There is nothing fancy about the play of Northwestern senior linebacker Pat Durr. He simply searches out the ball and steams directly to it. This is also a trait he manifests in conversation when asked how the Wildcats went from Big Ten champs in 2000 to the bottom feeders they were last fall.
“We sort of fell apart. You saw a lot more individuals,” he says. “That’s hard to say, but I think it’s the truth. I felt we didn’t play as well as a team, and as soon as that happened, that’s when things fall apart.
“That’s what the seniors this year have emphasized. We don’t want the season to be all about seniors. We’re not going to win without underclassmen. I try to emphasize to the young guys, there are other schools who start redshirt freshmen and get the job done. Why can’t we get the job done?”
Senior running back Kevin Lawrence agrees.
“When you have a bad season, people start to shift focus from what’s right,” he says. “They start to focus more on [themselves] than the team.
“Not to say in the past there was a hierarchy. But I think this year the seniors are more ready to lead and accepting of the freshmen. You realize this is a team sport and you need everyone. You don’t know if it’s going to be a first-year player, a second-year, a third-year. In that sense, we’re stressing the team more than anything else instead of the hierarchy.”
There was a hierarchy about the Wildcats last season, and atop the flow chart were senior quarterback Zak Kustok, senior running back Damien Anderson and senior linebackers Napoleon Harris, Kevin Bentley and Billy Silva. So much of what that team did was focused on them, and too often they were like the sun and their teammates were little more than random planets circling around them.
But they are gone now, and with their departure, that flow chart is too. Seniors Durr, cornerback Raheem Covington, Lawrence, center Austin King and guard Jeff Roehl are on hand to provide that necessary guidance. But they, better than any, also recognize that this a more egalitarian group of Wildcats and that any success they have will be built on contributions from all.
“I thought [last year] there was a strong emphasis on let’s do it for the seniors, let’s not mess up for the seniors,” Durr says. “A lot of young guys, when they hear that, they’re like, ‘Whatever happened to team spirit? To let’s win as a team?'”
They needed more players to take leadership roles, says Roehl.
“I don’t think that did happen much because if a team has leaders and is going in the right direction, you’re not going to lose six in a row (as the Wildcats did at the end of last season),” Roehl says. “I don’t question the leadership of Zak Kustok. But he’s just one person. There needs to be more than one. Guys like Zak and Billy Silva can only do so much with guys who’ve lost their confidence. You can’t take guys who don’t want to go to war and make ’em go to war.”
As their losses mounted, last year’s Wildcats played without the confidence, cohesion and crispness that had marked their performances in 2000. That year, on their way to the Alamo Bowl, they committed only 14 turnovers to their opponents’ 27 and had six games when they didn’t turn the ball over.
Last year, on their way to a 4-7 record, they committed 20 turnovers to their opponents’ 19, and were doomed to defeat by fumbles against Purdue, Penn State and Bowling Green.
They also failed to duplicate the late winning rallies that had characterized them in 2000. Last year they were outscored in the fourth quarter in their losses to Penn State (three), Purdue (five) and Bowling Green (one).
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“We need to go back to respecting the football and being opportunistic on defense,” coach Randy Walker says.
“If we just finish games,” he says, “we’re still 7-4 or 6-5.”
Those, not surprisingly, are the two points he is stressing this preseason as he sorts through the plethora of young talent looking to replace the dozen starters gone from last year’s Wildcats.
Redshirt sophomore Tony Stauss leads in the race to take over for Kustok. But he is being pressed by redshirt freshman Brett Basanez and true freshman Alexander Webb.
Lawrence, Jason Wright, Jeff Backes and Noah Herron are all candidates to succeed Anderson, and giant tight end Joe Wohlscheid (285) is inserting himself into an attack that has featured wide receivers the last two years.
The defense, with the exception of Durr and Covington, is young. But nine freshmen gained experience last year when forced to step in for injured upperclassmen, and so it is seasoned as well.
“No coach wants to play that many freshmen,” Walker says. “But there’s nothing like lining up down there in the trenches, getting your butt rocked and learning from that. I think they have. I think that’s positive.”
This year’s Wildcats are also the quickest in school history, which is another plus, yet their hopes hang most of all on that attitude that served them so well in 2000 and disappeared a season ago.
“Our sense is one of urgency and excitement,” Roehl says. “We want to get out there and prove last season was an aberration and not the norm. That kind of season leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and we want to do good things to overcome that.”
“We’re more of a team,” Durr says. “The biggest difference is we’ve jelled really well this year. We have a bunch of gamers on our team. Guys who just go out and play.
“We don’t have many big names. But we do have blue-collar workers.”