Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald and his surprising Wildcats say they don’t need the national polls to validate how good they have been this season.
The Wildcats are ranked 23rd in the AP poll and 24th in the coaches poll after impressive wins over Stanford and Eastern Illinois in which they have yet to allow a touchdown. NU visits Duke on Saturday.
“I talked to the guys about (the rankings) this morning,” Fitzgerald said Monday. “Three weeks ago, the only thing written was negative. So I asked them not to focus on those distractions, and I would ask them to do the same thing (now).
“The only thing that matters, quite frankly, rankings-wise is how you rank against your own best self. How you prepare mentally and how you prepare physically.”
Fitzgerald said he reminds his players to focus on what they can control.
“I read them a great poem in camp every year called ‘The Guy in the Glass’ (by Dale Wimbrow),” Fitzgerald said, “and that’s the only thing that matters: What do you do compared to yourself?
“Quite frankly, I expect to be ranked. I expect our team to compete for championships. It is not a surprise to me, but based on the way we have played inconsistently the last two years (5-7 records), maybe it is a positive for the program.”
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Fast company: Duke is also 2-0, beating Tulane 37-7 and North Carolina Central 55-0. Fitzgerald said coach David Cutcliffe’s Blue Devils, who are 21-8 over the last two-plus seasons, “will be the fastest team we’ve played yet this year.”
“It’s going to be a great challenge for us, going on the road for the first time,” Fitzgerald said. “We are playing an outstanding team, complete in all three phases.
“I have terrific respect for Dave and his staff and the job they have done. I see a lot of similarities in our programs. They play hard, they play physical, they play fast. So (we’ve) got to see where we’re at from that standpoint.”
Depth chart: The offensive line personnel continues to evolve because of injuries and performance. This week’s first team lists Geoff Mogus and Eric Olson at tackle, Shane Mertz and Connor Mahoney at guard and Ian Park at center.
“It was unfortunate for Adam (DePietro) to get hurt,” Fitzgerald said of the 6-foot-5, 295-pound junior, who made his first start at right tackle against EIU but left in the first quarter with a lower-body injury “He will be out this week; I don’t know how long. We will see how the week progresses, but they are a lot better than they were a week ago.
“There were some good things on Saturday. The good news is they have three backs (Justin Jackson, Warren Long and Solomon Vault) who are pretty good behind them.”
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