returning starter) LT Taylor Lewan protecting Robinson’s blind side.

But everyone knows that Michigan cannot win football games without a significant increase in their defensive production.  Last season, Big Blue gave up 34 points or more nine times.  Nine!  Michigan looks to employ a 3-4 defense in 2011 and brings three seniors to the front.  But the secondary is what will need to improve the most.  This unit was consistently out of position in 2010 and gave up big play after big play.  Unfortunately, they expect to start two sophomores at safety, where they are already thin.  Moving linebacker Thomas Gordan to safety is an effort to provide depth to this unit.

The battle for the middle of the Legends Division will be fierce, and the winner of this game will go a long way towards ending up on the higher end, and actually competing for the division.

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Iowa – October 15, 2011 – Iowa City, IA.  No team in the Legends Division is replacing more important players than Iowa.  Compare this to the fact that NU is returning more players than anyone else in the Division – and NU’s recent success against the Hawkeyes.  But the night game in Iowa City will be intimidating and the Cats will be playing a battle-tested team in Iowa, having already faced Iowa State, Pitt and Penn State.

Offensively, it will finally be James’ Vandenberg’s turn to control the offense.  Vandenberg is no stranger to the Cats as he was forced into action against NU in 2009.  He does have the advantage of starting a handful of games, which will be a major plus (think about how Kafka and Persa benefitted from the same).  Sophomore Marcus Coker will be the starter in a depleted running back corps.  He had over 600 yards rushing in 2010 and averaged a strong 5.5 yards per carry.  If he can avoid the Iowa jinx of the last few years, he has the opportunity to be a workhorse for the Hawks.  Marvin McNutt returns as one of the best receivers in the Big Ten.  If the relatively young offensive line and keep Vandenberg protected, McNutt will be a major threat, again.

On defense the Hawkeyes are a mix of experience and youth.  While there are a lot of solid seniors, they expect to start three sophomores, including two at the linebacker level.  Senior Tyler Neilsen will need to lead these two if the unit wants to develop into a traditional Iowa defense.  The Senior-laden defensive line will need to be in better condition this season, as it faltered down the stretch in a few games in 2010 – especially against NU.

Go Cats!