Despite a 3-0 record and No. 17 ranking in this week’s AP poll, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald sees plenty of room for his team’s improvement, especially on offense.
While redshirt freshman quarterback Clayton Thorson struggled in Saturday’s 19-10 victory at Duke, Fitzgerald has placed a large part of the blame on the wide receivers.
“We blocked atrociously on the perimeter. Our wide receivers were awful,” Fitzgerald said. “They know that. They’ve got a lot of work to do there. The (Christian) Joneses of the world, and some other guys who are leaders out there, need to step up and start playing well. They didn’t play very well on Saturday, and they know it.”
More Top Picks Labs Soil
Thorson completed 9 of 23 passes for 70 yards and threw two interceptions, but Fitzgerald stuck with the Wheaton North product. And Thorson’s teammates continue to support him as they prepare to face Ball State on Saturday night.
“I’m not worried about him,” senior superback Dan Vitale said. “I don’t think anybody on our team is. I expect some really great things from him this week.
“He has all the ability in the world. You can’t deny that. And we trust him. He knows what he is doing, he knows what he has to do. Yeah, Duke was a great defense and they got to him. But we know what kind of person he is. He goes against arguably one of the best defenses in the country every single day at practice, and we’ve seen how good he is then.”
Balancing act: Classes are in session at Northwestern this week, and Fitzgerald insists his players give maximum effort in the classroom, as well as on the football field.
“It is unacceptable to use football as an excuse for poor performances academically. And it’s unacceptable to use academics as an excuse for poor performances in football,” he said.
“Stats don’t lie. We stink in October. We’ve been terrible, and I’m tired of it quite frankly. We’ve got to be better. The guys understand that. They get it. I stood up our engineers and pre-med guys (Monday). There’s a bunch of them, double digits. They’re our best students. They always show up with an unbelievable attitude, bust their butt every day in practice and they play well. I challenged the other guys to handle their business. They will. I’m confident of that.”
Not satisfied: Linebacker Anthony Walker continues to fill up the stat sheet and rack up the honors.
But the sophomore from Miami continues to look for ways to improve as a member of a defense that has allowed just one touchdown this season.
“You’ve always got to be your worst critic, so the first thing I do is I look at missed tackles, missed assignments, and then also my run fits and all that,” Walker said Tuesday. “Make sure I’m always in my gap. I have had a few in the past three games, you know, mistakes that I’ve made.”
In addition to being named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season, Walker was honored as Walter Camp Football Foundation Defensive Player of the Week.
He had a career-high 19 tackles against Duke, the most by a Wildcat since 2005, yet he insists he remains a work in progress.
“I try to limit the missed tackles, missed assignments and make sure I’m always on my job,” he said.
Extra point: The NU defense has allowed just 16 points, the fewest since the 1948 team held UCLA, Purdue and Minnesota to 16 points in the first three games of that season.